Well we headed from Samfya to Serenji, it was about 3 hours, the last 15kms was on a dirt track which we didnt move faster than about 30km, and we were loaded up with all our gear, mattresses and food for the weekend, plus 3 tents and 3 extra passengers, Levy (Bible School Principal) Agnes (Levy's wife) and Hoggie who does the bible school r & m and was driving the vehicle back from Lusaka after the weekend.
We arrived in the village and there was a big welcoming party, I am sure that some of the villagers had never seen a muzungu before and some of the little children were really quite scared.
It was great to have Levy, Agnes and Hoggie with us as it was a great opportunity to sit down, talk, have a laugh and get to know them better. It was great to have Agnes because it was much easier having a women to interpret there all the time and also there were two other women, Mary and Naomi that spoke great english, so I spent alot of time around the fire cooking and talking, laughing with them
Im getting old Ive decided - the tent and 1 thin mattress on the dirt no longer has much appeal!!! The long drop was very pleasant, as pleasant as any longdrop can be of course, but they had prepared a guest house for our use and all the amenities and facilities were clean and made village life easier this time.
Donald did a fair bit of teaching over the weekend and saturday afternoon we had small groups, Donald with Elders, Deane with deacons, me with deaconesses and women. Its good to do this in small groups with the women, they certainly have some cultural hardships that many of us would NEVER imagine, so it was good to be able to encourage them. Agnes was a great help and we certainly had some curly questions thrown at us!
We also met with a group of past Bible School students and it was real interesting to hear of the work they are doing now that they have graduated and returned to their villages, they are so passionate for the need to spread the gospel as far and wide as they can.
Saturday night was the worst sleep I have ever had, every bone in my body was aching from the ground and I work up 3 times in the night, Deane told me to RELAX, well yeah right, I then said ok so whats the time he said "you dont want to know" so i was freezing and tried to get back to sleep, not that that worked, then I asked again, Deane said not long to go now its 4am!!! felt like i'd been in bed for 24 hours already, so it was a long night. The two young girls arrived at 5am to sweep the yard and start the fire for water for our baths/shower in a basin.
Sunday devotions started at 6am, followed by sunday school at 7am and then communion at 8am so that the worship service could be under way by 9am and finished by 11am so we could pack up and leave for Lusaka.
Vehicle packed, church over and we were on the road by 11.20am, not too bad 20 minutes late for Africa.
