Hey guys!

I made a slide show for a church presentation. For you guys who were not able to be there I thought you might enjoy watching it. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a happy new year! Thanks again for your prayers.

love janna

Processing It All

Hi guys!

Well its been over a week since I have joined you back in the States. I really meant to write this sooner but I was waiting for a picture that I wanted to include - which I'll show later. So the flight back was interesting. We definitely missed our last flight from Atlanta to Indianapolis. We got off late from Johannesburg and then we hit a 170 MPH headwind that caused us to be late. We knew we were pushing our limits anyway since originally we had 2 hours to go through customs, immigration, get our bags, and recheck them through U.S. security =) Praise God one of the my friend's moms works for delta. She had all 19 of us booked on a new plane in an hour. We were still literally sprinting to our next plane but we all made it through just in time. We got in around 11 so all in all we were only 50 min. late. When we got home we seriously felt like celebrities since there was like a tunnel of people with signs, balloons, flowers, cameras flashing everywhere, and a lot of screams - lets just say I really enjoyed it =)

Thanksgiving around my house was great! My parents had us stay here to kind of ease me back into culture - which was a very good decision. That week though we got our Christmas tree which is always a huge event in our house, went to see Blindside ( a movie all 5 of us agreed on and liked - which is about the 3rd movie in my entire life this has happened), and of course went to Hacienda =) I had a tv/talking marathon with Liz since we both have the same favorite show and she waited for me to come back to watch it - so we had 10 episodes to watch in 4 days and we talked for hours so I could get caught up on ALL the details of her life. I definitely helped Ben apply for college! Apparently he couldn't do it without me =) Ben makes me laugh harder than anyone I know so that was just fun! Thanksgiving was good, really good =)

I quickly had to switch gears and head back to school on Sunday for Meetings all day Monday! The nursing department, the global studies department, the history department, and the academic affairs department all wanted to meet. It was a long day! We all went through a bit of culture shock just in the cafeteria trying to get lunch. I sat down and my friend sat next to me and said, "Are you shaking?!?!" and I was like O yeah!!!! It was just a lot of people all at once that we weren't used to but we definitely were laughing as we watched each person from our group come to the table and just give the biggest sigh!

Tuesday was such a blessing! We took a break from culture and just went to the professor's house who took us. We watched a movie that was in Africa, had a Mexican lunch, and then told our funniest story that only they would truly understand! I was laughing so hard I was crying! It was a time of rejuvenation when it seemed like life just stopped =) After that though we went back to school and definitely went to the IWU/Bethel basketball game, which was something I really missed at school! Wednesday was finals - we will see how all that turns out, hopefully well =) Then I had lunch with a great friend and then came home.



Over this week there have been so many emotions. Now that I am done with school and just kind of reflecting I am processing a lot of things that happened on this trip. I am so much stronger than when I left, in so many areas. This trip was a blessing and I would go back again in a second if I had the opportunity available. The people in Africa have such a different view on life - passion comes through in everything and I mean everything they do. I really do miss seeing that!

Overall, I haven't felt any extreme culture shock - driving I think has been my biggest problem =) Different side of the car and on the a different side of the road kind of through me for a loop especially on black Friday! I have been missing it though, I keep having more and more dreams about Africa which I find to be great - Its a little gift while I sleep!



I did/do have an overwhelming sense of peace though when I left Africa. We were walking out of the Johannesburg airport and I saw this sign.....



I just truly felt God telling me that this was His promise to me. I have had a lot of prophecies about Africa in my life. Some were fulfilled to the fullest while I was in Zambia, some though weren't and I know that God has more for me! So seeing this sign helped me so much in coming home. I knew it was time and it has been good being home =)

Thanks to you guy's encouragement and prayers I never felt homesick the whole time I was there. I can say I was one of the few in our group who came away with out feeling homesick. This was a huge issue because then I could take each day and each opportunity God gave me to live it and minister to the fullest. This also helped me as I walked onto the plane because I knew I loved, cried, talked, laughed, and listened to everyone I was supposed to!

The whole time I was there I experienced every word of this passage so I just wanted to leave you with it! Again thanks for everything you have done for me over this whole chapter in my life. I can never express how wonderful it was, but I will keep trying. I know my parents have me scheduled to speak in church in 2 weeks so for some of you - pictures are coming!

love

janna

A Time for Everything - Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

1 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:
2 a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3 a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build,
4 a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
6 a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7 a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8 a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace

Mbubo

Hi everyone!

