Day 2 - Ndola

Today has been another great day! We woke up around 8:30 and grabbed breakfast with the group before heading to Ndola Baptist Church. Church was a wonderful experience, the worship was in both English and Bemba (the primary language here in Ndola, even though English is the official language for the country). The English songs were mostly familiar hymns (Blessed Assurance, Holy Words Long Preserved, 'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus), and while I could not understand the songs in Bemba, they were beautiful. The congregation really seemed to let loose and freely express themselves during those songs. 

The sermon was great, long by US standards, but wonderful non-the-less. The sermon was based on Hebrews 10 and the 4 points the preacher made were:

1 - The Walk of Faith begins with God, and is anchored in God (We need to trust in God)

2 - The Walk of Faith has plenty of witnesses (imperfect, human witnesses)

3 - The Walk of Faith is not always comfortable

4 - The Walk of Faith ends with death, but looks beyond death

After the service, the church asked us visitors to go into a separate room to allow the congregation time to meet us. They gave us small plates of crackers and offered us sodas and some members of the congregation came to speak with us. We met a young woman who will be attending Baylor this fall to work on her MSW (Master of Social Work), so we hope to see her again once we are all in Waco. We also met a woman named Katherine who runs an organization with her husband that distributes wheelchairs to those who need them around Zambia. The biggest obstacle they face is that they do not have enough wheelchairs.

After the greeting time, we went to the Zimba's home for lunch. They have a lovely home and were so kind to open it up to us. We had a traditional Zambian meal of nshema (made of cornmeal and water, this is the staple food for Zambia), fish, greens, and rice. Nshema is rather stiff, and you eat it with your hands. You roll it into a ball and then pick up other things to eat with it (fish, greens, gravy - the gravy is awesome!). The food was delicious, and the conversation was wonderful. I sat next Baxter, a professor at Northrise, who grew up in a village. It was very interesting and humbling to hear about life in the villages. We have so much to be thankful for and so much that we take for granted, living in the US. 

We are now back from lunch and have a little down time before we are heading to the local grocery store to grab some things for dinner. (I feel like all I am doing is eating!) Tomorrow we begin our class here. It looks as though we will be in the classroom in the mornings and then touring local companies in the afternoon. Now the real work begins! 

Thank you for reading!

Hannah