This blog is the chronicle of my experience in Zambia from June 24-July 12, 2010.

The events that set this trip in motion began over 6 months ago. Angie Cho told me about a mission trip she was helping to organize and how they needed nurses for the medical team. She told me that they would be going Zambia for three weeks during the summer. To say I was intrigued would be an understatement. After prayerful consideration and conversation with family I decided there was nothing I would like more than to be a part of the team. Things fell into place rapidly, the money for a plane ticket, the vacation time from work, even a friend to travel with. Erin Gordon, a nursing student from Eastern Michigan University, would be making the trip with me.

Thursday, June 24, 2010 was the day my life changed forever. It began at 3:45am with a drive to the Detroit Metro Airport. Erin and I would be on airplanes and in airports for the next 24 hours. Our first flight was a short one from Detroit to Washington DC. In the DC airport, we found our gate and met Lilly Kim and Daniel Cho, they recognized us from Facebook! The four of us would be on the same flights the rest of the way to Zambia. We boarded the plane and watched with excitement as the North American mainland disappeared from sight. We read our Bibles and the Storacle Bible study guides from Amazing Facts, we ate, and slept. Finally, we landed in Rome, Italy around 1:00am to refuel.

As we flew towards our destination, I could not help thinking about how unworthy I was to be making this trip. The life of a missionary is not to be taken lightly, and everyone who claims the name of Christ becomes a missionary to the world around them. I read Paul’s prayer for the Christians in Philippi and claimed it for myself. “And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and in all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, and that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.” (Philippians 1:9-11)