Mwila and Hatson Have Been Sponsored!!

A huge thanks to Lori and Kevin Smith who are sponsoring two of the worst cases we encountered.  With their contribution, Mwila and Hatson will be receiving 3 meals a day, Healthcare, and top-notch Christian education!

To help you understand the importance of this to these children, here's a little bit about them:

Mwila lives with a young aunt who is still in school.  As a result, they have to seek help from another aunt, who has a son who regulary abuses Mwila physically.  As a result, Mwila is being tested for HIV/AIDS.  If tests prove positive, Mwila will receive any necessary ARV treatments to allow her to live a full life thanks to sponsorship.  Also, provision from Family Legacy will discontinue the need for them to visit the other aunt's house.

Hatson lost his father in 2000 and his mother in January of this year.  He is currently living with a grandmother, because he has been disowned by other family members, and she has no source of income.  If something happens to his grandma, he has nowhere to go.  To Hatson, sponsorship means 3 meals a day, school fees paid for, regular healthcare, and the attention of Discipleship Leaders who will keep track of him no matter what happens.

Thank you Father for these children.  Thank you for knowing them well and for stirring the affections of Lori and Kevin to serve them and you.  Please continue to bless these children as they safely grow to know you better.  Amen.

37 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

Matthew 25:37-40

Zambia Recap Part 7

Taylor has been doing an amazing job documenting our story, and I wanted to join in and share a few of my thoughts along the way too.  He mentioned that on the Sunday before Camp Life we met our two Zambian partners for the week.

The Lord matched me up with my evangelist, Purity...

...and my apostle, Esther.

Meeting our partners on Sunday was our first real taste of Camp Life and the Lord's provision was so apparent from that first moment.  I had experienced ongoing doubt and anxiousness about whether I would "relate" to my girls and co-leaders, but the Lord made it very clear that He was in control and would provide exactly what he thought I needed.  

Purity and I had more things in common than I could count!  She loves to sing, dance, act, and be so silly (my family can surely attest to these similarities!).

She's one of 5 kids and loves spending time with her loud family that loves to laugh!  Her oldest brother, Maximillian, was the pastor at our church service on Sunday and her 2nd oldest brother, Darius (a picture of them below), was an evangelist at Camp too!.  These were just a few of the many things that were so similar about our lives, even though we live in very different places!

The verses that come to mind when I think of Purity are:

"A cheerful heart is good medicine..."  Proverbs 17:22

and

"She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come."  Proverbs 31: 25-25

Our group was blessed continually by her cheerful spirit and bright smile.  This girl was cheerful even after waking up at 4:30am so that she and her friends could walk an hour and 45 minutes from their village to camp each morning!  I think, "ugh!  I can't imagine having to do that!" and she saw it as a time to talk and spend time with her dear friends!

Also, the Lord used her constantly to remind me that the He was in control...of every conversation, every word, the timing, how our girls responded to the teaching, etc, etc.  Every time I would even begin to voice a comment like "maybe I should have said ______ instead" or "maybe ______ could have gone better" she would instantly respond back with "the Lord knows!  He doesn't need you to say or do just the perfect thing!  The Lord will work how and when He wants!".  Convicting, but so encouraging!

Here's a snapshot of us during one of our morning pow-wows.  We would chat about and pray for our girls before they came each morning and then regroup and do the same each day when the girls left.

With all the busyness during the day, these were special times where we could get to know each other and hear how the same God was working in different ways in each of our lives.

Purity (left) and Esther (jumping rope on the right)

Esther was much more "subdued", but had such passion for the Lord.  When Purity and I would step away to do "blessing time" with one of our girls, Esther would take over the teaching.  She had such enthusiasm and passion for our girls to know scripture and taught them how to use the EvangeCube  (an evangelism tool) backwards and forwards.  Each morning she would share about her 1am prayer time from the night before.  Every night she would wake up and pray, pray, pray for our girls for an hour and then go back to sleep.  Wow!

The verse that comes to mind when I think of Esther is:

"For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.  The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him,"  Matthew 12:34-35

I just had this picture of her heart being so packed with scripture and knowing the Lord's character, that His truth just spewed out of her mouth.  Her prayers were so encouraging to me as she would just pray, pray, pray so fervently and with such passion.

Ahhh!  All that to say, both of these girls were amazing and were such a gift from the Lord that week.  I was so encouraged by them and had so much fun with them!  I miss them, but take joy in knowing I'll see them again someday, if not here on earth, then surely in heaven!

