It has officially been a full week back from my summer trip to Africa and I am just getting started on compiling everything from my trip into post form.
To start things off, the purpose of going to Zambia was to participate in my first mission trip. The foundation is called
Family Legacy, and they have a couple of subgroups/missionaries with the mission to helping children/orphans, I was introduced to this organization thru a family friend. In the summer, Family Legacy will hold 7 weeks of Vacation Bible Study session for children within the surrounding communities. During your time there, each person is assigned 10 to 12 children to help build relationships while instilling biblical teaching. The theme for this year, is
"Amazing Grace".
The first full day was Sunday, it started out with a lovely church service with all of the children from The Tree of Life. As a first timer, I felt like they really threw you into the mix and really got you out of your comfort zone. I was a little scared at first, not knowing what to expect or what to do, but the children were all so friendly and welcoming that everything felt very natural. Afterwards, we got to meet up with our evangelist and apostles, they are local volunteers/interns who help you during the week. In my opinion, they are life savers and they are so kind and helpful and they really make your experience memorable. After church, some local vendors had set up shop, so that everyone could get some souvenirs and shopping done. Also the women had to purchase a wrap, called a Chitenge, to be worn during our community day.
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| Community Day in Kamanga |
Monday, was the first time seeing our children; these 10 little faces are so happy and excited to meet you. I meet up with my group who where waiting in a line to meet me. When I saw them, they where so excited to see me that the first thing they did was run up to me and give me a huge hug. These children where so joyful and kind and excited to see me. The first day, we had a lot of free time, because everyone was trying to get adjusted and figure out the flow of things.
A little bit about my girls: I had 10 girls between the ages of 6-8. They all come from the same community, Kamanga.
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| Here are my girls, they are a little shy at first |
Every day, we would have big group session, and that is when the children will learn about The Word of God and they also get to have some fun singing and worshiping with everyone. Afterwards, each group would have small time, where you get to talk to the children more about their understanding of what they had just learned and you get to answer any of their questions and expand on what they learned.
Tuesday, when the children got off the busses they are running towards you to give you a hug! Looking back, this is something that I will truly miss, being able to see there faces so happy and worry free.
Tuesday thru Wednesday was pretty similar to Monday, with the exception of going to the clinic and blessing time. At camp, the children have the opportunity to visit the clinic to monitor their growth/health and to get some vitamins. The key is to take your children in as early as possible; one of my girls had an ear infection and she was able to be treated and through out the week she would visit the clinic for daily ear drops. If I had waited till Friday, the little girl would not have been able to receive enough medicine to truly have the infection heal. Most of the time, the clinic visits at camp is the only time that they would ever see a doctor for a simple check up.
Blessing time, is individual time with each child to get to know more about them. Because you will be their advocate when you return home, this is the time to find out about their lives at home. For example, you get to learn about their eating and living habits, who raises them often times, the children will be left to other relatives to be taken care of* you get to find out if they have accepted Christ as their Savior and if not, you have the opportunity to share that with them. This is also the time where you find out if this child needs to be moved, from their current living conditions, to the Tree of Life. The Tree of Life is similar to a dorm/foster living, each house has a den mother and 10 to 12 children living within the house.
Thursday was community day, this is when everyone would venture into the community with your children and spread the Word of God to the local community. It was truly a blessing to see these little children being so courageous and sharing with others about their Faith.
Friday was the last day, and it flew by so fast. The children were gifted their purple amazing grace shirts, fleece jackets and so much more. The look on their face's was priceless.
I know that this post does not do fully give you all of the information about the organization, it is more of a quick over view of my experience. To learn more about the organization, I recommend visiting the Family Legacy website.
