Introductions...

So much of what makes this whole "adventure" possible is I truly feel I have a purpose here.

If all of this was to fulfill some romantic and glamorized image of what "missionary" life was like, I think I would have re-boarded a plane about three weeks after landing.

Purpose in life looks different on every person. God calls each of us to a place in His grand and glorious scheme and we can choose to do it or not.

I advise the former, by the way.

Living in Chipata, we are exposed to literally the highest of affluence and the lowest of poverty, and often within only minutes of time in between.

The other day I was in our Great East Mall Shopping Center (I try to make it sound grandiose!) and as a man passed me my son said, "That man is likely the richest man in the Eastern Province. He is this area's Paramount Chief." We watch him drive away in some fancy Mercedes, nearly running over the local homeless man that faithfully traipses the streets of Chipata. Seriously it was visual extremes.

While on deputation my husband made a statement on our DVD presentation that most live on $2/day. It was an unfathomable statistic, but I am telling you it is the truth.

Knowing this extreme poverty exists here in rampant numbers, I truly have prayed for wisdom and God's leading. I am not a bleeding heart, but when $20 means the difference between a child getting an education FOR A YEAR or not, I tend to want to do without a few 20's!

Seriously, I could walk outside my front gate and find dozens of children with no shoes, not attending school, needing food, you name it. How can I say yes or no without some divine intervention? To say yes to everyone is ridiculous, but to say no to anyone is heartless. 

So, Dan and I have prayed that IF the Lord wants us to get involved in something, that He PLEASE be abundantly clear. Some days I have prayed that whatever the Lord brings to our home, that is what I will accept as His leading.

Well, these children's story came to my kitchen table.

Family Discussions. What will the future hold. 

There were five kids. Their mom died several years ago, and Dad remarried and had a sixth child. Three weeks ago, on a Sunday, Dad passed away. Being double orphaned is so very common that it is a staggering statistic. Grandparents raising grandchildren from often two and three of their deceased kids. And yes, most of these parents are dying from complications from Hiv/AIDS. 

In this culture, the step mother is in no way obligated to care for the husband's children. Truthfully there is no way she physically could. Their blood relatives would be the new caregivers, and she is free to return to her village and remarry. Trouble is in so, so many situations, as in this one, there are no other capable relatives to care for them. These kids were all attending school and doing very well, which is a huge feat for most peasant farmers. 

Mateo, age 20, grade 10.

Besnart, age 17, grade 10.

Aliness, age 16, grade 9.

Rachel, age 13, grade 7.

Myliss, age 11, grade 5. (Not Pictured)

Innocent, age 2, child of new wife.

Mateo, feeling the responsibility for his sisters, clearly shows in his eyes. 

 I began to imagine what it would be like to foster five children. Where would they sleep? What would Savannah and Micah think? How would we travel back to the states? Seriously, I was open to whatever degree God would have said to go. I say I was open, but I was also terrified! Dan and I began to pray and discuss, and toss around ideas, possibilities, needs they would have.

The friday after their Dad's passing, Dan and I went to their village with the Zulus.

Robert and Doreen Zulu

These children are distant relatives of theirs. Their great-great paternal grandfather was Mr. Zulu's Grandfather's brother. Distant for sure.

We arrived at the farm as the extended family and other villagers were in the hut discussing what could be done. Tradition states nothing happens for 30 days, but with 5 school-aged children who would need to begin school again on Monday, that wasn't an option. We came there with a plan but had to talk with the children. We also had to present the idea to them in their cultural way. Everyone has a say. Everyone repeats what they understood the previous person said, and then adds their thoughts to it. Then the next person restates what the previous people said and adds to it their own statements. It is like an interminable verbal game of Simon!

They still had loans out for the current school term, and no means of paying them back now that their father was gone, and no one was able to run the farm. They also owed 30 bags of Maize as a repayment for other loans. Mateo imagined he had to quit school and Besnart would likely have to stay and help as well. If they couldn't afford the school fees, they would gradually stop paying, and eventually stop attending school altogether. This is the viscious cycle that happens here over and over and over again. Hopeless.

