Devotion

I feel like I need to share a devotion that I had this morning. I was reading Psalm 118: 13-14:
" I was pushed back and about to fall, but the Lord helped me. The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation."
Over the past couple of day, tensions have run high: tensions between us interns and tensions within the EOH staff, due to the high stress of planning camp and the opening of the Chongwe My Father's Houses. Yesterday I got so frustrated and upset at everything that was going on around me that I felt defeated. I felt worn out, finished, and started praying for God to show me his purpose for me here in Zambia. The Lord then answered by prayers through a friend who talked me out of my misery. That was the momeny when I realized that I can't rely on myself to do what God intends for me to do here. The Lord is my strength, which means that I have to totally rely on him. When power does out, water runs out, and food runs out, I have to remember who sustains me, and who will provide for me always. The Lord is my song. He will keep me positive and keep my heart going, and no one else. It's almost shameful and amazing to think that God had to break me down, physically and emotionally, before I could surrender my own will to Him, and follow His will for me in Zambia.
Thank you so much again for your prayers and your support. I ask that you pray for everything to run smoothly next week for Camp Hope, and so that we can make an impact in the lives of children from all over Chongwe. May the Lord bless you and keep you safe!
~Jessie

Pictures...

Also, blogger isn't able to upload my pictures to this website. So if you would like to see some pictures, please go to my facebook page. (just go to facebook.com and search jessica showers) and my pictures have some Zambia photos.
If you would like to read a blog that is being written by another intern on my team, Sophie, you can go to http://sophiesshoes.blogspot.com. It might give you a different perspective on our experiences here in Zambia.
Thanks and God bless!
~Jessie

Update

Ok so power and internet has been flucuating over the past couple of days and it just came back on (yippie!!) so I will try and give you a you a quick run-down on what me and the other interns have been busy with.
I just got back from my 5 day trip to Kabwe where I got to see my family's sponsor child, Annette. She was so happy to see me and called me her sister and my parents "mom" and "dad". It was so touching to get to talk to her, especially since she was sick with malaria they day that I went to visit her. She had stomach pains and sores on her body, but she was still willing to stand up and take a picture with me. She loved unwrapping the present that my parents bought for her, especially the pen. :-) Altogether, me and my other intern Katie saw 34 children over the course of 4 days. It was a lot of fun to get to know our Zambian coordinators and to learn a bit about the Zambian culture as well. For instance, Zambian hospitality is very important. We went into one woman's house and she was so honored by our visit, that she cooked us lunch! It was a LOT of food too, and everytime the Zambians saw that my plate was empty, they would put another huge mound of food on my plate, and it was disrespectful not to eat it! We also had to walk for an hour and and half to get to where we were staying one night! That was more walking than I ever remember doing haha! So we got back to Lusaka safely, and this week we are planning and preparing for the first Camp Hope of the summer in Chongwe. The Teen Mania group arrives on Friday, and Gary Schnieder (the founder of Every Orphan's Hope) arrives with his family on Thursday. So it's going to be very exciting this upcoming weekend and week. I will try to upload photos as the internet allows, so please be patient!
May God bless you and keep you safe!
~Jessie

Girls and Chitangues

Today was a relaxing day for me. There was only one OVC coordinator who was available to take us interns around Kalingalinga, so only three people went to visit the children. Me, Grant, Jessica K, and Chelsea stayed behind and washed clothes, cleaned out the fridge, and sweeped the floors in the houses. Then we decided to go get some food up at the grocery store, walked to the grocery store, got some ice cream, and did some shopping along the way. We found a nice local bakery to buy some french bread, and got a watermelon on the way home.

Later on in the day we got another opportunity to visit My Father's House. The children were a bit shy at first, but still eager to play with us. We played Uno for a little while, then some singing and clapping games, and then Jessica K, who is a teacher in Canada, brought some child books that her class had donated. The kids LOVED the books. They were all eager to read them or have one of us read the stories to them. I spent most of the 4 hours that we were there reading to girls, helping them read themselves, and then listening to them read me stories. It was a lot of fun and really made me realize how different all the kids are on the academic level. Some children could read extremely well, while others I could sound out the word, and they would still struggle a lot with how to say it.

