Day 6 - Walking the Land

After the conclusion of our second ZSOS board meeting on Saturday night, I finally had the chance to spend some time in the Pestke’s home again.  Savannah prepared a lovely dinner for the Jalowiecs and me.  It was Analiese’s favorite – chicken and rice with carrots and bread.  After dinner, I changed hats and put aside my role as Chairman of the Board and instead became ‘Miss Phylicia,’ Analiese and Gabriella’s playmate for the evening.  Oh, what a joy those girls are!  Rolling around on the floor, playing ‘house’ and ‘school’ with them was such fun, and it brought back sweet memories of the many hours I spent playing with my own daughters when they were just wee lasses.   The evening came to a close, and the Jalowiecs and I said our goodbyes.  Kevin and Dan had a big day planned for Sunday services out at Big Tree. 

Everyone was scurrying about on Sunday morning getting ready for church.  The trip out to the Bush is always eventful, and I love the ‘bush-bus ministry’ that Kevin and Dan are running!  We always begin the journey out to the church with just 4 or 5 of us in the vehicle.  By the time we reach our final destination, there are at least double that many bodies packed into the truck.   Since my last visit, the Jalowiecs and Pestkes have started a children and adult Sunday school class.  The church is really growing, and it is so exciting to see the Lord at work.  Kevin taught the adult Sunday school class, Doreen taught the children, and Dan preached during the main service. I was sitting next to an elderly woman while Kevin was teaching a lesson on discipleship.  I broke protocol and took a picture of her hand during the lesson (I’m a naughty girl ☺).  That hand represents so much of what Zambia means to me:  strong hands weathered from years of hard labor, yet gentle, too, like a grandmother’s that has loved and cared for many.  Her left hand was resting atop a copy of the bible that was written in her language, praise the Lord!  I watched her as she wrote down verses with her right hand, and I prayed that she had the ability to read God’s word for herself and was developing an intimate relationship with our heavenly Father. 

Church is packed with people listening attentively

Saying goodbyes after the service

I hated to stand up and walk around while Dan was preaching, especially since his message was about having a distracted heart from the things of God, but I was still feeling the effects of sitting through the five hour graduation ceremony on Thursday.  Lil’ Savannah and I were seated near the back of the church, so I don’t think we were overly distracting when we both stood up and walked outside.  It felt great to stretch.  The church was packed with people, and there was an overflow crowd of children and adults sitting near the rails outside the main structure.  PRAISE THE LORD!  At the closing of the Sunday service that I attended last August, I commented about how wonderful it would be if the church grew so large that there were enough members to wrap around the building.  There were approximately 40 people in attendance at that August service; I counted more than 80 on this day.  GLORY!  Big Tree had doubled its attendance in just 9 months.  I was so thrilled to see the people and felt wonderful knowing that they were being fed the word of God by such faithful servants.  The service concluded, and I shook hands, gave hugs and said farewell once again to many of the church members. I felt differently about my goodbyes this time because I knew that they were really just a ‘see you later.’  Lord willing, I would be returning soon. 

Billy Goat Stew

 

Lunch was served immediately after the service, and I sat down to eat with a little fear and trepidation.  Billy had been kept at the Zulu’s house until the designated time of sacrifice, and someone in Doreen’s family was going to perform the dirty deed.   When we stopped to pick up the Zulus that morning, I asked them where Billy was since I didn’t see him in the yard.  I was hoping against hope that he had been given away to someone as a

pet.  With a twinkle in her eye and a wry chuckle in her voice Doreen said, “He’s been slaughtered.”  My head dropped, and my heart sank.  Robert and Doreen laughed out loud at my reaction.  I knew that Billy had been lovingly stewed in a rich, brown gravy all morning long.  So, in his honor, I ate a small bite of the meat.  I can’t say that I enjoyed the experience.  Not because the meat wasn’t skillfully prepared, but because I usually don’t name and ‘pet’ my food before I eat it!   Once lunch was finished, I excused myself to go and change my shoes.  I was going to be joining Kevin, Dan, Robert, Doreen and a fairly large representative group from the villages surrounding Big Tree on a walk-about of the property that had been designated for the MVEVI project.  We were going to be traipsing through rural bush country, and I had packed my rubber garden boots for the occasion.  If I had any snake encounters, I wanted to be sure that I was on the winning side of the fight!  I had left my boots in Dan’s vehicle.  Right near the truck was a mama goat and her newborn kid that was only 3 days only.  Hearing his sweet, little bleat was music to my ears and seemed to lessen my sadness for Billy.  Such is the life cycle of a goat in Zambia.  

