Another Day Another Blessing

Day 5 in Zambia. Sunday. Zambia's population is about 10% Muslim and 90% a wide variety of Christian sects. To appreciate a bit of the local culture one of our hosts took us to church at a local branch of Dynamic Worship Church International in a squatter settlement called Garden. And dynamic was certainly the word for this Pentecostal service! Vocalists, a backup choir, a fiery preacher, a slide show with the various verses of scripture posted for the congregation to see, an equally fiery translator who repeated every sentence of the sermon into the local Bemba language, stirring music, and a sermon that stirred much discussion among the members of our group. We were asked, as visitors, to stand up and introduce ourselves and talk about our mission to Zambia. After the 2 hour service, we met with the bishop who gave the sermon and were asked if our organization could help support their local school and orphanage too. So much help is needed here.

After lunch, we visited the local crafts market where all the vendors seemed to plead for our business.we had been briefed in advance about bargaining being an expected way to do business. It turned out that the best bargainer among us was 15 year old Naz, a sophomore at Newton North High School. She helped us purchase many beautiful creations which we will bring back and sell to help raise money to purchase needed supplies for schools and clinics for next year's trip. (Naz worked very hard to collect 600 new toothbrushes, packets of dental floss and tubes of toothpaste from a variety of sources to bring to Zambia as part of a project to improve oral health for children here - a real go-getter!)
Betty and I spent part of the afternoon planning details of a photography project that we are doing later this week with a group of teen students at Living Hope School. More details about this later.

Post and Pictures by Richard Moriarty

Making Friends

Hard bargaining

Hard bargaining