For most of us, September 30th is just another Friday. It’s the end of the work or school week for many, maybe a date night or football game—perhaps it’s the birthday of someone you know. For the children of Zambia, however, today is significant: School fees are due for the first term, a sum of about US $30.
That might not sound like a lot to us, but for many Zambian families, it’s more than they have. Those with multiple children in their household may have to choose between sending their children to school or feeding them. Some will only send their firstborn, or just their boys, opting to invest in the ones who will more likely secure a job with that education. For unemployed Zambian widows living on $1 or $2 a day, education for their children is an impossible dream. Many students simply will not show up at school tomorrow, knowing that they will only be sent home in embarrassment for a negative account balance.
The Choma Academy of Music provides Zambian students with an extra-curricular musical education and access to instruments, but we do so much more. We have identified 100 orphans and vulnerable children at the Academy who need extra help with food, malaria prevention, health care and, yes, the school fees that are due today.
By joining Poetice’s 365 Campaign, you can help us assure that each Academy student stays in school. It’s a dollar a day for you and a hopeful future for them. (watch the video) 
365 x 365 = 100?
For most of us, September 30th is just another Friday. It’s the end of the work or school week for many, maybe a date night or football game—perhaps it’s the birthday of someone you know. For the children of Zambia, however, today is significant: School fees are due for the first term, a sum of about US $30.
That might not sound like a lot to us, but for many Zambian families, it’s more than they have. Those with multiple children in their household may have to choose between sending their children to school or feeding them. Some will only send their firstborn, or just their boys, opting to invest in the ones who will more likely secure a job with that education. For unemployed Zambian widows living on $1 or $2 a day, education for their children is an impossible dream. Many students simply will not show up at school tomorrow, knowing that they will only be sent home in embarrassment for a negative account balance.
The Choma Academy of Music provides Zambian students with an extra-curricular musical education and access to instruments, but we do so much more. We have identified 100 orphans and vulnerable children at the Academy who need extra help with food, malaria prevention, health care and, yes, the school fees that are due today.
By joining Poetice’s 365 Campaign, you can help us assure that each Academy student stays in school. It’s a dollar a day for you and a hopeful future for them. (watch the video) Love, Sweat, and Gears
The last team has been home over two weeks now, and I’m still getting messages about how impacted everyone was by our recent short-term immersion trip. The same can be said about our Zambian team on the ground. I spoke with our director yesterday who told me that his phone rings several times a day from students in Livingstone and Kalomo who have had their lives completely transformed by Hopefest and camp last month.
We often have stories that we’re eager to highlight, but other stories make us a bit more hesitant to share for fear of…well, fear. These are the stories we like to categorize as “from darkness to light.”
We briefly shared in our last update about a woman named Anna. She came to us during our soundcheck the night before Hopefest completely oppressed and possessed by evil spirits. It was as if the music from the hall created a light that drew people, literally, out of the darkness of the local market. Anna was delivered from at least five evil spirits, and by the end of the ordeal, she was exhausted and drenched in sweat. It is unfortunate that her friends were not sober enough to recognize her freedom and dragged her from our presence. We haven’t heard from or seen her since.
The second night of camp, the “Living Water” of Jesus was shared with the few hundred students that attended. Our director gave the invitation for prayer, and the floodgates opened. The deliverance team was trained and ready, and they worked fervently until about midnight “setting the prisoners free.” There were a young girl and boy, both probably around 16 years of age, who had been tormented by evil spirits for years. It took several times of intense prayer and intercession over the course of three days to see their deliverance.
You may wonder where the significance of these stories lies. When a person is oppressed, it affects the whole community. It affects this person’s family and his or her places of school and church. Where an oppressed person goes, the spirit goes, too, controlling attitudes and behaviors. Many of these possessed people become sexually promiscuous or turn to drugs and other substances to numb the confusion that they feel.
