Welcome Home!

Well, I made it here! It was crazy for me to be flying from London over Europe because I just kept thinking about how I was flying over Katie and Emily! How neat that we all get to have such cool experiences this summer! But 22 hours of flying later and I landed in Lusaka. Once again, I stepped off the plane and felt like royalty being welcomed home with the rush of God’s love that filled my heart. It really is incredible how much I love this place. I feel my heart become more alive more and more with every breath I take here because Zambia is home for me. I feel God breathing for me, and I never take a moment for granted here because I am constantly reminded of how blessed my life is in America. The differences in living between Zambia and America never cease to amaze me. Red dirt covers all of my clothes, I am never fully clean, I am constantly hungry, and Summer Staff has been more hard work than I even knew I was capable of doing in one day, but I go to bed at night feeling productive and accomplished knowing that all of the hard work I do is going to benefit those sweet little faces that I dearly love. Those faces are the purpose for everything I do. Whether it is sorting t-shirts or lifting 50 heavy boxes that I didn’t know I was strong enough to lift, I am able to see purpose in it. I never get a break, and when we got here at 6 in the morning they made us work so hard all day, but it is COMPLETELY worth it! It is so hard for me to put my days into words, because they won’t even begin to adequately describe the joy that fills each moment!

So today, I got to go to the Tree of Life Children’s Village and help make Violet’s bed. Yes, you read correctly, VIOLET’S BED, because she is moving in there tomorrow! I can’t tell you how long I have dreamed of this moment for her, and not only is she moving in, but I get to be there! As many of you know, the Lord blessed me last year by letting my life path cross with Violet’s. She is my little girl, and I love her more than I can even explain. I have spent the year praying fervently over her life and begging God to keep her in the palm of His mighty hand. I promised her this time last year that I would do everything in my power to make her life better, because I felt like God had entrusted her life into my hands. I couldn’t just let her keep on living her life sleeping in the corner of the dirt floor in a house that is smaller than my one car garage! And so God started working, and here we are one year later, and Violet’s life has been dramatically changed by the grace of my loving God. The house is brand new and is called the Freedom House, which could not be more perfect for my little girl. Free from poverty and she is getting to live in a place that is the closest you get to Heaven in Zambia. The Tree of Life is unbelievable! I get chills every time I am there because it is drastically changing the lives of so many formerly abused children. They are free to be children there, to play and laugh and dance and sing. Trust me, you have never seen joy like the joy in the faces of the children at the Tree of Life!

Finally, God continually reveals more of Himself to me here. On the plane I had this strong prod on my heart to search the Bible for verses on love, so that’s exactly what I did. I went to the glossary, looked up the word “love,” and started copying every verse into my journal that had the word “love” in it. I have never learned so much about God in one sitting, and I was speechless at what a MIGHTY, POWERFUL, GRACIOUS, MERCIFUL, GOOD, FAITHFUL, and STEADFASTLY LOVING God I serve! And I see it more and more everyday here. Oh how I wish I could convey the joy that fills my soul! I tear up when I think about it, which is every moment here because I see all of Him in all that I am blessed to do here. I teared up today looking at Violet’s bed, and I know the waterworks are going to flow big time tomorrow when that moment I have dreamed of all year is finally a reality: I am going to hold her in my arms TOMORROW! I get to talk to her, to tell her I love her, to hug and kiss her, and to lather her in love, a love that is nothing from me but straight from the Lord Himself. Only He is good enough to put Violet and I in each other’s life, only God is faithful enough to fill me up completely though I am alone here and am still making friends. If you leave reading this with any encouragement, let it be that God loves you SO much. I know that is something we hear all the time, but I see daily examples of it here, both in my life and especially in the lives of Zambian children who have been rescued out of darkness and drawn into the brightest of lights. You can see it in their eyes and smiles, feel it in their hugs. God just constantly whispers to me “Nikukonda, Megan, Nikukonda.” Yes, Lord I know. I love you so much too.