God’s Grace in Siachitema

Education Faculty Partner with World Hope in Zambia

By Daniel Woolsey, Professor of Education

Our team included several professors connected to Houghton College and we were on a week-long tour of schools and orphan trusts in the southern province of Zambia. We were there to observe the work of World Hope International in Zambia with the hope of returning next May with teacher education students to work alongside of the caregivers in the livelihood projects and to provide basic literacy experiences for the orphans. Everywhere we went we saw women and children, many of them widows and orphans, who provided sobering reminders of the devastation of the AIDS pandemic, which has left half of the current Zambian population at 14 years old or younger.

As we greeted a classroom full of children and gave each of them a tootsie roll, we were moved by their gratitude and humbled to give this small gift to children with such great needs. Then we trudged up the dusty path toward the orphan trust garden and were directed to a large group of children who had been working at various sites around the village in preparation for a district-wide athletic competition. Though obviously excited to see the unfamiliar faces of visitors, the children waited politely in orderly lines as we approached.

Our plan was to be formally introduced to the children and then to distribute tootsie rolls again. But some members of our team were anxious: the number of smiling faces seemed to far exceed the number of candies left, and no one wanted to tell even one child that we had run out, no matter how modest the gift. With her usual grace and determination, Frevia Kaluba, the World Hope Country Director of Zambia, made the introductions and told the children that we had a gift for them. What else was there to do but to proceed? And so we did. Down line after line we went, placing a candy in each eagerly outstretched hand and enjoying the gracious Twalumba’s (thank you’s) that rang in the air. Much to our surprise and delight, each child walked away with a token of our affection and God’s love.

As we continued on, I could feel my bag thumping against my back - a satisfying reminder of the 21 pieces of candy that still remained - and all of us marveled at this small work of grace and the deeper truth that little can be much if it is given in the name of Jesus.