In Zambia (written on Monday)

I have now travelled down to Zambia for a few days as my African adventure enters its final week. I’ve never been to Zambia before, so am excited to be here, and to add another country to my list of ‘been there’s’!

But the main reason for being happy to be here is that I get to meet another CRED partner and to visit, and learn about another inspiring project.

The project that I will be visiting is the Chisomo Street Kids project in Lusaka, the capital city of Zambia, and tomorrow I get to see the different aspects of their programme. But today has been about travelling down here (a slightly tedious mix of early initial flight, waiting for connecting flights, delays and long visa queues) and then having the chance to just get to know Aaron and Josephine Chilunjika, the founders and key workers of Chisomo. And what an inspiring couple they are.

Aaron used to work for Scripture Union here in Lusaka, and Josephine was a secretary for the Reformed Church, when they both felt challenged by God to do something about the increasing number of street children that they were seeing in the city. Aaron initially asked SU to see if they would support him in this new initiative, but he was turned down. Undeterred, and determined to follow what he felt was God’s calling on his life, Aaron resigned his job, and started the Chisomo project. Soon afterwards, Josephine resigned from her job so that she could work with the street children alongside Aaron.

Chisomo has been running for approximately 20 years now, and over the time Aaron and Josephine have gone from just meeting with the children on the streets, to opening a drop-in centre, to having a residential shelter for those kids who want to go down the reintegration route. After tomorrow I’ll be able to give a lot more detail about it all, but suffice to say it is amazing to hear how much they have achieved along the way.

One of the other aspects of their work has been the preventative work – tackling the cause of the street kids problem, rather than just addressing the outcomes. In doing so, Aaron and Josephine have identified some groups of women in vulnerable neighbourhoods and worked with them to skill them up and get them working as co-operatives. Through equipping and empowering, these ladies now run less chaotic lives, and the children in their care, have more stable and loving homes, that they don’t wish to run away from.

All of that on its own is very commendable and inspiring to hear about, and it has been lovely being with this couple today. But I’m not doing them full justice unless I also mention that amidst all of the above, Aaron has also trained for church leadership and now pastors a church of 300 members; and both he and Florence also run leadership training workshops for churches, youth leaders etc.

None of this brings them a salary – their various roles are all done on an expenses-covered basis, but all are in areas of such deprivation that there is no spare money to pay a salary. So they live by faith, trusting God to provide their every need – and He does, time after time after time.

At one point I asked Florence if they have any children, and she confirmed that they have 4, and 1 grandchild. 2 of the children are still at home, but that doesn’t mean it is only 4 mouths total that they have to feed. Aaron is one of 7 children, and during the life of Chisomo, 3 of his brothers have passed away. In Zambian culture, when a parent dies, the children automatically become the adopted children of the next male, and as a result Aaron and Florence have 21 extra children that they are responsible for. They haven’t had them all as dependents at the same time, but there was a time when there were 20 of them (I think!) living in the same 3-bedroom house!

An absolutely amazing, faith-led, Godly couple, who live each day as an offering to the Lord; trusting in His provision for their needs, and receiving from Him as He provides. It is so inspiring to be able to spend time with people like this, and I am so looking forward to seeing what tomorrow brings, as I walk with them for a couple of days.