"The Lord is MY Shepard, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside still waters, He restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his namesake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For you are with me. Your rod and your staff they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." Psalm 23
So we start off with week one! This is a picture of my girls from the first week I was at camp. Every single one of them are so beautiful, but every single one lives in a dark country and a dark community. These beautiful girls are living with family in a culture where the children aren't looked after, aren't taken care of. Most of them wore the same clothes everyday and who knows how long before they came to camp they were wearing those clothes.
Even among their trials they are so happy. They are so full of laughter and joy that it is hard for us to imagine how they can be so happy when they live like they do. Let me tell you something...are you ready for this.... are you sure.... they don't know any better. They were born into this culture. They don't know it could be totally different. Sure they see American movie stars and how they live but they don't have homes that are worth 1 billion dollars in Lusaka or at least in Kenyama, which is the community they live in.
These girls were so sweet. They were ages 6-9 was the majority. I have a few older girls. I knew the moment I saw them that I wanted them to be my girls for the week.
This was before I had actually been assigned my group. I took a picture of them because they are beautiful but I knew in the end they are my girls. No doubt about it. They were going to be with me for the next five days. 11 precious girls.. that have never been to Camp LIFE...that get to take off a week of school to come and hang out with americans or in zambia as we were called Muzungu (white people).
The first day of camp is CRAZY. You have buses from about 7 to 8 school rolling in right after another. On these buses the kids are yelling and singing and sometimes dancing. It was amazing how many kids can fit in these little buses. If I had to guess it was about 35-40 kids per bus. Now I am not talking yellow buses that we have here. I am talking about buses that are a little bigger than a 15 passenger van. So the buses would pull up and here are all these muzugu's jumping up and down, greeting them, making bridges to cheer them on as they get off the buses. We are going crazy and then you see this:
I know it is kinda hard to tell from the picture but this little girl just ran and jumped into her arms. My friend Becca, in the blue shirt, was her auntie (American) from last year and she recognized her and ran and jumped into her arms. It was an amazing experience to see this. It really shows you how much of an impact you made on their lives.
After we greet them we get all the kids lined up and then the americans line up with our partners so we can get our groups. I was purposefully standing in front of my girls because I knew they were mine! haha So we get our groups then we go in for a camp session. Now the first thing we always do in camp is sing and dance. It is the neatest thing ever. Zambians have perfect pitch... well most of them! They all can sing. You never see a zambian just listen. Anyways at the first session Greer, the director, welcomes them to camp and tells them a little about what is going to happen this week.
So day one is kind of mass chaos and a little awkward. It was difficult having to get use to having a translator and then the translator would add things that you didn't say and you were curious what they just told the girls. You didn't want to repeat what she just said. it was all really hard the first day. We taught them on the first day "The Lord is My Shepard, I shall not want" in one session and then in the second session of the day they learned "He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside still waters." We went in detail about what does it mean for the Lord to be your Shepard, and what a Shepard is. What is the purpose of the Shepard. Then as sheep what are we suppose to do. what does it mean to be in peace? Do we live in peace? The Lord brings peace in our life if we have a relationship with him. I learned so much while I was there. I was learning right along with my girls. It made it hard for me to teach because I felt inadequate where in reality that was just Satan trying to convince me I wasn't good enough to do this. Well that quickly ended with some prayers with my zambia partner.
Have I told you how amazing she was? My Zambia partner the first week was Beatrice. She is 19 and she LOVES the Lord. She has so much wisdom and she is so full of energy. We clicked immediately. We have so many things in common! Anyways! Back to week one.
The second day. The buses arrived just like day one. Except now I had 11 girls running and jumping into my arms. I didn't really think that they were going to do that only a day after I met them, but is was one of the most special things that I have ever experienced. Day two was a relaxed day. The main event, i guess you would call it that, for the girls was coloring. They loved it. We had TONS of crayons and coloring sheets that they got to color. At the end of the day we put their art work in a sheet protector and gave it to them to take home.
They would sit there for about 45 minutes coloring. While this was going on I tried to pull at least one of my girls aside for a blessing time. A blessing time is just a one on one time that I get with each of my girls to get to know them. In the beginning of camp I dreaded this. I ran out of things to say and ask and it was really hard for me just to sit there. But by day 3 of camp I looked forward to them. I wanted to know my girls. I wanted to know what type of families they grew up in, I wanted to know how I could love them. They became a huge blessing...hint the name.
