Developments

On Friday we were able to do an incredible thing… drive around to see the progress of all the new things happening in the ministry! Greer took us bright and early to one of our schools in Chainda. What we didn’t realize is that school doesn’t start up until tomorrow so we weren’t able to see any children. But I can’t wait until tomorrow when I can be a part of the first of the year for all the schools. It’s neat because not only do we have the 4 schools already running, but we have 3 additional starting up too! With seven schools and 25 teachers, hundreds of our sponsored children will receive a quality education! Exciting huh?

After stopping there, we went to the Tree of Life to see the hilltop development where we are building the Legacy Center—a big building where over 30,000 orphans will eventually be able to attend camp throughout the year!! We just broke ground in November and the progress is amazing… I took many pictures, but it takes too much bandwidth to try to download them. I’ll figure out a way eventually! So when we arrived the head engineer told us that they were just trying to lay the foundation properly. Once that happens, the entire building will be built in a flash! I can’t wait for orphans to see a hill top view looking over Lusaka. It really is breathtaking.

We traveled down to the houses where the kids live to see the development on 3 new houses! That means about 40 more children will be moving into the Tree of Life within the year! 40 children. That’s incredible. The best part about going down to see the children was when Greer got out of the car and Paulina, one of our older girls, sprinted and dove on him, laughing so hard. It was a beautiful image. I mean she rant to him like he was her Father and she wanted to show how much joy she had for him to be there. These children don’t get the kind of love we are used to. They don’t get the kind of touch we do. All they know is the physical abuse that comes with touch. But when Paulina ran to him, he embraced her. Through that, she knew how much he loved her. Like I said, beautiful. One thing I would like to see our nation do is for believers to run to our Heavenly Father like Paulina ran to Greer. I mean think about it. He loves us so much that He just wants us to sit in His presence—to praise Him for His unfailinglove. I pray that every morning I would approach the small picnic table where I sit with the Lord with a running, leaping hug for Him. I know He would embrace me.

After the Tree of Life, we went to visit a new possible site where another one of our schools could be. It’s in Garden compound and it was HUGE. One room of the house could easily fit 40 children in grades 1^st-3^rd. It had a courtyard and a small river behind it. After looking at everything, the only problem was location. It seemed too far out. But Pastor Raphael drove us around to where the children could get to the school and it’s actually about 15 minutes by foot from 2 other compounds. So, we could potentially reach out to 3 compounds of our sponsored children with one building. It would be neat, but we still have to pray and keep looking in the area for other feasible houses. The neatest part about this for me was just being a part of the decision making and being able to physically see the possible school buildings. I feel like I’m part of this now.

Finally, we ended our day at Chilenge where our Family Legacy office is located. It was awesome to see our staff on this side working diligently on their computers to get questions answered and things accomplished. They welcomed us with open arms and I felt a part of the Zambian side of things.

The day was incredible and I love being able to see the accomplishments. I can only imagine what it will be like with 500 Americans come for Camp LIFE this summer. The Lord has mighty things planned in both the Zambian children and the Americans. Praise Him because all things are done by His hand and for His glory!!