new address

i’ve moved!

you can now visit me here: www.hannahmoore.org.uk

all new information will be updated to the new blog, so please update your bookmarks.

see you there!

the return

a few people have greeted me on my return with the question ‘when are you going back then?’. maybe my return to africa was inevitable!

throughout my 6 months in africa i was praying that if God wanted me to come back, then he would have to show me a project i could work with longer term, and put the right people in my path. about 5 months went by and nothing was really happening so i started to prepare for finding a job in the uk. those of you who have been reading the blog will know that towards the end of the trip i was put in touch with ‘school mission for christ international’ who work in a similar way to scripture union in the uk.

i spent a couple of days working with a schools mission pastor in ndola, and then the whole team spent a week in lusaka working with a couple who are both school mission pastors. i absolutely loved being in schools again and had a great time in particular working with gideon in ndola. i also met the international director of school mission, john pedersen, who is the brother of peter pedersen, the founder of kaniki bible college.

the cut a long story short, after both praying about it, john pedersen invited me to come and spend 3 months back in zambia with school mission. i realised that working for john, who himself taught at kaniki for 23 years, was way too good an opportunity to miss. the 3 months will give me the chance to work with school mission and explore the opportunity of going out there longer term. i’m also exploring the idea of using the ‘romance academy’ material to help young people, particularly with regards to the hiv/aids pandemic.

so, to answer the question of ‘when am i going back?’, i will be returning to zambia in september to spend 3 months working in ndola working with school mission. i will be staying at the SAQ building at kaniki bible college and am thankful that i will be able to continue building on the friendships i made with the students there.

i have added a link to the school mission website on the ‘links’ page above. my contact details are also there if you want to get in touch with me about any other details to do with the trip. i’ll continue to use this blog to give updates on my time in ndola.

I’M GOING BACK!!!! WOOOOOOO!!!!!

home…

i arrived home on sunday, excited about seeing family and spending some time enjoying the beautiful british weather that everybody was talking about. the welcome at the airport certainly did not disappoint. the weather, however…..not impressed!

our final week in zambia was excellent. we held a celebration on wednesday evening, inviting all of the people we’ve been associated with, including the three kaniki principals, past and present. what a privilege. we shared testimonies, photos and words of thanks (and some very chewy beef!)

the next day, we had a celebration event with the students. i have learned so much from the students while we’ve been living here and made some great friends, so i was particularly looking forward to this celebration. they led us in an absolutely awesome time of worship (as ever) and then we shared our testimonies. pastor barry had also turned up and i must admit that i couldn’t share my testimony because i got a little too emotional (to those who know me, that won’t come as a surprise!).

and then we had the long journey home…very long! it’s great to be home and i’m enjoying catching up with family and friends but also missing africa greatly!

and finally, for those of you who are not on facebook, there are some more photos to view:

last days in zambia

may in malawi

so, thanks again to everybody who had supported and encouraged me over the last few months. i’ll try and keep you updated on future plans as they unfold. x x

this really is goodbye…

so, this really is my final blog from africa! this time next week we’ll be on a plane back to england. this prospect is made slightly better by reports that the uk is having a glorious summer, while we are leaving behind a Zambian winter (all relative, of course!).

we had a great week in lusaka, with a fantastic couple: vincent and elevin, who work for ‘school mission for Christ international’. it was expecially good for me as it was the zambian equivalent of my old job back home. it was ace to be back in schools again, and the response from the students was very encouraging. we ended the week by speaking at a student conference for school pupils aged around 13-18. this was even more impressive as there were about 700 young people and they had organised the whole thing themselves. amazing!

after our time in lusaka we travelled down to livingstone for a few days of being tourists! the victoria falls were stunning. it’s hard to describe them without sounding cheesy or cliché so I won’t try. we watched the boys jump off the bridge in various forms but my feet stayed firmly on the ground at all times. our last night was spent on a wonderful sunset cruise up the great zambezi river. bliss.

we’re back at kaniki now for our final week, which will be full of celebrations and farewells.

so this really is it. goodbye from africa!

greetings from lusaka!

we’ve just had a wonderful 3 weeks back at kaniki: full of great ministry, building great friendships with the students, interesting opportunities to experience ‘schools work’ in zambia and even the fulfillment of a dream…SINGING IN AN AFRICAN GOSPEL CHOIR!!! (sebrina: i’m basically kirk frankiln).

