kristen: basic bio

we went with bridget again to the matero (city center). we got off the minibus after a 30 minute ride, and began walking down a dirt road, littered with milk cartons and soda cans ground into the dry brown dust. a cool breeze hurled dust into our eyes. we arrived at a weaved straw gate and a woman walked up to greet us.

bridget introduced her as a close friend, gertrude. we chatted with gertude in the small block of dirt, until she disappeared into the house. she peeked back through the door, and invited us in. her husband walked out without a word. we sat down in her living room, an adam sandler movie blaring on the television. we talked about her children, her husband, and her business. along with raising a family, caring for her husband, cooking and cleaning, gertrude designs and makes dresses. she showed us some of her work—a beautiful yellow print dress.

she told us how she met her husband. she was making shirts for a wedding in the village, and one of the men came to examine the shirt—“first a customer, then a husband,” she recalled, laughing. she was 17 at the time.

when her husband returned, we left. as we walked down the streets, we heard shouts of "howAHyuuuu!!!" from the children.

the only english they know: “how are you?”. the children are embarrassed and thrilled with the “muzungu”, or foreigner, replies or shakes their hand.

in the early evening, as the sunset light set the flame trees on fire, i went on a walk around the seminary. a crowd of children were playing in the courtyard. the older children were balancing themselves on black barrels, rolling them across the dirt. they invited me to try. a young boy, simon, held my hand as i tried to jump on the barrel, and keep my balance. i balanced there for about 2 seconds, before falling to the ground to the laughter of the rest of the children. we played football (american soccer) with an empty plastic bottle. when we were tired, we sat on the monkey bars, and sang “humble yourself before the lord.”


bridget and roxie look at photographs of gertrude's children.


gertrude models one of her latest designs for us.


children at the seminary play on empty barrels.


a young boy sings praise songs as he beats on a makeshift drum.

Jesse: Observation

We met our Zambian helper today. Her name is Agness, and she helped us navigate public transportation and get to the city. Our DFA today was "basic bio". Our goal was to meet people–just to greet them and give them basic information about ourselves. Our names, where we’re from, our jobs, etc. Our first stop was awkward. We met with three guys working outside a home. It felt forced, but we learned a lot about them.

Then as we were walking, Tessa met a woman who really wanted to talk to us. Melodie is Zambian, but grew up in the Congo, so she spoke French. Immediately, Tessa and I switched from English to French to speak with her. She was so excited to speak to people who knew French.

The next group of people were working. One worked to repair soles of shoe another sold coal. Others sat around to visit. The group liked to laugh and joke. This is what I love about Africa – just sitting together enjoying life in the shade.

The mini-bus rides were fun today. People greeted us and joked with us as we careened through Lusaka. It was more like the Africa I know today. Agness was good at letting us talk to people and guiding us to people. But the best one was the woman we met, Melodie all by ourselves.


Tessa and Agness walk down the street in the city of Lusaka.


The view from the back of the minibus. In Africa, there's no such thing as personal space.


Agness, Tessa and I in the back row of the minibus.

Jesse: Orientation

The morning is so quiet and peaceful. The Baptist Seminary of Zambia is a beautiful compound. It makes for a very peaceful place to rest and learn.

The more I’m around Zambians the more it is apparent that their culture is very similar to their West African brothers. Today’s lesson was mainly about greeting. Respect is very important.

Show respect in every situation and watch the doors open and the walls come down. As a woman, respect means never looking a man in the eyes and always letting them be first. Over the years I’ve gotten used to that. I caught myself in the states not looking at men, who’d been my friends for years, in they eyes and walking a few steps behind them.

I’m looking forward to getting out into the city tomorrow. We’re supposed to observe the culture around us--not really make conversation or try to build relationships. Just observe. See under and around what people are saying and doing. Tessa is my partner for the next 11 days. We’ll do every cultural outing together. I’m also excited to meet our cultural helper tomorrow too. Kevin, the leader, says she is tough and will watch out for us.

