Father's Heart Sponsorship Program

Although it is hard to leave the kids in Zambia, it is comforting to know that we have the chance to still make a difference once we get back to America through finding sponsors for each child in our group.

The “Father’s Heart” sponsorship program allows you to personally sponsor kids that were in our group at Camp Life this year. The cost is $85 one time and $40/month. This money will provide 100% of the child’s education expenses, the expense of having a Zambian Family Legacy staff member disciple these kids on a weekly basis, and access to the Community Resource Center in their community. 

To show the tangible difference this makes here are two contrasting stories of kids who were in Brian's group a few years ago, Nyambe and Jackson.

Nyambe came to Camp Life in 2007 and like most everyone in Zambia, his family is extremely poor. Unfortunately I was not able to find him a sponsor in 2007 and he has not been able to go to school since then. Nyambe trusted Christ for salvation, but because he is not sponsored, he has not received continued discipleship. He is 12 years old and works every day busting up rocks to be made into cinder blocks.

Jackson also came to Camp Life for the first time in 2007. He didn’t speak any English at that time and wasn’t doing well in school. God provided a sponsor for him, and his life couldn’t be more different. He has since skipped two grades and is number one in his class. He speaks fluent English and aspires to be an accountant. He has received continued discipleship, and his biggest prayer is that he would be able to help his younger brothers and sisters get through school.

We have no intention to motivate through guilt, we only want to share with each of you a chance to use the resources God has given you to push back the darkness in Zambia. Together, we have 14 kids that need to be sponsored. Below is a collage of the 5 kids that we think are the most vulnerable. If you are interested in learning more about these kid’s stories and the possibility of sponsoring them, please email me (tayloro84@yahoo.com) or go to the Father's Heart website.

Zambia Video

Here is a short video that we made using our Zambia pictures. Enjoy!

Make sure and turn up the volume.

Meet Chamba

Chamba is a sweet girl that Brian came to know in Zambia during the summer of 2008. (That summer Brian was on summer staff with Family Legacy Missions and was able to get to know a lot of kids!)

 During the 5 days of camp each counselor is to meet one-on-one with each child in their group. That is the time where you find out some of the hardships that these kids deal with on a day to day basis. Here is Chamba's story.

"Her parents lived in separate places and she rarely saw her father. Two of her siblings have already passed away. Chamba’s mother practices witchcraft and gets drunk almost everyday. Unfortunately, Chamba suffers severely from a lack of hearing in both ears because her mother sprayed rat poison in both of them on a regular basis as a form of punishment for no reason. Sweet Chamba has suffered from evil, vivid nightmares as a result of losing her siblings and her mother practicing witchcraft over her." 

-This was taken from the Family Legacy website

After hearing about this during camp, Family Legacy did everything they could to help this sweet girl. Brian and another girl on summer staff would visit Chamba on a daily basis for a few weeks giving her shots to help with the infection in her ears. 

Here they are on one of their visits.

The summer came to an end and Brian had to come home. Brian and I were not able to go to Zambia in 2009 or 2010 and so we didn't know how Chamba was doing.  The very last day of camp after all of the campers have gone the Americans take a tour of The Tree of Life. The Tree of Life is basically an orphanage that Family Legacy has built as a safe place for kids in the worst situations to come and live. The parents must give up full custody to Family Legacy. 

Well as we were walking around Tree of Life Brian sees a little girl running towards him. That little girl was Chamba. Here is the rest of her story.

"Now at the Tree of Life Children’s Village, Chamba has a whole new family! She praises God for her regular medical treatment with her ears and we are all praying for a full healing on her behalf. Chamba wants to be a doctor when she grows up and is now well on her way to her dream!"

There are countless other stories of children living at the Tree of Life that have been rescued out of situations like Chamba's. When you read the statistics and get overwhelmed with the problem it is so encouraging to realize that these kids are being transformed....even if it is just one kid at a time! 

Here is a picture of Chamba at the Tree of Life.

If you would like to read about the other children living at the Tree of Life click here.

The next post will be about a girl named Grace. Stay tuned!

Zambia Post #1

I know we have been back for 3 weeks now and I have still not gotten around to writing about Camp Life on here. To be honest, I am finding it very hard to even know where to begin. 

Instead of trying to give every detail of every day I will just tell a few of my favorite experiences and stories. Here it goes...

This year I had a group of 10 girls ranging in age from 6-11. Here are the 10 girls that I had the privilege of spending the week with at camp.

Thursday is my favorite day of camp! Every other day of camp we have the kids bused in and do camp at a conference center type place. Many of the kids have never ridden on a bus much less leave the community they live in.  It is so sweet watching these kids experience so many "firsts".

  

Thursday is different because we get to go into the communities where these kids live. My kids were from a community called "Ngombe". They tried all week to teach me the correct way to pronounce this word....they were unsuccessful! Let's just say they laughed at me A LOT.  

This year we focused on how as believers in Jesus Christ we should love and serve our neighbors. So we put these kids to work! Once we arrived in Ngombe we split up the groups of kids into different service projects. Some of the jobs were picking up trash, cleaning the community schools, painting a local clinic/police station, walking around and evangelizing. Service projects are a foreign concept to the Zambian people. There is no "serving" your neighbor. It was so fun to have my girls walk me around their community pointing out places of significance to them. Here are some pictures of the different communities that I have been to in Zambia.

Imagine walking through these communities that are littered with trash, one room mud huts, and little kids wandering around alone. It is heart breaking. It is one thing to hear these kids talk about their living situations and all of the hard issues they have to face daily but walking through it yourself makes it all very real. 

One of the hardest realizations when you are in a country like Zambia is that the problem seems overwhelming. Here are a few statistics that will help you understand better.

* Half of the population of Zambia is under the age of 16

* Of the 6 million children in Zambia, more than 1 million of them are orphaned

* Average life expectancy is 38

* 86% of people live on less than $1 a day

When I would look at the kids sweet faces, it would break my heart to know the odds they are facing. Orphans are seen as a burden in these communities and usually neglected because of their status. But in all of this there is hope...

I will be posting a few of these amazing stories of hope soon!