June 28, 2011

Victoria Falls

We arrived in Lusaka, Zambia on Monday, June 13th after two 10 hour flights. It was a very LONG two days of travel but we were so excited to finally be in Zambia! We went through customs and loaded a bus that would drive us 6 hours away to Livingstone where we would stay for the next 5 days. Livingstone is home to Victoria Falls which is one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World. It was an incredible vacation! The falls is 1,708 meters wide and is referred to by Zambian's as "the smoke that thunders". 

One of our favorite things that we did was take a helicopter tour to get an ariel view of the falls. The pictures turned out amazing!




The resort we stayed in gave us access to many trails that go along the edge of the falls. The first few trails give you a beautiful view of the falls but once you cross over a small bridge the experience changes drastically. The spray from the falls is intense and we walked out soaked!

The spray is so intense in this picture that you can't even see the falls behind us.

We stayed at a resort called The Zambezi Sun that is located in a national wildlife park where zebras, monkeys, baboons, and giraffes roam freely. We met a man called Benny who had been working with the animals for years. He took us around the resort telling us about the different animals. This baby zebra was born on Christmas Day this past year.


He also took us to see a group of giraffes up close. He literally walked us to the giraffe, made some weird noises, and the giraffe bent down and allowed Benny to hold on to it's neck. Amazing!




We went on a sunset cruise and had the opportunity to relax and see the Zambezi River. It was an incredible sunset!


The last day we had the opportunity to go on the Chobi Game Safari. The first part of the safari was on a boat. We saw elephants, hippos, and crocodiles. We got so close to these animals...it was a little frightening! Here are some of the best pictures.




After a few hours on the boat we got into these really cool safari jeeps for the "on land" portion of the safari. 


Here are some of the animals that we saw on the second part of the safari.


Because we were in a jeep we were able to get very close to these wild animals. 



The guide told us that seeing a hippo walking that far away from the water was very odd. You can't tell from this picture but the hippo had a large gash across his shoulder where he had been wounded. 


We came across this pack of lionesses that were feeding on a recent kill. We drove a little farther and came across the rest of their pack. The crazy thing was that we were probably 10 yards away from these animals and the guide had the engine turned off, no weapon for protection, and there were no doors/windows on these jeeps. It was pretty scary! 



Victoria Falls was an incredible trip and we had so much fun getting to know some of the people that we would do Camp Life with the next week. 













June 10, 2011

Prayers for our trip

It is hard to believe that it is finally here! I have run all of the errands and checked everything off my  "to do" list. We are headed to Africa!  
While we are gone we would truly appreciate your prayers. Here are the things that the Lord placed on our hearts while preparing for this trip:

1.  God would renew our strength daily as we seek to pour ourselves out at Camp (2 Cor. 4:16)

2.  The Spirit of God would speak powerfully through us instead of us relying on our own words and wisdom (1 Cor 1:17)

3.  That God would enlighten the eyes of the orphan’s hearts to know and love him (Ephesians 2:18)

4.  Pray against the schemes of the devil and his desire to steal kill and destroy (Ephesians 6:11-12)

5.  Pray that God would give us his heart for the orphans, and that we would learn what it means when Christ said “Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it” (Mark 10:15)

6.  That we would connect well with our Zambian partner and be unified in vision to make disciples (Ephesians 4:11-13)

Thank you for your prayers and I look forward to posting when I get back :).