goodbyes

Well, Camp LIFE 2013 is officially over! It was an incredible last week - the American participants here are so generous and soft-hearted to what the Lord is doing here in Zambia. Friday was an amazing final day to end the summer with! We had our last big session, during which the summer staff got to dance on stage altogether, and we had the last Tree of Life Friday night surprise performance... which was a huge personal achievement and a very emotional night. 

Every Friday night, as a surprise, the summer staff would go down the hill from the Legacy Center to the Tree of Life to round up and prepare the kids for a performance for the Americans Friday night. After getting all 300+ children in a central location, we would load them up on buses and send them up the hill. This in itself is QUITE a feat - rounding up and holding the attention of a sea of kids while making sure they are all dressed and ready to go. Once at the Legacy Center, each summer staffer would take a group of kids to different spots surrounding the Legacy Center. We then would keep the kids as quiet as possible as we waited for the music to start (also a daunting task). Basically, the whole performance was that the kids would slowly march in to the music, filling the room from all directions to the song “Glory, Glory Hallelujah” by the London Community Gospel Choir. They were all decked out in beautiful chitenge costumes, held LED candles that lit up, and sang their little hearts out each time. 

As much of a hassle and hair-puller it was trying to get these kids up the “mountain” every Friday night, this performance almost always moved me to tears. Tears not only for the relief of the success of that night (and that it was over for the week), but also because we were all looking at HUNDREDS of redeemed orphan children, dressed to the nines and singing praises to the God who saved them. This night showed the most complete transformation of each of these kids. They went from dirty and unnoticed and neglected to being dressed beautifully, all eyes on them, loved and adored. And the most powerful part is that the room keeps filling and keeps filling. The shear number of children that are at the Tree of Life, safe from the homes they were removed from, is enough to bring me to tears. 

But last night was the most tearful night for me. I leave in 2 days, and I have to say goodbye to these precious kids. Over the past four years I’ve been on summer staff, this year especially, I have gotten to personally know the hearts and personalities and names of so many of these kids. I know who the rowdy ones are, I know who the “troublemakers” are, and I know who the sweet-natured, well-behaved ones are. And because I led the marching orders every Friday night, all of these kids know Auntie Maliah. Saying goodbye to these kids is the absolute worst part of my whole summer spent here. Hands down. And last night, I knew it wasn’t goodbye quite yet (that part comes today), but it was a sign that goodbye is coming. It was overwhelming for a few reasons - I knew that goodbyes were not far off, I was looking at my favorite kids in the world who looked beautiful and were so happy, and it already had been an emotional last day of camp. So anyway, tears were just free falling. 

After the performance, the song “Our God” by Chris Tomlin came on as all the Americans were hugging on the kids. All of the kids know this song from last year since it was the theme song for camp in 2012. So naturally, 50 or so of the kids ran up on stage and started singing, dancing, and pretending their candles were microphones. I was standing by the stage looking at my precious little rockstars when Queen, a 14-year old girl, pulls me up on stage and says “Auntie Maliah, let’s go! I was looking for you!” Before I know it, I’m up on stage, singing and dancing with the kids until the song ends. When it’s done, Queen looks at me and says, “Auntie Maliah, I’m going to miss you very much.” I pull her in for a hug and I’m back to tears. We both just hold each other and cry for a minute. Eventually, I walk her back out to the bus and tell her that it’s not goodbye just yet, but that I’ll see her one more time before I leave. 

Anyway, I’m not looking forward to my final goodbyes to these kids. It’s going to be a tear-fest led by Auntie Maliah here. Every one of these 300+ kids hold (and will forever hold) a special piece of my heart. I feel so humbled that God would bring me here to Zambia and let me love on these incredible, talented, smart, precious children not only this year, but for four years now. What a huge blessing it was to get to be God’s hands and feet and voice not only to these kids, but also to the ones that I got to love on that came through Camp LIFE this year. I don’t know how or why God picked me to come to Africa to love on these kids year after year, but I know I am an unworthy and undeserving vessel who is so grateful that He did.