Well, we finished our last day at Kalanga Basic School today... a good ending to a great week. Everything that went wrong last week came together for an amazing week at Kalanga. We have been spending our time from 12:00-1:15 playing soccer and forging relationships with the kids. They have been an absolute blessing to us. Whether it has been playing basketball with 30 girls and watching them scream and yell and be kids, or if it has been playing soccer with the boys and teaching them about the importance of teamwork and how "a house divided falls"... and how a nation divided falls if they do not join together to stop the spread. Or even playing lion tag where a hundred kids are charging across the field trying to escape the hungry lions (Jill and I) and grabbing them and sweeping them off their feet and hugging them so tight... and then grabbing all of our newly captured lions and roaring our lungs at the remaining runners. It has been evident since we walked through the gates of this humble school that these children were not the same as the ones we worked with last week. There was a certain yearning in every child's eyes... a certain pain behind every smile... a longing to be loved and to be known. This was never so evident than on the first day when there was a line twenty strong waiting their turn to be hugged by Stef. And seeing their faces as they were embraced was like watching one miracle after another unfold right before my eyes. It was beautiful.
Wednesday was probably the most powerful day of the time spent here. All week (and last week as well) we have had a really tough time with crowd control. As we gathered to sing songs together, our PA system cut out. But it must have been God telling us to change directions. So we broke into small groups by grades. The guys had a handful of 7th and 9th graders and a whole slew of 8th graders. I was figuring that I would just take the 8th since there was more of them, but God put it on my heart to take the 4 or 5 ninth graders. So I took them and sent the 7th and 8th with some church planters. As soon as we sat down about 12 more ninth graders walked over. And I started asking them, "why should we remain abstinent?" I pretended like I was Ruth, a girl that wanted to sleep with them and we started role playing. It was clear that they had no real reasons for why to remain abstinent. After getting through the obvious two: because I don't want to get HIV, and because the Bible says so... I pried to get any other reasons out (although those two reasons should be enough... it is clear that they are not sufficient as many, many Christian Zambians are having sex and taking the risk with HIV). We are trying to give them numerous reasons not to have sex, so that they can take ownership of the choice. I gave them a number of reasons and then went around the circle and asked them what they wanted to be when they grew up and one after another told me that they wanted to be doctors, engineers, teachers, electrician, pastors, etc. I was overwhelmed by their dreams... and told them the honest truth that choices that we make at 15 and 16 can affect the rest of their lives and that 5 minutes of pleasure is not worth sacrificing your dreams. I could see it in their faces... God showed up and they got it... they got it on a level that I haven't seen in the past two years of working here. I felt like I was talking with a group of high schoolers from America... it was like all the cultural lines and differing experiences were stripped away and we could just share about a struggle that is common to all men no matter where they come from or what they have been through. Jill and Elizabeth's small groups made similar connections about the future and just getting them to consider their hope and dreams and worth.
Stef on the other hand had a group that was very different... no one had much to say as they just sat and looked at her. So Stef decided to tell them that they could just ask her individual questions and she would pray with them. A line formed and each child proceeded to approach her and whispered heartbreaking stories of their lives: There were 8 and 9 year olds who had already lost their virginity; there were children orphaned and living on the streets, There were kids suffering unspeakable abuse from uncles and cousins. And just 5 minutes before there had been no discussion or life in the group. This perfectly characterizes an enemy of the fight against HIV/AIDS: silence... a silence which masks stories of the horrors and victims of this terrible virus and this deranged condition we call the sinful nature of man. Almost the exact same thing happened today in Elizabeth's small group. Silence in a group; tears once the silence is broken.
We are here to break the silence... we are here to give hugs to lines of desperate children... we are here to let a group of 5 and 6 year old boys hold onto our fingers as we walk through the schoolyard... we are here to teach these Zambian boys and girls to roar louder than they ever knew they could... we are here to blow kisses to them as we pile into the van... God is here... God is here... God is here... in every broken smile and tear filled eye, God is here... pray for us that the silence may be shattered by the only Love that can make old things new... a Love that covers over a multitude of sin and heartache and promises a place where tears are no more. Pray!
God Bless from Zambia... Dan
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