from kids to kids...

Before I left Canada my dear little cousins Soren, Levi, Jensen and Tiara sent blessings to kids in Zambia. They bundled some of their clothes and toys with toothpaste, soap, candies, etc. and asked me to give them to the kids in Zambia.
We tried and tried to find a family with kids just their ages…but we couldn’t find one just like them. So instead we took them to the Under Five Clinic and shared them with many little ones.
I know that they all felt especially blessed today because of the thoughtfulness of those sweet little cousins of mine!

(Pictures to follow when I have a faster internet connection!)

Siabalumbi VBS

After a quiet weekend around town and the mission we headed to Siabalumbi for our last round of, “The Joy of the Lord is our Strength.” It is unreal that it is all over already!
We had a wonderful few days with that community. The kids were great. Their was singing beautiful. And the spirit was very much alive among us.
Of the three most recent community schools to begin development, they were the last to start by six months, and the first to complete the project! It is unbelievable to look at that place imagine that just a few months ago it was flat, undeveloped potential. I know that many children will now also reach their full potential through the education offered at that school. They were once again so exited to receive their sign and textbooks and celebrated openly and joyfully with us. They had the drums and the dancing going before we arrived on Monday morning. Our first thirty minutes that day involved only: greeting, singing, dancing, cheering and just celebrating! Very cool.
The only regret we have is that we were only able to spend Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday mornings with them and so VBS was done in mini-style. It was still wonderful to spend time with those kids to share some gifts and songs.
I am so blessed to have spent this summer in this place with these people.

Katungu VBS

Our second week of VBS was spent at Katungu Community school. It was an amazing school to work with! I was sick with the flu for Tuesday and Wednesday unfortunately, so I didn’t get a chance to spend as much time there as I did at Simakakata. Monday was an incredible day of celebration though. We celebrated their new school building by unveiling their new school sign. And then we had the privilege of distributing new textbooks for their school. You cannot imagine the cheering, praising, clapping and dancing that was offered because of these books. It was amazing! The parents, headman, and community members gathered for the ceremony and I was honoured to be a part of it. The textbook fundraising back in Canada involved many people from multiple provinces. Mrs. Mbumwae had requested $20, 000CDN for the needed textbooks for her community schools earlier this year. Each person on our team thought that goal was unattainable. But as usual…God’s plan prevailed through many generous people! We arrived with even more than that amount to invest into textbooks for these schools. When we saw the celebration on that first day of VBS, we knew that those textbooks were much more precious to these people than we ever imagined....



Wish you could have been there!

Aggie

I mentioned awhile ago that a very special girl in Zambia is certainly worthy of her own blog. Her name is Agnes.

She comes from near Siampweze (not sure about that spelling…) her mother had passed away when she was about 5 and nobody could care for her. She was found in the village, terribly neglected and malnourished. Her body was the size only of a three year old and her face looked as though it had lived through long decades. Very much like an old woman. She knew no English when she was brought to Rod and Sue Calder and from what anyone could tell…she cared very little to learn it. She spoke to nobody, wouldn’t smile for anything….and you could see hardness in her eyes.
She stole many hearts as we became involved in her life. She had only to accept and trust their love in return...which understandably took time.

Throughout her first year at the orphanage, she overcome the language barrier slowly and soon the relational ones as well. She learned to trust that the people around loved and cared for her and soon the hardness began to melt away. As her diet improved, her distended tummy shrank and the “old-lady” look from her face became young again. But Aggie always seemed to be sick! We couldn’t seem to get her to stop leaking from any one location…when one would clear the other would start. If ever she fell ill….she would leak from everywhere, all at once!
After several rounds of antibiotics, countless trips to the doctor, and some tests we learned that she was HIV+. Imagine that this little body had lived through neglect, extreme malnutrition, loneliness, many infections and was now to be counted among the millions in sub-Saharan Africa with this terrible virus. And all by the age of six! She began treatment shortly after I returned to Canada in 2003. Each picture that I have seen since that time has shown dramatic improvements to her health. It was also discovered in the months that followed that she would have permanent hearing and seeing problems b/c of the infections that lingered prior to her diagnoses. Treatment has made a world of difference in this life! Her body was finally able to grow and heal itself. She has grown in height, her belly shrunk and she has lived basically a normal life for the past several years. She is now a beautiful young girl who attends a special boarding school in Choma for Seeing/Hearing-Impaired students. She proudly showed us around her campus when we took her back one Sunday. She is always a girl of few words, but the smile on her face said it all…not to mention the sweet hugs she passed around before we left her there.

I love this girl.

VBS @ Simakakata

Our past week was spent out at Simakakata Community School. We had such a blast with those kids! We had the younger kids in the morning and older in the afternoon. We had about 250-300 kids in total. Our theme is the Joy of the Lord is our Strength.
On Monday our lessons focused on: The Lord Gives You Joy
Tuesday our lessons focused on: The Lord Gives You Strength
Wednesday our lessons focused on: The Lord Protects You
Thursday our lessons focused on: The Lord Rejoices Over You!!

The kids were very active and involved…and they just couldn’t get enough VBS! I however was quite okay to not sing any more Joy songs by the end of the week…I seemed to have been Joy-ed out. But by Monday I was ready to go again!

Sometimes after VBS was finished for the day the kids would gather around and we would offer some sort of “entertainment”….like bubbles, or practicing Tonga words, or singing, or whatever. But one day we were waiting for an especially long time and so Barb and I just decided to get a tarp and sit for a few minutes. In no time at all, we were smothered with kids! We had them sitting all around. Barb’s little friend Eliza was curled up right beside her and repeated every English word she said…with nearly perfect pronunciation! We were amazed and delighted to spend lots of time with that little gal throughout the week. As I was sitting there, I could hear several girls saying in Tonga, “blah…blah…blah its up to you.” I couldn’t understand what the first part was, but the second part was clear. I didn’t know what they were talking about, and then one girl reached out and touched my hair…and then one more….and then one more…and then my head was covered in little hands petting my hair! I guess they were trying to get enough guts to actually touch a white person’s hair. It was so funny! It reminded me of a similar situation that my mom had when she visited here in 2003…she was covered on her head, shoulders and arms!

I am always amazed by the singing everywhere in Zambia but these children were exceptional. They taught us several songs and we were thrilled! They had one song that goes something like:
When we follow Jesus Christ!
When we follow, one by one.
When we follow Jesus Christ
When we follow, one by one.
Then we’ll say, Then we’ll say,
“Allellujah!”

I had way too much fun with this one! I turned it into a massive game of follow the leader, while singing. They are MUCH better at this combo than I am….it wasn’t very long until I was huffing and puffing. But it was so much fun!

At lunch time they would come and sing for us and then we would sing for them. The best part was that they sang my dad’s favourite song from the African Children’s Choir named, “Watoto”! It is called, “Higher, Higher”. The chorus goes:
Let’s push Jesus Higher!
Higher, higher, higher, higher, higher, higher
Let’s push Jesus higher!

I took a video so I can show you when I get home Dad!

We will spend next week at Katungu and the following week at Siabalumbi. I know that this work is good and can see that the kids feel blessed by it and that is why I'm here.