Graduation!

Today I was privileged to attend the high school graduation of our friend Elizabeth. It was quite the Zambian experience - after 4 hours I still had not seen her get her diploma (lots of dancing, skits, etc.), so I finally had to leave. I was exhausted and very sunburned! It was a neat experience though!

Elizabeth is the 3rd daughter of our dear friends Aaron & Sophia, pastor and wife of a church in Monze, who both passed away over 5 years ago of AIDS. Elizabeth and her four sisters were left as double orphans were farmed out to live with different family members. Back in 2003, we paid Elizabeth's 6th grade school fees while her mom was still alive. When we got back to Zambia in 2010, Elizabeth found us, having just moved from her uncle's house to live with her aunt in Choma. She had been out of school for almost a year and really wanted to complete her education. My parents, who got to meet Sophia in 2004 when she cooked a meal for them, offered to pay for the schooling of both Elizabeth and her younger sister Memory. Elizabeth chose one of the best private schools in Choma to attend, and today I got to see her graduate from 12th grade. It was surreal to sit and watch her. I kept thinking, "Aaron & Sophia should be here." But because of poor decisions Aaron made at a time when he turned away from God, they were not. And though he repented and turned back to God and led the church in Monze so well, one of the consequences of his sin is that he could not watch his daughter graduate. Elizabeth had nobody there to see her graduate. Surrounded by well-to-do Zambian and Indian families watching their very intelligent children graduate, I sat alone, the only one there to see Elizabeth. It broke my heart! I pray that she will pass her Grade 12 exams that she takes next week and that she will make something of herself. But most of all I pray that she will hold tight to Jesus so that one day she will see her own children graduate from high school.