In day 2 session one we learned "He restores my soul." I can still hear my girls trying to say this in english. He letors ma so. spelling in English that is what it sounded like! It brought a smile to my face. We also learned that day "he guides me in paths of righteousness for his name sake." Now this session was hard. Because we wanted the girls to understand that if the Lord is our shepard, then he is our guide and we need to choose to follow him in his paths, but not just any paths. It proclaims that it is paths of righteousness. How cool is that. If we follow the Lord and follow his will for our life He will guide us in paths of righteousness. Oh the Lord is So good.
At the end of everyday, we line of the kids to get back on the buses and head for home. Everyday before they leave they get an apple, a sticker, and a sweet(tootsie roll) from us. They loved it. I have to push of the girls from tackling me when I was handing out the sweets. They would suck on those tootsie rolls so they would last a long time, and they would keep the apple for later. Some of these girls worried about being fed. I can only imagine they were saving it for dinner. It breaks my heart to hear about how these girls eat. They believe that drinking tea in the morning is a meal. So if they said they ate 3 times a day I would have to ask what they ate. They would tell me tea for breakfast, shima(their staple food) and then some more shima later. They weren't fed enough.
Day three, our first session was "even though I walk through the valley fo the shadow of death, I will fear no evil." This session was the hardest for me. These girls live in an area of evil. They have thieves that come in a steal from them on a regular basis. They see their fathers or other men getting wasted in the tavern, they see witchdoctors doing things that are evil and it scares them. Some of them can't sleep at night because Satan attacks them in their dreams. So I had to teach this lesson believing that God was using me to teach them that they don't have to fear the evilness in their lives. They don't have to walk around feeling defeated because the Lord is their Shepard and I will fear no evil.
Now our second session for Wednesday was "you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies" we went through what is an enemy? Do you have enemies? Why would the Lord prepare a table in the presence of my enemies? With my little girls the first week this went over their heads. they didn't understand it. But my second week girls this hit home. A lot of them had enemies, or they just wanted to understand what it meant for the Lord to prepare them a table. We used an illustration that the Lord prepared a table for them this week. They were given every morning a banana to eat, at lunch they were given bread and an energy drink that they like, and at the end of everyday you are given an apple. The Lord has given this food to you. Not me or anyone else here.
THURSDAY!!! my favorite day of the week! This was the most humbling day. The kids arrived but there was no one except zambians to meet them. Inside of the church all of the americans were getting shoes organized.
Every child, one school at a time would come in, get sized for brand new tennis shoes, get a new pair of socks, and them get fitted for a brand spanken new pair of shoes.
It was crazy. There were definitely frustrations, but it was the most amazing thing to see these girls faces as they were getting new shoes. Then after they got new shoes they went and were given a brand new t-shirt and a bandana. This was their final look!
This took all morning. But after lunch we went out in their communities. The girls got a chance to preach what they have been learning to the people in their communities. It was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. These girls that I thought weren't listening to me, these girls that I didn't think understood what I was telling them was going out and spreading the love of Christ to people in their own town, to their parents, aunts and uncles, neighbors. It was amazing.
That day in Kenyama 2 people came to know the Lord. The Lord worked through my little girls and 2 people came to know Christ. It was amazing.
Now day five. My last day of week one. It was full of many emotions. Happy, sad, crying, ecstatic, relieved, overjoyed. You name it I felt it that day. On Fridays our first session we learn "you anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. The second session we learn the very last part of Psalm 23 "surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever" After the second session the kids are presented with gifts that the Lord, as their Shepard, has provided for them. They receieved a pencil, a bookmark, a cup, two bookbags, a certificate that had a picture with my zambia partner each girl and myself, and a green fleece jacket.
When they were told this every child went CRAZY! they were yelling and screaming, jumping up and day, jumping on other people, throwing their bandanas everywhere. They were crazy. But this is what they did after. They sang this song with more joy, and more energy, and in more belief than I have ever seen.
When I gave them their pictures the field, within a matter of a few minutes went from white, to LIME green. It was amazing.
Then we had to say our goodbyes. We had to give each other a hug and a kiss, and I had to pray that the Lord would watch over and protect them and love them when I couldn't.
Sorry this is so long. I am going to just post a blog of just pictures as well
