Zambia

Weightlifting for Christians

/ Erin Kirk / Leave a comment

Yesterday I heard a story about a young lady who is spending the summer teaching desperately poor kids in Uganda.

One of her tasks is to sharpen 100 or so pencils every day for the kids, but the school doesn’t have a pencil sharpener. So she does it by hand with a dull razor blade, a task that’s proving so arduous she has blisters from it.

A pencil sharpener.

IMG_0363-2I’m leaving in three weeks to work in a Zambian bush village, in a school with 150 children. They show up each day hungry and sit on the floor to do their schoolwork, presumably with loaner pencils. One pastor, his wife and three other women feed all these children, educate them and love them, but the need is always deeper than the resource pool.

So it is wonderful that our team is coming to help with plumbing and construction and infection and yes we will bring more soccer balls and pencils, but sometimes the best gift you can give someone is the freedom to decide what they need most, like electricity and rice.

Cash does that. So I’m raising more.

This money is not going to rescue them, they rely on Jesus for that. What it will do is lift some weight. Maybe for a time it will give these five people a breather, maybe give them courage to go back to what seems like endless, impossible work.

Because, for as difficult as it is, they love it. This job, these children, it is what they were made to do. How lucky are they to know that?

Will you help us fund food or electricity or projects in Chongwe Zambia? Will you help us bless this Pastor who has two kids of his own and 150 more counting on him.

You can mail a tax-deductible contribution with The Jasper Project in the subject line to SCRUBS Medical Mission PO Box 8772 Tyler, Texas 75711.

Thanks friends.

Where’s Your Territory?

/ Erin Kirk / Leave a comment

Last week two high school kids in Zambia went completely nuts when they found out, with only 48 hours to spare, their high school tuition was in the bank. On Monday morning they were out buying books and uniforms.

Picture 3

Telise (left) Fidelise (right)

I promised I would tell you how we raised the money, crowing about the mountains God moved, but in this case, there wasn’t much mountain moving, just garden-variety obedience.

Two people right here in Texas, who are already believing their heads off for rent, gas, insurance and food scraped up enough money to get Telise and Fidelise started. Then a couple more people wrote checks and now the second term is nearly in the bank. We need another $800 for third term.

There are no dramatic stories here, no millionaires in the bunch, just an unsexy, unheralded sacrifice made by regular folks who want to level the playing field slightly, to make the earth a little more like it is in heaven. There’s a lesson in that.

English: Bachalpsee in the morning, Bernese Alps

Bernese Alps (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

What we do might not be extravagant but when it’s done out of obedience to Jesus, it’s eternal. The work becomes a living part of the Kingdom of God, like a shiny new castle, a fuchsia azalea or an alpine lake.

I’m so glad Jesus has become the why behind my what, because it gives me context for the kind of work I’ve always wanted to do anyway.

So yes, the world is badly broken and the injustice is overwhelming, but remember we’re just responsible for our own territory, not the whole thing.

So where is your territory and what are you planting there?

You Are a Miracle in Waiting.

/ Erin Kirk / Leave a comment

When I agreed to go to Zambia this summer with SCRUBS Medical Mission, I dreaded raising the trip money. I’d rather take a beating than ask people for help because I’m a proud, independent American woman and I can handle stuff.

Unfortunately for me, God hates pride and stubborn independence. He does. Look it up. Proverbs 8:13 and Psalm 10:4

So, I sucked it up and asked everyone I knew. Today, I only have $300 to go. Can you believe that? Thirty six of you were happy to jump in with me and go make some friends in Zambia. What a lesson! How often do pride and independence – the most American of all values – interfere with that big, leapy faith God wants before he lays some mind-blowing miracle on us?

Evidently, for me, raising $3600 wasn’t hard enough though. I want leap farther now, believe even bigger. So here goes:

Meet future Zambian engineer Telise and lawyer Fidelise

Picture 3

Telise (left) and Fidelise (right) used to be orphans but they’re not anymore, because Pastors Jasper and Zion took them in, loved them and taught them how to believe in God’s faithfulness – especially for school.

  • School in Zambia is free only to seventh grade.
  • According to Wikipedia, 74% of Zambian children go no further.
  • Telise and Fidelise need tuition for 10-12 grade by May 18th to pursue these formerly inconceivable goals.
  • One year for both of them is $2400, but they really need two and I have no idea how to raise it.

June 2009 132But God does and He’s waiting for us to be the conduit.

So I’m believing for it and when it happens, I’m going to crow about it right here. So get ready. As the Prophet Isaiah said:

As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:10-11

If you’re the miracle, or you’re part of the miracle or know someone else who is, will you pray for it, forward this link or send a tax-deductible contribution to SCRUBS with “Tuition” written in the subject line? SCRUBS Medical Mission 15434 Brittain Court, Lindale, Texas 75771

Zicomo. That’s thank you in Nyanja. I’ll keep you posted.