Entry 12- 7/708

Today is going to be a wonderful day! Today we start ministry in some of the outlying villages. We will be going door to door and working with children. Some of them are the orphans who will soon be housed in the place we are staying now. Yesterday afternoon, Simeon, Courtney, DJ and Rebeka and I walked to town to do some exploring and to get some Cokes. It is a small town and just about every store was closed, but we did find one open. It was also great to see the different people and the signs. There are signs around that talk about HIV. There is a furniture and coffin shop. And the hospital, called Kalomo surgery, is like a small shop, much smaller than the house we are staying at. A six pack of Coke was about 18,000 Kwacha.
God is changing me in such a drastic way and yet He is doing it so gently. Michaela reminded me last night that He meets us where we are and I'm just praising Him for that because other people here are experiencing things so intensely (like yesterday at church) and God know that I could not really handle that. It's so hard to explain. The people here are so much more spiritual than we are in America. They know the Father and the Son, but they also know the Spirit more than I have ever known anything in my life. Everything here is a mixture of beauty, sorrow, joy, and spirit. And God is only allowing me to understand glimpses of His truth in all of this. But I feel eternally changed, like a new person in Christ, empowered, emboldened. I've also been reading the Word like starving person!
After we got back from the town, there were children playing with Chelsea and we joined them. They taught us many games and I got some great pictures and video. They are so much fun! They love to just be kids, be touched, and laugh and run. God is so good! I can't praise Him enough for what He is revealing to me!!!