Zambia Recap Part 6

Sunday morning we woke up, put on our church clothes (and a fleece because church would be outside) and walked to the "boma" down the street.  The boma was a thatched open-air building where some Zambian friends of the ministry were holding church service for the Americans.  Preaching, reading scripture, and praying in English made us realize how much intentionality is required for the Zambians to want to pursue God.  I have a hard enough time understanding the complexities of scripture in English on occasion, I can't imagine if I was studying with Nyanja or Bimba text!!

The service was great.  No laser light shows, no concert hall sound systems, just people who loved the Lord getting after it with songs like "Lets Stomp the Devil" which of course had dance motions.

After church we quickly changed clothes and hopped on a bus to an area called Arcades.  Remembering that we are in the capital city, this was a blend of African market and urban retail.  The area has a market in the middle of the parking lot, surrounded by banks, a grocery store, and even a Subway.  No Starbucks though, I guess there are still some areas on this planet where their presence cannot be felt (not to mention, who in Africa would pay 3 days wages for a cup of coffee?  I'm just saying...). 

We ate a burger at Mike's then popped in an internet cafe to send our dads quick Father's Day greetings.  While emailing our families we began to be broken down as we pondered the children we would be ministering to, remembering that so many have no father besides our Father in heaven.  This realization made us all the more thankful.

We circled the market about 37 times while Amanda was picking out a purse.  Thats a joke, but not a far fetched one.  The ladies were actually laughing each time we came by.

We finally found "the perfect one" and loaded up the buses to go to the GO Center.  The acronym "GO" is for Gospel Outreach, the facility rented by Family Legacy to host Camp Life.  This afternoon we would be meeting our Evangelists and Apostles.

Our Evangelists are our right-hand man, our cultural advisors, and our reassurance when conversations or situations got tense.  Our Apostles served the group constantly, kept track of them during blessing times, and tought them the Evangecube, a visual evangelism tool.

My (Taylor) guys were Evangelist Patrick and Apostle Heavy.  Patrick is a year or two older than myself, and Heavy is 36.  Both love Jesus so much, and are real servants to these kids.

Amanda's partners were Esther and Purity, whom she will share more about soon.

We got to know our partners better, and had an opportunity to ask them questions about what our kids go through, and what to expect.  There was a divine connection almost instantly that is remeniscent of what I believe the early church was like.  We had a common bond: Christ and Him glorified.  That was all we needed!

We loaded up once more on the bus and went back to Mulungushi for dinner and our evening ministry project: bagging letters for necklace name tags.  Tomorrow is the first day of CAMP LIFE!!!

Zambia Recap Part 5

Backing up slightly to set the scene for our return trip to Lusaka, shortly after stepping off the bus to Livingstone, Amanda chimed in "what do you think the odds are we could fly back?"  I quickly confirmed, "REALLY good."  The bus trip was very enlightening, but we just stepped off exhausted.  Somewhere between the lack of air conditioning, the patches of non-existant pavement, and the scary bathroom stops we lost all energy.  We emailed Susan, the director's wife, and asked if flying back was a possibility.  Her reply was flight information.  She said about 85% of bus riders fly back (so we're not wimps!!).

Our flight was humorous.  "Security" once again consisted of us simly confirming we didn't have anything scary.  The Lord did come through in a big way though, because there was a weight limit per bag because this flight was a 12 seat puddle jumper.  My bag needed to be at or under 15kg, and it was exactly that.

For the first time I had the opportunity to see out the front windshield of a plane I was flying in.  No need for a loud speaker, and the flight attendant was more in the way than helpful.  1 hour later we bounced down the runway in Lusaka, Zambia.

This time we were rested walking through the airport, and had big smiles when we saw our ride there promptly to pick us up.  We arrived at the Mulungushi Housing Village, a walled/secured community where Family Legacy rents a number of houses for the summer. 

We went by the director's house to pick up the remainder of our luggage, and were dropped off at Villa 13 where the Paces and Storms were already settled in. 

We quickly got to know them all and freashened up a bit before gathering up at the dining hall for our orientation.  We all went around introducing ourselves, then heard a little bit about our schedule for the week.

After dinner we headed back to our villa and passed out, excited about church the next morning.

Readership

I had the exciting moment today to see that our blog has been viewed in 10 countries:

Thank you to all who have been reading our stories!  Keep checking in, because we're about to get into Camp Life.  The Lord did amazing things, and we'll share as much as we can with you.  Expect another post in the next day or so!

