Wheelchair Challenge

Our team got together recently for a service project/wheelchair challenge. We'll be taking five (very rustic, all terrain style wheelchairs) to Zimbabwe to donate. The challenge was that they needed to be put together prior to leaving.


Our leader, Rick, made this into a team-building challenge by dividing us up and making it a contest. Everyone was given a slip of paper with an individual task. Each team worked together (with only a few tools to share among groups) to be the first to complete their wheelchair. This turned out to be the equivalent of an Amazing Race Roadblock! The directions were minimal and the task a true challenge.


After the wheelchairs were (mostly) complete, we learned that the task slips included things like:
1. "Build the wheelchair. Win a prize if you finish first."
2. "Pray without ceasing."
3. "Complain and be negative."


We debriefed after, discussing the challenging tasks that we'll face in Zimbabwe. We'll be tired, we'll possibly experience culture shock, we may be grumpy, and we might possibly be obsessed with "task" completion. Our work in Africa will stretch us in new ways.Our conclusion was that we'll need to stay positive, flexible and prayerful. We'll have to release our personal agendas, and let God move. To not stand in the way of His plans for us.


We know already that one of the wheelchairs will be given to an 8 or 9 year old girl who has been carried on her mother's back her whole life. Before even travelling, God gave us an opportunity to serve and be stretched.


Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Philippians 2:3-4

Team Retreat

This past weekend, our team had the opportunity to spend time together on a mini-retreat. It was a time to bond, to learn about Zimbabwe and to prepare and plan for the work ahead.

What did we learn? This will be hard, emotional, exciting, uncomfortable and life-changing. This will be a time for us to set aside personal comfort, agendas, and desires. This will not be a vacation, but a true opportunity to serve. The fact is that true service usually isn't easy.

For us, serving will mean setting aside most forms of personal comfort:

· 27 hours of travel time to get there.

· Being away from family with little to no communication.

· Sleeping in one room with 14 others.
· Sharing one bathroom, and lots of opportunities to experience local "toilets".
· Showering 2-3 times over a ten day period.
· Trying new and unusual foods that may or may not be enjoyable.
· Planning ahead to have traveler's sickness with Montezuma's ReLeaf, Pepto, and prescription Cipro.
· Wearing the same clothing over and over.
· Witnessing the heartbreaking reality that the hundreds of children that we'll be working with have no parents and have to come to "feeding stations" for food every day.
· 32 hours of travel time to get home.

These things will challenge us and stretch us. Sometimes, though, being made uncomfortable is a gift: the gift of God’s refinement. When we signed on to be “the hands of feet of Christ” to the orphans of Zimbabwe, we weren’t promised comfort. We weren’t promised that it would be easy. What we were promised is an opportunity to serve and love on God’s people in Africa.

Through our service, we’ll have the opportunity to let go of all things that are not of God: all personal agendas, all selfish motives and all obsession with personal comfort. We will trust in Him alone for our physical and emotional ability. We’ll let go of “self” and let God use our hands, feet and hearts. It sounds both exhausting and wonderful. Refinement isn’t easy, but is truly a beautiful thing.


At our retreat, our leaders, Rick and Lindsay, shared with us a hand washing method that we will experience in local homes.

Rick then shared a traditional food staple that we will encounter in Zimbabwe called sadza, which is a cooked corn meal porridge. Sadza is usually served in a communal bowl and is taken with the left hand, rolled into balls, and dipped into meat, sauce, gravy, or stewed vegetables.
Our Zimbabwean adventure started early with the sadza tasting.

This was a precious time for our team. Together we’ll travel. Together we’ll serve. Together we’ll be refined.


1 Peter 1:7 So that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold which though perishable is tested by fire, may redound to praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

~Rebecca

Follow You

The past few weeks have been a bit of a struggle for me. Some days have been full of distractions and uncertainties, while others have been mixed with joy and unexpected blessings. Admittedly, there have been times when I questioned whether I should participate in this particular trip to Zimbabwe, if I have a place on this particular mission team. The stumbling blocks I encountered seemed insurmountable at times yet without fail, each time those doubts entered my mind, God provided me the encouragement, inspiration and desire I needed with the song below.

The video may have been shot in Cambodia, but the song's message spreads worldwide (even into our own backyards here in the US). I am grateful and blessed to have the opportunity to serve as I...

Follow You into the homes of the broken
Follow You into the world
Meet the needs for the poor and the needy God
Follow You into the world