We had the great pleasure of visiting and sleeping over in a full-fledge orphanage in the city of Lusaka. We arrived and were greeted with excitement and given the grand tour of the place. The meager conditions of the housing were balanced with the stability, safety, and love the kids were obviously receiving. The girls dorm was cozy, they all had bunk beds a sheet and a blanket, sheets over the windows for privacy, and a few had pillows. The boys room was missing a few windows, they had mattresses on the ground with one sheet and a blanket each. If I did not name it they did not have it. We noticed most all of them had no shoes. In addition, the school room was bare walls with one chalk board and a corkboard. No desks, no seating at all, just an empty room. So God really laid it on our hearts that He wanted to use us to provide for them. And that is when we pooled our money together to buy them shirts, flip-flops, tennis shoes, and school supplies (including a huge world map for their classroom walls, and a few educational posters). Francisco, one of the guys with us, and he made it his business to fix the broken windows in the boy’s dorm. It was like Christmas but better. All the Christmas’s I have had in America consist of present’s people like and use a few times, but this was bare necessities being provided like these kids had never seen before (and honestly it seemed like so little to us).
Along with these gifts we also gave each of the kids a New Testament Bible. The kids immediately began reading to us passages they had been taught in their nightly Bible Studies. One little girl, Agnes, was so thrilled about her Bible she did not put it down, not even to play (she is the one in the yellow shoes in the picture above). It was a testament to how we should all feel about God’s word. Honestly, I learned more about what God wants from us in 3 days with these kids than I have in the past 3 years.
The kids were appreciative and ecstatic to be able to serve us as well. We watched as they prepared a dinner for us. In their outdoor kitchen they built a fire with broken timbers they had scavenged from the neighborhood, and our guys helps them as they drew water from the well in their front yard to cook with.
It is hard to describe the character we saw in these kids. They were not quarrelsome, greedy, easily tempered, lazy, or the least bit concerned with how they looked. It was quite refreshing, and humbling all at once. I can only hope that one day soon we can take Peyton to a place like this and expose her to true character.
This particular place, Wons Orphanage, is run by Eunice and her husband Stephen. Eunice is handicapped, but fully able when it comes to being a caregiver and mother, as the kids all call her. Along with three kids of their own they take care of 21 orphans, kids they found wondering the street with no place to go. Many of these kids were forced to be beggars even with relatives in the area they had no one to take them in. Fortunately for these kids Eunice had been there. At the age of ten she became an orphan, living on the street and begging to stay alive. She made it her mission when she grew up to help as many children as possible and keep them away from the life she had lived through. She and her husband both work full-time.
They can afford to feed the kids atleast once a day and are able to send a handful of them to school. The other kids get home schooled by two young teachers who come in the evenings and teach all subjects as best they can for a few hours a day.
Prayer Request
Eunice and Stephen. Please pray for them that they do not weary from doing this great work, and pray for provisions, that people would see the needs and help them as they can. Also, pray for each of the kids that they would see the love of God through the lives of Eunice and Stephen.
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