Graduations and hospitals

This week has been eventful. We attended the Grade 9 Graduation for one of our sponsored students. You have heard me talk of Webby before. This was like no other graduation we have ever attended. The students marched out to the choir singing. The procession was really a slightly swaying two step. This is the norm here. Then once the speakers finished, and they were just like American commencement speakers, long. Then the students were called up to receive their certificates. But what happened next was strictly Zambian. As each young man or girl went up, some member of their family or friends went running up to them, singing and dancing to give them hugs and gifts. Sometimes it was many people who went up. No one seemed to think this was unusual. It was loud, happy and the students loved it. Because both living to be a grade 9 student and the chance to atttend school is so rare, much is made of this occcasion . So when our student was called I gave him our gift, even though I found it difficult to act as the Zambians did, such a quiet person that I am. But Webby was happy to have us there and now we wait for his results for the grade 9 exams to be ready. In this country you don't get to go on to 10th grade unless you pass the 9th grade exams. He won't know until January or Feb. They have a holiday from now until in January. So please pray for our student that he will have done well and can continue school. He wants so much to go. He has studied hard.

Then, yesterday we accompanied Rogers Namuswa, one of the church development leaders, to the Kalomo hospital and family shelter. We took some of the donated food from America to the family shelter and he handed it out. We had prayers in the wards and then I spoke to the women gathered . This is the place families can stay while they have family in the hospital. Unlike the U.S. families move in to these shelters and cook meals for themselves and provide care for their family who are a patient. It is a bare concrete building, no furniture of any kind, only a covered picinic like shelter to cook or wash in. They bring their food, their cooking utensils and stay there for weeks sometimes. As we entered the shelter, flies were everywhere, they were sitting on the bare concrete floor, and they brought us a couple of stones to sit on. I was so humbled to be asked to speak to them. How could I give them anything of worth. I spoke to them about their courage and then shared with them the verses about God being able to do more than we ask or imagine. About how the power of the Holy Spirit living in us can overcome all things. Then Don prayed with them and we passed out the food. As I talked with some of them I could see Jesus in their eyes. It is times like this that God reminds me why we are here. To help in their suffering, to offer a cup of cold water, and also to share in the joy of one young man as he obtained recognition for hard work and effort. Thanks to God we are here among His people.

More About Webby

He comes each day after he finishes his day's exams. He is eager to study the Bible and it is a challenge because I never really know how much he comprehends about what we study. Zambians are so polite that they won't disagree with what you say and won't tell you always if they don't understand a word. So yesterday we talked about what redeemption means. Finding examples from this culure is also a challenge. But we go on and God's spirit moves in this boy. He is 18 and just writing his grade 9 exams. In this country you only get to go on to grade ten if you pass grade 9. He won't know until January and then it will be Feburary before he can start class.

He is an orphan who walked with an aunt some 60 kilometers to ask for sponsership so he could go into grade 9. He was given money to attend a school near where he was living in Kabonga area but when he returned to pay the fees, he was told there was no room. So instead of just keeping the money, about 12$, he walked all the way back , alone, in the rain, to return the money. Somehow God worked it so that Webby could be enrolled here at Namwianga basic and we have been honored to help support him since then. Since he is in the basic school(grade school) he has a place to stay, but has to cook his own meals and wash his own clothers. So we have been providing those things for him. He comes each weekend to work around our home in the garden, even doing some laundry, to help pay off his support. Last week his much of his clothing was stolen and so we are helping get him some new things. I have never heard him whine about how rough he has it, or asking why these things have happened to him. He just keeps going. He wants to be a preacher and so we study and pray together. I am honored to be allowed to work where God already has been active.

For the technically challenged

Hi to all

At long last I am able to access our blog again. So bear with me I am going to update some of the happenings/ We have had Harding University students here for a semester abroad. 24 of the most incredible young Christian people you would ever want to meet. Really folks, the future of the church is good judging from the quality of these kids. Bright, caring and unfazed by the inconveniences of living here in Africa. Some were pre-med and some pre nursing and many of them were future missionaries who adjusted to life here with laughter and song and lots of interaction with the zambians. We took them to villages where they preached , led singing, did the communion talk and generally participated in the worship. They learned Tonga and became fluent in many of the songs. They went home to the villages with their tutors and experienced that life. So now that they have returned home we are missing them a lot.

Right now Don is busy learning a new computer system for the business office so that they can be more efficient in their work. He has been involved with the students of Harding and has been part of the management of their daily life. I have been teaching the pre health students as they came to the clinic about health care in Zambia. Now I am trying to thread through the red tape to get the provencial minister of Health here to help us make the assessment for moving up to a hospital status. We are becoming closer to our students we support especially one, Webby. We have started studying with him because he wants to learn the Bible so he can be a preacher. He is eager and despite being in finals week at school, still comes each day to study. I hope to be able to send more pictures now that this blog is working. Here goes.....