Hello there!! Well… we’ve reached the final newsletter of my Advanced Missions Training saga. I have to say, it’s been hard to even find the vernacular to properly express what the last three months or even how the last six weeks have been for me. Despite my lack of eloquent wording or clever verbiage, I will try to somehow summarise the last few weeks of my time in Zambia this summer. After our sector trips that happened in the middle of AMT, I was introduced to the counterpart of our class that was coming from the middle east to spend the final six weeks in Zambia. They spent the first six weeks in the middle east, similarly to how I was supposed to spend my first six weeks in Mozambique. I met them when I was travelling back from Chipata (located in the eastern province of Zambia) to the Overland Rapid-14 base (home) near Livingstone. As my team travelled back, we stopped in Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, where we met everyone from that portion of the AMT team. We all bussed back to Livingstone together. It was a beautiful time to get to know each one of them before they were introduced with the rest of the class. As far as friendships go: when I say that I love the people that I went through AMT with, it’s a complete understatement. There’s no way to fully articulate the impact that everyone has made on my heart. God truly knew what He was doing when He placed me in this class. I’ve belly-laughed, cried, learned, been stretched, and fully been challenged with and by some of the best human beings I've had the chance to spend time with. Iron sharpens iron. I know that I’ll be adventuring through the nations to build the Kingdom for the rest of my human life with the friends I’ve made here. After we all settled back into life in Livingstone, we started back to our classes. The only way to really describe the impact of the classes we’ve been taking all summer is to just simply say that our teachers put there absolute everything into them all and poured their hearts into us in every way. I’ve never experienced such limitless love given by group of teachers. We did some theological courses mixed with more practical courses. The practical courses meant that we spent a week learning about vehicle mechanics and off-road recovery. I even learned how to weld. Epic. We were also separated into groups of six people and were given assignments to all work on for the rest of our time in Zambia. We were assigned a people group to build a very real but hypothetical plan to plant a base in a location to reach the people group. This included hours of research on what this would look like logistically as well as our ministry plans to reach the people group. This project was purely for the purpose of equipping us to be able to establish ourselves in any nation in the future. Whilst working on our projects we did a multitude of courses as well as finally diving into our SOLO Wilderness First Responder training. This was an intense week and a half of book teaching and practical scenarios. I can confidently say that I am now capable of splinting any broken bone with random objects lying around. I am a certified wilderness first responder thanks to this very important training provided to us. After we finished our training and presented our projects, it was off to our final expedition. Our AMT class was separated into two groups. This expedition was fully lead by our class alone without any Overland staff truly present once on the ground other than our ministry partners. It was so amazing to see how well they equipped us to be confidently self sufficient and comfortably do ministry on our own without fear or insecurity. Both teams went to the opposite sides of the same chiefdom to set up and do a week-long expedition. We were in Nyawa chiefdom, which is about five or so hours from base. That final week of AMT was full of deliverances, healings, additions to the Kingdom and so much faith building. My heart is still so full from the time I spent with the people from Nyawa. Below are some photos I took accompanied by some testimonies of God’s work being done through us all.
One of the first days we went out to do house to house ministry we came across a few children playing a game of netball. (Basically basketball that you don’t move around too much to play and you don’t bounce the ball….so nothing like basketball aside from their being a basket you throw a ball in...anyways) We asked them if we could play with them. Marjory, our amazing ministry partner and translator, explained the game to us and we played with them for about an hour or so. It was an incredibly fun time but I lack the anointing for netball, sadly. After that, Lois, who has the biggest heart and anointing for children’s ministry (wearing the pink hat), shared the gospel and lead all twelve children to Christ. It was such a beautifully spontaneous ministry moment that I’ll carry with me forever.
On Sunday, everyone split into four groups, and we all attended churches in the surrounding areas. My group went to Siachombo Church of Christ. They asked Parker, one from our group, to share a word during service. After he shared a powerful word, he asked if anyone needed prayer. Two women went up for prayer, one older. She needed prayer for her eyesight. God really highlighted her to me.
The following day, I went out with a different group for house-to-house ministry. When the day was coming to a close and it was about time to return to camp, our ministry partner, Patrick, just wanted to stop by one more house. It was the last house on the road leading back to center of town. As we approached the house I saw a couple, probably in their fifties or sixties, sitting outside.The woman was the same woman from church the day prior. In that moment I knew why the Lord highlighted her to me. After chatting with them for a bit we came to find out that they were both strong believers in Christ. We talked and shared a few words of encouragement to the that God put on our hearts.They were both just so sweet and filled with joy. I knew the Lord wanted to work further there before we left though. God told me we needed to pray for her eyes again. I told Patrick this but before he could even ask her she said, “I think you are supposed to pray over my eyes again.” Haha. The Holy Spirit strikes again. We all laid hands on her and prayed over her eyes twice. After the second prayer she opened her eyes. I was kneeling in front of her and she looked straight into my eyes and said her eyes were restored. I could see the tears welling up in her eyes and the obvious touch of the God on her. Praise the Lord. Before we left, she said she was our official Zambian grandmother. (the photo above is a picture of her)
The final two days of expedition were filled with incredible kids ministry and house-to house ministry. One house we came across was full of believers and we encouraged them and just spent a couple of hours with them talking. We even had a dance party haha. On our way walking back to camp, we were about to pass by the house of my Zambian grandmother. As we got closer, I realised she was standing out by the road. As soon as I saw her I ran up to her and she saw me and started screaming and we embraced in the longest hug. It was just such a beautiful way to end my week in Nyawa. I think sometimes people have the impression that people must be so extremely different in other countries to their own or that it can be hard to connect with others in that way, but despite the cultural difference and foreign language to me I can honestly say that people are people and you can always connect with them. That’s just how the Kingdom works. Precious moments like these have marked my heart for good.
After we arrived back from expedition, we had our graduation. We were commissioned by Overland to go out to the nations, and we returned home. Just like that it was all over and onto the next season. Now that I am home, I cannot wait to catch up with everyone and hear about how their summers were while I was away and share about what the future holds for me with God. I’ll be sending out an exciting new update in the next couple of weeks with more details. Thank you so much to everyone who partnered with me and was obedient to the Lord on this heavenly investment. I hope that these newsletters of my time in Zambia this summer have uplifted you and brought you hope and helped build your faith for the future of the nations. This is only the beginning of my call from God and there is still so much work to be done. Every nation and tongue still need to hear the name of Jesus and I intend to be a part of making that a reality. Until next time-- bye for now, Victoria Anderson