Dear Ministry Family,

The excitement, joy and pride at Monday’s official opening of the Helen DeVos Christian School is hard to describe. From early in the morning (around 7 AM) the students and teachers and guardians of the children were getting the school grounds and refreshments ready. Every wall was scrubbed clean, and every one of the 500 chairs were set in place on the open grounds in front of the classrooms. White chalk lines were drawn in the sand outside of the main gate for the vehicles to park. In the compounds there are not even street signs, let alone vehicles! The school library had new maroon window blinds, and the science lab showed off its beakers and flasks.

One young boy held a banner to lead us to the property. (I knew where I was going, but we were not sure the Vice President could find his way through the maze!) When we walked through the main gate, each of the 200+ pupils were dressed in shirts donated by a visiting team member, whose colors were as the Zambian flag. RED for the blood of the martyrs….ORANGE for the mineral wealth….BLACK for the African people…and GREEN for the verdant land.

SINGING!!! Uncle G. had the Helen DeVos Choir (in orange shirts) sing a round of songs as the guests were arriving. Then the sad message came…the Vice President, Rupiah Banda, lost his mother at 93 years of age the day before and was not able to attend. He would instead send his Deputy… however the Deputy, was to be 2 hours late!! So what to do? We went ahead and said if he came we would re-group and listen to his speech (which we wrote) that honored Mrs. DeVos as a woman in her later years who believes that all children everywhere should get an education, and toward that end, she was willing to help the most vulnerable orphan get that education.

When the new school flag was raised, a hundred balloons (same Zambian colors) were released into the howling wind. The pupils went wild with singing and cheering and applause. The school plaque was set into a pillar of red brick and said “The Helen DeVos Christian School was officially opened by His Honor Rupiah Banda, (MP) the Vice President of the Republic of Zambia, June 23rd. 2008. James 1:27.”

It was a great day, and a blessing to have had a part in making the prayers, hopes and dreams of so many children come true.

Blesssings,
Sandra