In late September, just as the heat of summer was giving way to the hint of fall, a 10-person team from Warner Robins headed half way around the world on a 12-day mission trip to Zimbabwe, Africa, where temperatures averaged 105- 110 degrees and inflation was, and still is, at a worldwide high of over 200 million percent.

The team included John Kubia, Cookie Vaughn, and James and Lesi Anderson, all of whom can be classified as veteran missionaries with numerous trips to Africa under their belts, and Matt Caporale, who served in the United States military and has seen action in Afghanistan and Iraq but had never experienced an evangelistic mission trip abroad. The other five members of the team were Rachel Lord, Brett Mathews, Lindsey Shepard and Ryan Valasky, all 11th graders, and Robin Booker, a high school teacher, from Westside Baptist Academy here in Warner Robins.

John Kubia takes a missions team from Westside Baptist Church overseas every year, but this was the first time students and an instructor from WBA were invited to be a part of the trip. WBA Director James Anderson plans to make a foreign missions trip part of each junior class's exposure to walking out the Great Commission to go into all the world and share the gospel, and this trip was hopefully the first of many for students and teachers of WBA. Each of us on the team felt that it was God Himself who called us to Kariba, and while we planned and planned and planned some more to do all we could to represent Him well in Africa, we knew from day one that God was going to impact our lives through Africa more than we would ever impact Africa. In many ways the trip was everything we expected, hoped for and prayed for, but I don't think any of us were prepared for the way the people of Kariba would affect us.

Three men from Multiministries, a South African-based missions organization, met us in Harare and Jabulani, Arthur and Rodney became family to us during the 10 days we were together. It became clear fairly early in our journey that our hearts would be knit with theirs for a lifetime, and we are so grateful that the God of the Universe will always be our bonding agent to them. Our "home base" for the trip was the Tamarind Lodge in Kariba, and we spent several days there, visiting schools and churches to not only share Christ with them but to encourage them in their faith. In the middle of our time in Kariba we broke away and boarded a houseboat for three days to minister to fishing villages in remote areas of Lake Kariba, which borders Zimbabwe to the south and Zambia to the north. Whether we were in Kariba or on the lake, three things stood out to our team.

The Joy of the Lord

The joy and graciousness of the people overwhelmed us at every turn. Coming from America where we have everything we want and need, it was somewhat of a culture shock to see how the people of Kariba live. Once the team made shore and trekked into the first fishing village, it felt as if we had entered a place time had forgotten. The village resembled something a person might see in National Geographic, and it was quickly apparent that these were a people who were barely surviving.

After the initial reaction wore off, however, we were inspired, encouraged and challenged to discover that the joy of the Lord truly is their strength, and for most, life is good if they simply have enough food for each day. Our initial thought was that these people must be physically hungry, but more than anything they hunger for the Word of God and asked us repeatedly for Bibles. The smiles of the people captured our hearts, and the warmth the Karibans extended to us motivated us to come home with that same spirit. As we have shared with our home churches and WBA about our experiences in Africa, $2, 400 was donated to send to Multiministries for food and Bibles for those very people we ministered to in Zimbabwe. With inflation at a worldhigh rate of more than 230 million percent and food shortages rampant throughout the country, the food in their bellies and the Word for their souls will sustain these strong people and offer them hope.

The Power of the Message

After we went into the first couple of schools and churches and saw literally hundreds of boys, girls, men and women raise their hands to show they had prayed to accept Christ, we were somewhat skeptical of how many actually knew what they were doing or had just raised their hands because others in the crowd did. We face this in America as well, and I remember asking Jabulani if he thought we were really making a difference. He just smiled and told me that we had to trust God with the outcome.

A day or so later, when we were out on the houseboat, I asked Jabulani how he came to Christ. He smiled and told me that when he was 13, a mission team from Australia, very similar to our team, came to his school and shared Christ. When they asked if any wanted to prayto receive Christ, Jabulani was one of many who did. In telling me that story, Jabulani reminded me of my earlier question, and my heart was overjoyed to realize that God may raise up another Jabulani out of our trip, not because of anything we did but because of how big our God is!

The Simplicity of the Gospel

Here in America we are too educated for our own good at times, and there are debates in many churches as to what is absolute truth and what is not. In Kariba we were reminded that the message of the Gospel is so very simple that even a small child can understand it, and in fact, it should always be that simple. To facilitate sharing the gospel, our team wore and used leather beaded bracelets with a gray bead representing sin, red representing the blood of Jesus Christ, white representing our being washed clean from sin by the blood, green to show growing in relationship with Christ, yellow for heaven where we will live with God in eternity and blue for the sky we are watching for the return of Christ some day. Time after time when we shared the meaning of the beads there was an immediate response and people of all ages would pray to accept Christ.

As I shared my bracelet with a 12- year-old girl named Nomett in Kariba, I saw her eyes light up as she repeated back to me what each bead meant and then said, " I would like to know this One True God you have shared with me." Nomett prayed to receive Christ that day in the middle of the dirt yard outside a church where we were playing with children, and God overwhelmed my spirit with the knowledge that if we will just share His love with others, they will be drawn to Him.

Although we have been home for several months now, the experience impacted many of us to the point that we are already looking ahead to the day we return to Kariba. Most of us feel that we left part of ourselves in Africa, and we will pray for the Karibans daily, trusting that the same God who strengthens us in Warner Robins, Georgia will also continue to strengthen those in Kariba, Zimbabwe.