The Journey of Freedom and Humility

March 12, 2010 was the day planned for the Zone 1 women’s meeting in Nyimba. Many days prior to the meeting, I began praying and called upon our prayer warriors to pray about what the Lord wanted me to teach. I knew that the Lord wanted me to teach them to find their freedom in Him alone and to leave those things that have kept them in bondage for so long. I prayed and read Scripture everyday all day. I left my Bible open, my journal open, my heart and mind were intently seeking the Lord.
"During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel--and God knew."   Exodus 2:23-25

"For freedom Christ has set us free, stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery."  Galatians 5:1 

Moses, the children of Israel in bondage under Pharoah, God providing their freedom, God supplying all of their needs when they needed it the most...that was it! The Lord clearly had laid it upon my heart to teach about Moses. My heart was so full, I could have taught about Moses for about 3 hours, but I just really struggled to narrow down the lesson to really teach the parts that were most pertinent to these women. I was fired up, I talked about Moses all week long, God was teaching me so much that I didn’t have the lesson completed and finalized until 8pm the night before.
We set out on our journey to Kasamba Baptist Church at 8:08a.m. I found women on the road and we continued to the church, that I had never been to. Kendall had informed me that the church was only 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) off of the main road that I was traveling on. We traveled about 1 kilometer and I began to have this sinking feeling in my stomach. I didn’t remember Kendall saying anything about it being a bad road and I know that he would not have let me go if it was. The sinking feeling didn’t go away, I kept praying. Then I looked and I no longer could see the road because the grass was as tall as the truck.

 Honestly, I was scared but I just kept driving. The 10 women that were traveling with me were singing with great joy about how the Lord is with us as we travel little by little. I clung to that truth and kept on driving. We traveled maybe 400 meters and the road was okay. Another 800 meters and Amai Lungu, who was guiding me told me to slow down because “maphiri patsogolo” (mountains in front). Great. Nice. Then she told me that there were streams too. We came upon the mountain and it was steep. I was not sure about this. I stopped the truck and got out and surveyed the stream and the other side of the stream. The stream was nothing to cross, but on the other side there was barely any room for our truck to pass without falling into this ditch. I asked all of the women to get out of the truck because I didn’t want to have an accident with all of them in the truck. I prayed and put the truck into 4X4 and began to drive. The crossing was smooth but the other side was quite rough, I was thankful that the women were not in the truck. We traveled like this over 2 more streams, one of them was fun to cross because it was deep and muddy!

 Then the scariest part of the trip approached. There was no road, it was a footpath. I was so fearful of the ditches that I couldn’t see, the tree stumps that lined the path and the unknown. We traveled along slowly. All of the sudden, we hit a ditch on the left side of the truck and it engulfed about half of the tire and the truck tilted so much that the passenger door would not open.

 I quickly commanded all of the women in the back of the truck to get out. I looked at Zeria and I just began to cry. Zeria looked at me and said, “God knows Amai Joy, He KNOWS! He is here!! Just go, God knows, He knows!” I was so fearful, and I drove slow and steady until we were on even ground again. I was still afraid of getting stuck, a flat tire, or having an accident. Not 20 meters later we found ourselves in another ditch. I stopped the truck and I began to cry. I asked the women to just give me a minute. I walked to the back of the truck and Zeria and Jenny came to me. I explained to them my fear. Then I stopped in the midst of my tears and said, “Moses always trusted the Lord to guide him and I am sure that sometimes Moses had some small amount of fear, I just need to trust the Lord and my sisters who are here with me.” I prayed, gathered my emotions and pressed on. We got out of the ditch and the women just walked a good distance in front of the truck in case we faced another place of trouble. We traveled along slowly.

 Zeria and Jenny were the pathfinders on the blind sides of the truck. They guided me slowly and would warn me of the potential dangers. Not 10 meters later, we came to a part that really grew my trust and faith in my Zambian sisters.

 The path was there but there were three holes on the left side of the road that Kendall could have stood in or laid in and I wouldn’t have seen him. They were huge. On the right side of the road there was a steep ridge that would have put the truck on its side. Out of nowhere came a young man, I truly believe that he was an angel from the Lord. He came to the truck and said that I could pass on the left side of the road. I honestly didn’t trust him. On the left were those huge holes and a forest of grasses taller than the truck. I got out with him, Zeria, Jenny, and the other 8 women with me and we trekked through the grasses to make sure there were no ditches or stumps.

 It was clear. Jenny was on the front left side of the truck and Zeria on the front right side of the truck keeping me in the middle of them so that I didn’t go into danger. When we passed that place all of the women began shouting and clapping for joy. From that point the road was “good” meaning that the path was a bit bigger and without ditches. We arrived at the church an hour later and the women that traveled with me walked about 3 kilometers of the 5 because of the terrain.

 I began teaching and I was so shaken because I knew that we had to go back that way! My Chinyanja was terrible and as I was teaching I knew that they did not understand me. Finally, I just stopped, put my notebook down , breathed another prayer to the Father, and began to tell the story of the children of Israel. At the end of the story, I told them that today as we were traveling here, I was very afraid because of the road. The entire time I kept thinking of Moses and the fact that he was leading 600,000 people and I couldn’t lead 10! I know that the Lord wanted me to travel that rough road to get to the meeting to make the faith of Moses even more real in my life. I had to be freed from the fear that I had and trust the Lord and the people that He had allowed to come with me to guide me. It was scary. I challenged them to release the traditions and the sin that is keeping them in chains and keeping them from being free in Jesus Christ!

 The day was great because the women experienced an adventure, they saw my weakness, they encouraged me, and we learned about the freedom that is found in Christ alone. I came home with a terrible headache and a tired body but my heart was full and my praise to the Father was abundant. I came into the house and told Kendall that I never underestimate the difficulty of his travels to Mozambique or anywhere in Zambia and I always appreciate what he does because it is tiring. I am so thankful that God gives me these opportunities to teach in the bush because I need that to keep Kendall’s job and the difficulties that he faces in perspective. Praise the Lord for March 12, 2010!