EW Update #20 Print E-mail

Over the past 3 years Eagles Wings has had over 50 short-term personnel arrive for various programs and projects. From building projects to Eagles Wings Camp for Disadvantaged Children, some come in fear and trepidation while others come in excitement, but all leave with an experience that will be with them for life.

It is sometimes through the eyes of short-term personnel that we are reminded of the enormous needs that surround Eagles Wings and the tremendous suffering that occurs.
Owen and Helen Anderton arrived in Ndola 3 weeks ago, Owen having been once before and Helen for the first time. During their stay, Helen has been doing an independent survey of families within the compounds that Eagles Wings works. Having interviewed over 300 families in some of the poorest compounds around Ndola, Helen has witnessed much suffering. In this update she shares some of the stories?

Christine doing survey?There are so many stories and incredibly difficult situations of great need. There is a girl named Miriam: We should not complain about anything. She is blind and lives with her mother after her husband left her for another woman in the same compound. Miriam was so sweet. She showed me her room; a dirt floor, a bed in the corner and a window the size of one brick. She was hardly able to walk for pain in her legs. All she asked for was a toothbrush!

While visiting Kanyala compound I came across a young woman of 20 years with a child who is two years. They both live with her mother. She has a large lump on the side of her throat consistent with HIV/AIDS related Tuberculosis. She works in town two nights a week so you can presume from that what she is doing.

Baby ?Moses?, as he was named, was abandoned at Eagles Wings about eight weeks ago. Lackson took him to the hospital and Moses was then transferred to a transient centre for infants. Lackson went to visit him two weeks ago to leave him a parcel. Remember here in Ndola if you are in hospital they do not provide food; your friends and relatives have to bring it. Lackson was told he could not see baby Moses as it was not visiting hours. The next thing Lackson knew was a telephone call from the transient centre saying Moses had died of severe Pneumonia. I was to go and assist Lackson the next day in picking up the body but another emergency took me away and Owen was left to go with Lackson. Poor Owen, what a learning curve! He told me they had to get the body out of the morgue freezer, wash it and dress it, pick up a coffin and bring it back to Eagles Wings where Owen was asked to lead a funeral service, then we drove 30 km to bury little Moses.

Lackson & MosesSo many stories. Death is all around me, despair with no hope, fragile human beings clinging to life, for what? Orphans everywhere being cared for by Grandparents who are too old and tired to be bothered. Children with scabies; absolute neglect. Mothers who don?t even have the basic skills to care for their children. Do I despair? No. I will go home knowing that I have given out hundreds of Bemba tracts (local language), I have encouraged people to look to God. To all back home, please continue to pray for the children of Eagles Wings. They need your prayer and so does the broader community.?

?Please keep telling the story; this place (Eagles Wings) is a pool of happiness inside a sea of hopelessness.?

Even though suffering may be all around us, it is important to see the hope that God is giving through Eagles Wings. Seeing lives being changed one at a time is all that is needed for this work to continue on. Reaching out with the love of Christ changes lives and these children will never be the same again!
 
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