Thursday, July 7, 2011

June 29

I returned early this morning with Livingstone, let me just recount what happened the last two days as I visited Livingstone. Robert Shawa runs an orphanage in Livingstone, it's called Hopefiled Ministries. Since the year 2002, Mr. Shawa has adopted roughly 15 orphans/street children. These children will come to his home each Saturday for a meal as well as for bible studies and various activities. Since 2002, this ministry has served over 90 orphans, sending about 5 of them through college.

With little to no funding, Mr. Shawa uses his personal meager construction funds to provide these children with food 3 out of the 7 days of the week, and schooling when possible. The best part of his ministry however is the fact that he spends time making sure that these children will learn to read the bible and accept Jesus Christ at a young age. Much of our day was spending with Robert Shawa exploring different fundraising options for this organization. One of the main methods that we have disocvered is through the salahula clothing that we bought, we have projected that the clothing can raise a projected enough money that will be used towards purchasing a chicken farm. This chicken farm will then be used to pay for the children's schooling. Please pray that the Lord continues to guide Mr. Shawa and his ministry through this process. I also got the opportunity to give a short message to these oprhans as I shook hands and gave candy to them. They all seemed even more attentive and well behaved than the crazy children that will scream names at Bianca and I in Linda. They were so attentive and so willing to learn more.

I left Livingstone on a night bus at 10:00 pm and arrived in Lusaka this morning at around 4:00 am. With little time to rest Bianca and I set out a few hours later to get my yellow fever shot ( South Africa recently made a law that all individuals passing through the country must get a yellow fever vaccination traveling from Zambia). Afterwards we traveled back to Linda again to finish building the AQ water filters.

That evening we had 2 good bye parties. The first was at Regina's house, who was the host for Bianca and her sister Tiffany a year ago. She cooked a delicious meal. Regina's family will also be taking one of our AQ water filters this year for monitoring. They were most excited at the opportunity to have clean water. Lord willing through their diligence we will be able to truly see if this filter is able to be used. Also through other studies we found today that the water enterprise water ( the main source of tap water that about 30% of families have) is contaminated with coli fecal matter.

That night at the LOH good-bye party, for us as well as Mr. John Shawa ( who will be leaving for Ghana for a conference all sponosred for by MIT ), I was asked to give one last Sermon. As I got up I wanted to make something very clear, that this good-bye was a mere see you later. This see you later while wasn't a guarantee that we would return, it was a see you later, in the sense that I was hoping to see those who hadn't yet accepted Christ as their savior in Heaven. The youth that stood before me in my true opinion were the future of this compound and the ones that were truly going to make an impact in that compound, and not myself or Bianca or anybody. It was going to be through their diligence of staying with these sustainable programs through the grace of God. As  I lay my head down, I feel like I haven't slept in 30 hours, please pray for our health and protection.

1 comment:

  1. Sam, I've enjoyed reading your blog. I get a feeling that you've changed a lot since I last saw you in 2010!

    P.S.

    I think Mr. John Shawa's going to International Design and Development Summit (IDDS)?

    I have several Olin friends going there as well...

    ReplyDelete