GO! STORIES | "Willie"

A Place, A Story, A Journey
September 2, 2008
by Scott A. Nordstrom

When we first visited Zambia in 2006 we were greeted by a number of strangers as they were there to provide us transport to our next unknown destination. Flowers in hand, and hugs or hand-shakes for everyone -it seemed that we had immediate friends in this strange new place. This was good.

After we finally did get our bags through customs we were taken to a local meeting place that they called a prayer center. We talked and shared our hearts over the next several hours as we described why we thought we were lead to Zambia –to serve Orphans.

During our talk with our new found friends we were encouraged to use this trip to establish a beach-head in their country to serve Orphans and to ultimately advance the kingdom. After we concluded our discussion with prayer, we loaded up the vehicles for the drive north to Ndola.

Rick and I were paired up with Willie for the journey. Willie was a young man, I’d say in his mid-twenty’s, and was an elder in his local church. He was so young it seemed to be an elder. He was very eager to answer our barrage of questions. It seemed that Willie was a business man, and would really do about anything ethical and legal to earn a wage. Young Willie was impressive from the stand-point that he had his own car, and I was encouraged by his demeanor.

After nearly 4 hours in the car, we had covered almost every subject you could think of. Rick was the most inquisitive as he asked questions I couldn’t have even thought of. I had had several cat-naps along the way, and toward the end of our trek north -I just wanted to be there already. We then broached the subject of Willie’s family. Willie was not yet married, but came from a family of 7 brothers and sisters, and of the 7 siblings only 3 were still alive to include Willie. One had died of HIV/AIDS and others from various other means. What struck me as unusual is that Willie didn’t miss a beat as he described his deceased family members. It was almost a matter of fact, not emotion. You see, death is something that Zambians must confront often. Later I found out that work attendance is an issue in Zambia, not only from a sickness stand-point, but there are many funerals to attend in any given year. I was beginning to connect the dots. Not only was Willie a member of a new and vibrant congregation, but there weren’t an abundance of older men at the church to fulfill the responsibilities of elder. There aren’t an abundance of older men anywhere in Zambia.

FACT: Life expectancy at birth in Zambia is 38.59 years of age, as compared to just over 78 years of age in the U.S. With a population of less than 12 million people, Zambia has the 1.1 million people living with HIV/AIDS.

Of the 1.2 million Orphans present in Zambia, or 10% of the population, 130,000 are HIV/AIDS positive, 600,000 have been orphaned by the disease, and 75,000 live on the street.