it was also a sad time as one of the students of the college sadly passed away, leaving 3 young children behind. such is life is africa: beautiful, but so often tragic.

i was a bit sad to leave kaniki on monday but we are now enjoying a week in lusaka, working with ‘school mission for christ international’ before we head down to livingstone for a few days next week to see the victoria falls.

when we return, we have just one week left in ndola. much as i’m looking forward to getting home and seeing family and friends, it’s going to be ridiculously sad to say goodbye to people here who we’ve had the pleasure of getting to know over the last few months. i still have much to pray about with regards to the future, i’d appreciate anybody standing with me in prayer about that!

so, potentially this is my last blog from africa. hope you’ve enjoyed sharing the experiences with me. i’ll see you at home! x x

experience africa

as we cycled along through the pitch black, rainy, muddy African night; with me clinging to my ‘driver’ for dear life and every muscle in my body tensed with fear, i heard the voice of pastor rodgers calling from behind: “Hannah: Experience Africa!”. even in my terror, those words brought a smile to my face, i’m sure i didn’t read anything in the guide book about this. but that story is for later….

we have just returned from our month long expedition to malawi. clearly there’s lots to write about but I’ll try and keep it as brief as I can. probably not very likely.

so, we set off on monday 3rd may, ready for the 4 days of driving that would take us to our destination of Nsanje, at the very southern tip of malawi. it wasn’t a thrilling journey, 4 days in a car rarely are, but there are a couple of noteworthy points. on day 3 of our journey we stayed at a campsite in chipata, on the zambia / malawi border: the very same campsite that ewan mcgreggor stayed at during ‘Long Way Down’. fame! sadly, the next day we had to make an emergency stop in Lilongwe at a friends house (more about them later) for 3 of the team (including myself) to be violently sick in their toilet. i’m sure ewan mcgreggor never had these problems!

anyway, we journeyed on and finally reached Nsanje on thursday greeted by pastor rodgers, his amazing family and his not so pleasant cockroach infested ‘bath’. hoorah! pastor rodgers is an amazing man who oversees over 300 churches in Malawi and Mozambique. he is only able to visit these churches on foot or by bike so his intention for our stay was to use our vehicle to visit as many of these churches as possible.

after a restful day on friday we prepared for saturday’s 3 hour hike to the moutain village of matekesa, where we would be camping for 4 days. i love hiking but was not thrilled about this prospect. Nsanje is the hottest place in Malawi, affectionately called ‘the devils armpit’. we soon discovered that the simple act of sitting could make you sweat out of places you didn’t know existed. hideous. by the time we reached the village the boys t-shirts were soaked through. nice.

the 4 days in the mountains were spent visiting local churches. this would usually involve a 1-3 hour hike, then our team would conduct a service including singing (badly), a drama and then a sermon. this would be followed by a nice meal of nshima with chicken or goat (our staple diet in Malawi) and then a walk home. the mountains were stunning (reminded me of being home) and we often walked through Mozambique either on a journey or to attend church there.

after our hike back we spent a few days back at base in Nsanje. during our time there we took some services and also spent time visiting patients at the local hospital. it was fairly shocking even by african standards. you would walk down a corridor and as soon as you turned into the ward you were hit with the smell. the wards were fairly appalling: blood leaking onto the floor, empty drips left in people’s arms and even a rat crawling over a sink. my mum will be shocked to hear that I didn’t faint and the hospital visits were probably my favourite ministry. we went from bed to bed encouraging and praying with the sick. one of the patients i visited most regularly was a little girl who had been burned by fire in a cooking accident (apparently this is very common as all cooking is done on open fires with the family near) and was badly burned all down her back. I prayed with her and her mother over several days and we saw a vast improvement in her condition.

our next stop was bangula, a small town near nsanje, where we were again to camp for 4 days. we were hosted by a wonderful pastor and his wife who showed us amazing hospitality with the little they had. we spent the 4 days visiting churches and eating nshima. brilliant. we did get stuck at one church though because the car couldn’t get to us. the only way out was to catch a bike taxi. it was raining and I couldn’t even walk without slipping. terrifying. I think I broke all social rules by clinging onto the driver for dear life. experience africa!

