Zambia 2/16/24 - Sharing Love With Students
Murisziani!
We started off our travel day to Ndola bright and early. After receiving a morning service (a short talk to prepare for the day) and quickly eating breakfast, we headed to the Lusaka Inter city bus terminal. It was a unique experience for us all. Most of us have never experienced being surrounded by crowds of passersby and street vendors. We eventually boarded the bus to Ndola and headed off. The bus ride was around five hours long, but we wanted to use our time productively on the bus to prepare our hearts to serve Ndola. We read a portion of True Mother’s autobiography about the history of Africa and heart of Africans, and discussed the content in pairs. After reading, we played a team bonding game called World Cafe, where each person talked in different pairs to answer fun icebreaker questions. We also had some time on the bus to reflect on our intentions going to Ndola and serving the local youth there. After the bus ride, we were warmly welcomed to Zambian youth leader, Rev. Chisha’s, home. Rev. Chisha concluded the day by giving us a short testimony about him establishing a school at the Mackenzie community. He inspired us to unconditionally love and serve the local students in our time here in Ndola.
The next day, we went to the Mackenzie Community School to teach their students about family values and to spread joy through playing games and singing songs. As we entered the school grounds, the students welcomed us with a song and performance. We returned the gesture by performing our dance and songs. We then split into five groups, each one teaching a different value. One group taught students about purity, another about gratitude, as well as living for the sake of others, doing the hardest thing / loving the hardest person, and leaving the plus. We taught these topics through short talks, skits, and interactive games. Our intention was to not only help instill these values in these children, but also to inspire them with our joy and sincere hearts. The students and we had an exciting time being able to play and talk with each other, transcending our completely different backgrounds. After our classroom visits, the headmaster of the school, Mr. Bright, took us out on a walk around the Mackenzie neighborhood. It was an eye-opening experience, seeing how so many students at the school and their families grow up in poverty. This experience helped us grow our hearts to want to give even more love to the students. For the rest of the afternoon, we had time to reflect on our experience in Zambia so far and share in small groups. We concluded the day by listening to another testimony by Rev. Chisha. Hearing his life story and his wisdom compelled us to also want to serve as much as we can in our time in Zambia.
The day after, we headed back to Mackenzie Community School to continue visiting their classrooms. We were able to spend more time giving short talks on family values and having fun with the students by playing games and dancing. Even though our two days at Mackenzie flew by, many of us had a valuable experience being able to give our hearts to the students. Although us GPA participants and the students at Mackenzie come from different backgrounds, we were able to share joy in each other’s presence. Our time with the students taught us a lot about leaving an impact through love and sincerity. “Too fun. The kids were full of joy and were really receptive to what we had to offer. Super grateful I was given the opportunity to spend time with them, experience their school culture, and give gods love.” - Will Smith, 1st year participant. Later in the afternoon, we spent time preparing for our character education youth workshop coming the next day. In small teams, we prepared songs, activities, talks, and other essential tasks to run the workshop. We concluded the day with smiles and high spirits. We played a bonding activity where we each were tested on how well do we know our fellow GPA teammates, and celebrated True Parents’ birthday with homemade cake and ice cream. It was important for us to end the day with positive attitudes so that we could prepare for the next day!
Generation Peace Academy
Miki K.
Blogger, Zambia
