It's hard to describe how it feels to be back home in Zambia. There really is nothing like this place...we have waited a year to come back to the place where we
left our hearts and I would be lying if I said that it isn’t hard to be here. Hard because I know that in a week I have to
again say goodbye again. I have to say goodbye
to people who have impacted my life in such a deep way that I can’t help but
call them mother, sister and brother. Not
that they have in anyway taken the place of my family at home (no one could do
that), but they instead have become a living extension of that family.
My Bemba mayo, Towela, is a woman with a heart like my own
mother and lives a life of incredible sacrifice, humility and love. My Auntie Sukai and Uncle James too, emulate
the way of Christ and have a kind wisdom and strength that I can only pray to
have one day. My sister Trina, her
husband Saul and their two beautiful children Tapiwa and Sibongile bring the
kind of joy to my soul that leaves me feeling like something is missing when I
am not with them. They all have little but give SO much. They work harder than anyone I have ever met,
yet still barely make ends meet for their families. They take in abused, neglected and abandoned children
who are not their own and they love them and care for them as their own. Their families grow, but their pocketbooks don’t.
Their lives are extremely difficult yet
never once do they complain or ask for anything in return. How humbled I am by their acts of sacrifice
and compassion.
And these are the men and woman of God who I call family…because
even though I am undeserving, they have embraced me like their own.