Well I am sitting here at 11:30 PM finally packed and with pretty much all my homework done! It's a miracle =) We are leaving here tomorrow at 8 AM for Livingstone. I am going on my safari Friday morning and going to see Victoria Falls that afternoon. Shopping again all day Saturday and church on Sunday.

Every one's bags only weigh like 30 pounds but somehow after leaving all my toiletries, 1/2 of my clothes and 1/2 of my shoes they still weigh 48 not really sure how that works but o well!

Just keep me in your prayers tomorrow - I have a lot of good byes to say. There are have been a lot of tears all around going on this guest house lately. But I just keep thinking that I have done everything that I came to Zambia to do! God has worked in mighty ways and I could not have asked for more.

This is a picture of Busi - She gives me a huge hug everyday she works - She is the one who calls me her sister. We had a thank you banquet so this is from that but I am definitely not looking forward to this goodbye!

I can't wait to see of all you though! Keep praying! Mbubo ;)

love

janna

Starting to Wrap Up

Hi guys

Hope you all are doing well!!!! I have had some great experiences this past week. I did Home based care visits and orphan and vulnerable children. With home based care we visited individuals who had AIDS and assessed their condition and if they had enough food. Before we assessed everything they sat down with us and told us their entire story. How they contracted AIDS, who else is their family has been affected, and how they are even treated in the community because they have AIDS. It was very emotional listening to all this. For the orphan visits we took time to go to these children's houses and make sure that they were receiving adequate care. When an orphan gets placed in a home it puts a severe financial strain on the house. We make sure there are mosquito nets are in place, and there is a toilet, and a good water supply. This was very humbling for me as a "wealthy" white person to sit there and ask them all these questions. Some of the girls really enjoyed these I preferred the home based care instead because I felt like they were more willing to share and it was more of a ministry opportunity to just sit and pray and encourage. With both of these days we took a good amount of food to each of the homes we went to. We did 4 the first day and 2 homes the second. Here is a picture of one of the homes receiving the food with one of the leaders who took us out. It was an experience that I will definitely remember.



With starting to wrap everything up we have started our long long long list of good bye parties and thank yous. There are two girls who work in the guest house where we stay and they are like sisters to all of us. I have been so encouraged with them and have enjoyed their hugs, laughs, and company so much A group of us invited them over for a movie night so this a picture from that.

For the big thank you parties we divided into groups. My group was in charge of saying thank you to the entire World Hope International Zambia staff. The night before we baked 92 cinnamon scones. The first batch was a little salty =) but we got the rest of them down. We served tea, coffee, scones, mango jelly (which is my favorite kind of jelly), and chocolate twirlers to put our American spin on it. They really enjoyed it and we did not have one scone left. Part of that was though the younger guys decided to eat 9 each. Here is a picture of our group serving the staff after morning devotions.

I guess we started a trend. After we said thank you to the staff they decided to throw us a surprise party one afternoon. We had popcorn and cake and they just went around the room and each of them said their favorite memory or how we made an impression on them. This was true Zambian style since they each took time. It was a really good time filled with laughter and tears but very encouraging. Here is a picture before we all played volleyball =) I am getting pretty good at volleyball it is so fun!

The orphanage that I have been going to is run by Germans. There are two German girls that live at each of the three oprhanages. We invited them over to play dutch blitz. It was a lot of fun. I have gotten pretty close to Sara who I am sitting next to in this picture. I love dutch blitz so it was such a blessing and a great time!

So as you can see we have a lot going on - So I still have a lot of papers. Hopefully my 10 page research paper will be done by tonight - that is the plan =) Continue to pray for all of us as we begin to try and leave this amazing place that we love. Last night we had a foot washing service just to stop and serve each other. With us serving everyone else it was time to serve each other. It was an emotional but powerful time of prayer, worship, and reflection. We leave the guest house here Thursday and we will go to Livingstone to visit Victoria Falls and have a Safari and different things like that to end the trip kind of on a touristy note. We will be there Thursday through Sunday and then our Plane leaves on Monday at 1 PM which is 6 AM your time. So one week from tomorrow. Continue to pray for our last week as we have a lot more good byes to say and a lot more tears to come but we know that God has been so faithful in this season in our lives and we are so grateful for the time that we had.

love

janna

LUSAKA

Hi everyone!

So i will be seeing most of you so soon! I leave here 2 weeks from tomorrow. Lets just say this trip has flown. This past week I went to Lusaka the capital city of Zambia for 5 days. That did not help slow down the trip at all. Went so fast! We were busy as always but I expected that =) We are always so busy!!

We left on Wednesday for Lusaka and its about a 4.5 hour drive from here but its all paved so it was really nice and we were very blessed to have an air conditioned bus. We had some seminars and guess speakers when we go there but Wednesday was pretty standard.

