Diahrrea and a South African barbeque

The past few weeks here have gone by so fast its crazy. We feel very settled in here and have really been enjoying it lately. And now we only have a few weeks left, which is a little sad, but we are making the most out of them. So let me quickly explain why the word diahrrea is in the title. Last week, I woke up in the night with an intense rumbling in my stomach and though "Oh, no!" I jumped up, and ran to the bathroom to find that my boxers had a little different color to them. It was gross! But of course I kept that part to myself, until the next morning, when I woke up to hear that Zach had his own story tell. He had a far worse night than my previous one, spending half the night on the toilet. He also changed changed the color of his boxers, and he didn't even make it to the toilet one time. Thank goodness it was in the middle of the night! Compared to others, we have been so healthy, but still, our stomachs remain a little funky here. Sorry for that gross story. I'll tell a less gross one now. Also last week, Zach and I shared a similar experience. They have these ants here called red ants that are extremely vicious and actually kill small animals. They sting kind of like fire ants. We were working in the bush, cutting down a bunch of tall grass for our hut, and were both attacked by these crazy ants. In about a minute, Zach ran off and my pants were down and my shirt off trying to get rid of these things. It was really funny, and I was definitely thankful to be in the middle of nowhere!
The way ministry is done in this organization has been such a neat thing to see, and I have really been learning a lot from it. Workers come in every day from the surrounding villages and we start the morning with a discipleship time and then everyone splits into different jobs. We work hard from about 8 to 4:30 doing random projects. We almost finished our hut, but now we will be doing some other stuff. Many of the worker's lives have been transformed through their discipliship/working at the base. We also have been able to visit some of the villages and that has been fun. Last week, we rode bicyles about an hour through really thick bush and it was so fun and a beautiful ride. I felt very adventurous! One of the biggest blessings here though had been the large amount of time we get just to be quiet and enjoy being with the Lord. The evenings are usually wide open, and I have really grown to love taking walks in that time to be alone with the Lord.
In the next couple of weeks, we are going to go camping for a weekend, and then we are going to get to go see Victoria Falls before we fly back to Tanzania. I am very excited about both of those things. Please continue to pray for us, for personal growth, time with villagers and workers, time with the missionaries we are with, and for safe travels in the next couple of weeks. Love you all and hope to see a lot of you in just a few weeks. For all those in school, I'm sorry and hope finals go well. I love not studying! I pray for all of you, that you are seeking and trusting the Lord, and that He is blessing each one of you.

Wer'e Still Alive!

So, it if kind of difficult to blog when you are living without eletricity, and using a computer means travelling 15 miles into town to an internet cafe. After a very long and sweet train ride, we made it into Zambia about 2 weeks ago. We stayed at one base in Kalungu for a week, and now we are at the other base in Zambia in Masaaiti. We really enjoyed the base at Kalungu, and felt like a part of the small family there consisting of South Africans and Zambians. It was really funny because all the little kids there called us Uncle Zach and Uncle Andrew. They were the cutest kids and always wanted us to play with them. Zach and I are actually living now at a place they call "The Farm." It is a building site about 5 miles from the actual base, and there are only 20 people there. We get to help in the building process of the new training centre. So far, we have built some shelves in a store room, and tomorrow we get to start building a grass hut where lunch will be cooked. The main guy has given us a lot of responsibility here in building things on our own ( I don't know what he is thinking.) I have a whole lot of things I really want to share, but I just am not able to. I'll just share a few important things. The transition to the base here in Zambia has been challenging for the two of us. I felt like I hit a wall and I lost focus and was kind of ready to go home. But at the same time, I thought this would happen and trusted God would work in me in the midst of being challenged. I trust He really wants me here now and has much work left to do in me and also through me. We have had great fellowship here, especially with some really fun South African guys our age. Thanks so much for your continued prayers, and I'm so sorry I can't communicate that much. But we will have plenty of adventures to share when we get back! God continues to reveal His deep love and grace to me, and I have had to rest in Him more lately as I have been challenged. Hope He is moving in each of your lives now as He is doing here. Love,
Andrew