More than sorting beans...

Today was a good day.

Today I was in Zambia.

Today was a full day that amongst other things included, a staff meeting at Janna School, going to the Immigration office to finally pick up my work permit (hooray!), and submitting our tax returns to the Zambia Revenue Authority (not so fun!).

Yet, in the midst of all that I got to do one of my favourite things.

I sat with the cooks at Janna School and sorted the beans that need to be soaked overnight ready to cook for tomorrow’s lunch.

It’ a simple task, first you throw out any of the dirt, stones, grass or leaves that have got in to the beans, then you sort through the beans for any dud ones and discard those so you’re only left with the good beans.  And as satisfying as that is (honestly, it is!), that’s not why it’s one of my favourite things.

I love it because I get to sit with Evelyn, Blackson, Mary and Catherine and chat. Chat about everything and anything. We caught up on each other’s lives, our families, our friends, our homes. We talked about the school. We discussed politics. And we shared our thoughts on development for this community and what the future might look like for them.

Over the years people have asked me “Why Zambia?” and originally the answer was because we had made a connection here and we believed in the vision the local church had to see their communities transformed and so we offered to partner with them to see that happen.

But the answer has changed…

When Catherine greeted me this morning she said “Welcome Home!”. I laughed and said thank you. But then as I sat with Evelyn, Blackson, Mary and Catherine sorting the beans we talked about the saying “home is where the heart is” and I thought that perhaps Catherine was speaking  more truth than I had realised when she welcomed me ‘home’.

So now my answer to the “Why?” is simple. Because this is a home to me and these are my friends.

Who of us wouldn’t want to see our home and friends flourish? To run alongside and support our friends and cheer them on, to want the best for them…?

That’s “Why".

So yes, today was a good day. I got to sort beans!