My personal commitment to the students at the rural high school in Zimbabwe has been accomplished. Yesterday I left the school with happiness that the students had their computers and together we had learned so much in the days together. My personal educational mission for those students had been a success and the students were so happy.
Today, we had one more stop on the regular mission team's agenda. A very poor, rural village where they gathered at Thula church was our last area to visit while here and help. We left the house at 8 am and drove for about 3 hours before stopping to visit them. The people meet under a tent like area with benches and with tarps ont he side. Some of the women sat on the ground so I sat with them. An 18 year old girls with a 6 month old baby sat by me. They both were beautiful. After the service ink pens, candy and stickers were handed out to both the children and to the adults or anyone that wanted it.
There has been little rain for the past 2 years and they had a manual pump where they pumped water but it wasn't working right. Some of them went to pulling down the lever to pump the water in order to show us and it took a while to even get a little to come out. They had to show us how it worked. But, they were so happy to have us there and were so friendly. Most of them didn't have anything but necessities.
There was a fence built all around the property to deter the elephants from destroying their little tent like area and to keep the lions deterred as well. They had told us that a little boy had chased a lion away with fire at one time to protect the members. I cannot imagine being so cautious around your hourses or being aware of your surroundsing wherever you walk because of the wildlife. What we have and what they have is substantially different. It humbles you immensely.
Once done at Thula we headed to Victoria Falls as we had completed our mission work and I had completed my personal mission of obtaining computers and teaching. Partners4Africa who we work alongside of and help serve the area, sets aside a day and a half for seeing the culture and places to visit in Zimbabwe after our work is done.
We left Thula and headed another 4 hours to Victoria Falls, one of the 7 wonders of the world. We arrived in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe and checked into the Elephant Hills Resort so that in the morning we could visit the falls and see the spectacular beauty of one of God's creations. From our rooms you could see the mist coming up like smoke from where the falls were located.
For supper we attended a dinner and drum show at Boma. The drum show brought to life the culture of Africa and was a lot of fun. We ate and then we were all given drums and a person directed us as to how to interact with him and his other drum members to bring alive the music and fun to their culture. If you didn't know how to play the drums like me, it didn't matter. We all participated and felt we were doing good. We were at least making noise...but it really did sound good. While eating supper I was once again challenged to eat one of their delicacies, the Mopane worm. I ate one last summer while here and had decided I would not eat one this year but the challenge from Will and ohters was too much so Lyndsey and I and some others ate a worm. It was definitely not a good snack ... yuckky!! Because we ate the worm, we were given a certificate saying we had accepted the challenge and ate one. We had experienced one of their delicacies. We are excited to see the falls tomorrow.
"There is profit in hard work, but mere talk leads to poverty." Proverbs 14:23. You have to talk the talk and walk the walk if you expect to succeed. Put in the hard work and long hours, and you will see wealth come your way.
Our wealth this past couple of weeks has been seeing the people we have helped benefit from our actions. The profit of our work is not in dollars but in knowing and seeing how we have made someone's lives better spiritually, physically with food and necessities, and for me with my personal mission educationally through the computers and teaching. We definitely have gained wealth through our actions.
We will go to the falls tomorrow and on a Safari ride tomorrow evening. The beauty of the landscape and the animals are all around us. I am thankful to have been a part of the good work these two weeks along with my personal mission of brining computers to the students and teaching. The time here has been a blessing and I am thankful to have had this opportunity.