Third Hunt finished

I just finished my third hunt yesterday, and I have a lot of video editing ahead of me! I am almost finished with the second hunt video, and I have begun the video of the guy that left yesterday. The hunter was much better at shooting, which makes my job easier! It's been tiring, but it still has been fun, although I don't really have any time to do anything else during the hunt. The real drudgery comes now when I have to edit. I should have a dvd of every hunt, and so I will probably leave them with my family when I leave for Colorado so everyone can see them who wants to. Someone mentioned to me that they were bummed that there wasn't any pictures on my blog here so I will try and post one or two with this, but I may not be able to because the internet is really slow here! Anyway, that's what I have been up to for the last week or so, if anyone wants to contact me, feel free to email at CGNWannabe@aim.com.

I just finished my first hunting video and I am putting in on a DVD today. I would have been done about 5 days ago, but I had a mishap with my video editor, it crashed and I lost all of my work I had done on it. I had to restart with a new program, and so I was behind quite a bit. It's really nice to be done with it now, and I was planning on starting on the next video today if I hadn't gotten sick. It seems like some sort of stomach bug or something, but I am feeling better this afternoon because I slept a lot during the morning. I have been staying with Aunt Janette at Sakeji while I have been working on my video, and I will probably move back over to Uncle Pete and Aunt Lynn's at the end of this week because the next hunt starts on Friday, although I am not sure whether or not they want a video. Yesterday, I went with Tim and Ben and Mark over to the airstrip and we drove motorcycles around on it, which was cool because I have never driven a motorcycle before.
I have been really encouraged by some emails I have received recently and one of them had these verses in it, 1 John 5:1-5, "Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?"

Second Hunt

I finished my second hunt just before I came out here to Chavuma, (read my last post) and that was quite an experience! The hunter came with his wife, a strange American couple in their late 30's and we soon discovered that he doesn't know how to shoot! Well, I am sure he knows how to shoot, he just wouldn't take his time to aim properly and he would miss a ton! He probably shot around 60 rounds of ammunition and only got 9 animal, that averages out to over 6 shots an animal! That was frustrating because I didn't always have time to get the video of it because he was shooting so fast, and then it is also hard to make a good looking video because he took so many shots to kill the animal, it didn't just drop with the first shot.... except for the sable that his wife shot! :) I don't think she will let him live that down! He shot 8 animals and she shot 1, but he only dropped two animals the first shot, neither of which I was able to film! Well we will see how the film turns out, hopefully I will be able to make it look good with cutting clips up and stuff. :) It is incredible seeing all the animals because they are sometimes only feet from the car, and lots of times it's a species that I have never seen before! Hopefully I will be able to show everyone all my videos once I get back!

Today we were able to go over to Lukolwe and see it for a morning. It was strange thinking about my family actually living there at one time, it is really hard to imagine! We went through the house where dad grew up, and they showed me the raised beds where my grandma had her garden; it's hard even now believing that they actually lived there at one time!

Chavuma

    During the last week I have been up at Chavuma, which is where Grandpa and Grandma Young are working. Aunt Margie is also working here, and I came up with her and Aunt Janette from Hillwood after the end of my last hunt (which was really short, I will mention that in my next post). I was thankful that I got to spend some time here with them and get to see some of what they do out here! They left a couple of days ago for a Bible translation conference, and so I am spending a couple of more days here with Aunt Margie and Aunt Janette, and then I will go back with Aunt Janette to Hillwood to start my next hunt, and Aunt Janette is starting the next term at Sakeji.
    While I have been out here I have realized how few people my age are willing to give their own lives to serve Christ! I don't know if I have met anyone within 5 or 10 years of my age serving here full time! We have lost our purpose here on this earth! Our goal isn't to do better than the guy next to us, it is to sell everything out for Jesus, and give Him every last bit of our existence, no matter what the cost! In fact, the cost will be high, that is a promise from God. Well, I am not content to just be better than the people around me, I want to be sold out with unlimited devotion to my Savior, the One that has set me free from my sins and put me at the right hand of the Father, because if we are not willing to do it who will? We are the body of Christ, that means we are His tools on this earth and if we don't do what needs to be done, then nobody else will!

