My Journey to Zambia--More Inspiration

These are the babies in Eric's House. I will be staying in Eric's House while in Zambia.

Angie Thomas and I were talking about the trip last night at our church’s Wednesday night supper and she told me that we will need to take skirts to wear. I don’t usually wear skirts—I wear jeans, jeans, jeans. She said that we could wear a cloth wrap around our jeans or pants while we were in the orphanage compound in Zambia. It will be interesting to see how this works out! I will be out looking for comfortable skirts over the next few weeks.

My Journey to Zambia--The Passport Arrives

I have received my passport. I look like a deer in the headlights. Oh well, it looks better than my driver's license.

The next step in this journey is to get my vaccinations. Since I was five years old at the time of my last vaccination, I will have a lot of shots to take. The immunizations that I will need include: yellow fever, typhoid, hepatitis, tetanus, influenza, prescription for malaria pills and what ever else the CDC recommends. The cost will be about $500.00. I plan to get them next week.

My Journey to Zambia--The Inspiration

These adorable babies are my inspiration.

This is a picture of the babies in their new sleepers and blankets made by the ladies sewing group at the Smith Springs church.

Since it can take up to 8 months for the blankets and supplies to reach Zambia, we will be taking new quilts made by the sewing group with us on our trip.

I can't wait to get to rock the babies.

My Journey to Zambia--The doubts and God's Answer

Sometimes we have doubts about our goals. This week I began to question if going on this trip to Zambia was what God had in mind for me. Let just face it, the cost alone is overwhelming. Then there is getting the immunizations and the probability of getting sick while on the trip. I was having doubts, lots of doubts. None of my paintings were selling; I thought maybe this was just God’s way of letting me know that the trip wasn’t for me.

So I took my doubts to God in prayer. I usually have private time with God while I am walking the dog. While walking Noel, I had a conversation with God and told him about my concerns and my need for him to somehow let me know what his will for me was in this matter. I find it hard sometimes to know what God wants me to do with my life, so I just asked that if there was a way for him to let me know, I would be grateful.

After the walk I checked my email messages, to my delight I found that someone was interested in purchasing one of the paintings! It was listed in my eBay store. It was one of only two I had listed there. It would have taken someone a long time of searching through the huge amount of listings on eBay to find this painting. I am so overwhelmed and just a little bit frightened. God answered my prayer!

Now I know that with God’s help, I’m going to Zambia!!!

My Journey to Zambia-Getting Ready

While I plan to use my artistic talents in Zambia, I also want to use them to get me there. It just seems natural that I pay for my trip to Zambia through selling my paintings. I will be selling my paintings on ebay. The cost for me to go to Zambia will be between $3,500 and 4,000. This will include the cost of getting my passport, shots, airfare, hotel, etc.

Part of getting ready to go to Zambia has been obtaining a passport. Since I have never been out of the country, I will need to get a passport. In order to get a passport, I must have a certified birth certificate. So I ordered a certified birth certificate and received it today. Next I will have to get passport picture made.

My Journey to Zambia-God touches my heart

The Zambia orphan mission work tugged at my heart from the first time I heard about it.

Then in 2008, the Smith Springs Church of Christ decided to make one of their mission goals to assist in the building of the house for infants. The goal was to raise $100,000 in funds for the building fund. Everybody at church has been involved. The teens raised money with a bake sale and car wash. The ladies sewing group raised money by making items for a craft sale. And the entire congregation had special offering days. The church has been able to raise over the $100,000 goal.

In September it was decided that a group of church members would visit the mission. I knew I wanted to go as soon as I heard that one of the objectives of the trip was to paint the rooms where the infants were staying bright colors and create murals on the walls.

I knew that God had sent me a special work that I was equipped to do.

My Journy to Zambia-The Beginning

My journey to Zambia began three years ago.

It all started with a missionary report by one of our church deacons. The report was on the Namwianga Mission that the Smith Springs Church of Christ had been supporting for over 25 years.

Here is a synopsis of the report.

• Roy and Kathi Merritt live at the Namwianga Mission in Zambia where they run an orphanage with the support of many Churches of Christ. The whole compound is called "The Haven". At the time of the report, it was comprised of Eric’s House, Eleanor's House, Kelly's House and a new baby house to be built.
  
• "Eleanor's House" is named in memory of Eleanor Mann of Victoria, Canada. Eleanor supported orphan care in Zambia as far back as the 1940s.
  
• "Kelly's House" honors Kelly Hamby, a great supporter of the work in Zambia.
  
• "Eric's House" is named after Eric Rickner. Eric's family has supported work in Zambia from back before World War II. Eric's legacy built the house where older children stay with Kathi and Roy.
  
• Roy and Kathi hoped to begin building a new house for the babies as the mission deals with AIDS daily. Many babies have syphilis and HIV and most of the deaths are AIDS-related. However, 95% of the children are in fine health. Without the Haven, nearly all of these would have died a week or two after their birth.

At hearing of this mission particularly about the babies, my heart just seemed to reach out. On the way home from Church I told Jack, “I would really like to see the AIDS babies one day”.

Little did I know that this would be the beginning of my journey to Zambia!!!