Zambia Pictures

Hey Everyone! I am finally getting some pictures up. Sorry for the delay!



This is a pictures of me and Agnes, a double orphan that lives at My Fathers House orphan home.

This is what Zambia looks like right now. It is really lush and green. Everywhere you look there is Maize, what we call corn. It is the major crop here.

This is Emmanuel, one of the boys that I teach. He is ten years old.

This is my room! The messy bed is mine of course and the other one is Kimmers. She is a neat freak but it keeps me in line, so I guess thats good.

This is my front yard. Everyone has big gates and a cement wall for security. We also have a guard who comes when the sun goes down and leaves when it comes back up.

I hope you enjoy the pictures. We are getting new computers here, so once they come from the states, I will add more pictures. Right now it takes up too much space on this computer which is really slow, so it will be a while until more come!

London Pictures

These pictures are from when I was in London for about 3 hours. They are of Westminister Abbey, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, the London Skyline, and myself and Kimmer, the other intern here with me for 6 months! Enjoy!

Auntie Lynn! Teacher Lynn!

Those are the names that I am called down here. The whole Zambian culture is built on respect. When you hand someone a drink for example, you kneel to them. I wish it was like this in North America. So in respect to me being older, the 4 children call me Auntie Lynn when I am playing with them and when we are in class, they call me teacher Lynn. Yes I am teaching, something I vowed I never would do. The most shocking thing to me today was the level of literacy that these kids have. They can't read or write, unless they are copying something. The kids I teach are 10 and in grade 2. It is so sad. They have trouble with words like 'the' or 'and' or 'at' just as a few examples. This is the reality down here. If you arent going to school, its because you are too poor, even if you are sponsored. They have no one at home to teach them as many of the guardians have never been to school. Imagine not being able to read or write? We take it so much for granted. This reminds me of FVC building a school in Sierra Leone. You may not think a school is that important, maybe food and clean water is, but these kids have nothing without education. Please help support FVC build a school. It means the world to the people over here.

Another thing that I want to mention is the reality of poverty and disease. Here are two stories.

18 year old Getrude is a sponsored orphan through EOH. (She looks no older than 12 because of malnutrition (very common here)). This automatically gives her more than a lot of the children here. In December she disappeared, she couldn't be found anywhere. She recently reappeared on the streets. Over the last month she got pregnant and lost her baby, either from abortion or miscarriage, we dont know. Because of her pregnancy, her grandmother and only living family, kicked her out of her house onto the streets. Now, she has no where to go. To all my girlfriends back home. We are her age. Can you even begin to imagine if you were in this situation? Pregnant, losing the baby, being homeless. This is the reality of poverty. I dont mean to discourage you at all, I just want you to know that its real. Now for the other one.

I am not going to go into full details, but this is a reality of disease and miracle.

A couple years ago, lets call her Sarah, got really sick. She got phemonia 5 times in 8 weeks and lost about half her body size. She went to the doctor where they told her to be tested for TB. They couldnt find any trace of it, but put her on medication anyways. This unneeded medication made her even sicker. Reality hit her, so she went on got tested for AIDS. She was HIV positive. She was taking care of her younger siblings because her parents had died of AIDS. She was able throuhh EOH to go to the US to see a professional doctor. He told her that it was true, she was very sick. She came back to Zambia and took her medication prescribed to her. In this time, she had a friend that had a prophecy and told her that she was healed. She went back to the doctor 8 months later in the US. She got tests done, but the doctor called her and told her that they didnt work and she had to get them again. She did. When she went back to the doctor he told her that they couldnt detect any virus in her blood system, not one. Not AIDS, not TB, not anything. She was 100% healed. If the meds would have worked, it would have taked about 4 years for any traces of a virus to be gone, but it happened in 8 months. The doctor couldnt believe it. She was completely healed from AIDS strictly by the power of God. This story brings the reality of the AIDS Pandemic and the power of God to perform miracles in this day in age, as it sometime seems that they dont happen anymore. God is always performing miracles, you just have to open your eyes and heart to him.

