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.