The Month of May

What a month it's been! Full of up's and down's and roundabouts. I'm reminded again and again of squeezing the life out of each moment, embracing each day and more than that each person that steps into our path. And although May has been extremely busy it has been full of blessings, wonderful characters and lots of fun!

At the beginning of the month we had the school's first PTA Duathlon. The students had to form a team of 4 to run a total of 5km and cycle a total of 14km. The staff were also allowed to participate so Jon and I embraced the challenge and joined a team. Jon's team, pictured below were called 'The Great Escape'. I joined an all ladies team. Jon cycled 7km and I ran 2.5.
It was a fantastic day of community spirit as we all gathered to cheer each other on and raise some funds for the school. Apart from a few lost pupils who veered off course and a very sad Jon after our team beat his (!) hehe...It was a great event!

The Great Escape!

A lowlight of May was that we had to say goodbye to Mum, but the month she spent here was very precious and gave her a little peek into our lives in Zambia. She is already being sorely missed not only by us but also by the Grade 2&3's. It was a sad a goodbye but nice to know we will be back in England in December to see her and Dad!

Last week, we held a 'creative prayer space' with the youth group on Tuesday and Thursday evening, we also opened it up to staff members on Wednesday. We transformed the inside of the banana house with hanging material, fairy lights, candles and music so that the young people could take some time away from their revision and pressure of exams to just be still and spend time with God. We set up 9 prayer stations for the students to visit to focus on different areas of prayer including Forgiveness, Thanks and Decisions. It was encouraging that the students really enjoyed it, one even commenting "that we should do this every week", another saying that after spending time in the prayer room they "felt lighter".
Photo's coming soon.

Another surprise this month was the arrival of a container ship which had our boxes on! These are boxes which we packed almost 2 years ago before we came to Zambia. For one reason or another they were not put on the container until about 6 months ago. It was like Christmas unpacking all the goodies for the dorm and our house!!

Me unpacking the boxes!

It was great having Mum out with us as well because for her Zambian life was all new and exciting, things that we now take for granted she found fascinating and she snapped lots of pics which she was able to leave with us. I thought I would share a few with you...

unfortunately not a rare sight on the zambian roads!

Street side market

typical shops in town

Street sellers

Sunset!!