There is one question that I keep getting asked here at home, “How was your mission trip?”. When people ask me that question I kind of freeze. I don’t know what to say, how do I answer that question? It’s so broad, open, and kind of scary. It makes me have to face the reality that I’m not still in Africa. That I’m not with my team that became my family over the past month. I’m not in Zambia where I long to be. Since I’ve been home its been go, go, go. I haven’t had a day to myself. To just break down what happened. How God moved, how He opened my eyes, and heart. Well today is the day that I decided to do that. I spent time with my heavenly father and I think it’s time. It’s time to break down and do my best to explain what happened over this past month.
So this past month, as you’d expect for going across the world for a month, was life changing. To start off we met our amazing hosts Sanderson and Lweendo Sianjina. They are truly beautiful people. They are so in touch and in tune with The Lord and the Holy Spirit and it shows so gracefully. They also have two beautiful daughters Cheyenne and Shannon. The Sianjina’s show the Lord in all that they do individually, and even as a family. I miss them so much. They became my Zambian family, I want to be around them and soak up their energy and love for the Lord. Near the end of my trip I got a chance to sit down and talk with Sanderson and Lweendo about their lives. Where they came from, how the Lord had changed them and used them. Its truly inspiring. I learned so much from them I can’t even try to put that in words.
Well we got thrown into action as soon as we got there which I loved! I loved that people needed us and we could be used so soon! But that changed very quickly, not that we could be used, but how the Lord was going to use us. People on my team, myself included always wanted to be doing something. “We only have a month here, there’s only so much time.” I couldn’t have agreed more, but through that The Lord changed our hearts. From always wanting to be somewhere, doing something, He showed us that its okay to wait. And to quote Lweendo, “It’s okay to wait. It matters what you do during the waiting.” she was so right. We often found ourselves spending time with each other or with the Lord during our waiting. Which was such a huge culture shock because in America you don’t wait. You want everything as fast as you can get it. So to have down time and form a new relationship with my Heavenly Father and teammates was unexpected, but monumental. That was a huge lesson that the Lord taught me through waiting.
We also did a lot of kids camps. Kids camp usually took place on Saturdays, but they could take place anytime, anywhere. We scheduled a day of fun for the kids. We made it a place for them to come where it was safe, exciting, and they would get to learn about the Lord as well. This was one of my favorite happenings. My heart is with kids, so getting to love on them was the bomb! So many kids got to take their faith to a new level through these kids camps, because the Lord was there. He spoke through Sanderson, myself, and my teammates(who are all extraordinary people). Kids are so great because they are so impressionable, sweet, sassy, smart, and kind. Now these camps weren’t always easy because its hard to keep 100 kids attentions for 6 hours but they ALWAYS brought me joy. They brought me joy because the Lord can use anyone or anything to speak to kids. It was so cool to get to watch and experience that first hand.
One of my other favorite ministries was the widow’s ministry. These women impacted me way more than I impacted them. Every Wednesday morning we did a Bible study with several amazing women. We sang our worship songs in English, they sang theirs in Tonga we prayed and then began. They read the word aloud in Tonga and we followed along in our Bibles. We then read scripture and a discussion in English. Sanderson and Lweendo translated so the women could understand what we were saying, and we could understand what the women were saying. These women spoke so much wisdom it was beautiful. I love when you can see God in people because they love Him so much, and with these women that’s exactly what I saw.
Lastly my favorite day was Sunday. Sunday’s were the day that I got to see my sweet Grace. Every Sunday morning we went to a children’s home called Ebenezer. It was so cool because their services are so much different than ours. The whole service, worship included, is run by the kids. For the first half an hour anyone who wants to go to the front can. They can share memory verses, or worship songs, or joyful dances, anything. Then one of my teammates would get up and share the word for 15 minuets and then Sanderson would come up behind us and finish the service off. Well the very first Sunday I saw this beautiful little girl that my heart was drawn too. Which that was totally the Lord saying go love on her, well I did and it was totally worth it. Grace, a shy sweet little ten year old quickly came out of her shell. Every Sunday I’d see her we got closer, she’d tell me about her family, or how her week went, anything and everything. My relationship with Grace reminded me of how the Lord sees us. When I saw Grace my heart would smile, and jump for joy because I got to hear her voice. I got to know all about her, her likes, her dislikes, her fears, her joys. And I wanted to know it all! I just love her so much I wanted to know all about her, which is how the Lord sees us. He loves when He hears our voices, when we lift up our fears, our joys, our likes, our dislikes. He wants to know us, every part of us, because He loves us.
It’s so hard being home because I miss all that. I miss being constantly involved in the Lord. Constantly in His presence. Being with my team whom I miss very, very much. I find myself comparing my life here at home back to my life in Zambia. He IS teaching and guiding me though. Through this time of whatever you call this time. He is calling me to step out, and break through the walls of going back into my “norm”. Nothing in my life will ever be the same and that’s such a great thing! But it’s hard to try to transfer everything from my old life to my new, but again the Lord is molding me through that!
I know this post was long and scrambled but this was the best way possible that I could share my life over the past month with so many people! I just want to thank everyone who made this trip possible by supporting me! And obviously the Lord and His hand over my life, because without Him I honestly have no idea as to where I’d be! So go ahead and ask me questions because I’d love to answer them! But may I ask that you be as specific as possible so I can answer you to the best of my ability! I want to talk about this trip non stop, because it’s so easy too! So just to warn you whenever you get me started I may not stop. Haha just kidding! Seriously though, thank you for taking the time to read this and just reach out to me if you ever want to talk about the beautiful place called Zambia.
Thank you!
– In His grace,
Mikayla Sockow