This is the essence of spiritual warfare, which we believe is at the root of AIDS and the sex trade. So, we need the blood of Jesus and the love of Christ at the root as well. The moment a student is delivered, not only is he or she liberated, but will have an enormous positive impact in the community as well, ultimately causing revival, which leads to positive behavior change and the reduction of HIV infection rates.
Another kind of oppression keeps Zambians, especially women, in bondage in Livingstone. I witnessed story after story of young Zimbabwean women who had no choice but to escape the dismal economic situation of their home country to find greener pastures. Unfortunately, almost all women and children who cross the border into Zambia find themselves deceived or forced into the commercial sex trade. In the words of one young woman whose identity we will not reveal, “Pastor, you find me another way, and I will flee this life tomorrow.” We don’t believe in making promises that we can’t keep; we don’t believe in creating false hope. I promised her that I would find another way for her.
You can help. On October 1, we will be “Riding for Refuge” in Byron Center, MI. If you have been on a short-term immersion trip or are familiar with the work that we do, I would encourage you to take part in this ride. We have two team captains registered and are looking for riders to support this cause. Our goal is to identify ten captains who each establish ten riders for their team. The goal is to raise $30,000. You can go here to register as a captain, join a current team, or give financially to support our teams. Check out www.rideforrefuge.org for more information about the ride in general, and feel free to email info@poetice.org with any questions. The options are 5-60 mile rides.
Half of the proceeds raised will directly support our Academy students who are a part of the 365 Campaign. and the other half will be put towards rescuing women out of the commercial sex trade in Livingstone.
“Gear Up” to join our efforts to draw young people out of darkness into Great Light. Injustice Injustice
We arrived in Livingstone yesterday, ready to grab our gear and head to Choma. We have been wanting to gather stories from several of our Academy students for some time. When we are here we are often crunched for time, so I was hoping and praying that it would be a smooth trip and that all of our luggage would arrive. We breezed through customs and…nothing. Not a piece. Immediately plans changed.
We stayed the night in Livingstone, hoping to grab the luggage in the morning and find transport to Choma. We called, and called, and called. We then decided to head to the airport. One bag showed–the least important one of all. The gear that amplifies our voice, our music, our song of hope, apparently doesn’t exist. After two hours of Skype…nothing. I’ve prepared myself over and again for these moments, but as I drive through the red light district and see the enormous brothels here, my heart burns within me.
Once a prominent hotel, this building is now filled with victims of prostitution. I say “victims,” because there is no consent involved in the oppressive lifestyle they are trapped it. The invisible forces of coercion and the demand for reductionistic, dehumanizing forms of sexuality trap them in their poverty and hopelessness. We have come to bring a spark we hope the Spirit turns into a flame that consumes the snares of injustice. We know it won’t happen overnight but the “righteousness of a few is better than the wickedness of many!” Psalm 37:16. Prostitution is one of the main reasons that one in every three people is infected with HIV here in Livingstone.
Is it ironic that we find our promotions on the pole directly in front of a brothel? G.K. Chesterson said that, “every man who knocks on the door of a brothel is looking for God”. We are trying to stand at that door and lead them to God. We sense those same invisible forces are fighting against us. Perhaps not in ways that keep slaves oppressed, but definitely in a way that frustrates our attempts to show them the way to freedom. How do we fight this injustice when we feel like it’s winning? We feel like our voice is being silenced.
Seeking hope today in a city of immense despair.
Trusting in the righteousness of a few.
Without this word today, we would feel defeated. Pray for the oppressed in Livingstone Zambia today. They are crying for freedom.
Micah
Once a prominent hotel, this building is now filled with victims of prostitution. I say “victims,” because there is no consent involved in the oppressive lifestyle they are trapped it. The invisible forces of coercion and the demand for reductionistic, dehumanizing forms of sexuality trap them in their poverty and hopelessness. We have come to bring a spark we hope the Spirit turns into a flame that consumes the snares of injustice. We know it won’t happen overnight but the “righteousness of a few is better than the wickedness of many!” Psalm 37:16. Prostitution is one of the main reasons that one in every three people is infected with HIV here in Livingstone.
