A Weekend About Zambia

I can trace the faint beginnings of my call to ministry to a specific location. Kitwe, in northern Zambia. Kitwe is a city of 500,000 people and is located in the Copperbelt region of the country. A main source of income over the years has been working in the copper mines. The mines have also been a source of great hardship as the mines shut down or dramatically reduce the number of miners when the price of copper goes down. This region, as much of the surrounding area, has been hit very hard by HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and other communicable diseases. I went to Zambia, for the first time, with an adult trip in 2003.

In 2008, I had the great privilege of leading a group of youth back to Kitwe. There were eight of us adult leaders and sixteen youth from the Calgary Presbytery of the United Church of Canada. We designed the trip as a study/exposure tour in a similar vein of how the adult trip I was on had been structured. We toured medical and health facilities, an orphanage, went underground in the copper mine, worshiped with folks from the United Church of Zambia and did a couple of touristy things like seeing Victoria Falls (the largest waterfalls in the world).

The trip was a huge success for two reasons - we got everyone home with no medical interventions required and the youth (and leaders) were inspired to go forth from the trip and make a difference in the world. Because of the experiences they had on the trip, some of the youth went on to learn about aid and development in the poorer places of the world. One of our travellers returned to Kitwe to spend more time getting to know members of Racecourse Community School. Many members of the group came home and created fundraising plan to help support the grandmothers of Roan--a community we visited that had recently seen thousands of their men be made redundant by the neighbouring copper mine. After the planned three year fundraising was concluded, enough money was sent to Roan to build and staff a school for three years, to provide funds for fertilizer and seeds for a tomato field and to build and supply chicks for a poultry barn.

And now, nine years later, I am returning to Kitwe. In August of this year, six other leaders and myself will be taking another sixteen youth on their own study/exposure tour. The leadership have been making plans already for nearly a year. The youth applied and were accepted in the fall. The leaders and youth represent five United Church congregations from Calgary Presbytery (SVUC, St. Thomas, Deerpark and St. Andrews) as well as Balzac United from Foothills Presbytery.

There is a high cost for such a trip as we are gone for three weeks, travelling Zambia is not inexpensive, we need to take some money with us to donate to the organizations that we visit and all costs for the travellers are covered once we leave Canada. Because this is not a cheap endeavour, the youth and leaders have been working hard to raise funds to cover their costs.

The big fundraiser happened this past Saturday at Symons Valley United Church. The entire team hosted a Gala featuring the Westwinds Gold Jazz Band and the Naked Faith Band as well as a silent auction. By all accounts the evening was a blast! Everyone enjoyed the music, the visiting, the excellent food made by our very own Heather Klekta and, of course, hearing from the youth what they hope to learn and experience while in Zambia. We had a lot of fun together, thanks to the great organizing by the Gala committee - made up of leaders, parents and the youth.

The next day, Sunday, felt like it came very quickly after our great evening out the night before. Thank goodness the youth from SVUC who are travelling to Zambia (as well as a guest youth from St. Thomas) ran the service. The youth used the service that was created for St. Andrews, Cochrane when we stayed there for the weekend and ran the service that Sunday. The SVUC congregation very much appreciated hearing from SVUC youth who are going on the trip. Everyone is so excited that these six youth and one young adult get to have this experience together.

I am, of course, loving every minute of it because I know this will be an amazing opportunity for everyone involved. From getting to know the Zambians on the ground, participating in worship services in a totally different environment than what we have here, seeing the Falls and going to a chimpanzee sanctuary, I am sure that all of these experiences will be so exciting and full of learning. I am looking forward to returning to Kitwe and seeing some of the people I have gotten to know with the other trips. It will be so much fun to show my fellow leaders and the youth all the aspects of Zambia that I fell in love with and have them see a small bit of what it is that called me into ministry so many years ago.