Chipulukusu

The red clay roads are pocked with mud. In places, the road is more river of leftover rain than actual passable road. The houses are a mix of cement and crumbling homemade bricks from the same red clay that can't hold a road together. Even here, some homes are far superior to others. There are stands that sell homegrown vegetables and peanuts. Along the main road, there are small businesses, mostly bars. Children are everywhere. No one wears shoes. This is a city within a city.

This is the slums.
This is Chipulukusu.

From Lighthouse, Uncle Pasha leads us through a family's backyard, following a narrow, worn dirt path. Once we cross the railroad tracks, we are officially in Chipulukusu.

An example of a home we saw. Also, this cute baby.

We stop first at Enoch's home, a little boy Jen sponsors who hasn't been to school this week. She is eager to meet him. His uncle is home but Enoch is not. The home has a porch because part of the ceiling and the walls seem to have fallen. Relentless rain wears down the clay bricks if they are not secured with cement. Some of us lag behind the conversation with the Uncle, not wanting to overwhelm the families we visit. Enoch is visiting relatives, so Jen's gifts stay in the blue bag Jon is graciously carrying (on his 60th birthday, none-the-less) and we move on.

It does not take long for word to pass that the mzungus are walking through and we gather a parade of children behind us, running up to us, touching our hands, touching our arms, smiling shyly when we greet them with "Shani!" (hey!) or "Lesa amipale!" (God bless you!).

Mzungus! Mzungus!

This is not poverty tourism. We are not white messiahs here to save these children. We recognize that these are people whom so many never acknowledge, never even see. Genesis 16:13 gives us Hagar who proclaims, "You are a God of seeing... Truly here I have seen him who looks after me." It is our hope that by seeing these people, these children, by telling them "God bless you!", that they understand that God sees them. He looks after them.

We see that characteristic of God so evidently in the way that the African culture works. The extended family is paramount and so while many of these children are fatherless, or even parentless all together, they are not without family. They are not without shelter because grandmothers, aunties, uncles, they take in these children and love them as their own. That is a wonderful picture of God's sovereign grace. These children have lives that could easily be pitied and yet, there is hope. There is provision. There is light and joy in these children's faces; they are so much more than their living conditions.

This is the slums.
This is Mwape -- blessing.

Lighthouse students! In the back, there's Pasha who is the amazing liaison to these children.

VBS & Lighthouse

The day began with clear, blue skies and two-hundred and fifty students lined up in rows at the end of the school building singing, "welcome to Lighthouse Christian School..." as we got off our bus. One of the team's favorite song from their assembly was "Father Abraham", especially with the African-English accent, so Abraham sounded like Ahbrahahm. 

Praise and worship began with a song in Bemba that Zicki led; she was not hesitant to tell the students if they were off beat. It was great to see her so animated and enthusiastic. Earlier in the week, we had a meeting with her about the VBS, and it definitely felt like we were sitting in the principal's office. She is truly a jack of all trades and well equipped for the many varied aspects of her job. 

Muzungos dancing with some of the students and teachers.

Arms up, elbows out, knees bent, chest out... These songs are complicated!

Jennifer Meng was most impacted by the worship that began and ended the VBS. The following is transcribed from her: 

The kids had so much freedom and joy in their worship. The freedom doesn't come from how they worship, but that they are aware that they have much to worship God for. They are not concerned with "what are people thinking about me?", but they are more in the moment -- not worrying about what happened yesterday or what will happen tomorrow. 

I was also impacted with how safe they feel at Lighthouse. That is probably the safest they feel; there, they receive the most light, the most love. The muzungos were also more free to worship. Shawn was holding a little kid's hand at the end and you could see in their face, because Shawn had entered into their world, their connection to a father figure. (Shawn says, "I am always hesitant to do that kind of stuff because I feel like I look stupid." He ended the day in the tent, worshiping right along with all the kids.) Pasha and Robbie, leading worship, may be some of the only men in their [the kids] lives, and definitely some of the only men they see entering into worship. That's huge. 

During the first sessions, the children learned about being adopted in Christ -- What does it mean to be God's people? They then made a beaded bracelet where each bead represented a part of the salvation story. Green - God made the earth (AND the heavens, the preschoolers corrected us). Black - Sin entered in. Red - Jesus died for our sins. White - We are washed clean. Yellow - We have new life and joy in Jesus. Dawn said it was probably the most impactful lesson for the little ones. Lily said this about that activity:

It was cool to see some of the kids seeing the bracelets on the kids in the shanties the next morning. At the shanties, I saw one of the girls from my class wearing her bracelet and I asked her, "Did you tell your friends?" And she said, "I told my family!" She literally used the bracelet to preach the gospel to her family. That is so cool.

Marianela is La Hefa. She is running the wall crew. :) Her, Jon, and Clyde have worked alongside a few local guys for several days and have really enjoyed getting to know them. Be praying for Victor (the team lead), Robi, Edson, Ephraim, and Mwape. Several are from the shanties and Wilbroad is really working with them to help break the cycle of poverty that they are in.

