Hello Everyone,
First, I want to say thank you all for praying for me as I set off on this adventure in Grade 1!
For those of you who have not heard, I have had a desire to return to Sakeji School in Zambia for a number of years now. I have looked for an open door ever since the last time I was here in 2016 between my Bachelor of Arts and my Bachelor of Education. The door finally opened for this year, 2022. Since I have tried so many times to come, doubts have crept in whether I was following God’s will in coming or just my own. God has so clearly paved the way that it would be very wrong to doubt Him at this point. Satan is good at deceiving, but when you are willing to follow what God wants you to do, He makes it very clear it is from Him.
The past year, even, I have looked into going, but I felt like God was telling me to wait. He had more to teach me here. I even told some of the workers here that I was in the waiting stage and was learning to be good with that. A couple weeks later we took a family trip out to Saskatchewan. After driving about 30 hours, we arrived around 1-2am and slept for a few hours before heading to meeting Sunday morning. There I heard from a friend, Heidi, that she was planning on going to Sakeji in January. Oh that made my desire even stronger! She had never travelled before outside of Canada or the States without family. One of my first thoughts was, “Maybe God can use me to be a companion for her while flying.” If I collected frequent flyer miles, I would have racked up quite a few at this point (Note to self: look into collecting Air Miles).
I did not want to make this journey against what God had in plan for me. As wonderful as it would be, the best place to be is right in the middle of God’s will. I would say the #1 lesson for 2021 was I cannot do anything with out God’s help. Sure, I could get a passing grade, but it would not be my best. I had a traching experience in the spring of 2021 that made me realize just how much I needed to rely on God’s strength and wisdom. Anyway, I digress (though with purpose).
Back to September 2021 in Saskatchewan. That week at the beginning of ministry meeting a letter is read from some missionaries at Sakeji School. During the meeting the preacher read Hebrews 4:16, “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need”. If this verse didn’t fit exactly how I was feeling after the spring, I don’t know what does. Before that experience, I was thinking going to Sakeji would be easy as I had made three trips before. I would have been going in my own strength. Have you ever been hit between the forehead? I can’t say I recollect a time, but I imagine that’s what it would feel like. Ever since then God has been giving me verses that show it is “...God who leads us in triumph in Christ” (2 Corinthians 2:14).
Once I told some of the missionaries I was interested in coming for the year, I found out the school was losing two of their teachers for the year. This, among other personal reasons, showed me God was opening the door. Though I had a few months before December, it worked out that things were not finalized until November, December and even January! I sent in documents for obtaining a work visa, but heard right before Christmas that I needed one more proof before they would consider my application. Apparently the government did not have proof that I left the country last time so I had to send a picture of my exit stamp on my passport. You cannot apply for a work visa while in the country. Also if you have applied for work visa you cannot obtain a visitor’s visa upon entry. With this delay right before Christmas break, my application was not looked at until January 4. Our flight left January 6! I turned to God to intervene and had many people praying that my visa would be approved. If I did not have the approval letter by the time I landed in Zambia, I would be turned away. The prevailing thought was, “If God wants me in Zambia, He can surely get this application approved”.
Our flight left around 10am, and with the new Covid protocols, the airport suggests being there 4 hours before an international flight. We left the house at 5am trusting that God would see it through. Five minutes after leaving the house, I checked my email once again to see if anything had come through. I was flying with or without it making a plan to fly to South Africa or something until it was approved. The “checking for mail…” message came up as it loaded. An email popped up with the subject line “Zambia Immigration. Case was approved.”
God is good all the time. I truly believe that even if I had not been approved God would still be good. His will be done. We safely travelled the 13 hours to Ethiopia (it is in political unrest right now so that was another prayer point) and on the Zambia. We left the Lusaka airport with ALL of our luggage. When Heidi landed in Toronto airport January 5 her luggage some how ended up routing to Ethiopia that night instead of coming with her. The good thing is she didn’t have to recheck her bags and they were heading in the right direction. We just weren’t sure if we would meet them in Lusaka or if they would get lost. Again, God intervened.
Up to this point I didn’t know for sure what grade I would be teaching. Once we got to Sakeji, I was given the keys for the grade one classroom. The government delayed school opening for a week so I and the other staff have had more time to prepare. I have had a chance to become familiar with my classroom and ready it for my seven grade 1s. The teacher who is away for the year is very organized so I was able to walk in not feeling overwhelmed. Classes begin on Monday, so I will be preparing this weeks lessons this weekend. Half the staff have every other weekend off, and mine is this weekend. The children mostly arrived yesterday so that has given me an opportunity to meet my students and interact with them before school starts. I now have a sense of who they are as I plan for this week.
God bless you all as you follow Him.
Yolanda