Thursday though was not! =) A lot of us were definitely taking pictures of buildings that apparently we were not allowed to have - so the police found us and took us to the U.S. Embassy. I am serious!!!!! So they made us go through metal detectors and then they took our cameras and deleted those pictures. It was not funny at the time but now its pretty hilarious. One of the highlights of the trip though happened that night when we went to a community school for vulnerable children. When they saw our bus coming literally 300 kids were running and chasing after us. I pretty much was tearing up. They were so happy. I love getting off the bus and having both of your hands instantly grabbed by these cute amazing little kids. We walked through a pretty poor village and reached the center where they were singing and dancing. Here is a picture from the school

We had some really great experiences as a group that let us just unwind and get out some stress so here is a picture from a dinner we went to - It was so good I didn't know what to order so I just had the waiter pick something - I am glad he knew what I would like =)

The next day the highlight was we went to a hospice. When we walked in there were school age children again who were welcoming us by singing - Remember a hospice here is a place where people go to get well from AIDS. Anyway then leader said we were going to go see the children - well we walked into this room filled with about 40 or more cribs of these babies. They were all orphans and they just reached their hands up and craved to be held. It was definitely a sight that you see in books and I wish I could had taken pictures but we weren't allowed and we didn't want to end back up at the U.S. embassy =) Here is a picture though of a billboard in Lusaka - These billboards are definitely making some statments, a lot of them were pretty powerful against the fight of AIDS!

If you can't tell what it is - it is a little girl and it says sex with me does not cure AIDS - This is a big social belief in Zambia.

We had a free day so I got to go shopping for souvenirs on Saturday. Bartering is really hard for me!!!! I got a lot of good stuff but o wow!!!! I don't know how many times I was told I was the winner of the day and I just kept thinking that that was not a good thing =) O well I got everything that I wanted at least!!!

On the down side our prof. and another girl on the team got really sick. Our prof. Pam got malaria and the other girl Kara had some intestinal problems. We had to leave about 7 hours earlier than planned because they needed to have IV fluids. If you could continue to pray for them that would be great!

Thank you guys so much for all the encouraging emails, notes, and comments I have really appreciated each and every one of them.

I will be home soon!!! Please keep praying for a great last 2 weeks. I am going to the orphanage tomorrow that I went to last week - It was really good but really hard. They call me Auntie Janna. This one little boy got really attached. When I left for lunch he was screaming - when I came back I wasn't even through the gate and he was sprinting towards me - and when I left he wouldn't even go to the workers. I had to have someone else take him because it was too emotionally hard for me! I am excited to go back tomorrow though and see him.

I'll write again soon - I definitely need some breaks from all this homework - I HAVE SO MUCH!!!!! trust me wow!

I'll leave you with a picture of Eunice! I absolutely loved her! I met her on a village visit I did. I sat with her under a tree probably for about an hour and we just worked on animal noises!!! She had "oink oink" down in no time - She is beautiful!!!

Love you all

janna

I Hate the dentist!!!!!

Hey Hey =)

I hope everyone had a great week! I had my last 2 days at Zimba mission hospital this week - it was really good. I did have a stretching experience though =) If you guys know me really well you know that I HATE one thing very much and that is the dentist. Well this week I was sent to the dental clinic. As soon as I walked in the dentist/chaplain was pulling a tooth with massive plyer like things. Lets just say I was not watching too much! My partner kept telling me to sit down hahah but I am just not a fan - It was really interesting to watch how they do things and yes it was better than being the patient but still was very hard for me =)

Also this week I got to visit a real 6 acre banana plantation, it was soooo neat. The women who worked on the plantation came running dancing and singing to welcome our group. After receiving a tour they cooked us a great lunch and just expressed how encouraged they were that we came! Again these people are so grateful for things that I would never think of!

The weekend was spent doing a lot of homework - We have a ton of papers due in the next couple weeks! I have definitely been glued to my computer. Church today was absolutely amazing though! I went to a different church than I normally do and I really enjoyed it - kinda felt like I was home for a week =)

I will try and post again this week because on Weds we leave for Lusaka which is the country's capital city and won't be returning back to our home here in Choma until very late Sunday night. Tomorrow though I am supposed to be doing home visits again out in the bush so if they are anything like they were last time I will definitely have some stories for you!

Keep praying for our safety here!!! We have had two interactions with camel spiders in the last 24 hours. They are the biggest spiders and the fastest ones I have ever seen. If you are curious you tube them - you will be shocked. Lets just say I was standing on a chair definitely screaming but not as loud as the rat I almost stepped on the other day =)

Love you all
janna

Everything Possible Happened this week!!!!

