We're Heading Back to Zambia!

It’s been over two years since my last trip to Zambia, and it’s long overdue. So much has changed in the world and we’ve done so much work together that I have yet to see with my own eyes! I’m really looking forward to reconnecting with the Zambia team and seeing the new well, the second school building, and the farming efforts.

Since my first trip in 2016, I never imagined our family would be supporting a team of full-time, native missionaries in Zambia, financially and spiritually. It all started with being inspired by some radio dramas and books, which led us to pray about what we could do to help in Zambia. This led to a three week faith trip in 2016 where I had literally no idea why I was going, but I was open to following the Lord’s lead. Once I was there for a week, I knew why God had brought me there. God’s timing is perfect!

Since then, we’ve worked together to start a sponsorship program for the school, dig a well, buy metal school desks and a Jesus Film projector, and build an additional school building. These things are all great, but I really believe this is just the beginning of something bigger.

Just like in 2016, we don’t know exactly what God is going to do on this trip, but we are praying like crazy, because we feel like God is getting ready to open the floodgates. This ministry has been like a fertile field. Every time we sow a little seed in it, we see spiritual growth happen. Hundreds of people have been saved and baptized through the showing of the Jesus Film. Hundreds of families and children have been transformed by the well next to the school. Teachers are now getting paid at the school for their efforts in ministering to these children. And most importantly, orphaned children, who had little hope of ever getting out of poverty, are now graduating and joining Zambian high schools and colleges with a solid Biblical foundation and a passionate faith. They know what God can do; they’ve seen it with their own eyes! I’m so excited to see the children and learn about all the amazing things God has done in their lives.

Our trip this summer is going to be our longest trip to date: four weeks, from May 25 - June 25! This time, I’m taking four brave young adults with me (or maybe I’m the brave one taking four young adults! 😱). Either way, bravery is required on all sides and on many levels. As we have been meeting and praying together for weeks, I’ve asked each person on the team to pray and let me know what they believe God is calling them to do in Zambia.

I asked Anna, Micah, Matthew and Savannah to share in their own words why they are excited to go and what they are hoping to do in Zambia. Here’s what they wrote: From Anna: I am really excited to get to go back to Zambia! I remember one of the highlights from the first time I went in 2016 was spending time at the school. It was actually on break for the few weeks we were there, but lots of kids still hung around. It was really special to just be with the children and begin developing relationships with them. I remember when we were flying back just thinking how I really wished I could have spent more time at the school with the children. And now I get to!

Aside from spending time at the school while we’re there, I want to work a lot on “ironing out the wrinkles” in the sponsorship program For all of you who don’t know, I’ve been doing a lot of administrative work with the sponsorship program over the last year or two, and I’m really hoping this trip will help put everyone on the same page! I really want to see these children get more monthly sponsors, but I want to make sure that we have a system in place to actually be able to handle it.

And lastly, please be praying for us while we’re over there! It’s one of the most important things you can do for us! I really want to experience what God is doing while I’m there and not get caught up in all the projects that I could be doing. Also, please pray that God will use this trip to raise more awareness for Reaching the Heart of Zambia! We have a lot of ideas for how to do this, but we really want to make sure that we’re not doing it on our own strength. Thank you so much!

Anna From Micah:

I’m excited to go to Zambia this year! I’m going to be documenting our trip with regular email updates, and I’m also excited to spend time with Aaron and his team. But most of all, I want this to be a time where I can put aside my everyday tasks and cares here and focus on what God is doing.

We have important projects to get done over there, but it’s more important that we work together and let God work through us. So please pray for us! Pray that we’d be safe on our trip, that we’d work smoothly as a team, and that God would use us. Pray that our efforts would bring awareness to the needs in Zambia, and that God would empower us with His Spirit. We can’t do this in our own strength. And pray that God would use this time to draw me closer to Him.

Thank you for your support!

Micah From Matthew: Hello everyone! I'm very excited to go to Zambia in a month or so. I'm looking forward to seeing all that the Lord is doing though Aaron, in the school, in the Jesus film ministry, and whatever else He is doing there. I'm also going over to document testimonies on video of how and what the different ministries are doing. Please be praying that the Lord would work through this time to draw me closer to Him.

~Matthew From Savannah: I can remember sitting on our sofa as a child and listening to my parents talk about a family friend who was going to Brazil for a six-month long missionary internment trip. It was the first time I started to understand what missions was about. A couple months later, I looked at some photos that a neighbor took when visiting an African village and was struck by how much God had blessed me with that I took for granted every day. These incidents were the beginning of a journey that led me to realize that God would one day call me to foreign missions. That was eleven years ago and ever since I was eight years old, I have prayed for the people in the pictures that I saved and put by my bed from various missions — knowing that one day, I would have the blessing to be a part of the big picture that God had already started. That opportunity hasn’t come until now and that is why I am elated to go on this trip to Zambia!

This mission trip is really about supporting the amazing people in Zambia that have already obeyed God’s call to what He is doing in there. God has already done so much through their hard work and faithful obedience! I know He has many more plans for Zambia and I can’t wait to see and be a part of them! Reaching the Heart of Zambia Missions Trip 2021 is not a romantic, youth-run, touristy, “missions” trip. The people leading this trip are serious about getting on the ground and working to see eye to eye with God, then, join Him in His work. Please pray that God would open people’s eyes and help us raise awareness for Zambia and the needs of the people there.

Although I feel as though I have been preparing for a trip like this my entire life, I know that the only way to experience God is to get right in the middle of things. Someone who returned from a foreign missions trip once told me, “There is no way to explain it — you have to just go yourself.” God told Abraham, “Go,” and Jesus told his disciples, “Go,” each without a lot of specific detail. That is what God is telling me. I’m excited to GO!

For His Glory, Savannah