Off to Zambia

Last Friday our family began the long journey to Zambia. Our main purpose in going is for a month long training program for new Africa missionaries called 40/40. However we decided to go a few days early and take a mini-vacation to Livingstone, Zambia and visit Victoria Falls. It has been an adventure with lots of memories made already.

The first part of the journey took us up to Nampula on Friday.
We love road trips on dirt roads with rain. So fun!!
That night we staying in the guest house...our future home :)

Saturday morning we loaded up in this tiny taxi headed for the airport.
Literally....the bottom of the car go stuck trying to get out of the driveway!

We had no idea this would be the first of many times
on this trip to be crammed in a taxi. 

Having fun waiting at the Nampula airport

On our way to Nairobi, Kenya!

We spent the night in Nairobi with our friends Jane and Don
and then were off to Lusaka,  Zambia on Sunday.

On Monday morning we were off to Livingstone, Zambia
 in the back of a tour bus.

Some of the sights we saw as we traveled 7 hours outside of Lusaka

Beautiful fruits and veggies 

Our bus broke down for a little bit.....the girls were checking it out!

Tuesday morning we were ready for all Livingstone had to offer!
Our supper cool safari truck!

giraffes

Impalas

Zebras and warthogs

The girls in front of the mighty Zambezi River

Me and my guy

After our safari we went to Victoria Falls.
I could not stop saying, "That is amazing!"
It was so huge!

The spray is so intense. 

The spray gets you completely soaked going across the foot bridge
and at the viewing areas.

From the other side....the top of the falls are behind them

up river just a bit

At this point the girls wanted to go over to the big bridge and see the bungee jumping and other activities. Watch this to see what they did!

Headed back to our taxi....baboons just hanging out.... 

Right as I was taking this picture some baboons behind us
grabbed a ladies bags and ran off!!

Tracy

Easter Sunday

I must say.....I did miss saying "He is Risen. He is Risen, indeed" this morning. However our first Easter Sunday morning in Africa was very nice. There were many people at church this morning. Just like in the states, people make sure they make it to church on Easter. The girls and I were very excited to see the children that we are getting to know. Here are a few pictures.....

Lilly coloring her Easter book.
Today she wasn't too crazy about sitting with the African children.
Somedays are like that.....and that's okay!

Meghan helping this precious little girl with her book.
You may remember her from a post over a month ago.
Emma held her in her lap the whole time we had SS that day.

We had a little more than 100 today.

The resurrection story!

Sweet girls

Standing room only

This little girl's name is Leelee.
She is at the church every time we are there!

Sharing crayons

My first time reading in front of the church.
Psalm 138....in Portuguese

Growing girls!!!

Minha familiá

We miss our family and friends back in the states. We pray you are having a wonderful Easter celebrating our Risen Savior!


Hugs and Kisses!!!


Tracy

Our Trip to Malawi

Each year the missionaries in our region of Africa gather together for a week in order to fellowship and share our work with one another. This year we were in Malawi. For our family this was super exciting! We were very eager to meet the other families and hear about their lives in Africa. Another bonus was that a team from Judson Baptist Church in Nashville was going to be there to lead us in worship and lead the children in VBS!!!

Thank you Hank and Dawn Garner and FBC Columbia, TN
for the awesome care package!
The treats were perfect timing for our road trip!

The journey was also an exciting part of trip. We love seeing new parts of Africa!

Rainbow nerds.......YUMMY!!

6 hours of the journey was on dirt roads

You can't tell in the picture, but this was a really cool sight!
This is the border town of Milange....our last stop in Mozambique.

After we got into Malawi we drove into the city of Blantyre. We stopped at a guest house for the night. It was a fun time to rest and have fun with Jessica and Sally and the Otters.

Painting nails

Emma and Meghan checking out their mosquito net

Lilly crawled into bed under her mosquito net very early!

Our regional meeting was held at a "resort" on Lake Malawi. (Please do not think of American standards here -- it was beautiful, but not like in the states for sure.) Interestingly, we could not swim in the lake because of a bacteria that lives in the water. There was a huge pool, though. The girls loved swimming with the other kids! Thanks Uncle Frank for the goggles!!!! (Sorry....forgot to get a picture of them swimming!)

Our "cottage" for the week

Rain falling across the lake.  We were in Malawi but that is Mozambique on the other side.

Fisherman in the lake

Beautiful Lake Malawi and mountains on the other side

This picture is not enhanced....the sky was really that blue!

Along with meeting many awesome families, we had a great time as a family! Every meal was provided at the resort and we ate all of them outside! 

Enjoying breakfast together!

Emma and her new friend Anya

We realized when we got to the meeting that we had the only journey-girls!!!
We are so lucky!

The resort had many animal statues. This one Emma played with everyday!
Here Emma and Lilly are with some of their new friends.

Me and my guy!

One of the highlights of the week was a talent show on Thursday! Our girls had several things planned to perform.

Lilly sang a worship song in Mandarin Chinese that her friend 
Hannah taught her at FPO in the fall.
Her new friend Bethany, from JBC,  accompanied her on the violin.

Emma danced to a christian rap song!!! 

The three girls did a scarf dance.

Here the children are performing the songs they learned during their VBS time! The theme this year is Amazing Wonders Aviation.....Awesome God, Amazing Power!

Meghan and Hannah

Hey Lilly!

Before we knew it, it was time to head home! Here are some highlights from our 2-day journey.

Our trip would not be complete without a picture
in front of one of HUGE baobab trees in the area.

You can't tell, but Meghan was totally freaking out
about the gigantic grasshopper/locust things
 that were crawling all over the ground around the tree.
Notice also how much Emma and Meghan have grown!!!
I am getting shorter and shorter!!!!
BTW....you only see 1/2 the width of the tree in this picture.

The basket vendor.....everything made out of grass...by hand

The beautiful mountains 

The beautiful tea fields

My beautiful girls

Love them!!!

Along our journey there were four things that really bothered me....

The 1st thing was the amount of
Islamic Mosques there were.....almost one in every little town
and many in the larger cities.
I never expected there to be the heavy influence of Islam here......it is rampid!

The 2nd big problem I saw.....a 7th Day Adventist church
down the street from every Mosques!

The 3rd thing that bothered me was what I didn't see.....evangelical churches!!!

Lastly, coffin shops were in every town.
How many are dying without the knowledge to the saving power of JESUS!!!
People.....that is a problem......what are we going to do about it!?!

We are home at last and trying to recover from that journey before we leave again for another!!


Tracy