Hi Everyone!

So this week - all i can say is WOW! We have done so much and it has been so diverse each day. A group of us were laughing last night when we were talking about what we did each day, just seems kinda crazy some times but in such a good way!

Monday - I had a great opportunity to do some home visits on patients who were discharged from hospice. I went to the bush of Africa. It amazes me as we are driving because one of the women was yelling from the back to the driver to turn here - except there was no road to turn on. I have no idea how they keep things straight! We went to five different patients huts - 5 patients took us 9 hours that's how far away we were. Not to mention we had to hike to some of the villages because there was no road at all =) Anyway my favorite was a lady named Lizzy - she was in her upper 80's. All 8 of us crammed into her little hut, and she would not start until we were all sitting on blankets and stools. When we all got settled she sat in silence looking at us and then said, "look at all these beautiful children of god who have come to visit an old lady like me." She went on and on and I was seriously holding back tears. She was so grateful. She asked what she could give us to pay us for our trouble so we replied a song. She sang such a pretty song to repay us. Later she asked us to read her a passage from the bible. We read Matthew 5 the beatitudes and as we were leaving she said that the verse made her so much stronger already. She was so sweet and I can say I will always remember Lizzy.

On our way home we witnessed a bicycle accident. Our professor jumped out of the land cruiser and started assessing him. After a while she decided that he needed to go to the hospital. We loaded him in the car and then realized we all could not fit in there with him. Soooo we ended up staying there on the side of the road. That does not sound like a big deal but 5 white women sitting on the side of the road causes quite the scene. We got the funniest looks, stares, and laughs. It was so funny! They eventually came back for us and we headed home. We had no idea we were going to be gone for 9 hrs we thought it was 4 so we had 2 granola bars to ration out the whole day for 5 of us. It was pretty funny! Below is a picture of the 4 of us who got to go! This was at the beginning of the day when we were fed and awake =)

Tuesday - I went to Dr. Jains down town but only for a couple hours because I had so much homework to do.

Wednesday - Was filled all day with class. I actually had a really bad headache on Wednesday. Luckily I was only really dehydrated and just had to drink 8 water bottles to get rid of it. I was so happy it was not malaria. Side note - A total of 5 girls have had it now - Keep those prayers coming =)

Thursday - we traveled to Chikuli to visit an herbalist. It was an interesting experience. However within like 5 min of talking with him I very quickly realized he was a witch doctor and not an herbalist. When he started talking about his ancestors visiting him in his dreams to show him the "special plants" i was like ok........ So yeah most of that visit was spent in prayer to say the least. On Thursday we also went to a hospital in that area as well as a nursing school. i love going to the nursing schools here - Its neat to see what their schooling is like compared to mine.

Friday - Was the start of independence weekend!!!! Friday night we went to a beauty pageant put on by the rotary club. The lady who is in charge of our guest house is the president of rotary so we had front row seats. It was so funny! A lot of surprises, a lot of shocks, but I haven't laughed that hard since I have been here. A funny thing that happened though was we were told it started at 7 and it was a pretty large event. When we got there at 715 there were no cars there. We walked in and no one was there. At 830 the M.C. for the night gets up and tells everyone thank you for being on time. We were like ok.... Some things are still hard to adjust to around here and time is definitely the biggest one! The event also was soooo long =) We left at midnight and it still had another 2 or 3 hours. When they host an event they really host it!

Saturday - INDEPENDENCE DAY - I am so glad I was here to celebrate independence day. It was such a neat cultural experience. We went downtown and saw a ton of African dancing, singing, dramas, and speeches. When we came back to the house we had a HUGE feast waiting for us. Independence day around here is like 3 or our holidays in one. They count down and have a dancing celebration at midnight like new years, they have actual independence day, and finally its like a thanksgiving feast. It was pretty neat!!

This is a picture of all of our Zambian outfits for independence day! you can't really see mine but don't worry i prob wear it at home - its pretty comfy!!!

Later that night it was my turn with Keri and Lauren to do activity night. Every Saturday night some of us lead an activity so we can all relax, bond, and laugh! We did an award night and it was so funny! It turned out much better than i thought!

So yes as you can see SO BUSY today has been homework since the minute I got home from church. I have a lot due these next two weeks. Tomorrow I am off to Zimba for my last clinical rotation there. If you again could remember me in your prayers that would be great

Here are two pictures of the Zambian dancing at the independence day celebration! They are all school kids since each school did a dance for the event!

I hope you all have a great week! Keep the updates coming - love to hear from all of you

love

janna