Zambia Day 2: Worship, partnership, and stewardship

Today was excellent. It started off with a shower from a pot. We didn’t have hot water this morning, so my roommate, Brittany, had the brilliant idea to heat water on the stove. I did so, and the water was hot enough that I could dilute it with cold water. I had enough water to wash and condition my hair, and wash my whole body by using a cup to pour the water over myself. Unconventional, but I still felt spoiled because I had hot water! More on the being spoiled later.

Worship

 

We had church with the kids from the Tree of Life village. That is a children’s village that Family Legacy sponsors. It houses over 600 kids with 12 kids per house. Each house is built by sponsorship from an American family or organization. Without that sponsorship, the houses don’t get built, so if you want to give 12 orphans a home, think about sponsoring a house through Family Legacy: http://familylegacy.com/our-ministries/tree-of-life-childrens-village/

Worship with the 600 kids was indescribable, but what I couldn’t get over is their overwhelming JOY. These are kids that live in the village because they are orphans or at risk from terrible parenting situations. There are girls there who have lived with uncles who beat and rape them nightly. That’s probably the most extreme example, but these kids come from those places and just worship God with every piece of their body through dancing, laughing, shouting, and singing. Think of Vacation Bible School (VBS) but on steroids or speed!

I got to sit with three beautiful girls at church, pictured below in order from left to right: Pretty, Mary, and Juliet. Pretty is in 9^th grade and wants to be an accountant. Mary is in 7^th grade, and wants to be a nurse (her favorite subject is science). Juliet is in 4^th grade, and loves plant science, but doesn’t know what she wants to do yet. Her favorite colors are yellow and red.

We also got to shop at the market today, and I bought some wonderful gifts for my family. No spoilers. ;)

Partnership

During our time with the children at Camp LIFE, we work with two Zambian partners. One, the “evangelist”, acts as our translator when we do small group time with our 10 kids, and when we meet with the kids one on one. Some of the kids are not in school, so they do not speak English; their primary language is Nyanja. The other, the “apostle”, takes care of the other 9 kids when we have one on one time.

I got to meet my evangelist, Martha, today. She is a gorgeous woman who was saved when she was 14 years old at a youth rally. She goes to a Pentecostal church, but comes from a Catholic family. She had some trouble with her mother when she decided to go to the Pentecostal church, just like what happens with church transitions in America! They are okay now, though. She is 31 years old, and lives with her parents and two younger brothers in the Western part of Lusaka. Her birthday is the same day as my wedding anniversary: July 22! I am extremely excited to work with Martha to help understand the needs of the individual children in my group, and to help spread the gospel to them.

Stewardship

We also had some training today, and I wanted to share with you what Taylor – one of the Americans who lives and works in Zambia full-time – had to say about the wonderful accommodations we have here. We are very blessed to stay in what is equivalent to a 3-star hotel while we’re in Zambia. The “villas” – as they are called – were built by Family Legacy, and I want to explain why.

When Camp LIFE first started, the Americans like me were housed in local hotels that were definitely not 3-star accommodations. This went on until 2012, when the hotels started asking for a lot more money. In 2012, it cost $250,000 to house all the Americans for the 10 weeks of the various camps. For 2013, the hotels wanted more like $2 million for the whole summer. This was unacceptable to Family Legacy.

So, they decided to build their own facilities. When they were planning and praying about it, they realized that they could build something that could be used for more than just Camp LIFE. So, they looked at what was available in Zambia for accommodations, and realized that there were no hotels or convention centers for the middle- to upper-class. So, they decided to build the villas.

There are 5 villas, which have over 60 rooms, plus a big convention hall (that’s where we had church). Each villa also has a full kitchen and lounge area. They have been able to host not only Camp LIFE counselors like me, but also sports teams from Baylor University that ran a sports camp for the children in the village, and an architecture group from Oklahoma University that taught leadership classes to the village kids.

They have also hosted several companies and organizations in Zambia, including a Zambian Farmers organization. They had 48 people stay in the villas for 3 nights, and paid Family Legacy $29,000 for use of the rooms and convention hall.

So, yes, we are spoiled by these accommodations, but Taylor said that they think they can bring in $1.8-2 million per year in revenue by renting out the villas and convention hall – and that is just in money from African organizations; it doesn’t include any Western/American dollars. That money goes towards upkeep of the facilities, of course, but also helps feed the kids in the village and helps get them transported to their HIV clinics (examples from Taylor).

So, in the end, we’re not just getting spoiled by these facilities. They are actually an example of how Family Legacy is practicing good stewardship by ensuring they have another source of revenue to take care of the orphans of Zambia.

There are some amazing views from our villa, too!

Tomorrow we will have a tour of the city of Lusaka, and then I will get to meet my 10 kids!

In closing, here is the verse that Greer gave to us today to prepare us to meet our kids tomorrow:

“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor…to comfort all who mourn.”

Isaiah 61:1-2