Sunday, July 8, 2012

Email from Ellie

This Post is out of order - it is an email Eleanor sent to several people.

Today we start off for Njabalombe, our first clinic site. The A-Team (advance team) will start off at 8:00 am this morning so they can get there in plenty of time to get the 70 tents set up. The remaining team will stop at the home of Roy and Kathi Merritt for an early lunch and then travel about 3 to 4 hours to Njabalombe.

The 130 Zambian members of our team have arrived so our number is now approaching 250. All the trucks and coaster buses are here so we will have a convoy of over 15 vehicles moving down the dusty roads or paths.

The village of Njabalombe is called the village of the “strong boys”. When the Kariba Dam was built in the 1950’s it caused the flooding of a significant amount of fertile soil, displacing thousands of people. Many of the people were moved to the barren land of the Gwembe Valley. This displacement has been viewed as one of the worse displacement of humans in history. The old villagers met and decided that only the “strong boys” could survive in such a place so those were the ones chosen to go. Many of the elderly stayed on their land and lost their lives when the completion of the dam caused the valley to flood.

Please keep us in your prayers as we will strive to show the love of Jesus and give them a “Day of Dignity”.

To follow our progress you can find pictures on: www.Facebook.com/zambiamission or you can follow the blog and audio posts at www.zambiamedicalmission.com