Hey guys!
I am so sorry it has been such a long time since I have posted. So much has happened and I don’t even know what to talk about. I guess I will share about our week at Livingstone and having our grandparents here.
We picked our grandparents up on Sunday (August 21) at the Ndola airport! We had a nice time visiting with them and it felt like Christmas when they came because of all the goodies and they brought to us. We loved showing them around Kitwe and sharing with them some of the ministries that God has led us to over the past 2 1/2 months. On Thursday morning we made the long journey to Livingstone. It ended up being close to a 14 hour bus ride, but we finally made it..haha. We stayed at the Global Samaritans guest house the whole week we were there.
Global Samaritans is a really neat ministry for orphans that a family from American founded over 10 years ago. It is currently run by Zambians on a daily basis with Americans who serve on the board of directors. The ministry takes in orphans who are 6 years old or older and they put them in group homes. Global Samaritans have 3 duplexes so 6 homes. And each home has 8 orphans in it with a house parent (one home has a house mom and house dad.) But it is so neat because it’s like the orphans are in a home and they are really loved on and have more one on one attention. Each home contains 3 rooms. Two of the rooms each have 2 sets of bunk beds and the other room is for the house parent. There is also a nice kitchen and a nice sitting area where they had couches, chairs, and a t.v.! Compared to the kids in the orphanage in Kitwe where we have been working, these kids seem so much happier! At Global Samaritans they also have a big gym with a basketball court and in that building is where they meet for church. They have also built a school for Grades 8-12. It is a very nice school and it even has a separate building that is for science labs. I was amazed by the whole organization and really want to go back there some day. While we were staying there we had the privilege of playing with the kids. One day we played various games in the gym with them. On Sunday, we were able to go to their church where they also have people from the surrounding bush who come. It was so neat because the majority of the service was led by the children. There were a few girls who led worship who had amazing voices and then some of the kids would lead the congregation into a time of prayer. It was just so encouraging for me to sit there watching these kids lead the service. Sunday afternoon Mary Frances and I spent the majority of the afternoon talking with Roma, Sandra, and Jenny! These girls were so sweet and half the time I was thinking are these girls really orphans? They were so joyful, happy and content. We had many good conversations with them and they walked us around some of the property. They took us up on the top of the “mountain” where we were able just to sit up there on rocks, talk, and look down into the bush. It was gorgeous up there and talking to them was so fun! They then invited Mary Frances and me to dinner on Tuesday night. After dinner we were able to show them a movie in the gym. It was fun to be able to have a movie night with them complete with popcorn and drinks. It was such a fun experience.
Friday morning we walked around Global Samaritans then played with the children. Then in the afternoon Grandmother, my mom, Virginia, Ella, Mary Frances, and I went to Livingstone. Livingstone is such a nice clean town and certain parts of it reminded me of America. We just walked around and went to the market which is always an experience b/c you are constantly bombarded with people wanting to negotiate and give you the best deal for their stuff so that you will buy from them.
On Saturday we went to VICTORIA FALLS with Grandmother and Grandad. 
Words can not even describe how beautiful it was. In my mind I was picturing just a big waterfall but it was like multiple waterfalls on the side of like a mountain, it was gorgeous! God’s creation is amazing! At the Falls there is a part where you can either bungee jump, swing over the gorges, or zip line. The whole time Mary Frances and I were like ok we want to bungee jump; we really want to do this; but then when we saw someone do it, it looked so scary. They tie you by your feet so when you jump off spread your arms like an eagle and you fall head first! So Mary Frances, my dad and I decided to skip the bungee jump and do the zip line instead which was a blast. 
It was so fun and it was so pretty to just be zip lining across this big gorge and you could see the Falls in the distance!
On Monday we went to Botswana which was about 1 1/2 hour drive from Global Samaritans for our safari. We went to Chobe Game Park in Botswana. The safari actually turned out much more fun than I thought it would be. When we first got into the vehicle and our guide told us we would be driving for 4 hours I was thinking man this is going to be a long afternoon. But we saw so many different animals it ended up being a lot of fun. We saw impalas, kodoo, elephants, giraffes, zebra, hippos, 
crocodiles, birds, lions, and even a leopard and its cub. Towards the end of our safari it was a lot of fun because we were on a hunt for a leopard. Our driver began driving fast toward a location where the leopard had been spotted. We were lucky because our driver said he had not seen a leopard with its cub in over a year! So it was pretty exciting to see it. That night we camped out in the middle of the game park which sounds scarier then it actually was. As we were going to bed, we could hear a herd of elephants 
walking by our camp site. Even though I felt pretty safe, I was still too scared to get up in the night and leave my tent. The next morning we woke up very early to go look for lions; but, we were not able to see any.
Tuesday evening Mary Frances and I went to the girls (from Global Samaritans) house to eat dinner. They had cooked nshima and beans. Nshima is the africans stable food its kind of like porridge/grits. You roll it in a ball then scoop the beans on it and eat it. It was very good but Mary Frances does not like nshima so she was trying to gulp it down and she even asked to eat it with a fork when you normally eat it with your hands..haha. I actually love nshima and sometimes have our next door neighbors come and cook it for me for lunch. It is not hard to make, it is just hard to get the technique for stirring it just right. My hope is to be able to make nshima well before we leave Zambia.
Our trip to Livingstone was a lot of fun and it will be a trip I will never forget. Also, our time with our grandparents was very nice. I enjoyed every moment of it and we were all very sad when they left but yet grateful we were able to see them.
While we were gone in Livingstone I realized how many people back in Kitwe cared about us and loved us. So many people missed us and we missed them. I guess I really didn’t realize how close I had gotten to them until we left for a week and I really missed them. Every day we received text messages or phone calls from the new friends that we had made. It is making me thankful for where God put us and the people He placed in our lives and I think it is going to be much harder to come home then I thought it would be!
I love each and every one of you and I miss you and will look forward to the day when I get to see all of you again!
Love,
Lydia
