The Lord has loaded up the last couple of days with blessings upon blessings. As each day blends into the next, it's sad to think that this amazing experience is almost at its close. But as I said, God has been so good, not only to us, but also to Pastor Ibrahim, Pastor Victor, Pastor-in-training Rafael, and all of those others who have assisted us throughout our journey. God has also granted us with so many wonderful encounters with schools across this country. Not only have God's saving Words reached the souls of thousands of children through us as His mouthpieces, but they have also reached the hearts of the teachers and directors at these schools. On Wednesday, my team had gone to a preschool of about 50 children run by a young man named David. It turns out that David had organized this school by himself in the hopes of helping children grow up in the right way and away from the bad influences of the world. In fact, he hopes to set up more schools like this around the area. Pastor Ibrahim and Missionary Ohlmann talked with him for a while and he seemed very interested in the ministry. He was all for everything they had to say about what we confess here in the CLC. David said he wants to join the church service coming up on Sunday as well as the Bible school Pastor Ibrahim has here in Livingstone. In fact, he was also very interested in having Pastor Ibrahim be the pastor in charge of all the doctrinal oversight at his current school and any future schools he might establish. Isn't it incredible how our all-knowing Father places us in each and every place at just the right time with just the right people?
"However, as it is written: 'What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived' — the things God has prepared for those who love him—"
1 Corinthians 2:9
Alright, onto the events of Friday. We started the day with a lovely breakfast at the "Basil Cafe" located inside of our hostel. This place is beyond wonderful. There's free coffee and tea offered all day long, and, if you place an order before 3 PM, you can get free delicious pancakes (more like crepes) that come with lemon juice and sugar.
Anyways, we were picked up by Pastor Ibrahim and our drivers, Barnabas and William at 9 AM to leave to the first of two schools for the day. Both teams traveled together. We arrived at the first school and were greeted by around 300 children sitting outside. This school was beyond excited to have us coming as visitors from America to spread the Gospel of Christ with them! They greeted us with a letter read by one of the school girls, the choir singing their national anthem and a worship song, and a song sang by some of the smaller children. Henry, Noah, Andrea, and Amy took over the older kids while my group (Candy, Kari, Kaylee, and I) took the little ones. These kids were so ready to listen to the Words of Jesus and were ready with an answer to every question! It is so awesome to see the little lights shining in each of their faces as these kids talk about their ever-loving Savior. We got to hand out 300 little crochet hearts that Beth Kranz graciously made for these kids. The school sent us off with the utmost gratitude and joy. A young boy closed us with prayer and then we took off together to school number two.
School number two was also split into two groups of older and younger kids, which we took respectively. Now school was getting out for other kids around this time, so it was getting a little rowdy. But they still gave us their attention and the Lord still granted us with the great chance to speak of His perfect love and gift of forgiveness and life through His Son.
After we finished up at the schools, we returned to our hostel around 1:30 PM and had almost 2 hours until our event of the evening: a sunset cruise on the great Zambezi River. We were picked up around 3:30 by a shuttle going to our destination. However, there was a tad hiccup in our excursion. The first flag of suspicion was raised when the other people on our shuttle were dressed really fancy and we were in very casual clothing. The second flag was raised when we approached the triple-decker boat and there was a red carpet ready to take us aboard. Well, we walked on board and did a few circles until they told us we were on the wrong boat. This seemed much more realistic, but it was cool to at least look at the "Lady Livingstone." We eventually found our designated boat and settled in the lower deck. God had blessed us with the most beautiful weather for the occasion. We saw lots of hippos half-submerged near the shoreline as well as a crocodile chilling on a log. The sunset was sadly covered by some clouds on the horizon, but the rays still managed to peak through some spots.
And that about wraps up the day. We only have a few days left in the beautiful country of Zambia, but I'm so thankful God has put me on this journey! I can't wait to see what he has in store for the rest of the trip!
In love and in Christ,
Erica Oster
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