Last night our team held a "packing party". Our goal is to be able to fit all of our personal belongings in our carry-on luggage. That will leave our bag that we can check for items we want to take to Zambia to leave there.
Our church family is amazing. We have one teen girl who God laid it on her heart to hold a shoe drive for the Village of Hope and people in Zambia. She asked people to donate shoes that were new or lightly worn. Wow, did our church deliver!
When we showed up last night for our packing party it was a little bit overwhelming. We had 13 suitcases that we could fill and not be charged for. They have to weigh 50 lbs. or less and be a certain dimention. We can take extra but we have to pay a significant price for it (we think possibly $150) As we looked at all of the stuff we were planning on taking I think we all felt overwhelmed. We had a lot of shoes. I don't know how many pairs, but probably 100 or so. The Village of Hope also sent a list of items that they need and is hard to get there or very expensive. Things like: kids underwear, ink cartridges, notebooks, folders, deodorant, games, etc. We have a team member that attends Appleton North High school. He found out that their soccer team was getting new soccer uniforms and was willing to donate their old ones to us to take to Zambia. We also got their old soccer balls and it is so cool! We think the kids will love to be able to dress for a soccer game (blue against white). Well, once again God cares. We did fit everything in our suitcases. We did decide to take 3 extra bags because God provided the stuff to take and it would be expensive to mail it. So we have 16 bags that God gave to us, most of them just under 50 lbs!
Will you pray with us for our luggage? We have a few prayer requests. First, we used a scale we believe to be accurate. But several of the bags are very close to 50 lbs. If the airport scale is over, then we may need to move some stuff around or decide to leave something behind (stressful!) Second, will you please pray that when we check the bags in, the person helping us, may allow us to take the 3 extra bags for a lower cost since it's a donation for the Village of Hope? I don't actually know if they ever consider this, but nothing is impossible with God. :) And third, will you please pray that all of our luggage will arrive with us, in the airport, at Lusaka? Of course traveling such a long distance and getting on three different planes, our luggage is not guaranteed to arrive.
Woo Hoo!! We are so excited to be able to have this experience. We are so thankful for everyone's support. I don't want to waste a minute of the next few weeks and am asking God to cause us to know what His plan is for our family.
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