![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/studentlife\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/pic_1.jpg?resize=700%2C525&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
This summer I had the privilege of serving in Zambia for six weeks on a Global Outreach team. There were five Cedarville nursing majors (including me), a Cedarville engineering student, and a Congolese biomedical engineer on our team, along with our team leader, Dr. Wooten, a rheumatologist. We were partnering with the Navigators ministry in Zambia, a ministry mostly focused on college students and engaging them in \u201clife-to-life\u201d discipleship. I thought I signed up for a medically focused trip, but God knew I needed to see what missions is based on: relationships.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Our team spent most weekdays in a large public hospital in Lusaka, Zambia. We were there as nursing students. Through this, we had opportunities to talk to both fellow students and patients! Several of my teammates had the joy of leading patients to faith in Christ. We had so many joyful drives back from the hospital relaying conversations and experiences. But I would be dishonest if I did not add we also had many conversations followed by tears about the heaviness and pain we saw in the hospital, and about the hardness of the hearts of those who had chosen to reject Christ. One of our team members spent more time on campus, meeting with students, and sharing her faith.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I can say confidently that sharing the Gospel does not come easy to my team. It is scary, when I consider the opinions of people. But when we consider God, who is greater than all that is in the world, we are compelled to share what we have experienced. Ruth, a wise and bold team member, taught us what we now affectionately call a \u201cRuth\u201d opportunity. A \u201cRuth\u201d opportunity is when she would just start asking, gently but with purpose, questions to patients and students like \u201ccan I share my testimony?,\u201d \u201cdo you know Jesus?,\u201d and \u201ccan I share the Gospel\/the Word of God with you?\u201d Our team study in Luke also confronted my fear head on, particularly in this passage from Luke 9:23:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThen he said to them all: \u201cWhoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. 25 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? 26 Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Following Jesus is not about me and my desires. It is about laying them down knowing that a life lived for Jesus is far more rewarding. Even as I write these words, I can think of so many times that I attempt to \u201csave my life\u201d and have been \u201cashamed\u201d of God. Through this Bible study and watching the Navigators staff fearlessly share their hope in Christ, I saw what a fulfilling life could be.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n We also had the opportunity to talk with and get to know nursing students. We even got to have some of the students we met over to the NavHouse for games, snacks, and a Gospel message. We got to connect the students with long term workers, so that the students may be discipled and be in Bible studies. Please pray for Chiti and Mainess, the long-term workers, as they follow up. Also pray for how we can still be a part of our new friends’ lives from very far away.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n We experienced the power of prayer on our trip to Zambia, and you, the Cedarville community, were praying for us! We saw prayers answered for boldness, opportunities, and softening of hearts. We got to experience team unity prayed for by many of you. We saw prayers answered related to our visas, a stubborn seat in the van we drove around, and in the health of our team members. God listens and answers! As one of our assurances (verses we memorized) says in John 16:24, \u201cUntil now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy will be complete.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/studentlife\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/pic_2-1.jpg?resize=700%2C933&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/studentlife\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/pic_3-1.jpg?resize=700%2C525&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n