Final day!

As our final day in Lukulu comes to an end, we are writing this with heavy hearts. Today started with our last campfire prayer service at sunrise followed by a morning of tile washing and moving in the furniture to the dormitory. The girls who live there were able to come and meet us and see their newly remodeled home! To say that they were excited would be an understatement. We gave each girl a handmade blanket and a care package full of toiletries as well as keepsake items such as bracelets and lanyards for their room keys. We had to demonstrate how to use dental floss and the girls got a kick out of that! After we were finally done, Alexis, Megan, and Fr. Bob had a meeting with the parish council where they went over potential projects for future Love for Lukulu trips and the council once again extended their gratitude for us coming to spend time with them another year. Father Rene informed us that from now on they will be praying over the names of each of our donors during Sunday mass, we thought that was very special. After that, we had our farewell mass with the community led by Fr. Bob..everybody here will really miss his homilies. Then began the hardest part of the trip.. the goodbyes. The community held a celebration send off dinner for their "Michigan Family" where we danced, ate a final Lukulu meal, and both presented and were given special gifts. Speaking for the entire team, we fell even more in love with Lukulu and the people here on this trip and leaving is so hard on all of us. At the same time we are excited to return to the states and share our wonderful experiences with you all! We will be waking at 5am to get an early start to the 13 hour drive we have. We ask for your prayers for safe travels as well as prayers of blessing to all of the amazing people we have had the opportunity to meet here.

That's it for this year!

Musiyale Hande! (goodbye in the native language, Lozi!) 

The final product!! Girls dormitory!

The girls were so excited for their new home!

We love you Michael! We will miss you so much 

Sunday Funday!

Today started out with a weekly village celebration that lasts 4 hours....MASS!! Much different from back home where people arrive 10 minutes late and leave right after communion. Everyone arrives an hour early to socialize and prepare for prayer then stay an hour later to mingle and converse. During mass it is literally a huge celebration where the procession takes an hour alone. We loved being able to experience such amazing culture by singing and dancing along to the worship of Christ. We were given an incredible tribute by the children of the choir for our time here and how much they appreciate our trips to Lukulu every year. Following lunch we retreated to  the Zambezi and enjoyed a peaceful canoe ride down one of the most vast rivers in the world. We had the opportunity to swim again today and most definitely took advantage of it! Plenty of locals tagged along for the ride and swam right along with us! That concludes today's adventures! Thank you again for following our trip day by day! Tomorrow will conclude our trip and we couldn't be more thankful for our support system back home!! 

Days 8 and 9

First of all, sorry we missed the blog yesterday! It was a very busy and exciting day and we got a little side tracked. We are so thrilled to inform you that the dormitory is finally finished!! We only have a few finishing touches left to do on Monday. The morning started out with Tom, Megan, Alexis K, and Crispin flying through laying tiles. While they did that, the rest of the group completed the painting in each room and bathroom. After lunch, Tom, Steve, Alexis K, Lyssa, and Crispin finished the tile and couldn't be happier about it! Come Monday it will all be so worth it seeing the girls so excited about their new dorm that got a huge facelift!! The rest of the group got to go visit the children at the local preschool! We took toothbrushes and toothpaste for each child and the kids were so excited! They sang "Jesus loves me" to us and we played duck duck goose until it was time for them to get back to learning. From there, we went to mass led by Father Chris, another priest in the village who is from the northern part of Zambia. Then, it was time to celebrate! Hannah Metevia, one of our mission members was celebrating her 19th birthday with us so the sisters put on a dinner for the whole group! We had an amazing time and spent the evening laughing and making memories that will last a lifetime. 

Today we were able to sleep in until 10am since most of our work is now complete. Once we finally got moving, were off to the beach! It was about a 25 minute walk to get there but was well worth it. About 50 kids followed along with us and we spent the afternoon playing frisbee and swimming in the Zambezi..while being sure to watch out for crocodiles of course. We had a blast and it was definitely a well needed day of relaxation. Our last few days here will be spent enjoying the beauty of Lukulu and soaking up as much culture as possible!

Megan forcing Hannah over her fear of jumping in the Zambezi!

Happy birthday Hannah! So glad we got to share your special day with you :)

Mitchell doing a special handshake he made up with the help of his basketball team!

Shoutout to everyone keeping up with our blog and what we're doing here in Lukulu.. We are so thankful for your love and support!