the last few days were spent in nsanje, visiting hospitals and churches. on monday 24th may we were ready for our long journey home. made extra long as we were planning to spend 3 days at south luangwa game reserve en route. however, we must remember that THIS IS AFRICA! an hour into our return journey home I heard shouting from the back of the car to stop immediately. there was a fairly loud screeching noise and a hideous smell of burning. on inspecting the vehicle we found that the problem was much worse than we thought it was going to be. the suspension on our trailer had completely broken and the trailer was resting on the axle. the burning smell was the tire rubbing on the mud guard that had slipped down onto the wheel. hideous. we unpacked the trailer and stayed with our belongings on the side of the road while the others went for help. at this point I was fully expecting to be spending ANOTHER night sleeping on a road. urgh. however, God is good and the situation worked out so much better than we ever could have imagined. we broke down just 5k from a orphanage run by Iris Ministries (associated with Heidi and Roland Baker, for those who’ve read the books), which incidentally is the best run orphanage I’ve seen in africa. we were welcomed by some crazy Hawaiians who made us feel right at home and let us use their wonderful showers, which was a dream after 3 weeks of bucket baths. their mechanic (THEY HAD A MECHANIC!) who got straight to work on the trailer. he was going to need a new suspension so we set up our tents ready for a long wait. the genius mechanic managed to buy a suspension from a broken down truck and set about customising it to fit our trailer. we spent the evening being fed by the director of the mission and hearing great testimonies. the next day we were back on the road feeling refreshed and ready to go.

ok, this is already longer than expected….well done for getting this far…I’ll try and keep the next bit brief.

we stopped in Lilongwe to visit Hannah and Samuel for the night (the house that we all vomited in on the way). Hannah is the daughter of Peter Pederson, the founder of Kaniki Bible College and together they have 28 (yes, 28!) children: 25 are adopted, 3 are biological. such an amazing family! I don’t have space to write more here but ask me about them when I’m back and I’d love to tell you all about them!

our stay at south luangwa was amazing! we stayed at a campsite right by the luangwa river where we could watch hippos and baboons at play! great until a cheeky baboon stole a loaf of our bread. the safaris were great but the absolute highlight was going on a night safari and spotting a leopard. we chased it and watched it stalk it’s prey. stunning! that night i awoke at 4am to the sound of chomping outside of our tent. I woke Katie up and we bravely peeked out of the tent. A HIPPO!!! about 2ft away from us. amazing! and utterly terrifying.

and now we’re home and already stuck back into life at Kaniki. we’re in our last 5 weeks now and I am both excited and nervous about the prospect of coming home. anyway, that is really enough for now! bye!

quick update

so, thanks to those who prayed for our time away with the youth at nsobe. we all had a really great time away together. the young people got really stuck into the activities and during the day we had some very interesting talks. we work with a wonderful/crazy nurse called adrehema who did some talks on health and hygiene. very enlightening! the evening campfires were ace and i was able to share with the young people about their identity in christ and their future with him. it was all just wonderful! we had to be on guard at all times from monkeys who kept trying to steal our food. makes camping a little more interesting!

all the plans are in place (as much as they can be in africa) for the mext month in malawi. i’m even getting quite excited about the prospect! on the way home we spend a few days at south luangwa game park which promises to be amazing. we’re hoping to pick up some of the election news on the world service, but if not we’ll have to wait till june to find out who our next PM is.

i have uploaded some more pictures. for those who can’t access them via facebook, you can use the following links:

the ngabwe adventure

life in zambia cont…

a (relatively) normal week…

dear bloggers, for any of you who are worrying about my mental / emotional state after last week’s blog, please don’t worry. it was one of those experiences that was absolutely hideous at the time but looking back seems quite a fun adventure. time is a great healer!

this week we have had a full week back at kaniki, which has been wonderful. we have been eating our normal food, working with our usual ministries and even running our usual 6am runs. bliss.

on wednesday morning, michael and i joined pastor albert biking around kamfinsa village and visiting members of his church. it was excellent: both in terms of the cycling and the people we visited. we were able to pray with and encourage people in their homes which was ace. towards the end of our time pastor albert asked if we would mind going with him to the house of a family whose young daughter had died the day before. we nervously agreed. on arriving at the house we were ushered into a tiny dark room full of women singing. we sat down on the only available space on the floor and soon realised that the dead little girl was laid out behind me. bit of a shock. michael and i mostly sat there in stunned silence while Albert prayed for the family. i guess we are seeing Africa that most tourists don’t get to see.

