Crossroads

Wow. I apologize for my lack of writing! I can’t believe I’ve been here for over 2 weeks and literally haven’t had a minute to spare. But now it’s break week! Let me clarify- it’s a break from Americans, not from work! Now is the time to catch up on all the emails and other work I’ve had to neglect since getting here.

It would take entirely way too long to recap every single thing I’ve done or seen here so let me just give you an impactful moment.

One Thursday I got the opportunity to supervise a couple groups going into the compound of Kanyama 2. The Kanyamas are some of the roughest areas we work in. We had a younger group of girls about the age of 7 and an older group of girls around 13-14. They were the sweetest things EVER. By the end of the day some of the older girls were calling me their best friend and jumping all over me and hugging me. We picked weeds in the Community Resource Center (CRC) and then walked around evangelizing to the people who lived around the CRC. As we were leaving Kanyama 2, we took some back roads to avoid traffic on the main ones and we went through an area that is the roughest in Lusaka. It’s so horrible that the police won’t even go there. Trash didn’t just line the roads, trash covered the roads. They covered the sidewalks and created giant heaps all around. There were pigs roaming the streets along with goats, chickens and children. All of them, digging through the trash together. The air was putrid. There was nothing clean around us. I won’t even go into detail about the crime rate there. If the police avoid the area, that kind of gives you a hint of the hostile environment festering in the community. And then, all of a sudden we came to a light and just past the light the roads became paved and buildings appeared. Police motorcycles (yeah the first time I’ve seen that here) drove past us. Seriously, in the blink of an eye, we went from the absolute worst area in Lusaka to one of the richest. That is what Zambia is made of, rich businessmen and women living right next to the slums of Zambia. Ignoring them. Allowing the poor to live their lives parallel to the rich, but refusing to turn a head at their misfortune. My heart was filled with disgust. But then I was reminded that I live in a rich community of Dallas and right on the other side of the Trinity are the slums of Dallas. What are we doing for them? Do we allow the poor in Dallas to live their lives parallel to the rich and refuse to turn our heads at their misfortune?

We are the plan of God. There is no plan B. I’m just one chapter away from finishing Radical (sorry CG- I got a little behind! I promise to finish this week!) Anyways, in one of the chapters I recently read, it reads,

“Some wonder if it is unfair for God to allow so many to have no knowledge of the gospel. But there is no injustice in God. The injustice lies in Christians who possess the gospel and refuse to give their lives to making it known among those who haven’t heard. That is unfair.”

I read that quote and think of the injustice in all of us. As we walk past the homeless on the corners. As we refuse love to the orphaned. As we live our lives as if the whole world is perfectly fine.

God isn’t pleased by our strength, He is pleased by our faith.

You don’t have to be the strongest. You don’t have to be the richest. You don’t have to be the most courageous. You just have to have faith. He’ll use you in whatever way He wants. But for these kids and these people of Zambia, He wants them to know Love.

Those girls that I talked about earlier, they just needed to know that they were loved, cared for and beautiful. And guess what, God allowed me to be the one to tell them.

Every. Single. One. Of. You. Listen. Up.

YOU CAN DO THIS.