Stepping Outside of My Comfort Zone

I am an educated female; I have more than enough food to eat every day, the water is safe to drink and always available. My home has a roof, windows, and doors that protect from thieves and keep the ements outside. All of my grandparents are alive; my parents are alive and married; and my siblings and I can trust and know that my parents will always be there for us. I am healthy, but if I am ever sick, there is always a doctor who can help me. I have always been able to get medication when I needed it. If I need to get somewhere, I have a car to take me there. I never have to stress about whether or not one of these will be absent in the next hour or how I will get my next meal.

In the summer of 2008, I went on an Olivet-sponsored mission trip for two and a half weeks to Zambia, Africa. The majority of people I visited were not educated, they did not have clean water or healthy food; the parents were dying from diseases, and children were raising children. They had to walk a long distance to the nearest clinic where there may or may not have been any medicine, and they had to think about how they were going to get their next meal. Their homes were half the size of my dorm room and had to house many people. The only trash disposal system was to burn it in the yard: trash blew everywhere. Many people did not have shoes; their clothes were dirty and torn; and they hadn't showered in who knows how long. The water was not safe enough for them to wash their hands or to shower. These images mainly describe the life of the compounds (slums) and the rural villages. Many people live with more guarantees and have more necessities in the larger cities of Zambia, but the poverty cannot be ignored because of the small portion of the population not stricken with poverty.

When we arrived at our lodge, I was surprised at how nice it was. It wasn't a hut. The doors had locks.  The room had carpeting, nice beds, a toilet, and a shower. The next morning we wondered why the plumbing wasn't working...no flushing...no showering...no washing your hands. We found out that a water main had broken. It remained broken for four days. Now, I'm a girl who showers daily and is extremely germ cautious. Even though most of the time we were not at the lodge, it was still quite a poor change in hygiene habits. I thought it was extremely disgusting that I was not able to shower for such a long time. However, on my trip I realized that the people I was spending time with and ministering to have gone much longer without a shower than I had. Their water teems with disease, so they try to avoid it.

On our first day in Zambia, we went on a prayer walk. We drove in to the compound and met so many children! When they saw us coming, they began chasing our van for quite a distance and mobbed us to shake our hands and meet us. Some followed us as we prayed for the sick people in the neighborhood for a few hours. The homes were small and seemed to be randomly placed around the neighborhood. The roads and lawns consisted of dirt, rocks, weeds, and piles of trash. We watched kids play amongst the trash with a toy they got at the market; the older kids looked after the younger ones. Some kids were doing chores while others were just hanging around.

Children compose a large portion of the population of Zambia. So many kids play in the streets! I am sure if we went inside the homes we would find more children, but it seemed like they were all outside enjoying the day with each other. The weather has been so nice this past week in my U.S. neighborhood, but I hardly saw any kids playing outdoors. They watch TV or have their Xboxes or Nintendo's or whatever game system is current. They have bikes, trampolines, and swimming pools calling them outside. I remember that when I was a kid, if I didn't have a toy I liked or a friend to play with, I would complain to my mom about how bored I was. Then, I would just do nothing.

I am not saying that any of these things are bad. What I am saying is that American kids have so many possessions and usually require these possessions in order to have fun. In contrast, the children in Zambia find something lying on the ground and spend the rest of the day playing with it. When we brought blow up globes for them to play with, the children freaked out and thought they were so cool! They appreciated everything and cherished it.

Another day we took a prayer walk to an extremely rural area. Our van kept running over chopped tree trunks, and finally the road vanished and the brush was so thick we had to walk. We walked and walked and walked. We came to a very, very small community of huts. There was a very old man sitting outside of his home. His name was Moses, and he was more than ninety years old. (We hardly saw any elderly people while we were there because there is so much disease that no one lives to old age.) Moses either had diabetes or leprosy (let's hope it was diabetes...), but no one knows, because there is no one who can diagnose it. His toes were missing; he could barely move, let alone stand.

As we did on every prayer walk, we read Scripture to him and then prayed over him. The verse my friend and I chose was Isaiah 40:28-31. I would read a line at a time, and then someone would translate. I was doing my best not to look at the Bible, but to make as much eye contact with him as possible. Part way through the passage, Moses began to weep. I finished reading, and we all prayed for him. He then proceeded to use all his energy to stand up to shake our hands and thank us for being God's instrument to remind him that he may be tired, but God never tires and will always lift up his weary soul.

I am blessed to have access to a doctor, and if I ever lost the use of my toes or it became difficult to use my legs to help me stand, I would be able to use a walker or a wheelchair. I would still have some mobility. This man totally depended on God to get him from place to place: he goes to church every Sunday! His church is far away, and he has trouble walking, but he still gets there every week. In the United States everything is at our fingertips: our dependence turns to the ‘things' that help us, even though God provides it.

My favorite day involved going to the Child Development Center, which is a free school for the children who cannot afford to go to private schools. In the morning we taught a Bible lesson, and in the afternoon we played outside with them for a few hours. We had a great time, except for lunch when we went to the van to eat our previously prepared peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, apples, chips, and drink our bottles of water. We were parked right by the door of the center, and we watched every single child leave to go around back to get their food then return with it. Some of the children got a small amount of chicken, until it ran out; everyone had ‘nshima.' That is a corn-meal based substance that is thick, pasty and tasteless. It looks like mashed potatoes. It is not healthy, but that is the cheapest food available. The food they ate for lunch was probably the only meal they had that day. There wasn't anything for them to drink, and when they finished, they all washed their plate in the same bin of water. It made me feel horrible that I got to eat and drink something with nutritional value that would fill me up, and they couldn't. I am so blessed to live in a country where we have enough food every day; I can have three meals a day and some snacks in between if I do start to feel hungry.

During my mission trip I learned many things, but what I learned the most was to be appreciative of what I have- even the little things! Being able to brush my teeth is a luxury. When looking for cereal at the grocery store, I have multiple choices. I can take a shower at any time of the day. These things pass by everyday without us even thinking about how lucky we are to have them because they are dependable and always present. We forget about the big picture: that there are people who daily do not have water or food, and sanitation is the last thing on their minds.

I have a hard time describing how my trip affects me daily: I could tell you how I am more grateful for all that I have and I am improving my bargain shopping and thinking twice about purchasing what is actually necessary. But, what does that do for the people I met in Zambia? Nothing. It is just a personal conviction deep in my heart. Our culture is so materialistic and always striving to have the bigger, better, newer, more efficient thing. I do not want to be swept away in that. I can be happy with having less and turn my eyes on Jesus instead of that really cute shirt at the mall. Seeing the way Zambians live in their culture has changed the way I live in my culture.