So I have a lot to be thankful for! For a few weeks I have been praying for open doors in my ministry. I wanted to do more and I wanted to become actively involved with some of the orphanages in the area. One of the main reasons I felt a call to Zambia is because I had a huge burden for the orphans and vulnerable children. I have been praying for a contact that would give me access or an “in” into the whole orphanage scene. All I can say is God is so faithful. A couple of weeks ago I received an email from one of my college ministers when I was at Tech (good ole Wheeler!). He wrote a very encouraging email and also passed my email address on to a new friend of his. The friends name is Greer Kendall. Turns out Greer’s parents were missionaries here way back when and he was born here in Lusaka. He now lives in Texas with a family of his own. I got an email from Greer on a Thursday and he was informing me he would be landing in Lusaka on Sunday. He wanted to get together with me and talk about the work I do here and what he does here.
He has been on many trips to Zambia since 2000. His trip this time was to make preparations for a volunteer team he is bringing here in late July. When he comes, his main goal is to concentrate on the orphanages. I was very excited when talking with him. He also introduced me to some Zambian friends of his that work with him. One girls name was Tendai. She visits about 5 orphanages and is involved with them doing various things from taking stats of the children to teaching. While Greer was here I visited 3 orphanages with him. It was such a great opportunity! In the future I am supposed to be getting together with Tendai and working with her. So you can pray that Tendai will call me very soon!
Now here is an even cooler story…..
So while Greer was here I got my roommate to come along with me to the places we went to. She met Greer and told him about the ministry she does here. Her main ministry so far has been True Love Waits (TLW is different here than it is in the states). She goes into the schools and teaches it to the students. Well the Zambian man who has been helping her set up appointments has moved to South Africa. So that has been a bit of a problem for her. After she told Greer about her recent situation he told us about his friend that would be coming around with us tomorrow. His name is Kongwa. Greer had nothing but super positive things to say about this dear friend of his. Well as it turns out, this dear friend of his is a famous Zambian actor. He plays the moral/Christian guy named Jason on a soap opera. So basically it is the equivalent of us being friends with one of the cast members of the TV show “Friends”.
Well, Kongwa is trying to move away from the soap opera thing and dive into a youth ministry. What he does is go around Zambia and talk to youth about abstinence…the same as Stephanie! He is starting up something called GANG (God’s Anointed Next Generation). He was very eager and interested about teaming up with Stephanie and working together on a program. So, woo hoo!!…. I know a famous person!
So, isn’t it funny how God works! Who would have thought that he would have all of this happen through a guy from America.
The possibility of working with Kongwa is very exciting! Since he is “famous” the people here respect him and listen when he speaks! The other day we gave him a ride to the TV studio because he was about to film en episode of the soap. He even invited me and Stephanie to come in and watch the taping, but we had to decline because we had somewhere to be. But the funny part of the story is when we came to a stop sign a group of young girls were standing on the side of the road. One girl looked up and started screaming, “Jason, Jason!!” and they were all trying to hid behind one another. It was really cute! But he graciously rolled down the window and waved and talked to them.




Now here is my story of suffering (this is not a story for those with weak stomachs)…….….
So one day I had an itch on my back. I went to scratch it and apparently scratched a little too hard. I had a bump that I did not know about and when I scratched it I made it bleed. So I didn’t really think much about it. Well over the next 3 or 4 days the bump became this huge red, swollen, supersensitive sore. I thought that maybe it was just a mosquito bite that maybe got infected. But then I remembered being told about these things we have here called putse flies. They lay their eggs in damp places for them to hatch. And when you put on clothing that has them on there, the little critters will burrow into your skin. So I started to get a little scared that it could be a putse fly because they are known to get on bath towels. YUCK!
Well I was at my supervisor’s house yesterday and while I was there I decided to let her take a look at it. I was in so much pain I had to do something. So she got out the alcohol, Neosporin, cotton, band-aids, and a pin and went to work. After about 15 minutes of poking and picking she was finally able to see what was under the “thick shell of a scab” (those were her words, not mine). She said that it looked to be a worm. A WORM!!!!! I wanted to throw up right then. So then she proceeded to get the little critter out of my flesh. And this was done by a high-tech means….she squeezed the mess out of it (so painful!). so after it was out I was kinda bummed that I didn’t have my camera with me to take a picture of it. Because I know everyone reading this is just dying to know what it looked like. Well I guess that if you can picture what a maggot looks like, then you have a pretty good picture. Isn’t that gross, I had a maggot!!