So here was our plan. We presented it carefully to the children first. The Zulus were willing to take the girls into their home. All of them! Together!! This is a huge adjustment for them all to be sure! These are children from the bush who live in a mud hut, no power or running water. They farm ground nuts, maize, sunflowers, chickens and ducks. Bringing them into town, even our little town of Chipata, will be a major adjustment for them!

Mateo, being 20, is old enough and wanting to stay at his current school where he rents a one room house near the campus. It will also keep him in close proximity to the farm, which is theirs by rights of property.

The other piece of the plan is they would have their school fees covered this year, as well as their loans paid. For this year, it was a gift to them. That God has brought their story to our lives was, to us, an opportunity to serve Him by helping these kids.

The following years would be treated as earned scholarship. If they want to continue their education, they must earn it by achieving above passing grades in the previous term. The Zulus are completely in agreement that the children know all the details of their education expenses and how they would be handled. The kids listened quietly as Mr and Mrs Zulu explained our proposal to them.

This is a very stoic culture. They don't smile much. They don't get bubbly, and giddy. To say they were elated is an understatement. Their faces barely registered a change, but their eyes surely did! They went from no hope... to a future! Each one of them said they wanted to continue their education, and they were almost in disbelief that it could truly be possible!

Besnart breaking up sugarcane while Rachel holds little Innocent, her half brother. 

Our role is to help the Zulus afford this. School fees, books, uniforms, housing needs. The Zulus have 7 grown children of their own, three of which are in college. They struggle on a regular basis as it is to afford the current demands on their family's budget. Yet they, with open hearts and a decisive attitude were wanting these kids to above all else stay together. It is a huge sacrifice on their part to be sure! We realize this is a several year commitment on our part. It is an investment! These children have a hope, and a future, and a destiny! We pray each one comes to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, and that their lives will be an outpouring of Love for HIM!

I told Doreen, "You were almost home free! Your last child is beginning college, and you are now going to begin parenting an 11 year old again!" She just smiled and said, "God gave me these children to love!"

WOW!!

So to say I feel a little like an Auntie to five new nieces and a nephew about summarizes it up well. When we went to settle Mateo into school and give him supplies etc. he shook my hand and said he needed our photograph. He is very tall and broad shouldered, and aside from dark skin is exactly like my own boys. Sweet, sincere, hopeful! I included our family picture in the Chewa Bible we gave him. In a backpack. He never had a backpack before! He never had a Bible before either!!

Groundnut harvesting! Best peanuts we ever had! 

Pray for these kids with me! They have a long road ahead, but there are many who are coming along side them and seek to help them in any way they can!

I feel like the man at the ocean's edge with starfish littering the sands, knowing they all will surely perish on the dry land. As he picks up one and returns it to the water, he knows he has help that one... and reaches down for yet another.

Lord keep me faithful to be your hands and feet to the ONE you put before me TODAY!

My Testimony

In answer to a request from my FIRL JulieMom, Here it is!

To begin- I feel like I need to tell about my parents a little because they had alot to do with who I am now!!!

Part I

My parents were married in 1961, in California. My father was the youngest child in a HUGE Mexican-Catholic, very poor family of 14 children. They lived in California in anything from a Railroad boxcar, to an actual home! While they had a religious background, nothing was really practiced, except "Do right or Dad will beat you!" Pretty clear! My mom was the farthest thing from my dad! She was the youngest of two children, born into a fairly well to do WASP family. I think they each got married as an escape from their current situations, seeing the other as the ticket out!
This isn't to say they didn't love each other- they just celebrated 46 years of marriage in April. That isn't to say it was all wedded bliss, either! ~ Anyhow!

