Goodbye Greenhill!

Today was another long, hard, exciting, & eventful day as we finished up our time at Greenhill School.

We finished 4 new classrooms for the school, complete with colorful paint, new chalkboards, and plenty of brand new school supplies to fill them!






Presenting the school supplies to the Greenhill teachers and students was an incredibly moving moment. The teachers were overwhelmed by the generosity of all donors! They couldn’t believe all the new supplies. New flashcards, magnetic boards, and an endless supply of writing utensils blew them out of the water! The Zambians were fascinated by the new concept of a “dry erase” board, magnetic board, and tic tac toe. We had fun explaining these new concepts to the Greenhill staff, and they assured us they would be invaluable in their classroom teaching. ☺



After putting the finishing touches on everything, we had a dedication ceremony with the Greenhill teachers and students and our Arise Africa team. We dedicated the 4 rooms and tried to offer some words of encouragement, but we were completely outdone by Mrs. Tembo when she thanked our team and expressed the ways the classrooms would impact the students of Greenhill and their futures for many years to come.







We grabbed a few “snaps” (Zambian for pics) of the finished product and our team before saying our goodbyes, passing out hugs, and listening to our kids sing us a goodbye song as we pulled out in the mini-bus.





Even though we were exhausted when we got back to the Lodge, we managed to be lured in by the neighborhood kids hanging out outside the gates of the hotel. Within minutes, the guys had baseballs and gloves out and were introducing the local Zambian children to American’s favorite pastime. The guys played catch, Clayton helped with mechanics, and all were thoroughly impressed with the kids’ natural skills, seeing to how none of them had ever seen a baseball before today!








It was another fabulous day in Zambia! We continue to be so thankful for the ways the Lord is providing for us and how much fun we’re having! Today especially, we are reminded of all our supporters and donors back home who made this possible. The finished product at Greenhill School was certainly a blessing to both them and us.

HOLY COW WHAT DIDN’T WE DO TODAY?

We are exhausted. EXHAUSTED! This morning we went to Greenhill School and saw the classrooms that we raised funds to build. And they are amazing. Our Zambian friends worked hard to do the bricks and mortar and finish the roof before rainy season. And WOW were we happy to have a roof today! Because it hailed! On us, in Zambia. And the Zambians loved it and were delighted at the sight of “ice” and were trying to eat it.

We painted, measured doors, cut wood, made cement, layed cinder blocks, installed window frames, blew up our power tool charger, bought new power tools, made two paint runs, and began to work on the chalkboards. We are exhausted! We hope to paint a lot more tomorrow, hand out school supplies, and hang out with kiddos.






One of our favorite parts of the day was when some of the kids danced for us, and then we had to jump in! They loved it and we certainly can’t dance like them, but we do look funny trying!







In the late afternoon the rain came and it was impressive. We were able to take cover in our new building and the roof is very well built! We all made a mad dash to get into the mini bus and drove home soaking wet.

The dinner crew tonight had fun at the grocery store trying to make a Mexican food casserole until they realized that they didn’t have any ingredients. They quickly changed their recipe and improvised and we had a great meal!

Sunday Funday

Sunday Funday

Today we woke up and headed to church. We had a great time and met a lot of amazing Zambians, including many of the children that will be attending the kids camp this week. We loved the singing and had quite an experience learning the songs. They had visiting bishops; governmental representatives and even the local TV station came! This was a BIG deal for them!!

There were about 150 people that attended the church. Families and children from the community gathered to worship and they are “lively” for God to say the least! Their energy for Jesus Christ is so overwhelming that you cannot help but overflow with emotion and praise.

After church, they have a tradition of greeting every person that attended the service that day. Members made an incredible collage of authentic Zambian cuisine in our honor. It is unreal to see that these families come from such hardship and were concerned with making us feel at home. We were able to fellowship with everyone and the PRECIOUS children of Zambia.









