Mwachoma Bwanji

Mwachoma bwanji (good afternoon)! Today I am writing you from Spar, which is the grocery store here in Zambia. As I sit in this cafe, i can hear at least 4 or 5 different languages being spoken. I love that.

So this week has been full of more preparation for the American volunteers which will be arriving on Saturday. A hand full arrived this morning, but were shipped off immediately to their tour of Victoria Falls. When they return they will be rested and cured of jet lag and ready to give their hearts to the orphans!

Every Sunday, we attend church here in Zambia and this week we went to Lifeline Community Church where my favorite Pator Eddies speaks from the pulpit. Unfortunately, he was not here this week and the associate pastor gave the sermon. He kind of lost me halfway through, but his main message really touched me. The premise was that "if you knew what God had put into the person next to you, you would treat them better than you do."

I started to realize that if I just considered this along with how we are called to love each other as Jesus loved us...how much more fruitful and joyful my life would be. That we are called to encourage and support one another, and if we realized what God wanted to do in each person that we encountered, how much fruitful we as a people would be. We would be spurring each other to our fullest potential. There is definitely not enough of that going around. Just a thought.

I love the Zambian church. It is so alive with spirit. There is acapella singing, there is dancing, there is rejoicing and there is praying aloud...alot of it. It is such a beautiful experience to be able to see another culture worship their God. It is a little glimpse of what heaven will be like when a people from every tribe, tongue and nation come before the throne and worship. Nothing could make my heart more happy.

I am hoping that tomorrow is the day that I will be able to go with one of the Zambian discipleship leaders to the schools. I am very excited to see all of the children, and hear all of their singing again. I want to live a day in the life of one of the Zambians, and be able to take part in it.

I just found out that we will not be returning to the INternational School for camp. A new principle has taken over and he will not allow us to come there because we are a Christian organization and he is an atheist. This is very sad, because the ISL is one of the BEST places to host camp life. Instead we retreat to Nakatendi Hall for then entire summer, in the middle of downtown and it is much smaller. Perhaps the Lord has chosen this as a better place to witness. We will see.

I have noticed that Lusaka is becoming a more prominent place to be. The Zambian money (called Kwacha) is getting a better exchange rate these days, and prices are continuing to rise. I hope that this is a good change and will affect the people of Lusaka, and not just the government.

Last night we met a lady who works with a program that tries to get street kids off the street. The numbers of them are increasing every day and there are more street kids here than ever before. OH, if we could only have the Tree of Life Village built now, so that we would have a place to love and house them. There are so many problems here. The community schools are very poor, the teachers who teach there sometimes only have the equivalent of 3rd or 4th grade education. The children are only able to attend school for a few hours a day, even then you can imagine the quality is very poor. The children are continuously moved from extended relative to extended relative, making it difficult to stay in one place, and therefore one school. Or they are removed from school to go and "work." For girls, that means mostly prostitution and for boys, breaking rocks. Please continue praying with me for these children.

Next week we will be teaching them how to be VICTORIOUS in Christ! Mulungu aku dalise muzanga (God bless you my friend). I love you all, and I hope to be writing again soon!

Mwenda mushi, (go well)