Is it ironic that we find our promotions on the pole directly in front of a brothel? G.K. Chesterson said that, “every man who knocks on the door of a brothel is looking for God”. We are trying to stand at that door and lead them to God. We sense those same invisible forces are fighting against us. Perhaps not in ways that keep slaves oppressed, but definitely in a way that frustrates our attempts to show them the way to freedom. How do we fight this injustice when we feel like it’s winning? We feel like our voice is being silenced.
Seeking hope today in a city of immense despair.
Trusting in the righteousness of a few.
Without this word today, we would feel defeated. Pray for the oppressed in Livingstone Zambia today. They are crying for freedom.
Micah July Academy Trip
A few weeks ago, Poetice sent a team of music teachers to the Choma Academy of Music. One of the team members, Kaitlyn, sent us some very encouraging and insightful stories. This is a recap of the trip in her own words:
The first week, we visited various vulnerable widows and orphan children who live in a poor shanty compound. We visited Beatrice and Ikoyumba—both widows with four or five children each. I thought of how difficult life is for single-mothers in the United States, and yet in Zambia, that burden is multiplied: mothers must pay for their children’s school attendance (tuition, books, pens, uniforms, lunch; the government only provides the building and teachers), rent for a 6’x12’ shelter, and food, in addition to health expenses and other incidentals. Most of these women make a meager living selling vegetables in the marketplace and are viewed as outcasts simply because of their status as a widow. I was amazed at their bravery to fight for life every day. During our time in the compound, the team felt the ground tremble for a few seconds. We found out later that it was indeed an earthquake—a 5.2 that occurred about 80 miles north of us! The tremor didn’t last long, but it was a new experience to say the least.
On Sunday we drove over an hour through the bush on a bumpy road to a rural village church. Down a dirt path and inside brick walls topped with a grass roof, African voices rang out songs of praise, complete with clapping and dancing. After the sermon, the guest pastor gave an invitation for people to receive prayer. Many in the congregation went forward, and the pastor laid hands on and prayed for them. Then he came to a teenage girl, who, upon receiving prayer, began to manifest a demon. The pastor prayed to cast the demons out, and from what I hear, she was then counseled, receiving salvation and deliverance.
We spent the following week in Choma. Teaching at The Academy during my time here was such a wonderful experience. In many ways, it was no different than teaching like I do back home – except that I taught flute instead of piano to OVC (orphaned and vulnerable children) ages 15-20 instead of American kids age 6-15. One of my students, Windus, is a 17-year-old who dropped out of school after grade 3. His mother is not alive, and as a single (versus double) orphan, he leads a very difficult life. Windus seemed shy and unsure of himself, but on the flute he showed an obvious hunger to learn: he’d learned nearly every flute note in only 2 months!
On Thursday my flute students and I chose our pieces for The Academy’s mini-recital. The pieces weren’t horrendously difficult, but they came from advanced flute books. Since Windus had only been playing flute 2 months, I was a bit concerned. But on Friday Windus and I played together, and I was amazed!
At the recital on Saturday, we first prayed together, and I was so proud of my three students. They played wonderfully, but what meant the most to me were their smiles, and the sense of accomplishment I know they felt in what they did. They knew that music was more than just making sound, but glorifying God and blessing others.
If you financially support Poetice, you are supporting the Academy of Music, and helping give these students hope and opportunity. If you are interesting in helping provide the Academy’s orphans and vunerable children with food and school fees, please consider joining the 365 campaign. If you are a music teacher, or an accomplished musician who can offer lessons and would like to visit the Academy, contact us here.Space is limited in the small house we rent for the Academy, so much of the instruction happens outside (when the weather cooperates).