this week katie and i were asked to coach some local girls/women ready for a day of competition against the congelese on saturday. we were to coach netball (i haven’t played since i was 16), football (i cannot stand football) and volleyball (i play with more enthusiasm than skill). despite my shortcomings as a coach, and the fact that we offended some girls on day one by not picking them, we still had a wonderful time together. i’m confident that our girls will beat the congolese this weekend. if not, I’ll have to think again about my zambian coaching career.

next week is our last week in zambia before we head off to malawi for the month of may. it’s going to be a fun week, as on monday we are taking 30 lifeline orphans (aged 17-19) camping for 3 days. please pray for this (if you’re so inclined) as we have no real idea about the background of these teenagers. we hope to give the them a trip that they will remember forever, not just because of the fun they’ve had but because God moved powerfully in their lives.

next saturday is a public holiday in zambia (they flippin love public holidays) and so the internet cafes will probably all be closed (selfish). if so, i won’t be blogging again until june when we are back from malawi. if at any point during may you happen to remember me, please pray that i survive! i am not thrilled about the prospect of a month of long drops and bucket baths but am really hoping i can get past that and enjoy a month of powerful ministry.

until next time….

just when it couldn’t get any worse….

after a wonderful week in zanzibar (i won’t write too much about that as i don’t want to spoil it for the lucky few who will be receiving postcards) it was time to get back to real african life. things started badly when i returned from zanzibar with a ridiculously dodgy stomach causing frequent toilet stops and general unpleasantness. i had a day to try to recover before we headed off into the bush again, this time for just a couple of nights (phew). we were heading to ngabwe, which is a small village in the central province. lifeline, who we’ve worked with in ndola, are involved in the village but only get to visit every couple of months because of it’s remoteness. the plan was to spend a few days with the lifeline volunteers: visiting homes and doing children’s ministry.

but…..this is africa….
we left at 7.30am on tuesday, with an estimated arrival time in ngabwe of 2pm (remember that). i had a horrendous journey and was pretty ill, so the plan was to take a malaria test when we got to our destination. the village is the other side of the kafue river which you can usually cross with vehicles using a ferry. we arrived at the river (late, of course) and discovered that because the rains have been so bad the river was flowing too fast for the ferry to be safe. so, we began loading our belongings into canoes ready to row across a fast flowing, crocodile infested river. joy. we reached the other side by 5pm, realising that our afternoon’s activities would not be taking place. we were then told that the truck which would be carrying us the last 20km to the village (the only vehicle on that side of the river) had a flat battery. tim and dave had to cross back to the other side of the river, take the battery from our vehicle and bring it back to us where it would then be taken by motorbike to the lorry. we waited. i’m not ashamed to admit that my emotions got the better of me at this point but i was ill so it was totally allowed. the lorry arrived with much celebration at about 7pm. hoorah. surely now we could pass freely to the village? about 2 minutes into the journey we all screamed as the lorry slid off the road and began to disappear into the river at the side of the road. everybody jumped off and started to push but it soon became apparent that it was a much bigger problem that than. we offloaded all our luggage and began several different attempts at moving the vehicle. stones were collected from the river, trees were chopped down, villagers were sent for (who then arrived drunk) and about 4 hours of work began…then just when it couldn’t get any worse…..at about 11pm….the battery died. hideous. at that point it was decided the best (and only) thing to do was sleep on the roadside and take a fresh look at things in the morning. we had 1 tent between us which i was allowed to take because of my illness and everyone else slept on the road. a night of damp sleeping bags and mozzy bites began.

we finally got moving at 11.30am the next morning, arriving at our destination almost 24 hours late. TIA!

unfortunately, our delay meant that we only had one full day of ministry in ngabe, but we made the most of it and had a wonderful time! we are now safely back at kaniki and have resumed our normal programme…for a week!

p.s. i don’t have malaria but I do still have the runs.

photos

i’ve finally uploaded some photos to the internet.
for those of you not on facebook, you can access them here (i hope!)

view photos