Kids and Coordinators

Wednesday June 3, 2009

Today was a good but very long day. Last night, Katie (one of the interns on my team) got a terrible nosebleed and she had to be taken to the clinic nearby. After bringing her back from the clinic, she had one more nosebleed during the night so Paul (one of our leaders) decided that Katie shouldn’t go out into the field with us today. So 6 of us went to meet the OVC Coordinators in Chawama again today. We went through section B of Chawama village today, and the houses were much more spread out, so we had to do a lot of walking. We must have walked over 6 miles today in the hot sun, greeting Zambians along the way. We were able to visit 7 children, ages ranging from 5-17. Some of the kids are very shy and we have a hard time opening them up, but I think about how I would feel if I was a kid and a group of strangers came into my house and starting asking me invading questions, I would be pretty hesitant to answer also.
After going through Chawama, Martha, the director of Every Orphan’s Hope, invited all of the interns over to dinner for the night. We got to eat delicious steak, salad, and Zambian beans. Afterwards, Martha got to talk to us about the whole process of sponsoring a child for Every Orphan’s Hope, the challenges that the ministry is facing right now in the face of a changing economy, currency rates, etc, and how it’s hard to properly distribute the money just because of how much need there is in the communities. It breaks my heart to know that there are so many children who require so much need, and Every Orphan’s Hope doesn’t have the money or the means yet to help everyone that needs it. All the OVC Coordinators are working for Every Orphan’s Hope completely as volunteers. They work because they have a heart for the children in the communities and they love to do God’s work. I have tremendous respect for the coordinators who donate their time, energy, and their money to the ministry and to helping us get around the villages.

Thursday June 4, 2009

Praise God that we haven’t had any power outage in the past day! They said that the power generator that broke has been fixed, so we should be getting consistent power from now on. :-D We had the chance to meet all the OVC Coordinators from Lusaka, Chibebe, Kabwe, Kitwe, Musonda Falls, Livingstone, and Kafue today. The coordinators got to give everyone an update on how the children that they look after are progressing and growing. The biggest issue seemed not to be getting the children food, but the children money for school tuition. The Zambians believe that if you put the child through school and teach them enough, then they can get a good job and the food issue won’t be an issue anymore. The most important part about getting to know and help these kids, is to minister to the kids and tell them about Jesus. I also found out today that I will be going to Kabwe for 5 days next week, and I got to meet the coordinators from Kabwe. All the coordinators are very nice and excited to meet us. After hearing some of the testimonies from the children in different areas, it makes me think that if the sponsored children are having this much trouble getting by, the un-sponsored children are having an even worse time. That is why we need to continue to be an advocate for these children so that they can get sponsored!

Seeing the orphans

Tuesday June 2, 2009

8:30am
Yesterday we faced our first great challenge of the possibility of not having power for days at a time. It seems that a power generator in Zambia is broken and so the poorer areas (like where we live) will not get power. It was a very stressful time and frustrating for all of us who wanted to contact our family, but couldn’t get internet to let them know that we were okay. After about 4 hours, the group decided to stop worrying about the issue and give it to God. So we all stopped and prayed about it, lit some candles after dark, and sang praise songs until it was time to go eat. We went to Abundant Life Church, where the cook, Patricia, graciously offered to cook us dinner at late notice. The meal was hot and delicious and we got to eat shima for the first time being here in Zambia. The Abundant Life house was actually the place that I stayed for a while in Zambia 5 years ago. Many memories came back from the first time I came to Zambia while we were eating. We also got to go to the market to buy chitangues (sheets of fabric that Zambians wrap around their waists for skirts, or use them to carry their babies on their back), and ride the buses that are available in Lusaka for the first time. The buses are small, van-sized buses that they usually pack as many people as possible into. It was a little bit cramped but a lot of fun! Today we will be going to sponsored orphan’s homes to get an update on how they are going. Please pray for all of us interns that God will after us and allow us to show His love to these children!
4:30pm
We attempted to visit 5 kids today: Priscilla, Sarah, Melvin, Joseph and Hilda. While Sarah and Melvin weren’t home today, all the other kids were there and I got the opportunity to talk to them, their guardians, and the neighbors living around them. It’s amazing how large and vast these towns are, and most people live in nothing but a small stone house with humble furniture. Most children that we talked to were not in school because their guardians couldn’t afford to pay for the tuition, uniforms, and shoes. Joseph really made an impression on my heart. He’s 16 years old, had just come back from a funeral to speak to us, and was extremely kind to us. He told me that he wasn’t in school because his aunt couldn’t afford it, but he his dream was to study law and become a lawyer. After writing a letter to his sponsors and taking pictures with us, he walked us out of his little neighborhood and thanked us again for coming. All these children are so sweet and so happy in spite of their circumstances that it makes me really appreciate what I have in my life already and how I should be just as happy as these children and more.
PS-> I’ve been having technical difficulties trying to upload photos to this page, so I will being trying to upload it to another site and then posting the link here. If you are facebook friends with me, go to my page (search Jessica Showers) and I have already uploaded photos there.
Psalms 25:4-5 “Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.”

