Living in a third-world country, we constantly get asked to help people. We have to pray for wisdom and discernment to know who is telling the truth and who we should help, knowing that we can't help everyone.
Last week while in Choma on our weeklyl shopping trip, we met a boy named Oscar. Oscar is about 19 years old and is in the 12th grade. He approached us in our New Day Orphanage bus and asked for school fees to finish out his 12th grade year. He needed $180 to pay for his last 2 terms. He said he was an orphan and asked if we could help him since we were an orphanage. Since we are already paying school fees for so many, we asked him where he attended church. He said he was a member of the Brethren in Christ church, so we suggested that he go to his church to first ask for help. He walked away discouraged, and we wished we could have helped him but knew we couldn't.
The next day at New Day, (45 minutes from Choma), Oscar showed up!!! He apologetically told Blu that he had no one else to help him, so he followed us home! Blu went on to learn more about his situation. Oscar is a double orphan who has been living with one of his school teachers. That teacher has paid for his schooling, but he recently died and there is nobody he can find to pay for his last 2 terms. He has already registered for his 12th grade exams in October and paid all of the fees associated with that, so he just lacks these last 2 terms of school.
Blu told me how he seems very educated and speaks such great English and what a shame it would be for him to get that close and then not be able to finish. That got me to thinking....surely there is a New Day supporter out there (or group) who would be willing to cover $180 for Oscar to finish school! In situations like this, we pay the school directly to ensure that the funds are going towards what Oscar says they are.
If anyone is interested in meeting this need for Oscar Mweemba, please email me at blutidwell@sbcglobal.net. Thanks so much! :)
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