Watching And Helping The Pros

From August 12th  

Sitting here in the tent after another amazing day, listening to the drums and singing from the tribal village across the river, along with the noise that we believe to be the hippo’s all while I type this on a laptop computer.  What a bizarre world we live in!  

Today started with a drive over to the pastors/teachers training at main base.  We spoke with several teachers and offered our encouragement to them as they continue their training day.  Some of these workers came to this conference with little bedding and then had to sleep in a large walled tent together through the cold night.  I heard a few comments about the cold but the reality is that they were all said with a smile on their face.  These people have such a kind spirit here.  I am really not sure if they ever complain.  Hmm, think I could learn a lot from them about that! 

I spent some time assisting Ben with getting photos and video with a drone they have…dad you would have loved that!  It was donated to RaG and Jacques wanted to get some area video and photos of the base while the conference was on.  The faces of some of the teachers who are from the small villages with minimal technology were in shock as they saw this thing flying above them.  I’m sure they thought we were just playing with some very cool toy and not actually doing anything useful.  Although it is a fun toy!

Arrangements were made for us to spend most of the morning exploring the nearby Ngonye Falls. Other than Victoria Falls they are the highest falls along the whole river.  They were discovered by Dr. Livingstone even prior to discovering the Victoria Falls.  There was a small museum and then trails that led into multiple falls that bring branches of the Zambezi back together in this relatively large area.  We enjoyed our time with Ben and I’m sure having him lead us down the trails and over the treacherous rocks was better than me doing it.  There would have been a lot more resistance if I was the sole leader.  We were able to enjoy an unique piece of God’s creation and take a lot of pictures.  It was a great family time, with our new friend Ben from North Carolina, who is staying and mentoring with Jacques right now for a couple months while doing odd jobs for RaG and Shikwaru Lodge.  One bonus of this little trip is that Ben does not drive a “stick shift” so I had the fun experience of driving the buggy, as they call it, down the “wrong side of the road”, if you know what I mean.  

We were able to end our tour of the falls in time to get back for most of the teachers training session to end the morning.  This session was by Pastor Isaac and was covering reasons why ministering to children is so important.  After this session the conference will move on to providing them with practical steps to teaching children’s Bible lessons and giving them tools to use to implement their own children’s ministry.

Part of the practical training for the conference was allowing all the pastors and teachers to travel with a local team to one of their regular ministry sites.  This was one of the biggest things that we have been looking forward to seeing while in Zambia.  Being able to see how the “pros” do this was what we want to be a part of.  

After lunch we headed to a nearby village (10 kms away) to set up for and participate in a children's ministry.  As soon as we started to drive past huts on the way into their area they started calling out to the kids to come for the program.  A combination of loud music and a siren was all the advertising they needed to start bringing in kids from every direction.  Enny, Simba, Pastor Isaac and Gloria (my new African Mom) plus some other volunteers led this ministry today and it was amazing how they advertised, setup, and ran the whole program in a matter of three hours.   Everything was done effectively and even the games were well thought out but simple and really built up the kids excitement and participation level.  It was a treat to be a part of helping them set up their little Zambezi Kids Store.  At the store after the program is over kids can spend some coins that they earned through participation in the program.  Everyone earns some coins and they can buy practical things like clothing or soap, or fun things like toys or treats.  Again it gives them a sense of earning the coins to purchase items rather than just being given handouts that they would then come to expect.  Today during the games it was fun to have all the conference people there to help cheer the kids on.  Everyone seemed to enjoy watching and learning from this event.  It is another very practical way for new teachers to see how things should look and learn in a different location other than a classroom.

While at this event we were able to interact with a lot of the kids, but one girl broke our hearts.  I couldn’t help but have a few tears fill my eyes as I looked at this little girl who I would guess might be 8 years old, although it was hard to tell.  As a paramedic when I first saw her laying on the mats I honestly was not sure that she would live through the afternoon with us.  I had not watched her arrive but just saw her laying by herself. Jacques pumped some water from the well and helped her drink from the bottle but it seemed most of it went down the front of her.  It didn’t seem that she had energy to do anything at all and I would guess she might have only weighed 30 lbs.  After a bit she seemed to perk up a bit and really was trying to communicate something with those who were trying to help her.  At first we thought she wanted more water.  I should mention that she had some sort of obvious disability that caused her to walk with quite a limp with one leg staying bent.  She also did not talk at all.  Despite this she sure did know how to communicate.  It didn’t take long to figure out that she wanted to see Terrace’s glasses.  To this point I had not seen a smile on her face but when Terrace gave her the glasses to try on you would not believe the smile and joy that filled her.  Something so simple.  We wondered for awhile if Terrace would ever get her glasses back.  Again, I cannot say that us being there significantly changed her life in any way.  We don’t know if she knows Jesus or not, but we know she is hearing the Word weekly from this dedicated group and seems to understand more than we would expect.  But, I can say that I would never trade those moments away that we were able to spend with her and show her Christ’s love.  The kind of moment that your kids experience on a trip like this that you can never plan for but that you know will leave us all changed in some way moving forward.  

After returning to the conference with as many people as you can put standing in the back of the buggy we finished the afternoon with a practical session by Jacques teaching everyone how to use their “17 stories” curriculum.  All the resources for these teachers were being provided free of charge.  In small groups they all worked at preparing a lesson to go through and present to each other.

After supper we said some good byes to the staff from the base that we met and knew we would not be seeing again before we leave early in the morning.  I also tried to say good bye to one young man who I had noticed looked very lost or discouraged.  He had been sitting by himself for much of supper and I could not help but wonder if he was feeling overwhelmed or just out of place.  I tried to speak with him to encourage him before we left but realized that he also does not speak any english.  Although the whole conference was being translated into Ci Lozi for everyone perhaps this was a contributing factor as much of the material being given out is english.  Please pray for him that he would be encouraged and that God would use him and bless him for his faithfulness to come and be at this conference.

Once back at the ministry house for our last night in Zambia we talked briefly with Jacques about the benefits of coming for this ministry for our family.  Although it seems hard to evaluate how useful and effective our ministry here was, it still was a great way to see what the lives of the missionaries is like and what opportunities could be available for us to pursue in the future.  I also cannot say enough about how important it was for our girls to experience this world. I believe God will use this trip to change us all to serve Him and pursue Him more!