The Power of Youth
When Tina Kanis, the senior pastor’s wife from La Plata Wesleyan Church in La Plata, Maryland, approached me last summer about organizing a trip with some teenagers from their church, I was intrigued. On one hand, taking teens to Zambia fits perfectly with one of Poetice’s core values – to connect two disparate groups of teenagers who are separated by a very large ocean, and an even larger cultural and economical gap, and to show them that maybe the gap isn’t as large as it seems. However, I had some reservations. Could typical American teenagers handle the challenges of adapting to life in a developing country? Would they be able to emotionally cope with the poverty and sickness and devastation they would encounter in Zambia? And, while I love the idea of exposing teenagers to the great needs of the world while they are still forming their passions and ideas about what they want to do in life, Poetice’s mission isn’t poverty tourism. There are many organizations who simply take westerners on trips to “poverty gawk.” They herd groups of wealthy North Americans through tent cities and refugee camps, just so they can take pictures of little kids with swollen bellies and see what it’s like to live on less than $1 a day. Poetice believes in immersing our teams in the African culture as much as possible on a short-term trip. We require each member of our teams to participate; they must sweat and get dirty, make sacrifices and forge relationships. They must also have something to offer—a skill, a talent, or a willingness to help someone else with his or her skill or talent. Could typical American teenagers do that—would they do that? I trusted that Tina’s teens were not typical, and that she (and God) would make sure that only the students who would be assets to our mission would make it on the trip.
Suffice it to say, I underestimated the teenagers of La Plata, Maryland. The students who came on this last trip blew me away with their talent and maturity. They did everything they were asked to do and then some, and I never once heard a complaint come out of their mouths. They jumped in with both feet, and held nothing back. I’m ashamed now to think that I had doubts about teenagers being able to add value to the team. Patrick was a great actor, who also tended to be the most punctual of the entire team; he was always ready to go, ahead of time. Aaron not only played the acoustic guitar, but he remembered every Zambian student’s name that he ever met! Hannah, always smiling and giggling, was a favorite on stage, and also with the girls, who kept jockeying for a seat beside her at meals.
Stephen, who approached the skits with an impressive level of professionalism, also showed incredible perseverance and grace when he tripped and fell off the stage, onto a guitar, and barely skipped a beat. He also played bass guitar for the band.
Rachel is mature and poised, and a very skilled actress as well. She found herself the subject of many stares and conversations where she had to explain that she wasn’t a Zambian, but was, in fact, with the U.S. team. Each time, she handled this with tact and a smile. This group was aided and facilitated by their leaders, Tina Kanis and Elcie McKnight, who were their mentors and guides, and were wonderful women to work alongside.
In addition to their value as individuals, we realized on this trip, that the teens had value as a group. We have been trying for years to break down some of the invisible walls that the nationals try to put up between themselves and the Americans. When we are in Zambia, they are constantly trying to give us special places to sit and serve us special meals, in separate rooms, and at separate times from the students and African volunteers. In their culture, that’s how you treat a guest with respect, but it doesn’t help us in our mission of developing relationships with the nationals and learning from them as much as they learn from us. There was something about this trip that was different in this respect, and we figured out it must have been the age of the team members. This was, for the most part, a very young team, with the La Plata teenagers as well as a few people in their 20’s and early 30’s. The Zambian youth seemed more comfortable letting the American teens sit beside them in services, and eat with them at lunch. They didn’t try to hold us at arm’s length quite as much this time, and the result was that we really got to know some of these students by the end of the week, and felt that true friendships were forming.
In short, these 5 teens set the bar pretty high for future students who will come on Poetice trips, but I say, bring ‘em on. If you have a group of mature and talented teenagers at your church or school who want to go to Zambia, who also have a real desire to spread the gospel and both impact their African counterparts as well as learn from them, shoot us an email or give us a call. I was inspired and encouraged by these students’ lives, and I am so hopeful about their future.