ACTS training

ACTS, African Christian Tours and Safaris, is a christian organization that facilitates mission and holiday trips in multiple countries in Africa. My church has been working with ACTS for about 4 years now, ever since we have been partnering with a town in Zambia. 

ACTS guides are there to serve the group and provide them with their physical needs so they might do their mission as successfully as possible - transportation, lodging, food, etc. Just to give you an idea of what all being a guide entails, this criteria list is from my training manual ---- 

Role as an ACTS guide:

1. Tour leader

2.  Logistical manager

3. Short term missions consultant

4.  First aider

5. Head chef

6. Entertainer

7. Counselor

8. Crisis manager

9. Immigration officer

10.  Bush master J 

Being a guide is so many things! Basically the 'jack of all trades'. It’s a lot of hard work but it’s so rewarding. I am so excited! For the past week we have been training and I have been preparing the menus for 18 people for 12 days! I’ve had to come up with meals to prepare and give to the team for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and a few desserts for a 12 day trip. Before our team arrives, the two other guides and I will be buying all of the food, cleaning up the truck, checking all of the equipment, etc. For this trip we are ‘bush camping’ which is pretty much ‘roughing it’ in a very rural area. We will have to build our own bathroom and shower stall on the camp ground. We will also be staying in tents and cooking over a fire. It’s going to be quite the experience! My first trip to Africa was this same camping experience except this time I will be participating in the mission in another perspective. It’s going to be so great because everyday we will get to hear all of the amazing stories about how God has been working through the group and through their ministry. It will be a great blessing to us guides hearing how God provided and moved everyday. On the other hand, we are going to be ministering to our group as well. It’s such a blessing to have guides that are servant hearted, always cheerful, always encouraging, the last ones to go to sleep and the first to arise. I have always appreciated the guides I have had in the past and I am so excited that I will get to be one of them – to serve and help people in that way.

We are leaving early tomorrow morning and driving to Lusaka, Zambia where we will buy all of the food we need and prepare the truck and equipment. Saturday night is when our church group arrives and we will be staying there for a day and then driving to the ministry site along with our missionaries we have been working with for the past few years, Wes and Laurie Wilcox. Then we will be ‘in the bush’ for about 7 days and then driving back to Livingstone where we will stay for 2 days. This is where the group will see Victoria Falls and do any other tourist activities.

After this trip, Mandy and I will be staying with Wes and Laurie for about a week – visiting with them as well as shadowing them. After that we will return to Zimbabwe and work at the volunteer projects until our next trip! Keep us in your prayers.