Admiration

The last couple of days have been awesome and challenging at the same time.  A friend of mine allowed me to bring his old guitar to Africa.  It has been in other parts of the world when he served with YWAM (India for one) and he gave me specific instructions when I left; if you want to play in the rain go for it (there won't be any rain here until December), if you want to let the kids play the guitar, great, but use it and abuse it!  Thanks Nathan!

So the guitar was delayed in its arrival in Lusaka.  All of the other luggage came through A-ok, but the guitar was missing.  It finally arrived Tuesday night at the Ndola airport and has been used ever since; for our nightly debriefs and for community visits.  On Wednesday we made Salvation bracelets with the children.  I gave them a short message explaining the different coloured beads on the bracelets and what they represented (Growth, Sin/mistakes, Christ's blood, forgiveness, and eternal life) and sang some Bridge kids songs.  What an awesome privilege - loved it.  Then I went outside, sat down on the dirt with the guitar and played for about 30 minutes with about 20-30 children crowded around me.  I would sing, sometimes just strum, and sometimes let the strum.  The smiles, the laughter...worth every minute!!

Yesterday (Thursday) while 9 of our 12 were still on home visits (we got done a bit earlier) Rayna, Logan and I were on for serving lunch with the careworkers.  We washed hands, dishes, and served.  The sad part was that we ran out of food.  About 15 kids didn't get the lunch.  I was told later that when teams like ours come in kids that aren't registered with the feeding program will sometimes come and try to 'sneak' in.  It broke my heart.  And at the end of the day these 'sneakers' are also some of the vulnerable kids of the community there just isn't the funding there for them, yet!  There are currently 100 children registered in the feeding program and another 50 that need it (for only $20/month food, education, and medical care - just saying :)).

Jack, the leader of Maranatha (who is 50 with a wife, 10 children and 4 grandchildren), said how appreciative the community is that we are there, that we can show them such compassion and pity.  I looked at him and said that we don't feel pity.  Compassion and empathy yes, pity no.  Admiration, YES!  Just one more amazing example.  Patricia is a careworker with a 6 month old baby (Manga) and a beautiful 6 year old girl Exudah (picture below - kind of my little girl at community).  Patricia walks 5km to community, teaches at the school, goes on home visits and then walks 5km back home, everyday Monday to Friday - ADMIRATION!!

Today was another wonderful day in community.  It was careworker appreciation day which involved a time of worship (with both English and Bimba songs), our team washing the feet of the careworkers, and then giving them the gift that were so generously donated by many from our church.  It was so humbling to wash the feet of these careworkers who give of themselves so selflessly day in and day out.  During worship, 2 of the careworkers took turns playing the guitar for the Bimba songs (1 could play and the other well, not much musical ability!!).

I will close with a funny.  The sticker on the front of our bus is handed out by the insurance company when people buy insurance.  Zambia is a Christian nation but this is incredible..."this bus is protected by the blood of Jesus".  This begs the obvious question...would insurance companies in North America ever consider such a thing??

Frank