I walked two miles around the seminary after our last session and then played soccer with the guys. I think I surprised myself and all the others at my willingness to go for the ball and be able to somewhat handle it when I got it and all this in a skirt and sandals. But the African boys that played with us did it barefoot – I have no room to brag. Later, a healthy game of “Bible Outburst” was played with great enthusiasm. Very fitting game for a bunch of missionaries!


The seminary campus is beautiful. The road is lined with flame trees in full bloom.


My roommate, Mary, reads her Bible in our dorm room on the seminary campus.


Bible Outburst with Mary, Roxie, Jodie, Grant and Evan.

kristen: nairobi to lusaka

before the daylight crept into the kitchen, i poured the black, black coffee into a travel mug. i unpacked and repacked my backpack one last time, and walked outside to the waiting cab. by 7 am, jesse and i were on the plane, searching out empty rows. i was asleep in a window seat, before takeoff.

we finally arrived in lusaka around 1 pm. we cleared customs, grabbed our bags and joined jeff and jan, ethan and trevor in the waiting van. after several wrong turns, we arrived at the baptist seminary—the last missionaries to arrive at 40/40.

we were handed a green knapsack, and instructed to fill it with a set of dishes—bowl, plate, tin mug and silverware. these were ours to keep up with for the next month.

after lunch, we threw our stuff in our rooms (dorm-style, with bunk beds) and filed into the conference room. we played an icebreaker, then began orientation. we learned what to expect each day, rules and the schedule.

each pair of missionaries will be assigned a “cultural helper”—a zambian christian who will help us navigate this new culture, and act as a translator. each morning, we will have breakfast, small group bible study, then head out to the city to complete a daily field assignment, or DFA. the daily field assignment is meant to teach us how much we don’t know about the culture. most of our time will be spent observing, asking questions and learning. in the afternoons, we will have a time of debriefing and a lecture that will correspond to the next day’s DFA.


jan and jeff, our friends from nairobi, were on our 7 am flight to lusaka.


evan, trevor and jesse on the ride from the airport to the lusaka seminary that will be our home for the next two weeks.


our 40/40 schedule. notice the lack of blank space. its going to be a busy, busy month.

Jesse: A new journey.

I've just finished packing my backpack for 40/40. For the next 30 days, my teammate and I will be living in Zambia, learning how to be missionaries in Africa. We'll spend 12 days in Lusaka, learning in an urban context, then we'll travel out to bush camp (no electricity, no running water) where we will live for nine days in tents and learn about serving in a rural context. After that, we will spend three days living with an African family. We will sleep where they sleep, eat what they eat and work alongside them.

The 40/40 training program, 40 days and 40 nights in Africa, teaches missionaries to immerse themselves in the African culture, to truly appreciate the lives of those they want to see come to believe in Christ. Participants prepare for life in Sub-Saharan Africa by observing, interviewing and interacting with Africans in the southern African country of Zambia. They also learn from the experience of seasoned missionaries and African Baptists on the best ways to share the love of Christ.

So, as we were preparing for our trip, we decided that we wanted to share our experiences with people who may never have the opportunity to visit Africa. And for people who might be interested in what it's like to be a missionary.

So, this blog is to inform the masses about how missionaries learn to be missionaries in Sub-Saharan Africa.

As we embark on this journey, we will both be carrying a journal, and a camera. What we won't have is internet.

But when we return, we will post everything to a blog, just as it happened.

That means everything you’re reading is being uploaded after the fact, but it really did happen.

The training is not really 40 days long, but we’re given devotionals for the five days before we left and the five days after we got back, to prepare us for the training and then to help us take what we’ve learned and start thinking about the future.

I’m excited to see what’s going to happen at 40/40. After living in West Africa for two and a half years I can’t wait to experience the culture in this part of Africa. How much is the same? What is different? Will the cultural things I learned in West Africa carry over?