Hey all. Nathan here.
Well, AMT is over! Our last month was jam packed! We did our Come Back Alive course, where we learned basically the do’s and don’ts in other countries to guarantee safe passage back home. Our last day our awesome instructor, Rachel, told us after class we had 10 minutes to gather 10 approved items and then a couple more minutes to put on as much clothing as we wanted to. The reason for this was because we spent the night down in the gorge, right along the mighty Zambezi River! As we met at the top of the gorge before going down, Dan and Rachel gave us GPS coordinates to where we would find our dinner. We got our rice, salt, matches, and oh yea, we also got a live chicken!
It was brilliant! I volunteered to carry our teams chicken down to the bottom of the gorge. Let me tell you, I fell twice and both times could have probably broken something; needless to say I walked away with a lot of scratches. When we got to the bottom, both teams had to set up their own camp. Our team camped on the beach. We cut down branches for shelter and fire wood, started our fire with one match and kept that fire going all night until we were rescued by Dan and Rachel the next morning. I think the thing I’ll remember about this was Karina trying to behead the chicken with a very dull machete! It was priceless.
After this course we did 2 weeks of Wilderness First Responder and Third-World Diseases classes. They were great! We learned the signs and symptoms of tropical diseases and how to diagnose them. We learned to pull broken bones back into traction and how to stabilize until they could be taken to a hospital. We are now all certified in CPR and Wilderness First Responder. They have another 1 week training course to finish it off in the states which I would like to take.
2 weeks before we graduated, we went to Chobe, an awesome wildlife park in Botswana. It was gorgeous. We saw almost every animal you would imagine in Africa except the lion. We camped close to a river and when the sun went down you could hear and see the elephants walk around right outside our tents! It was scary and amazing at the same time! TIA (This Is Africa).
Now comes the end of AMT. Our final project was that each group was given a sector in different countries and we had to set it up as if we were moving into that area and setting up the LIFE and SAM projects, RPN, expeditions, and a base. If you don’t know what these all stand for, check them out at www.overlandmissions.com. It was so cool to research out sector which was in Angola. If you don’t know much of Angola, they just got out of a long civil war in the last few years, so there are only two confirmed missions organizations that are in there now. The teams did wonderful on their presentations, and Overland actually wants to put sectors in the future in the places we did our projects on! Oh how exciting it is to see the gospel being brought to all of those millions of people.
Now comes our last expedition. Us students planned the expedition by ourselves, did the grocery shopping, packed supplies on the truck, and lead the whole thing. The only people helping us were our interpreters and Jack who drove us there. Wow, where to begin. The chief of the chiefton we went to was actually the one who invited us to come. He had heard what amazing things had happened on our last expeditions and wanted the same thing to happen to better his people. The night that we got to the village, about 20 women and children were waiting to guide us to where we were staying. They led us by jogging in front of our truck and singing. When we pulled up, we got out of the truck and a group of older women and men all greeted us one by one. It was such a blessing that they wanted us there and waited up all day for us to get there. Some of the people that were there had traveled many miles and had been there for days waiting for us. I was happy to hear that they were hungry for something, even if they didn’t know what that hunger was for. We set up camp and when we started to get stuff together to cook supper, we realized that we had no bowls, plates, cups, and eating utensils! Well, we improvised and used our hands and shared what thing we had to put food on. It all worked out in the end and we made the best of it.
The day after arriving, we started our meetings. In the morning we met and danced and sang with all the people! It was so awesome to just dance with them because we had no idea what we were doing, but had fun with them anyway. After that, we separated. The woman went over to a clearing and did teachings over there. Mark, Ross, and I went over and spoke with the headmen and pastors. And Tom and the rest of the guys spoke to the rest of the people. It was funny, you could hear Tom preaching from where we were, and they could hear Mark speaking from where they were, but no one cared. After Mark was done speaking people started asking questions. The biggest one that I could remember was a pastor asking if we could provide bibles for the people in their community. They were hungry for the Word! This is great! From what I hear, a lot of people don’t have bibles because only they’re pastors read it to them and that’s it. Over the next couple of days a bunch of men kept asking if we could get them bibles. Man, it just blessed me to see how hungry they were for the Word.
The next day we had our morning meeting with everyone. We led some worship songs after they had sung theirs in Tonga. A couple people from our group preached as well. It was a great opportunity because there were so many people out there, and also, the chief was in the crowd, attention fully focused on the message we brought. We broke for lunch then came back for the mid afternoon session. We sang some more and then I got up speak. It was great. I let down any restriction I had before when speaking in front of people, and just let God speak through me. It was just so surreal being there looking out into a sea of faces, all eyes on you, and knowing that God was doing a mighty work in this place, in these people’s hearts. After I preached, Renee spoke. We had not planned our sermon together, but they both flowed so smoothly together. She invited people up to accept Christ into their lives, to be healed, and for strength over leaders and pastors. It was amazing to see the whole time we were in the village all the people who wanted Christ in their lives, all the people seeking to be healed or released from demon procession, and young ones wanting their minds to be focused on their education. The one thing that sticks out to me, though, is when a couple of us were praying over this man who had been walking on a crutch for a year and a half. As we were praying, I could hear his bones crackling back into place. He came to our camp the next morning without his crutch and was so happy and just moving his leg around with no pain. That day, they had everyone in the crowd put one twig each in a bag to count how many people were there, and we counted them up to be 593! There were well over 600 though because after they did that more and more people came. This was not by man’s will or power that this happened. All of this we give credit to God.
The next couple of days we just hung out with the people and did a couple more meeting. The last night we were there was great. The chief came by to thank us and we thanked him. We prayed over him and his people and he said that when he got back to his home that he was going to share with his wife all he had learned. This man had such a huge heart for his family and his people.
Every night we were there, these older women in their 70’s and 80’s were always around a campfire singing and dancing. So every night, a few of us would go over and join. The last night was the best though. We had these sort of dance off’s with the women and was just so fun. The last thing was we taught these women how to do the Macarena. Wow, it was so awesome!
Well, the next day we left to go back to the base. We got back, and the next day we graduated AMT! It was a great day. The staff set up tables outside and cooked a big breakfast for us and we had orange juice and coffee! Everyone looked so nice in their dresses and slacks. Graduation was full of wisdom and advice from the staff and then we all received the piece of paper that said that we had successfully completed the last 3 months in Zambia, Africa. The rest of the day we just hung around, played some volleyball, and just had fun. The evening was the best. Joe, the warehouse manager, set up the PA in the warehouse, turned the lights off and the truck brake lights on, and turned up the music for a night of crazy dance moves, glows sticks, break dancing and rope swinging action! It was the most fun I had in a while!
Over the next few days, people left for home or for other trips they were doing. The base was pretty much empty by the time I left. I enjoyed the plane ride home and the conversations I had, but as I got closer and closer to western civilization, I felt like I was leaving home. It seems that the role had switched this time. I find it odd being here where everyone speaks English, and it was weird not seeing someone who wasn’t white for a few days. These last couple weeks have been busied with meetings and getting together with people.
God has been lying a lot on my heart, that’s all I will say to end this. Thank you all for reading about my life for the last few months. It’s been a blessing to hear that people are reading about all that has been happening. Now that I have better internet and more time, I will be blogging more regularly, so keep your eyes open for updates.
The biggest thing and reason that I am doing these blogs is not only for you to keep in touch with my life, but to encourage you. I want so much for you, whoever you are, to seek God always. To seek Him so much, that things become clear. To draw so close to Him that even when you don’t feel Him, you know He’s there and that gives you peace and peace abundantly. I hope your zeal is for the Lord and will always be, even through hardships.
-Nathan
