"It didn't feel real. We had landed in Lusaka at 9 pm and even though it was dark, my eyes were searching around in excitement. When we were heading to our lodge I was nervous and had no idea what to expect from Africa. I felt helpless a lot of the time when we would travel to the orphanage. All around me I saw dark eyes & light smiles, little children in desperate need for love. What can one day do in the course of a life...? My heart was broken for them and I felt a need to do more than what I was. I thought we'd arrive and I'd be full of impact for them, but staring back at the eyes staring at me, I was helpless.
At one of the orphanages I went to, I met a young girl, 15, named Jean,and I heard a story that changed my life. Jean's story. At the tender age of 12, already living at the orphanage, Jean was walking to school. A stranger, a man who believed the common myth that the cure for AIDS lies in the virginity of women, spotted her and took away her innocence that day. She was dragged village through village, naked, while people spat and urinated on her broken body. No one at her orphanage home knew, because she kept silent. Soon, Jean found out she was pregnant. Three years later, I meet her and her beautiful son, named Innocent.
Hearing her story and seeing her faith in God impacted me in a way that I can't physically explain. I saw a lot while in Zambia... poverty and sickness...but also hope in the people afflicted with them. I met college students who were more driven and determined to succeed in their education than any student I've met in the States. I met women willing to walk or craw to a clinicl for hours to get the medical care they needed. I've seen the joy of the Lord be the strength for one woman, Elina, who mothers her own children and takes in orphans. I've seen the Spirit of God move more mightily in a one room, cinder-block church, than in the "mega-churches" here at home. But most of all, I've seen love. I've seen love and I've felt love for people I never knew before. In coming home to America, I have brought this love back in the hopes that others might feel it too. I've brought back the pieces of my heart that belong to Jean and Innocent in telling their story. I want to raise awareness of what is happening in our world and to testify that feelings of helpless CAN transform into good works...easily.
My hope is to inspire you to give some of your love to these people. It has changed the way I live, and has taught me how grateful I should be for an abundant life in the Lord Jesus Christ. I never would've been this thankful if I hadn't met Jean. You can visit www.Zambiahope.com and donate, meet the kids I have personally met and raise awareness of the issues these children face, daily. And we, together, can develop a team of people, who out of love, impact the lives of children across the world for eternity. "
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