Love, Hugs and Ringworm!
I am a teacher running a small school on the edge of Lusaka. Most of my pupils can't afford to go to a government school. We currently have just over 200 children learning on site. Love and hugs are free at school, so is ringworm, repeatedly!!!
Monday, 2 November 2020
Sunday, 19 April 2020
Saturday, 14 December 2019
The children taught me a lesson....
It is the end of a school year. Tests, Christmas
play, party and end of term-itus have been all consuming for a few weeks but
the best story of the season actually comes from some children who I take to
school.
|
|
|||||
|
Every day 5 children come with me from
where I live to school. Two weeks ago on the way home we were talking about the
rain. One of the children knew that if the rain didn’t come it would mean
there is no food.
|
|||||
Almost flippantly I said “yes, we need
to pray for the rain”
The children responded in a chorus of “Yes
Teacher Abi, Yes” and then they proceeded to pray for rain. An impromptu prayer
meeting in the car.
As they started praying the sky was
blue with a few white fluffy clouds.
|
|
|||||
|
It takes about 10 minutes to get home
from school. As we reached home Daniel pointed into the sky. “Teacher Abi,
look!” and up on the horizon was a big dark cloud.
Of course it hadn’t started to rain yet
and in my head I thought, we have had dark clouds but they don’t bring the
rain.
|
|||||
Fast
forward a few hours. How wrong was I!?
It poured.
It rained all night long.
|
||||||
The next morning I totally forgot to
say anything but as the children got into the car at the end of the school day
Blessing had remembered. “Teacher Abi, we prayed and it rained. We need to
pray again”
Joy added “yes, and there were TWO
rainbows and rainbows show us Gods love”
So began the second car prayer meeting,
which happened every day for the next 2 weeks and included lots and lots of
thanks.
|
|
|||||
|
Since then the rains have truly come to
Lusaka. It has just rained for 36 hours solidly.
My last blog talked about the need for
rain.
We are so thankful it has finally
started and these children have learnt one of the most important lessons of
their lives and then thanked God from the bottom of their hearts!
|
|||||
Thursday, 31 October 2019
I've lost some children...
In the last 3 days we have ‘lost’ 4 children and there is
nothing we can do about it!
|
||||||||||||||
|
This makes my heart sad. I truly believe that every child
in this school was brought here for a reason. Jackson to Bethsheba, Queen to
Elijah, all 150+ of them and the 300+ more that have passed through school
since I have been here.
|
|
||||||||||||
The children love coming to school, most of the parents
appreciate the school, they get food, uniforms and education. So why are they
stopping?
|
|
|||||||||||||
|
Zambia is struggling economically. We have daily power
cuts of 12-18 hours, prices are going up and the rains have yet to start.
|
|||||||||||||
Most of the children at TCS come from very low-income
families. The parents go out in the morning to find a job for the day to
bring in enough money to feed everyone that evening. Some parents have more
regular work in people’s gardens, houses, loading trucks or some kind of
manual labour but as the economy worsens people are being laid off and work
is getting harder to find.
|
|
|||||||||||||
|
The result of this is the families can’t afford to keep
their children in Lusaka. Many of the families have relatives in “the
village” (anywhere outside of Lusaka). The cost of living in a village is
significantly lower than living in Lusaka so as life gets tougher the
children can be sent away. In “the village” access
to education and health care is reduced and the future does not look great.
|
|
||||||||||||
|
|
|
||||||||||||
I may only have a few months with a child or I may have a
few years. In that time they are taught about Jesus and a seed is planted. As
they go to the village I have to trust there was a reason for them ever
coming into school. How did they hear about school? What made me say yes to
that family and no to a different family?
Please join me in praying for Zambia and for the children
who we have already lost and those we might yet lose that have heard about Jesus, sung songs about
him and learnt bible verses in their time here.
|
||||||||||||||
Tell the world that Jesus lives
Tell the world that, tell the world
that
Tell the world that he died for them
Tell the world that he lives again
|
||||||||||||||
.
Friday, 2 August 2019
The end of 10 years
Sitting
at the airport waiting for my flight it seems incredible that I have finished
10 years in Zambia.
10 years of serious travel to see family and friends. |
|
There
have been hard times, the death of a friend or child in my care, illness,
overwhelming frustrations and feelings of inadequacy.
|
|
In the last 48 hours a few very difficult things have happened that we cant explain or understand, various phrases have been going
through my head. God is working his purpose out. Through the rise and fall He
is God above it all, You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds
are steadfast because they put their trust you.
|
|
Lets
be honest, If I had known 10 years from now where I would be and what I would
be doing I would have never got on the plane for 1 year in 2009.
|
As
I leave I have handed in all of my documents to apply for residency. It is up
to the immigration department to decide if I can stay here. I have never had
a problem with a work permit before and pray that by the time I come back it
is approved.
|
We
don’t know what can change or happen even within a few hours but how
comforting to know I don’t need to worry about it too much because God had it
under control.
|
|
20 Questions, TCS Edition, Oliya
I have started a series of 20 questions with the people at school so you can get to know some of them a bit more.
The children have no idea what the questions are before I ask them so this is a good way to get to know them a bit better.
I will be trying to upload a new video once a week.
Enjoy!
The children have no idea what the questions are before I ask them so this is a good way to get to know them a bit better.
I will be trying to upload a new video once a week.
Enjoy!
Friday, 26 July 2019
20 Questions, TCS Edition, Christine
I have started a series of 20 questions with the people at school so you can get to know some of them a bit more.
They have no idea what the questions are before I ask them so this is a good way to get to know the people here a bit better.
I will be trying to upload a new video once a week.
Enjoy!
They have no idea what the questions are before I ask them so this is a good way to get to know the people here a bit better.
I will be trying to upload a new video once a week.
Enjoy!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)