Education for Zambia

One of the biggest initiatives that FMLI is engaging in is the education of these children.  Second only to the gospel of Jesus Christ, education will be the tool that helps these kids change their country.

The following is a video shown to the American volunteers.  It highlights 2 girls born the same day; one has the opportunity for education, one doesn't.

The scary thing is that Amanda and I can confrim that this is what it looks like.  We saw it with our own eyes.  Praise the Lord for providing us the resources to give back to his people.

Zambia Recap Part 4

Part of our add-on excursion while at Victoria Falls was a sunset cruise on the Zambezi river just above the falls.  We were on the Lady Livingstone, a huge 3 deck boat with only 6 other people. 

We got on the boat about 1 mile upstream and took it another few miles to the intersection of 4 countries: Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia.  Here we enjoyed hors d'oeuvres and drinks as we watched the sun set. 

Majestic. 

We spent about 30-40 minutes speaking with the host Frederick, and learned a lot about Zambia's history and cultural norms.  He said his sister and her husband passed and that he has a few kids and has now taken over care for her children as well.  He spoke of it as nothing more than his duty.  It was quite admirable the sacrifices he has made to take care of those kids.  He shared with us that he is Taongan in heritage; a tribe that originally migrated from Angola.  This is one of the 3 main tribes now in Zambia.

The next day we got up early and took an open-top safari style Land Rover to the Zambia/Botswana border.  After "customs" we boarded a flat bottom boat with the other 4 people that were going on the photo safari with us and crossed the Zambezi. 

After "customs" on the Botswana side, we were cleared to enter the country.  I put customs in quotations because its anything but secure at border crossings in Africa.  We filled out paperwork on both sides declaring our intent and belongings, but they dont have computer filing systems, so I'm guessing its shoved in a box somewhere never to be seen again.  We also had to be "disinfected" upon entering Botswana because livestock is their main export, and they were worried about foot and mouth disease.  The "disinfection" consisted of us stepping on a towel that was soaked in something like turpentine.  Nice work guys.

We arrived at a resort on the Chobe river in Botswana where we would be departing for our river safari.  Our guide's name was Moses, so insert river parting joke here.  His accent was quite odd, and he said he lived with a family from Chicago in Botswana for a few years.  No further explanation, so no further details.

It was cold on the river.  Actually, it was cold everywhere.  The Africans didn't really know what to think because it was unseasonably cold for them.  I liked it.

We spent the first half of the day checking out hippos, birds, monitor lizards, and nile crocodiles from the water.  We had some rare opportunities such as motoring next to two elephants swimming across to the river to a sandbar to catch up to some older elephants.  Really a neat opportunity!

We sat down for lunch at the resort with the other 4 of our party and suffice it to say, we were in classy company!  I am usually pretty good at picking out international origin, but I was stumped by this family, until I saw they're passports.  They were from Brazil, and Portugese is bizarre.  Thats all I'll say about that.  As we got to know them better we learned that the family was pretty important in they're own walks of life.  For anonymity's sake, I'll say that the Father was a Brazilian attache' to a DC political organization, the daughter is a model, and the boyfriend is a former tennis star (who may or may not have won the French open 3 times and beaten both Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras).  We were a little shell shocked, not to mention the fact that we saw the tennis star on tv that night playing a charity event with Mary Pearce!

The second half of the day was the land safari with our guide B.  That was a lot easier than the name he repeated 3 times to no avail.  The land safari was great.  We saw a lot of the same animals we had seen from the water, but we were up close and personal with them here.  Our guide was a bit brave for my taste, but what the heck we're in Africa right?

We saw tons of elephants, warthogs, giraffes, cape buffalo, and kudu.  No cats, but I think I'm ok with that!

The trip back to the border allowed time for reflection as we drove through Botswana.  Botswana is doing MUCH better than Zambia, which is doing MUCH better than Zimbabwe.  They said its a result of good government with better checks and balances, a strong currency, and a strict immigration policy.  If a person crosses over but doesn't have work they are provided 2 days' food and shelter and sent back home.  Should the US take a clue from Botswana? 

We saw Zambia in a different light when we crossed back over.  We saw what a tough spot the people are in, and we knew the best we could do is show them the hope of the Lord.  In the end is there anything better?!

The next post will highlight our trip back to Lusaka and the beginning of our work with Camp Life.  Stay tuned!