Sorry for the long post, just a lot on my heart that I want to share. You here from me for a few days because I am going to to Kitwe, Kabwe, and Ndola up north! See ya!

My Fathers House

So here I am back at the computer. Things here in Zambia go really slowly and I am still getting adjusted to it if you are wondering why I have put a post almost everyday. Yesterday we went to My Father House, an orphan home where a widow takes in 8 sponsored orphans and takes care of them. There are two homes at this location. We went there and worked with our moms and got right to work. I was working in the second house with mom, Josephine and 4 children, Emmanuel, Louis, Gertrude, and a kid wearing a red turtleneck. ( I cant remember his name!) I scrubbed there toilet, sinks, bathtub, walls (dont ask), stove, oven and fridge. After that I did dishes and laudry, the old school way. They sure love having us around so we can do the work! It was funny because at lunch, Josephine handed me an onion, a tomatoe and rice and told me to cook lunch. I told her that it wouldnt be a good idea, so I got her to teach me. It was fun. After lunch we played with the kids outside. They love seeing a camera, so I showed them all my pictures from London and all. It was so much fun, but really tiring at the same time. Last evening was really relaxing; we just stayed at home at talked. Its weird, here I got to bed at the latest 9pm every night and I get up at about 8. Never had so much sleep before! Today we had a very long meeting discussing Orphan Sunday. This day is the first day of October where the churches across Zambia get together as one body of Christ and focus on all the orphans here. They have a big service where about 2000 orphans come together in 3 different cities. So today we discussed what went well and wrong in 2005 and how we can improve 2006. Its so excited to see the nation come together and take notice of the orphans in crisis. On that day the orphans are given food and school supplies. Anyways, that is what we did today. The meeting lasted from 9am to 3pm, the longest meeting I have ever been to, I almost fell asleep. Well, I shall be off to do some grocery shopping. This weekend we are going to Kitwe in Northern Zambia to visit kids who need to be sponsored and in the beginning of February we are going to go to Livingstone in the Southern Province where we will visit Victoria Falls. Im out for now, until next time!
Oh, if you want to write, you have to add that onto the previous address I have posted. Thanks! PO Box 38716

End of the Spear

Just a quick mention of a incredibly powerful movie that you must see if it is playing around you. It is called End of the Spear. Although it really doesnt mention Christianity, it is about 5 missionaries who went to one of the most dangerous tribes in Ecuador to reach them. The homicide rate there is 60%. They just kill eachother off for revenge. Anyways, these missionaries are eventually killed by the spear of the tribe, but a sister and wife of one of those missionaries goes back to the tribe and eventually brings the whole tribe to know Christ. I have not yet seen it, but we are promoting the movie here by wearing t-shirts and talking about it. I encourage you to all go see it! I just hope that is it is playing somewhere in Vancouver! All is well here, went to church twice this morning. CHurch here is so incredibly different then back West. I just wish you could all be here to experience it! See ya!