Church in Zambia

Sunday, May 31, 2009
This morning we were taken to a Martha’s (the director of Every Orphan’s Hope) church called Northmead Assemblies of God. The church was very familiar to Western churches in many ways: we watched the pastor preformed 8 baby dedications for different children, we sang western songs (such as “Here I am to Worship”) and we said the benediction. In other ways though, the church seemed so much more alive than other churches that I have been to in the past. Right when we stepped into the church, people were already there in fervent prayer and a man up at the front was speaking, it seemed, half in English and half in his own language (most likely called Nyanja) and didn’t stop praying out loud until the choir had arrived and music started playing. People sang with all their hearts during worship, and when the pastor prayed, everyone prayed out loud all at once, throwing their hands into the air or kneeling on the ground. Seeing their dedication to the worship of their mighty God, makes me realize how spiritually wealthy the people of Zambia are. It made me realize how difficult it is to put our entire trust in Him. I easily fall into the habit of relying on my own rationale and I forget to consult God in everything I do. When you are always provided with the necessities to keep you happy, relying on God for everything you do becomes so much harder. The pastor also announced our presence, asked us to stand up, and the choir then sang a song of welcome to us. The pastor then spoke through the verses in Ephesians 1 about how everything we do must be first consulted and reflected over through prayer. Also, the pastor stressed how prayer symbolizes your commitment to God and your dependence on Him. Overall I was really inspired by the visit.
In the afternoon, we got the opportunity to visit the My Father’s House Orphans home that is located just down the street from were we are staying. The children were eager to greet us and as soon as we brought out a ball, a bat, and a battered up volleyball, we spent hours playing games with them. I played soccer (aka football) with the boys for at least an hour or so. Some of the kids had sandals, ripped up sneakers, and some with no shoes at all. But none of the children noticed while they were playing. They barely have anything, but their joy over just playing with us and playing with each other was amazing.
I would like to take a moment to share a story about an orphan that Paul and Kim Lueders told us about. A teenage girl came to Camp Hope in 2007 with a very surly attitude. She would get in fights with other kids, tear up crowns, and sometimes refuse to participate. Paul Leuders finally took her aside and asked her about her story. She told him that she was a double orphan (both parents died of AIDS) and she was handed off to her aunt and uncle. Her aunt and uncle then used her as an indentured servant, with nothing but leftovers or nothing at all to eat at night. If she refused to work and do chores for them, they would tie her up and beat her with a wire hanger. She said that she was beaten regularly. When Paul heard this, he automatically went to talk to another coordinator with Every Orphan’s Hope, and made sure that this girl never had to go back to that home again. Every Orphan’s Hope found a spot open in one of the orphan homes, and that little girl never had to go back to her abusive home. Today, when walking back to our home, we ran into some of the mothers of the orphan homes, and this little girl was with them. She hugged every single one of us fiercely and joyfully.