We then headed to Arcades, a shopping center where we were able to purchase some souvenirs and eat a great meal. We ate at a local restaurant called La Mimosa or better known as “La Musungu” among the Zambians because that is where all the white people like to eat. (Musungu means white in their tribal language) After Arcades we had some time in the afternoon at our lodge to hang out, throw the Frisbees and football and watch Clayton throw some pitches. A few of our other guys attempted to throw and we ended up having to get our guard to help us retrieve baseballs that were in a yard over the fence. We also got experience a massive rainstorm that Charlotte managed to sleep through!

Dinner was great and chefs David, Kasey and Katie are rocking it in the kitchen. We introduced our Zambian kitchen friends to brownies and chicken Parmesan. They were impressed we know how to wash dishes despite the fact that we have dishwashers.

The Gilliams and the Sayles led our devotional tonight as we talked about Galatians 4, being one in Christ, and being adopted as heirs of the King. Through these conversations, we also had the opportunity to share our own stories of God’s sovereignty through this trip, the preparations before the departure, and our time here in Zambia so far. We continue to see the mighty ways that the Lord is working and continue to pray boldly against any ways that anyone or anything might try to slow down the great things He is doing.

Day two, we can already see the love of the Lord spilling over into our lives, and the selflessness of these beautiful people.

Arrived and doing well!

We arrived!( loud applause and cheer appreciated) After 24hrs of air travel, the 16 member team is here, a bit droggy and excited, but fully present with all 2300 lbs. of bags. Katie and Nate even made it through a touch and go with the customs agent. It was a New Years miracle!

Upon arrival, we made no waste of time and got to seeing Zambia. Via bus, we traveled to compounds, markets, grocery stores and more. We even had an opportunity to play with the African children; their game of choice: Red Rover. IT was an amazing opportunity to our elementary playground days.





We spent the afternoon sorting supplies and preparing for the week. We definitely were EXHAUSTED and wanted to sleep but stayed awake. David made great pizzas for dinner and then we all crashed hard.

Some fun “Africanisms” that we have experienced so far is that the lodge does not have enough keys for every room! So Kim and Rob and Nate and Katie crawl through their windows. Ellen and Clayton were woken up in the middle of the night to thinking a machine gun was going off in their room to discover their air conditioner was breaking.

We will post more later!
- the team

Happy New Years!

Today (Friday the 31st) was another filled day! David got his tour of University Teaching Hospital and loved it. He was impressed at the system and made some great friends with ENT Zambian docs. David has been invited back for clinic rounds on Monday.

After David’s tour he met up with the 2 peas in a pod (Bwalya and John) and they went to buy doors and windows for the classrooms we are building at Greenhill School. The discussions on prices for doors was a tough one, and in the end Bwalya’s bartering skills proved us well!



Somewhere along the way the guys ran into this fellow walking down the street. They came home so proud begging me to hire him.




I had another big day of meeting out at Greenhill and seeing the progress of the classrooms. What has been built is impressive. We haven’t built them one classroom, but three, and an office, and a secure room for official governmental papers. I was a bit taken back at this discovery! The classrooms aren’t as finished as I expected but I think it will give us an opportunity to actually get to help build!

I spent the rest of the day running last minute errands and getting our final schedule hammered out.

One thing I had impressed upon Bwalya on Thursday morning that was important was that we needed to get a stand made for Clayton’s pitching tarp before he got here on Saturday. We brought over the tarp that he can pitch into, but needed the frame welded. Bwalya well got a little busy yesterday and forgot so I was nervous about getting it finished in one day, given we are in Zambia.

Bwalya, John, and David took the tarp and their own engineering plans for the stand to a welder on the side of the road. When they arrived back at the lodge yesterday evening with the stand, they couldn’t have been more proud of their masterpiece! And I am impressed! It was like watching three little boys. We had to immediately put the tarp up and then spend the rest of the hour throwing rocks (from the driveway of our lodge) at the tarp attempting to hit the strike zone.



Or New Years eve John, David, and I headed to the Intercontential Hotel for dinner. Unfortunately the main dining area was closed so I opted to take us to another local restaurant with great Italian food. We had a blast. There are lots of fireworks in Zambia which was fun to see.

