Zambia Part 2

I've been in Zambia for over two weeks now. It’s been really good so far. The Bumsteads have started me off with a lot of office work (which, for me, is a very good thing). I've been keeping busy, but not like I was back home. I've had time to spend in private and corporate devotions daily, as well as start memorizing Scripture again. My guitar skills are improving with all the time I've had for practice and I've had time to start working out again.

Lately, I've been giving a lot of thought to prophecy and Spiritual gifts; particularly thinking of why we don’t see them manifesting as often as we read about in Acts. I asked the Lord why I don’t see them very much in my own life. His response was a bit unsettling. My faith is lacking. Just a few weeks ago, I made the boast that I have a faith to move mountains. I followed up the comment with some disclaimer as to why I don’t see the Lord moving. Now I’m realizing I don’t have the faith of a child that it requires. ALL I HAVE TO DO IS ASK! Why can’t I drill this through my head?

The other thing that I feel gets in the way is my pride. (I say feel because this isn't a word from the Lord but an analysis of me, by me). I get scared that I will deliver the wrong message to a person when I prophecy or I think “what if they don’t get healed?” or “what if they don’t receive this?” This stems from pride. If I was humble, I would understand that “God gives grace to the humble” and wouldn't let me deliver the message if it wasn't from Him. If I was humble, I wouldn't worry about my own discomfort at the person not being healed, but would have nothing but love for the person and put them above myself.

These revelations have in no way discouraged me. Rather, they are very encouraging. It means there is hope. God is committed to us achieving all that He has for us and He is at work! Our only task is to accept His working in us. As a result, I've been trying to just hear the Lord’s voice. Today, I felt like I had a breakthrough. I just sat down for about a half hour and had a conversation with the Creator of the Universe. He is soooo happy! He exudes joy! He is soooo cool!

I've been listening to Graham Cooke teachings on Approaching the Heart of Prophecy. If you haven’t heard or read this, you should look it up. It is so good! He’s giving me so many ideas on things that I can do and he also encourages me to keep pushing deeper and to just love the Lord. I’ll leave you with a quote from Graham. “We are a blessing, that’s who we are. It’s our joy, it’s our pleasure, it’s our privilege to try to bankrupt heaven. God is looking you right in the eye saying ‘Go on I dare you. Put me to the test.’ There are thousands of blessings that you need to be giving away. No one’s safe from getting blessed cuz you are the living embodiment of the Good News.” 

Week 1-Part 1 (aka traveling)

It’s only been a week since I left Corvallis but I’ve already had adventures. I ended up traveling with a friend of mine named Dawna (she’s going to be leading the Mandate team when they come in January). We left Wednesday morning and arrived in Seattle in the early afternoon. Everything went smoothly and we had a nice flight to London. I didn’t sleep much that night, though.

We arrived in London around 10am local time and had a delightful time in London. We boarded our plane around 5:30pm and sat on the plane for about an hour or so because there was a problem with the plane. Finally, they had us disembark and gave us some free food and drink in the airport. There was no communication, though, so we had no idea what was happening.

After about two hours, we tracked down someone who told us we were being put up in a hotel that night. It was a pretty nice hotel, too. We only got about four hours sleep that night because of the time we got to the hotel and the time our new flight was scheduled to leave.

Because of the new flight, we missed our connecting flight in Johannesburg. The British Airways people in London gave us these slips for a new flight on South African Airways the next day. When we arrived in Jo-burg, there was nobody there to greet us or tell us where to go. All we knew was that we were supposed to be put up in a hotel that night. We wandered the airport for about an hour before we were able to track down someone who could tell us where we were supposed to go. They took us to the hotel but by this point it was 2am and we had to be back at the airport by 7:30am. We got a couple hours sleep, though and a hot shower, which was delightful.

The next morning, we went to the airport to the British Airways line to get our new tickets. After waiting in line, they told us to go to the South African Airways line to get our tickets. After waiting in that line (by this point we’ve spent an hour in line), they told us we had to go back to the British Airways line. After waiting in that line, they told us we had to go to a different British Airways line. We went to that and they told us they were now changing our flight (again).

With new tickets in hand, we returned to the other British Airways line where we were informed that we had to have  a yellow fever shot to leave Johannesburg. I then informed them that according to both their website and the US Embassy website (I checked both before I left) I would only need a shot when I left Zambia and I had intentions on getting my shot in that country (it’s cheaper there). They disagreed so we asked for the manager. He said the same thing that the lady at the counter said.

At this point, admittedly, I was very frustrated. I just decided to brush it off though and get my shot in the airport. They handed me back my passport and I went down to the clinic. When I arrived at the clinic, I realized they had handed me the wrong passport! The lady at the counter found me on my way back and switched me. I went back to the clinic and got my shot (which, by the way, was actually way cheaper at the airport than it was in the States).

While I was getting my shot, Dawna asked to see the main manager. She told him everything that had happened and he finally set his employees straight and told them we were right that I didn’t need the shot until I came back. At least we were vindicated =).

Luckily, with all this hassle, we still made our flight and arrived in Zambia! Total travel time was four days (and about 8 hours sleep in that time). I was surprisingly not that tired, though. Ok, this is getting long so this is Week 1 part 1; part 2 to come soon.