Teaching English, like usual.

Shawn loves the little ones.

Is anyone surprised that the children are so drawn to Lily?

Look at their smiles!

Ready to start school!

At the end of the VBS, little Theo (a preschooler) came up in front of all 250 students and was able to recite what each of the beads represented on his braclet, which means that he could tell all of his schoolmates about the Gospel. These pictures and the brief quotes say something about the VBS and what we're doing here, but really, little Theo encapsulates the purpose of the entire trip -- making the Gospel known to a lot of children who have no hope outside of Jesus. God loves his people, and that is so evident here. This children are well taken care of and are reaping fruit already from their teaching at Lighthouse.

Worthy of His Calling

Lighthouse is a school of 250 students broken into classes of 30 each. The floors are cement and there is no electrical lights -- just the morning and afternoon light that streams through the windows that have no screens. The rooms are darkened, which is good because the days are warm.

The teachers each have two pens. Almost every student has a pencil. The notebooks are loose leaf paper stapled together with a cover made from old newspaper ads. For most subjects, there is only one textbook at each grade level, so the teacher must write all the notes on the marker board to have the students copy it down; the same goes for any practice exercises they want to do.

Most people recognize that education is important. Many would even acknowledge that it is or could be life changing. In America, it seems education works for students who struggle but only if the stars align, hence the could be. Here in Ndola, it truly is hope for a better life, a tangible chance to make it out of the shanties, out of the slum, and make something of themselves.

Education is important, in and of itself, but I'd also like to posit that it is important, especially what is being done here in Lighthouse Christian School, because it mirrors the way God saves us.

A student is living a hopeless life in the slums. Wilbroad and Zicki erect a school. Students are sponsored by the grace of God and given a new life through Lighthouse.

A person is living a hopeless life in sin. Jesus is sent to die on the cross for their sins, to reconcile them to God the father who loves them. His people repent and are given new life.

In both cases, a person is plucked out of a life heading for hopeless, meaningless devastation and given new life. It is an unmerited grace. The parallel is uncanny -- and at Lighthouse, students are given both a better future here on earth in their lifetime, and are taught about the God who loves them, who died for them. This school is a double-whammy.

2 Thessalonians 1:11-12 says, "To this end, we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ."

It is truly awe-inspiring what the teachers do here at Lighthouse. We know that they are called and it is a huge calling. We thank God that He is the one making them worthy of their calling, for His glory. The calling would be too much to bear without Him.

Likewise, we are figuring out our calling here in Zambia. Several people are building a wall around the school for security, many are in the classrooms helping with the students, loving on the students, some are even teaching lessons or leading classes all together. Some of it can feel so small in comparison to how much is already being done through the school. We thank God that He makes us worthy of this calling and fulfills our resolves for good. To Him be all glory.

Shani! (Hey!)

Bwino! (We are good.)

We arrived safely in Zambia yesterday afternoon, which was around the time most of you reading this blog were probably heading into work on Monday morning. It rained just prior to us arriving, so everything smelled new -- lush and fresh.

Wilbroad and Zicky were there to greet us and then took us to Spree Guest house, where we are staying. We are certainly blessed at this guest house! It has a lovely garden outside where we sat under an avocado tree.

Some travel notes:
-All of our bags arrived with us! We had some issues with more and more carry-ons needing to be checked on each plane that we switched to, but even with 20+ checked bags, they all arrived. Praise God for that!
-On our long flight (12 hours) from DC to Ethiopia, the trip flew by. (heh, heh) Several of us -- a couple for the first time -- watched Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens together by syncing our individual screens. (We LOVED it.) That counts as important, meaningful team bonding, right?

After dinner, most of us succumbed to our jet lag and were fast asleep by 8pm. A few people stayed up until the power was turned on at 9 so they could check in with family.

Today, Tuesday, we spent the morning in prayer and talking through some of our projects this week.

Shawn leading us in prayer requests & team needs

Praying for VBS & working with the kids

Then we went into downtown Ndola with Wilbroad and Zicky to eat at the Savoy hotel restaurant, and practice the few Bemba words we know (there are 73 dialects of it!), then we visited Lighthouse Christian School and were briefly introduced to the students that we'll work with more extensively starting tomorrow. They stood up and told us, "Welcome to Lighthouse Christian School" in every classroom. The kids in the area who saw this church bus of white people would yell "muzungo! muzungos!". You can guess what that means.

"Welcome to Lighthouse Christian School!"

We drove briefly through the shanties and met with a grandmother who has two sponsored grandchildren at Lighthouse. Their father died, which is why they live with her. There were so many children at the shanties who were not at school; so many children who are not yet receiving an education. There are many things that can be said and described about our brief interaction at the shanties, but that'll save that for later.

There's even Vikings fans in the shanties

Today, we prepared. Tomorrow, we'll dip our toes in the water and start to get a better feel for what the school and church needs from us.

Twiya (goodbye from us)