Well, I made it to Zambia safely! It is so great to see all these wonderful, Godly men and women that I missed so much! We had a couple days to prepare for camp and it started on Monday. This week is a much smaller group of kids than the following weeks. Only about 200—which is a good number to start with. The first day went really smoothly. Some of the summer staff and I walked home from camp. It was a nice 35-40 minute walk through the University of Zambia. Some of the kids we saw along the way shouted “muzungu, muzungu!” which means white person haha. We waved at them and they just laughe and laughed!
Today was the second day of camp. While we were sizing kids for shoes, Kelsey found a deaf boy in a group. I went up to him and tried to communicate some, but he just had a blank look on his face. He didn’t know anything I was saying. One of the Zambians told me that he only knows a very few basic signs. Later that day I took some beads with letters on them that spelled his name and went and found him. He and I sat together for a little while and he was able to learn how to spell his name! To see his face light up because he could now communicate something with someone was so encouraging to see. After that I tried to teach him a few more things; like how to spell my name, Kelsey’s name, and the signs for JOY, LORD and STRENGTH (because the theme for this year’s camp is “The Joy of the Lord is my strength.” He seemed to understand it some. I showed him a picture of Jesus and showed him the sign for that. I’m planning on finding him again tomorrow and working with him some more all this week. I can’t imagin how lonely it must be to not have any language to communicate with anyone. Before he can understand that he has a father in heaven who loves him, he needs a language to hear that truth in. My prayer is that by equipping him with something to start with, he will be encouraged to continuing learning! His name is Joseph, so please pray for him!!!!
