Day 2 - Church Day, Day 3 - meet the kids

Day 2 -

On Sunday, our second day in Zambia, we took busses back up to the Camp Life grounds.  On this amazing piece of land is The Tree of Life Village, a village of homes for orphans.  I will talk more about that later.  The children that live at the Tree of Life came up to the Legacy Center, the building where so much of the fun happens from Camp Life. 

In the Legacy Center, we all had church together.  When we arrived, we were told the orphans would already be there spaced out in the building.  We were to go find a seat amongst the orphans.  I believe God knew right where he wanted me.  I had a seat between two wonderful boys.  Pat was directly behind me.  The very first Zambian boy that I met, Matthews, was as sweet as could be.  We talked only briefly, before the service began.

My very first Zambian friend, Matthews!

The worship of these children was so pure and touching!
 I truly felt God in this place.

The service began with beautiful worship by a choir of children from the Tree of Life Village.  I didn’t tape this, though I wish I had so that everyone could hear the amazing sound that came from these children – beautiful!  Next, a pastor from Zambia spoke.  I really desire to relay his message, as it was wonderful, but as I sit and try to type out even the theme, I find my words are so inadequate.  Bottomline: God sends men to do the work that He wants done.  He used Moses to bring the Israelites from Egypt.  He used Mary to birth Jesus.  He used Greer Kendall to begin Family Legacy Missions International.  I want to be used to do his work as well!  He does the miraculous part, but he calls people to be his hands and feet that he can work through.  Oh my God, USE ME!

After the service, the children left and we had a nice lunch, then we were able to meet our Zambian partners.  Mine was an amazing godly woman named Febbie.  She loved the Lord and you could hear it in all that she said and see it in everything she did!  I felt ready to do anything the Lord called me to and I was so thankful to have Febbie by my side!

Day 3 -

On Day 3-Monday, we started our day with a tour of Lusaka. We drove past the areas that the children live that will be coming to Camp LIFE. These areas are called 'The Compounds'. Each compound has a name that identifies it. These compounds would compare to the Slums of the U.S only the housing structures in some are just made up of sticks and black garbage bags.  Between 60 and 70 percent of Lusaka's 1.4 million people live in the compounds. Some compounds are worse than others. We stopped at one (a less dangerous one) and took a walk through. There were children everywhere with not a lot of adults to be seen. The average age in Zambia is 16 because of the HIV/Aids epidemic that continues to ravage the country.   We saw many ‘businesses’ that were stands with homemade alcohol that they were selling. 

Here are some pictures taken from the bus.

When people were able to live in a structure they were most often cinder blocks with no insulation at all.  Heavy rocks or
other items were place on the tin roofs to keep them from flying off in the wind.

A big business was selling charcoal.  People would bring in burnt wood (charcoal) and bundle it in to smaller portions to sell to the people in the compounds.  The people that could afford it would use it to cook..




Here are pictures taken while walking around the compound.


This was the inside of a 'school'.  The community schools usually have kids that attend about 2 hours a day and the teachers have an average of a 7th grade education.  Not all of the kids are even able to affort to attend those.



Many people carry things on their heads.

a church in the compound

The tour prepared us to fall in love with these children who were born into circumstances so unlike our own, by no fault of their own.  I was ready!

We went back to Camp Life, and the children were waiting for us.

These two pictures were from the first time I laid eyes on my girls.  As I look at them now, it amazes me to see the sadness, the look of uncertainty.  They didn't know what to expect, but they did know that life hadn't given them a whole lot to look forward to, so what could change now.  All I knew was that I wanted to show them the love of Jesus.  I wanted to be the hands and feet of Jesus and let every one of these girls know how very much they are loved.  

The first thing we did together is have lunch.  We Americans make our lunches, as well as our Zambian partners, every evening.  We fix peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  That is what we have every day of Camp.  The children get 4 pieces of bread and a drink that contains lots of vitamins.  They love it, as most days all they can expect at home if anything is something called nshima - similar to grits.  Here at camp they also received a banana every day and an apple.  Good stuff for these children.

After lunch, we had our first big group, where all of the children, the Americans, and their Zambian partners went into the Legacy Center together.  That was about 1200 people.  It was so organized.  You would have thought it would have been chaos, but it was perfect.  Pat  shared that evening that he had never felt such JOY as when the music started and those kids were watching his every move and trying to sing along.  It was AWESOME! After the music the children learned about God and the Power that he wants to give them.......I could go on and on, but what I really want to do is introduce you to my girls, the girls that I fell head over heels in love with over the next 5 days.  The girls that, when I had to say good-bye to, I bawled like a baby.  The girls that have so very little, while I have so very much.  The girls that blessed me so very much, while I thought that I was going to be doing the blessing.  Tomorrow, I will introduce you to some amazing little ladies!
 Thank-you for reading!