First Impressions...Fanta Fanta Fanta

Well Well.... I am currently sitting in my new home in Zambia. We were warmly welcomed at the airport by Martha and her little sister Tama. Martha is the woman who takes care of EVery Orphans Hope here in Zambian. She is Zambian herself. The ride to our house was about 10 minutes. Everything is so green and lush. Its so hot out right now, even though it is pouring rain. We had a big thunderstorm close to dinner and our power almost went out so we have candles ready. Today we just relaxed and rested. We took a drive to the mall to pick up some pizza, made just like they do in Italy. There is also Fanta here. If you dont know what Fanta is, its like orange pop but tens times better and makes you feel really buzzed (in a non-alcholic way). Today we also had a prayer meeting. This was something that was the most foreign to me. First there was about 10-15 of here, representing 5 Countries. (Canada, USA, Japan, Nigeria, and Zambia of course) We started off by giving thanks to God for brining us all together here, then we danced and sang(I just made up the words, they will come)together. We then went into prayer. Wow. How do I explain it? Its nothing like we have in North America. Would any of us get together just to dance and sing on a Saturday afternoon and give thanks to God? Not Likely. We had to go around the circle and share prayer concerns we had, then we prayed for about 1 hours straight. Our prayer meeting lasted 4 hours! Its crazy, but everyone is just sitting here and praying and yelling and praising God, its awesome. Then we had a pasta dinner with salad and now Kimmer, the other girl here with me, its doing her orientation which I completed in Dallas. Just seeing the town here and getting to know the culture is so exciting. I am not yet homesick, but I am sure that it will come with time. On a side note, if you are wondering where Japan came from, there is a young lady, about 20, here who felt Gods calling to come here and start an orphanage. Yes this happens more often, but the thing is, she is doing everything, I mean everything to have this orphanage up and running all by her little self. That to me is faith and listening to Gods Calling. She has been a year and she plans to spend many more here. She is such a sweet heart. Oh, we also got the privalege to have some Acappella Singers here with us for the prayer service. There are 4 guys in the group and man can they sing, it was so awesome. It actually reminded me of the Africa Childrens Choir and when they came to FVC. Well, Sorry this is so long. I hope that everyone reading this is doing well. I do miss everyone at home. I will continue to update you every couple days and give you the scoop of whats going on here. I have internet access 24/7 so thats good. Feel free to post comments and send me an email! I am hoping to post some of my pictures from London since I did a tour there yesteday and any pics that I will take in the next few days! Take Care

In Dallas... Safe and Sound....Barely!

Hello Everyone! I just thought that I would let you know that I have arrived safely in Dallas and I am enjoyng my stay here. I finished my orientation this afternoon. I am so incredibly ecxited to actually be heading there tomorrow, although I wont actually get there until Saturday. All in good time I guess. I am thankful that I arrived safely, because the plane I was on was broken apparently. We had to make and emergency landing in Salt Lake City, Utah on the way here where we sat in the plane for about 2 hours before the told us that we had to get off and wait another 3 hours for a plane already coming from Dallas. It was a little frustrating, but I am here now, and that is all that matters. Its weird to think that in the next 6 months my life is going to completely change. The family here is awesome. They have a 1 year old, 3 year old, 9 year old and a 17 year old. The little ones are a gongshow. THey are so hyper but it makes it entertaining. The 3 year old girl, Hayley, is already jumping all over me, giving me hugs and kisses. I am actually babysitting them right now which is weird too. Oh well. Thats about all for now. It looks like my internet access is going to be fairly well once I am there so I will update you all as much as possible. Love you all! Until next time

So Long, Farewell.

Well, this is probably my second to last post before I head off to Zambia, my new home. I have said many goodbyes and have even cried.(Thanks Ashley!) I have been asked several times if I am excited. My answer is that yes, I am sure that deep down I am excited, but honestly, it doesnt even feel real. It doesnt feel that in a week I am not going to be at my own church, but in a church in Lusaka with lots of people I dont know. I had a commisioning at my church today that went well. I was so nervous though because even though I am outgoing and generally loud, I get so nervous infront of large groups of people. It is encouraging to know that the church is behind me and my trip. Today is going to be spent visiting with friends and family. Tomorrow I will be going back to FVC to say my final goodbyes with Kim, hang out with her, then go play some volleyball! Thats all for now. I hope to blog tomorrow night or Tuesday morning before I leave, but if I dont get to that, goodbye everyone. I will miss each one of you and please comment, email me, or even write me while I am away because I love hearing from all of you. Take Care!

Home Address

Happy New Year Everyone!!! So it is two weeks until I leave. I have started to say goodbye to people going back to school and famiyl and it hasnt been easy. The weird thing is that despite the fact I am leaving so soon, it doesnt feel real. Like in two weeks, fourteen days, I am going to be in Dallas doing my orientation then 3 days later I am going to be in Zambia for the next 6 months. Its crazy! Well here is my new home address:

Lynn Groot
Plot 298
Helen Kaunda
Lusaka, Zambia

I would love to hear from all of you either through letters, emails, or blog comments. I will try best to reply back and keep you all updated on what is happening. I wish everyone the best in the new year and keep pressing on!