Update from Casie

Hello Friends and Family!

Things are going well here in Zambia. We began our day at Vineyard Christian School where the kids are really sweet and humble. It’s really a joy to work with them because they have such sweet spirits. We talked about transmission and getting tested before we broke up into small groups. We have struggled with the small groups at this school because the kids are so quiet. We’ve had a hard time getting them to talk and open up but I have high hopes for the rest of the week. After Vineyard we headed over the church planting school for some YUMMY inshema! Oh how I LOVE inshema J Within about 30 minutes we all piled back into the van on our way to Chibote! We have been going there in the afternoons since last Monday so many of the team members have been able to build some good relationships with the girls there. We spent some time dancing, singing, and just having fun with them before Dan talked about relationships. We had several Zambians that are on our team get up and share from their heart with the kids as well. It’s really good to see the Zambians ministering to their own culture. They have an opportunity that us, Muzungus (white people), will never have. The heart of STS is to empower the Zambians that are here and know the culture to minister to the people around them. All in all, today was a good day. When we came back to town, Ida (the secretary for the Church Plant School… who is AWESOME) took the girls to get material to make Shetengays (African skirts). It was fun to walk around the market and look at all the different colored clothe. Max and I have discovered that we are an amazing team when it comes to making dinner! I can assure you that STS is eating WELL. Unfortunately, Jesse and Angie have not been feeling well today so I gave them some meds to help with fever and put them to bed early. Hopefully they will be able to sleep it off and begin feeling better in the morning. For some reason, illness has hit the team really hard this year.

As our time is coming to an end, I am sad to leave but looking forward to coming home. It will be really good to eat American food and sleep in my own room without four other roommates. It has been good to talk with different people about things that could happen in the future with STS.

So I must admit that I have learned A LOT of new things here in Zambia…. I learned the other day that if you try to catch a baby chicken… the mother chicken will attack you!! WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT?!?! I ALSO learned that momma chickens don’t actually bite you… Dr. T has THOROUGHLY informed me that momma chickens don’t bite! They WILL, however, impale you with their talons and flap their wings fanatically until they achieve what they want! I ALSO have to admit that I have tried… many a time… the catch the stupid roosters that wander around our yard. The other day I was sitting on the step watching this bird awkwardly cluck around the yard (there were several roosters in the vicinity) so I JUMPED UP and ran as fast as I could. For some reason I had decided that I wanted to catch the rooster… What I DIDN’T think about was WHY I would want to do that and what I was going to do with it when I did catch up to it. Well I got really close to the thing and realized that #1 I am insane, #2 I have no idea what this thing is going to do to be when I pick it up, and #3 I have two other angry roosters chasing me now that I pissed off their friend. Needless to say, I did not catch that rooster… I ran far far away… into the house where I was safe. :-)

Well I love you all and hope you are well. I wish I could write more but I must go to bed!

Casie