Blessings and Challenges

So the last month in Zambia has been good, but it is getting difficult as it becomes closer to my time to leave. I will miss this place so much as it really has become a second home and I have really become a part of a family here. There have been some exciting things that have come about in the last month and also some challenges as always.

One very exciting thing is that the neighbor boy who lives in the backyard (what is called the servant’s quarters) has finally accepted to start coming to church with us and now accepted the Lord and wants to be baptized! He and his brother are orphans and Alice told them they could live in the back for free if they help keep the place clean. The older boy works and the younger one goes to a free school for orphans learning about plumbing and welding. He is very smart and always comes to me with math questions that we have been working out together. It is very exciting to see him grow.

As for the school, we took the kids on an educational tour to a “fake village” (it was a lodge overlooking the gorge) and although a beautiful and fun experience, also a very stressful one as we had to keep 30 kids away from the edge of the cliff. We also did a project in class that includes a Polaroid of themselves on a tracing of their hands and feet. Parents were very excited to receive these.

I also had the chance of speaking to the parents about child abuse and telling them the ways to prevent it. It was a chance to share some of my knowledge with them, but it was also difficult as the social welfare system is not well organized as it is in the U.S. to deal with cases such as child abuse. It is not always a good thing to report abuse to them or the police because you may find that nothing will happen or they will actually make the situation worse. When I went to child welfare to get information, they really knew nothing and had no concrete laws on it. We just encouraged them to come together as a community to discourage child abuse and we also told them that if there were cases that were not being correctly dealt with due to corruption in the police, that we could help them report it to an organization called International Justice Mission who helps in these sorts of extreme cases. It has been a difficult thing for me to find the balance as my duties as a social worker, but also respect the culture and understand the justice system. It is very frustrating to me that people get away with such things. This topic came up when I suspected abuse on one of the boys at the preschool as he was so terrified of showing his mother that his bag broke because she whips him with a stick on his legs so that there are marks. This is normal here, but it is never right for a child to grow up in total fear of his mother. Anyways, it is hard, but I am growing.

The school closed this week so now I will be working on a few other projects including helping the youth center create a library with some books that were donated by former missionaries in Africa. Books are so hard to come by in Africa so this will be such a great resource for the youth especially since they aren’t just old books. I hope to start this project soon. The youth also had a youth rally where they had HIV testing again and a youth Sunday where they ran the whole service. They will be hosting a youth camp soon so they also did a fundraising Braii (BBQ) which was very fun. Once more, I tried to start a girl’s bible study with the teenage girls as I really want a chance for us to talk about the issues teens go through and be open with each other as it is so rare in this culture. The problem is that the girls do not show up to many things so it was very difficult to get them to come. This was a bit disappointing, but I will continue to reach out to these girls.

The boys are doing well. They are continuing to grow and be excited about God. The last couple of weeks we started having them each share something. It could be a testimony, encouragement, song, verse, etc. We really saw some amazing talents in these boys as well as incredible potential. It was so good to hear from them and be excited that God really is doing big things in their lives! It is so worth the time we have taken to invest in these boys as I believe they will grow up to do big things. We have also had some new faces from church become excited about coming to encourage them.

One of the most encouraging things that has happened this month is the generous contributions of friends, my lifegroup, and Rockharbor. It has been so exciting because I found that Rockharbor donated $1500 which we have used or are in the process of using to buy a computer, printer, photocopier, burgler bars, locks, mattresses for the kids to nap on, and possibly some other small items. The computer, printer, and photocopier are not only for the school to become organized, but also to generate money for the school. We will be charging the public to use these things and generating money to help pay school fees for those who can’t manage. We will also most likely start a small shop with basic necessities to also generate money.

There was also a few other donations that I am so grateful for. One is a monthly supporter who will be helping a few orphans that are being looked after by their grandparents. We visited these kids and it is so crazy how AIDS has swept through their family. The grandparents had 15 children or something and I think only about 3 are still living. And it is so common for people here to have lost 1 or both parents very early on in their life. The other donation is my lifegroup who has been so amazing. If I don’t have to use much money for immigration, most of this money will also go to buying materials for the school and paying school fees for kids who can’t manage, as well as helping a few people with general needs, such as the boy living in back of us who needs a scientific calculator for school.

I am also helping to put together a fundraising boat cruise for the school that will take place on May 10^th. God is really blessing the heart Alice has for children and the ways in which she sacrifices for them. The other big thing I have been doing is preparing for my parents to come and visit. I am very excited to show them around where I have been for almost a year and also get to enjoy Africa a bit as a tourist. The Lord has been beside me during this time and I am so grateful to be in His arms and to also be His arms and legs to others. God bless you all.

Erin