It’s 10:38 am in Zambia on Saturday. Today we got up between 6 and 7 am to get ready for our grand finale. Today we were to host a giant day camp at the new J-Zone facility. The bathrooms were finished, volleyball nets hung and chalk lines drawn with lime. We filled balloons with water and shaving cream. Then we sat and we waited for the 50 kids from S.O.S. orphanage to arrive.
We were scheduled to start at 9 am, but you know, it’s African time where watches don’t always matter. As 10 am approached we began to think something must be off. Sanderson and Lweendo went to S.O.S. to check on the progress of the children.
When they arrived to the orphanage all of the kids were anxious to leave. Sanderson went to speak with the principal to confirm that everything was still on. The leaders let him know that they had just received word that Titus, a 9th grader in the orphanage was traveling with a soccer team to a city roughly 300 km away. They left late last night. As they were driving, the bus went around a deep curve and on the other side was a truck stopped with no tail lights. The bus rammed into the back of the truck killing Titus and 6 of his teammates as well as a coach.
We sit here trying to process and figure out what to do next. We pray for the children who have lost so much already who now have lost a classmate and friend. We pray for the teachers who are mothers to these children. We pray for the extended families that they will be able to make it through another loss.
We were told that the house that Titus lived in at the orphanage lost their house mom a couple of months ago. That house has been through a lot of loss.
I know we were brought here for a reason. Right now we are just trying to figure out what today’s purpose is.