Village headmen and reps. in the back row

Our group gathered together, and we were ready to begin the walk.  My heart seemed to beat faster and faster as my excitement grew.  This walk represented the culmination of many hours of paper filing, negotiating with the Chief and village headmen, and most importantly, prayer.  Robert Zulu explained that we were going to be guided deep into the bush by several of the village headmen that were donating their village’s property for our project.  Without giving a long dissertation on customary land procedures in Zambia, I’ll explain the process briefly.  Chief Mnukwa has custodial authority of several thousand acres of land in the Bush region. This is called customary land.  His chiefdom is divided into approximately 30 villages, and each village has a representative that is responsible to oversee the affairs of the people in his village.  Included in these duties is a responsibility to oversee land acquisition.  We made our original request to the Chief for 10-15 hectares of land for our MVEVI project (24-32 acres) back in August.  However, the Chief doesn’t arbitrarily give land away to foreigners for their development projects.  The village headmen have to willingly ‘release’ the land for one’s use.  This is where Robert Zulu has been most instrumental with his mediation and negotiation skills.  He had been meeting with the village headmen weeks before my arrival, explaining to them the nature of our project and the long term benefits to the community, at large. Four of the village headmen had willingly released a portion of their land and were making it available to us for the building of the school and vocational training center. 

Robert Zulu leading the way for me

Making our way through the wild.  PTL, no snakes in sight!

We started walking in a northwesterly direction at a pretty brisk pace.  I was trying to count my steps, take pictures/video, and watch out for snakes at the same time.  About 300 yards in, I stopped counting and just enjoyed the walk.  Unfortunately, my words won’t be adequate to describe the landscape.  Parts of the land are rocky, some parts are wet.  Some parts are level, and others parts are slightly undulating.  Ninety nine percent of the land is overgrown, and much of the lush foliage and native grasses are shoulder height.   In other words, IT IS BEAUTIFUL! There is so much work to be done with development, but I felt a contented peacefulness as we continued walking.  I kept thinking to myself that this must have been what it was like for pioneer women in the old west once they crossed the Mississippi River and ventured onto land that had only be occupied by Native Americans.    At one point during the walk we passed a beautiful field filled with a tall, native grass that looked like pink-tipped heather.  Everyone walked on ahead, but I paused for a moment and asked Robert about the field.  We started walking again and this is what Robert said to me:

"The field belongs to him (he pointed to one of the headmen).  He is giving it to you as part of all the land for the project.  It’s no problem."

Well, what could I say?  I actually couldn’t and didn’t say anything.  I just shook my head as the tears welled up in my eyes.  I walked in silence and my thoughts turned to the children of Israel who willingly brought an offering to the Lord from their personal possessions so that the tabernacle could be built and furnished.  I knew that what we were attempting to do paled in comparison to what those Old Testament warriors had done, but I just couldn’t help but be overwhelmed with gratitude toward everyone that was making this vision become a reality.  We walked for 45 minutes and finally arrived a little bit south of our original starting point.  One of the village headmen asked Robert to ask me what I thought of the land.  I wanted to frame my words carefully, but I was finding it a little difficult to speak because I had a lump in my throat.  All I could manage to say was, “How do you say so much more than thank you?  It is beautiful, and I am so grateful to you.”

 
I was silent for most of the ride home back to the Jalowiec’s house.  I felt like I was living in a dream,  and my mind was spinning with logistics, and details, and committees, and the work that needed to be done.  I kept thinking back to what Robert had said about the village headman and his field.  At that moment I felt like a very, very small piece that was being used in God’s amazing and grandiose plan to further his kingdom.  The feeling was overwhelming.  Long before I’d had that conversation with Lord on the plane ride home from Zambia in 2008 when I vowed to surrender myself to do whatever I could to minister to the people, God already had a plan in place.  He saw the events of 2014 even though my sight was completely blinded.  I can look back over the past six years and testify that the Lord is indeed able to do exceeding abundantly above all that I can ask or think, according to the power that worketh in me, Unto God be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end.  Amen.