Many Hats: Zambia Team- Lydia Ohlmann

Today was our last day teaching, despite Alexus’s many attempts at forgetting this fact. This morning, during our prayer before leaving for our first of three teaching stations, I thought about how different each member of our team is, in terms of the ‘hats’ we fancy to put on. Josh is a teacher, and that hat is one he’s probably pretty comfortable with. He’s also really into nature, and the level of excitement Alexus felt for Josh when he actually got to see a black mamba on the safari tour we went on two days ago, I think, adequately revealed the high extent it meant to Josh while also displaying one of her own hats—selflessness in attention to others. I’ve seen this hat very subtly on her. She doesn’t wear it to look flashy or with the hope to get people to notice it, either. It’s one of those hats that folds in on itself and can be stored unassumingly but still readily available. I hope you can envision the type of hat I mean because it’s a real-life picture of the metaphorical example I have for one of my father’s hats… he’s very organized. He was very excited to show Andrew how compact and convenient his little hat was. Maybe the depth of this metaphorical hat my father wears is quite deep for me, considering I’ve seen him wear it my whole life. But I think it’s a prominent hat for who he is on every overseas trip, let alone the trips where he’s responsible for others. It’s amazed me for as long as I can remember—the extent of diligence and integrity in his organizational skills and habits. From when he was giving me never-ending packing tips and tricks before leaving, all the way to him putting mosquito repellent thingies outside our rooms at night, this organization/put-togetherness hat of his has made its debut many times on this trip. I think this hat is one Andrew has folded up somewhere too; it’s just intentionally left to be appreciated from a distance with his personal taste in hats. By all means, he could put this organized hat on, but there seems to be something enticing about the many other options of hats he has as well. For example, the hat of spontaneity and adaptability provides a nice touch of spice to the trip. An example of this was how well he taught his lesson today, even though we didn’t have a translator for the first time. In addition, he’s come up with so many different ways of thinking of others or doing something as a group that it’d be impossible for this trip to not have been one of the fondest of experiences. He kept us challenging ourselves to make our lessons better, which was something I greatly needed. I couldn’t tell you how he’s managed to carry and keep track of maybe 7–8 different items outside of his backpack this whole time, but nonetheless, his impressive brain is beneath his hat of choice. It’s quite easy for me to talk about these hats, being that I’ve known everyone on the team for an acceptable amount of time. But what made thinking about these hats so interesting was how satisfying and organic it was to witness all of us having the same hat on whenever we would be teaching or discussing during a devotion. It’s awesome in that, with our other hats, we may not intentionally put them on, but we still think through our own personalities and the qualities we try to demonstrate. But this hat we’d all simultaneously be wearing… I think it’s more so the Holy Spirit working through us as we teach/speak of God’s Word. It’s not something we can put on ourselves—at least not in the way I’ve viewed it during the trip. Thanks for bearing through what probably was an excruciatingly painful explanation of my hats analogy. We taught at three different schools today, if you’re curious for some of the current details of the trip. These kids were very smart, and most had already heard of the Bible stories we had planned. It was quite fun trying new things or thinking of new ways to make it interesting, even though they may already know the lesson theme. Tomorrow we’re visiting Victoria Falls! Blessings to you all from Zambia!