This year we went to Zambia as part of a mission team to work with street children in the capital of Lusaka. Zambia has around 750,000 street kids who have all lost their parents through the Aids crisis. It’s a poverty stricken country with many needs. The children just sleep on street corners in packs to keep safe and most of them inhale sticker (a mix of benzene and glue) to keep their hunger pains and fears at a bearable level. Over 90% of them suffer from sexually transmitted diseases that came as a result of perversion. There they teach men with Aids to have sex with the youngest child possible to cure their disease. Also the local vampires pay the street kids to suck the blood from their necks. The children on the streets can be as young as 5yrs old. You can only imagine the fear and terror these kids feel when exposed to the dangers of the streets.

 

Testimony by: Gareth Hayes

 

Having the opportunity to sit and talk with these kids in the waste lands of Lusaka was painful and heart wrenching, knowing that, by the evening when we leave the predators will be on the prowl for some vulnerable child. But what can you do, what can you say? I was going to spend that night in a hotel room with food and a bed to lie in. What possible words can of encouragement can you say to bring comfort to such hurting children.

The Lord said to me: Tell them I love them and I want to call them my children, I will be their father and in my house there are many rooms, enough for everyone who puts their trust in me. James 1:27 'to look after orphans in their distress and not become corrupt like the world' weighed heavy on my heart as I prayed for them.

 

I was asked to preach to the crowd there in the dumps and talk about being out of your comfort zone. Their was no order, no pulpit, no microphone and about 150 street kids most of whom were high on sticker. We bunched them up against the steel fence and all of them sat on the ground, then using a translator I preached at the top of my voice for about 15 minutes.
Little by little they settled down and all of a sudden I was not in a smelly dump but in the presence of the Lord ministering to children with a lost hope and no future.

 

At the end of the preaching we gave an opportunity for anyone who wanted to receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour. Some kids were crying, some were rejoicing, many threw their drugs down and said they wanted Christ. Its was one of the most powerful things I have ever seen. Even though the kids were dirty, smelly, and aids ridden, all we wanted to do was hug them, love them and to say that God is now their Father. He will never leave them nor forsake them! O what joy we have in Jesus! I give God the glory, He is worthy of praise.