This past Saturday, February 18th, the house held its first “Family Update Day”. This is a day where the immediate parent or guardian is invited to come and learn about what is going on in the life of their child, academic, social, spiritual, and health updates.
The children participated in the morning chores of ensuring the house was ready to recieve their guests. Each child is assigned tasks that are appropriate to their age. Watching the girls care for their home is a blessing. They love to sing and clean.
Once the house was ready the girls spent time playing Connect 4 and Sorry, both of these games have become favorites.
As the mothers, grandmothers, and aunties arrived, they were provided general introductions and general updates on the house.
Then refreshments were served, cookies, soft drinks, and juice which are always a favorite in Zambia.
Following that each family member had a one-on-one meeting with the team and the child. Clara did a phenomenal job of bringing each family updates on the child’s progress. These meetings were very beneficial not just to the families and children, but to our team as well. During the discussions, additional insights were learned.
Each family member has presented a gift of photos of their children dressed in their school uniforms and cards each child had made for them. They were very moved and in many cases told us they had never had even one photo of the children.
The love and compassion Misheck and Clara showed each person was in-itself the presentation of the true gospel.
The children then had time to show their families their school notebooks and progress they are making along with additional drawings and artwork. They also shared with them several memory verses they have been working on.
This meeting was the first of what will be many as we live out this calling the Lord has given us.
Meeting these women was a special gift itself. Life has been so disastrously hard to each of them – most in unique ways. They struggle with alcohol, abuse, suicide, and a laundry list of health issues. They are the marginalized and the overlooked. But to watch their faces at the joy of seeing and hearing how their “children”, grandchildren, and “babies” are doing was nearly beyond description.
This is the power of when people obediently serve Christ and not for the sake of the children, the families, or the country… but they serve for the Glory of God – when God gets all the Glory there is an overflow that benefits the children, the families, and yes eventually even a nation, but it must be rooted in service to Christ for God’s glory alone.
