Zambia, Africa marks month 5 of this journey. Its been such a switch from eastern Europe. We started this month with new teams and this month as a team we are doing Unsung Heroes. We are traveling Zambia finding contacts to hopefully partner with in the future.
We have met with some really awesome people who have really blessed us and are really impacting their community. We recently had the opportunity to stay at the Operation Mobilization base in Kabwe, Zambia. They have several different ministries including disability ministry, street kids ministry, and Mercy house ministry. They also have a discipleship school and outreach program that people can be apart of. We stayed in the dorms on the base and really got to experience the atmosphere of the Operation Mobilization with the staff, students and volunteers. It was a really cool experience.
We were given the opportunity to go to one of their ministries called the Mercy House, in one of the near by shanty town (a poor area) called Munkolulu. We drove in around the town and saw all of the people living so close to one another in there small house. We went to the Mercy House, saw their facilities and met the volunteers and some of the kids that regularly come. They will officially open mercy house hopefully in the next week but they have several children they are already helping. This town is one of the bigger shanty towns with 97,000 people living in it even though it is very small and crammed together. The mercy house is targeted to the orphaned and vulnerable children in the community. There are many children on the streets without parents to take care of them.
One of the volunteers working with mercy house shared more about the people of the this town. He said that there is a very high death rate of mostly men because of alcohol abuse. This leaves the children and women to try and provide for themselves. He said even if some kids have parents it doesn’t mean that they are being taken care of. He said that it is not uncommon to see parents sitting around eating their meal while the children are just watching. When the kids understand that they are not getting meals or being supported by their family they go to the streets. They beg in their town and go to the bigger city and beg on the streets and at the public stores to get money to get food to survive.
The Mercy House is trying to target those children on the streets to give them a better life. They provide food and water to nourish the children and then start their education to send them to government schools so they can learn more and provide for themselves. They do their best to help the community they are in to better it and give a better options for the children to have a better life and to ultimately know Jesus.
As we are driving through the town children just start running and shouting to the bus. So many shouts of hellos and smiling faces when we stopped to talk with them. They were some of the most precious children and to see them living with nothing is heart breaking. Some have no family, no home, no education, no food, nothing. They do all they can to provide for themselves and survive. They have no one who loves them and no one taking care of them. They are on their own. I wanted so badly to spend my month here in this town and to serve these people. Some of these kids have never been shown loved or cared for and that really breaks my heart. All I wanted in that moment as we were driving was to stay and love these kids. Share with them the love that I have received and know so well. But all I can do is share their story, share what I have seen and share what others are doing to make a difference there.
Please pray for this community, for these people, the people of Zambia, the volunteers of mercy house and the fund for mercy house to stay open.
