This was the day I got it, had my aha moment, woke up, realized, understood, felt the closest to God that I have ever felt in my entire life.
It was Sunday and what do we do on Sunday??? Well, we go to church of course! We headed out to Tree of Life which is Family Legacy's largest and most amazing project. It is basically acres and acres of land with houses for children who came from the most destitute situations. The children are sponsored by Americans and live there full time. Each house has a house mom and the children all have chores just like they would if they lived in a safe normal traditional common well, I don't know what to call it but they are chores that are commonly expected of children in Zambia. Good chores. Chores that prepare them for life and teach them good values. If you want to know more about Tree of Life you can go here to find out the master plan.
Kids houses at Tree of Life
The drive out was nice and green and lush. From what I understand, when it is not the rainy season everything there is usually very dusty and dry. No, I did not see zebras, giraffes, elephants, or monkeys. Everyone asked me this. Honestly, I was kinda hoping I would. I did not. I guess the Dallas Zoo will have to do.
I knew we were in for a treat because we were getting to go to church with the kids on their turf and not many have had this opportunity. As soon as we stepped off of the bus I could feel HIM. There was a slight breeze blowing the most beautiful sound over us that I have ever heard. We began to walk and this time no children were running to greet us like rockstars. They were singing praises to the Lord and even we were not taking their attention off of Him. We arrived at a pavillion where many, many children and just a few adults stood celebrating, singing, praising the Lord. We were greeted with glancing eyes and quietly excited smiles but still very calm. It was clear where the focus was. We joined them in their worship and let me tell you, if we all worshipped like them the lines out of our churches would be miles long. Seriously. MILES. Most of the songs they sang were a cross between English and Njanja (Zambian) but it didn't matter if you didn't know the words the meaning was crystal clear.
As soon as I sat down I was joined by 3 little smiling faces all about Kate's age. 2 of them were little boys and 1 of them was a little girl. The 2 boys were reserved but they would occassionally nudge and push each other because they both wanted to sit right next to me. The little girl plopped herself right in my lap. We locked eyes and it was LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT. I immediately felt love for her like she was my own child. I wanted to take her home and keep her FOREVER. We hadn't even spoken a word.
That's my little Anna in my lap!
The children grabbed hands and we all stood to sing praises. As we stood singing the heavens opened up and rain began to pour. It was more than rain. It was a presence. A SIGN FROM THE HEAVEN'S. It felt like God saying, "I here you and I am here. Do you get it now Amber?" Oh, I got it alright. The funny thing was that it was probably a good 75 degrees with a slight breeze and I was in heaven but those poor babies were freezing! They had a serious case of the CHILLS. The older children were running all around trying to grab laundry off of the clothes line and grabbing jackets for the little ones who were shivering like it was 40 degrees out. It was amusing. Clearly our current temps might be a little shock to their systems if they were here. As we continued through worship I noticed that the only instrumental music was coming from a drum made out of a trashcan. It was amazing. I've never heard such a beautiful sound. It really drove home a story that our pastor had told...it was about an organ. Basically, some individuals were unhappy and wanted organ music. All I could think was... forget the organ lets get some trashcans!
The kids told the Bible story and lesson for the day. Ironically it was about obedience. The very thing that had brought all of us there. The story of Abraham and his son Isaac.
The next part puzzled me. They took up an offering! I watched carefully as one by one each and every child placed money into the offering plate. Children who have nothing and are basically in an orphanage were giving back to God what he had provided them with. Even if it is the same money recycled and placed back in the offering plate each week (we thought this might be the case) they are still learning to give God what is His. I began to wonder...At what point do we go from having nothing but STILL giving back to God what he has provided to...Having so much and holding onto our pocket books only giving to God what we think He should have???
When worship time was over the rain stopped. Just stopped. The sun came out and the weather was perfect for us to enjoy the rest of the day with the kids. Each of us went into one of the houses to get to know the kids and enjoy lunch with them. I walked into my house and guess what... Do you remember my little love that sat on my lap??? It was her house!!! Now I could know her name and everything about her. Anna. Her name is Anna. I love Anna. We ate a meal of rice with ground meat and learned an important Zambian lesson. You know how we all sit down at the dinner table (once in a blue moon) and talk about anything and everything? We catch up. Ponder out loud. Well they don't do that. I kept trying to ask the kids questions while they were eating and they would just look at me. Usually the house mom would answer for them. I didn't get it so I asked. Ha! Basically you are not supposed to talk and carry on conversation during meal time. Sit down, eat up, and shut your trap. That's REALLY hard for me. After the meal we sat and chatted with all of the girls. Beautiful, beautiful girls! Have I mentioned Anna??? If they would have let me I would have brought her home. I am pretty sure I asked. When they said no, I told them to tell her sponsor to sponsor someone else so I could have her. "No." Sigh.
Anna doing her chores.
After our meal and girl talk we went outside to play. We had so much fun! I was of course reminded that gravity is no different in Africa and jumping on the trampoline after having 2 children is still not a good idea. It was still REALLY fun!!!
I had a special treat for a special little boy. His American sponsor had passed along a gift to me for him to take on the trip. I found little Temba and his cute little self and gave him his gift. He smiled from ear to ear for the rest of the day.
We also had the opportunity to pray over some slabs that are soon to be houses for more children.
That's my little Anna in the brown jacket and pink pants. We were like glue!
When we had to leave the children were really sad but luckily we would have a chance to return. I hugged my little Anna and many other children and jumped on the bus. As we were about to pull off a little boy shouted and pointed, "You!" Then he grabbed Anna held her up and we waved goodbye and blew kisses to each other.
Special...
I have to tell this story. I can't help but feel a little proud of my daughter Kate. In the weeks before I left for Zambia we noticed that many of Kate's shoes were getting a bit small. Especially her beloved sparkle shoes of EVERY color. As I began to walk away she said, "Mom! I know! You can take them to Africa and give them to the kids!" Tear. When I heard that, I couldn't help but feel like as a mother maybe, just maybe I got one small thing right. The night before I left Kate remembered and came to me with an arm full of shoes and said, "Don't forget these!" Now I was a mom on a mission. When we arrived at Tree of Life we began searching for a little girl that the shoes would fit. Lots of little girls but lots of big feet! Kate has tiny feet. I started to get worried. There had to be a little girl who could fit into these shoes! I felt like we were searching for Cinderella with sparkle shoes and all! Alas we found one little girl named Doreen. And the slipper fit! She was so happy and she changed shoes 3 times before we left because she was so excited to wear them. Here is a photo of the shoe being tried on Doreen. I have another photo of her holding the shoes but now I am starting to panic because I can not find it!
Can you imagine a full day of just feeling like you have been walking alongside God? NOTHING can make you feel more joyful, happy, fulfilled, renewed. Everything we did that day I felt like God was sitting right next to me and we were sharing this special time like best friends. Sometimes I felt like if I could see him we would both have the kinda smiles on our faces that let each other know we knew what each other was thinking. Nothing about this day was sad or painful. Bliss. Pure bliss. I knew I was priviledged to be there and to have that experience. This was also the first night we were able to send communication to anyone. I was on cloud 9.
PS...The older girls kept telling me how much they liked my hair and asked me if they could touch it :)
PSS... Tomorrow is day 1 of teacher training!
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