First impressions

       My first hunt is over but there is no time to rest. We were in a Game Management Area about 12-15 hours drive from Nchila Wildlife Reserve (which is my uncle's place where I am now) and we finished that hunt on Wednesday morning, the next hunt started this morning (Friday) and we had a bunch of shopping to do in town when we went through. We arrived back Thursday night and now I will be trying to balance editing the last client's video in the evenings while filming the new hunters during the day. It's going to be pretty tiring I think!
        The hunt I have just finished was a mixed bag of emotions for me because I really had no idea what I was doing and so I was a bit nervous I was going to mess something up really bad, which I did sort of. While downloading the film from the day before, I accidentally deleted a whole day of video, and that day he had shot three animals! That kind of ruined part of the hunt for me, but other than that it was really quite amazing! Within two weeks we got charged by elephants 4 or 5 times, had lions within 2 feet of where we were hiding in a blind, had different lions stalk us like we were a meal for them, had a diuker (small deer) run into the side of our Land Cruiser, accidentally stop our vehicle on top of a hyena sleeping in a field (at which stage he woke up and started banging on the bottom of the car, so we backed off of it and shot it) watched elephants sleep within 15 yards, and a whole lot more!! So I can't say it wasn't exciting, in fact I enjoyed it quite a bit! When we would leave the camp to go hunting in the morning there would be ice on the seat on the back of the cruiser (where I sit) and we would drive around until we saw some game, and so that was really cold!!! I will probably be able to post in more depth in a few weeks, because I think that there will be a break after this hunter leaves. 

July 17th Washington DC

I have a 5 hour layover in Washington DC, and I had to change airlines, so I had to get a new boarding pass. When I got here the customer service desk wasn't open (7 AM). When it finally opened I found out that they strictly keep the one 15 pound carry on rule. When I weighed my two bags that I had carried onto my flight from LAX they weighed 20, and 30 pounds each. I was forced to check my 30 pound bag, which contained my camera, laptop, and hard drive. I was able to keep my laptop with me and just carry it around, but I checked my camera and hard drive, trying to keep as much padding around each one as possible. I will see what condition it is in once it gets to Lusaka, but I am not too worried because it's in God's hands, and He takes better care of His stuff than I ever could! I also know that if He allows something to happen to it, then it's for His glory! Since the bag was checked, that made me have 3 checked bags, which you are only allowed 2; this would have meant a $60 charge for extra luggage for me! But when I went to pay, the customer service guy told me not to worry about it!!! :D God is already at work!

My year in a post.

For the last month, it seems like every time I turn around somebody asks me with an intensely excited/jealous tone, “so what’s this I hear about you going to Africa?!” Well I’m very excited to talk about it, but after a while I forget who I’ve told about it and who I haven’t; It’s also quite time consuming to explain everything, and so at the suggestion of Ann Johnson, I have created a blog for people to follow not only my trip to Africa, but also the rest of my very packed out year.

I am going to give a brief overview of basically what my year is going to look like from a scheduled standpoint:

 March (when I am writing this) – June: I will be working and preparing for my trip to Africa.

12^th of June – July 14^th: I am blessed with the opportunity to be able to serve out at Camp Good News for 5 weeks this summer while still being able to do all the other things that I am planning on doing!

July 17^th – October 2^nd (roughly): I will be going to Zambia, Africa, and I will be working as a videographer for my uncle, Pete Fisher, who owns Nchila Wildlife Reserve. I will be videoing the hunts that he guides, on his property and elsewhere.  Is the position paid? Yes, although how much I don’t really know. Did I buy that nice camera just for this trip?! Yes and No, I actually didn’t buy the camera it’s my uncle’s; he left it here for me to practice with before I come out, and I will leave it out there with him when I come home. Are my travel expenses paid? No, I am planning on paying for my flights and hotel rooms. Will I see all my other family that lives in Africa? I sure hope so!! Will I get to do any hunting? Not likely although I would really love to! Can I take stuff out for them from you? Uhhh….. Probably not, because I already have told my uncle that I will be able to bring stuff out for him when I come. Can you come with me in my bag? Sure if you want to pay the overweight fees!!

Fall: I am prayerfully considering attending Ellerslie, in Colorado, for their fall discipleship program.  

I would appreciate your prayers through all of this because along the way, there are many decisions to be made and I need all the wisdom that I can get!! Thank you!