The team arrives in just hours and tomorrow is our first official day. We can’t wait and will update again!

In Him,
Alissa

How does one explain what toilet paper is?

Well we are certainly off to a running start. John, David, and I landed in Lusaka on Thursday morning our time (11PM USA time) and had a huge day! We ran many errands, bought water, met with local schools and churches we will be working with,and had a great time with our Zambian team! John and Bwalya are long lost brothers and have discussed more business plans for Arise Africa.

We have laughed alot, been made fun of and thrown it right back, learned a few important songs in Nyanja, taught kids how to use a phone camera, and already been called musungu (white person) by kids in the compounds about a thousand times. David is butchering Nyanja but is definitely getting an A plus in trying!

We also have had some awkward cultural barriers such as trying to buy toilet paper and asking where it was located only to get a blank stare by the store attendant. Then trying to explain what toilet paper is can be very entertaining.

We already hit up the one and only Mexican food restaurant for dinner. Tomorrow (Friday) is our last day until the rest of the team joins us on Saturday morning. David has an official visit to the largest hospital in Zambia, to learn about medicine over here and we are really interested to hear about it. I will be doing last minute errands. (the beds are SO hard here at the lodge, I hope I can help do something about that!)

We will continue to update, and thank you for all your prayers. One last minute prayer request that is trivial in the whole scheme of things is that I have lost my voice as of this evening. Maybe God is trying to tell me something; but it would be really nice if I could rebound before our team arrives!

In Him,
Alissa

Zambia here we come!

Well today is the day. The day our first mission trip team leaves for Zambia! Words cannot express the excitement that we feel!

As the group leader I would be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous. I am, about Heathrow, and the fact that planes are delayed, or maybe the logistics on the ground in Zambia, or maybe that we have over 2500 pounds of luggage that needs to arrive on time, (that is over 50 bags at 50 pounds EACH!, that’s why we have a flatbed truck picking us up at the airport) or so many other things. Or maybe that the Vic Falls travel agent just called me and told me she didn’t get return plane tickets for us in time. (No worries right?!)

But beyond the nervousness I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to take 15 amazing people ready to serve and love on those less fortunate whom I know so well and call my family. Our team is made up of enthusiastic, young, and ready people who know they are the guinea pigs on this first trip! Basically these are my close friends who have volunteered and gone above and beyond already! I am pumped to see the kids react at Laura’s read hair, or see Kasey and Katie cooking up a storm for our team meals! I can’t wait to see our guys building with materials in Africa and learning that power tools aren’t the only way! (don’t worry we have power tools packed too ☺ but pray for electricity) I am excited about seeing the kids faces when Clayton teaches them about baseball! And I know Greg is going to be friends with everyone within minutes or arriving. I know that Charlotte and Kate and Ellen are going to provide that loving touch and ability to explain things better than I can! I can only imagine what David will find on the medical side of things. And I can’t help but get a large grin on my face when I think about Kim in Africa, don’t know why, it just makes me happy!
Some of us leave today and others in the next few days. As of January 1st we will all be in Zambia, ready to go! We ask you to follow our blog posts throughout the week right here. No doubt, get ready for some great stories! I am sure we will have them! It will certainly be crazy! I can't even imagine how much we will laugh these next few weeks.

As we try to spread God’s love and his word please pray with us! We ask you to pray for the schools we and all the people we will interact with. As we distribute supplies that have so generously been given to us, please pray that those who receive these gifts know it is out of Christ’s love. Please pray for our kids vacation Bible School/Camp we will be holding! And pray for protection from illness, injury, or anything else that might happen. (No worries we got a doctor on this trip!) Please pray for our Zambian team, as they have prepared for MONTHS for these crazy Musungus. (white people)

We thank you for supporting Arise Africa, and what so many of you have sacrificed to make this trip possible. We pray that we will be good stewards of your money, materials, and love.

“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light, and the kings to the brightness of your dawn. ” Isaiah 60:1-3

In Him,

Alissa Hollimon