I was the third born of four, and the first child to come after "The Move from CA to NY". Dad was a Sheet Rocker, and California just wasn't growing. (Remember, it was 1966!) My uncle said NY was booming, so here they came. My mom's family had a deep south heritage, with all the Baptist religion that comes with it, so we did attend church. Methodist, visit with friends to their churches, and then finally to FBBC. My father made a profession of faith, but there was never any fruit. Mom truly was saved, and the spiritual head of our home- made for some turbulent times, let me tell you! Needless to say, though, we did have a church upbringing. My siblings and I started to attend first as a result of the bus ministry. Yep, you betcha, I am a bus kid, and proud of it! Rode every week until my mom started to take us in a car- Major status elevation in my mind! (until, of course the VW bus got repo'd- another whole story there!) Moving on!

I really loved church. My two older sisters made a public re dedication to Jesus one Wednesday night in church, and that seemed like a huge thing to do. The next Wednesday night service, you better believe I was the first down the aisle during Invitation! I was 7 years old, and Mrs. Motley met me at the alter. I couldn't hear her with all the organ music piping out "Just as I am", so she took me to the back stairway, and went through the entire plan of salvation with me. I knew I loved Jesus, and then and there it all made sense to me! I trusted Christ as my savior, and knew what all the big deal was first hand! I faithfully attended church, AWANA, worked for three summers at Circle Seven Ranch, worked on the bus ministry, and so many other things a good church girl does.

Part II

I graduated in 1985, and went to College. I delineate Part I and II, because it is almost like the story of two different people! I went from a girl who loved church, and thought I knew all there was to know, to a person who never talked of Jesus or went to church. I knew I was saved- I understood I was a sinner and had repented of my sin- I just had no real affection for- or personal knowledge of- God, and it made obedience a very mechanical thing. When I was challenged- I caved!

Looking back, I see the first real step in the wrong direction was as a senior in High School (I went to public school). I got a job at Bells Grocery Store. I loved the early Sunday morning shift, and stopped going to church. Wednesday nights followed soon thereafter. After I graduated and went to college, the pattern was already set and I made no changes. I met a boy who was so very nice, handsome, considerate, catholic and unsaved (Cute College Boy AKA: CCB). It seemed just fine with me, because college was a two year plan. It was like a little two year bubble in my life into which I would cram all the junk I wanted, and when it was over I would move back home, get back into church and God, and it would be a neat little package that I could just file into my "Life Experiences" Folder! Well, when that nice CCB who was from central NY decided to move to Rochester to continue this "relationship" ...GULP...! I could no longer keep part I separate from part II- and I had a decision to make! After I returned home, my conscience (the Holy Spirit!!) would not let go of me. I knew I needed to repent of my "bubble years" and get right with God. He is so merciful!!! I was in conscious rebellion, and he was longsuffering, patient, loving, and welcomed me home! It was such a breath of cleansing to get that guilt off my heart and life. Only one problem- CCB expected to still be dating Cute College Girl, and she was gone! I introduced CCB to every Christian I knew. I saw church friends and the mall, at the Ice Cream Shop, at Red Wings Stadium - I attend a huge church and they were everywhere! CCB was getting very frustrated with this new-to-him person I was ( I was feeling so-o back to me!), and I could see no resolution to this. I DID NOT want to be in my mom's situation- forced to be the spiritual head- and CCB was not showing any indication he was warming up to getting saved. I finally broke up with him one night. (...Long pause and many tears here!!!...) During "The Break-up Night", however, God brought to mind every single AWANA verse on salvation, forgiveness, and eternal security, and let him have it both guns. I John 5:13 hit him square between the eyes! That night on his way home, he got saved in his car! In the next two years, CCB grew in the Lord by leaps and bounds! Talk about the spiritual fast track- God put him on the express train! Skipping all the sappy details - in 1989 we got married. We now have 5 amazing children, thoroughly love being a family, and are pursuing God in all we do. All in all, not a super interesting story- nothing like a persecutor of Christians becoming saved, but it's all mine!

God recently gave me a verse of scripture that I pray for my children that they can keep their testimony free from a "part II". In Isaiah 7:15 it says "Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good." This is talking of Jesus himself as a child, how he will know only good, and that will cause him to also know to refuse evil. Children do not need to experience the world so they can then choose good over bad. They can refuse evil altogether! That is my prayer for my children!