A New Year

While in Zambia, we had the wonderful and unique experience of celebrating the New Year with our church there. Awesome. Let me just say that I think everyone should get to ring in the new year this way. I'll give you a taste of what it felt like by posting some of my journal entry written that night.

"1 January 2010
"Happy new year! Happy 2010! Remember the LORD your God in this new year! Remember his word, the Bible, and the good things he has done for you! Tonight we had our first Zambian church experience. We took our naps and waited for the bus, but then the power went out! Ah! Musonda and Roy were both gone with their friends to a New Year's Eve party, and we didn't know what to do! Using Ileana's phone-light, we were able to locate a couple candles & matches (with the help of Michelle's prior knowledge from exploration earlier in the day) so that we were able to see. Eventually the bus came, and we all were picked up and brought to the church, where we could hear singing from inside the bus as we pulled up. In the church we sang and danced! My dancing is going to improve greatly while I'm here, I can just tell. The service was so beautiful, so joyful, and Ba Charles was right: an African preacher really does tell it like it is. The coolest part, aside from dancing in lines around the sanctuary, was that a man translated into Bemba everything that Ba Charles preached (and into English when he spoke Bemba) - it was fascinating."

Fact: my dancing did improve by the end of the trip. Fact: church in Zambia was an awesome experience. Fact: power outages in apartments with few windows on dark nights when the moon has not yet risen are rather frightening, but manageable.

If anyone knows me well, you'd know that I absolutely love power outages. So, when I got to experience one there, it made my day. I always take power outages as a good sign.

So, this is not a very reflective post, and I apologize if you were getting used to that. Maybe next time. I just wanted to share something joyful since, being a busy American now, I am feeling a bit stressed myself.

Until next time,

~Jaclynn