Caution: May Contain Nuts

Working in Africa, we have many causes for both joy and sorrow. Some days bring the celebration of salvation and life, while others expose the fetid ugliness of a land still far from seeking the Lord and the covenant curses this brings on the African people.

Today we stood with our friends, Bwalia and Odessa, as they buried their baby. They lost their sixteen-month old son, Fortune, in what amounts to unknown causes. While the official report says “anemia and diarrhea”, even the doctor admits that he is unsure what actually killed little Fortune (and the nurse in charge of the morgue said, “Sir, he’s dead. Just deal with it; go bury him.”) Because this was a baby from a relatively poor, African family, few tests were done to ascertain the cause of illness… let alone death. There are few medical facilities here in Kabwe, and those that are available are of poor quality. The only lab in town tests only for malaria and std’s. The next closest lab/medical facility is over two hours away- and there are no ambulances in rural Zambia. Assuming that Fortune’s symptoms, diarrhea and vomiting, were caused by teething (the malaria test was negative), the doctor gave him an injection to stop the diarrhea and sent him home. He wasn’t tested for water-borne parasites. He wasn’t prescribed iron supplements for the supposed anemia. He was sent home “teething”. Within thirty-six hours, Fortune was dead.

It has been a very sobering day, as we have considered the many blessings that we enjoy in the west. Good medical care, competent physicians, quality food products, clean water, sewage disposal, and sanitary living arrangements are all easily taken for granted. We benefit from blessings that have been upon our land and culture after generations of God-fearing parents and leaders established a Christian legacy. Africa does not enjoy such a heritage. Africa is still enslaved by superstition, disease, and fear.

Because hospitals are places that people too often go to die rather than live, they frequently double as a mortuary (there were, in fact, many funerals taking place there today). Essentially, the body is transferred to the back where it stays until the family can pay the fees to have their loved one buried. This morning there was some delay in the release of Fortune’s body (due to “the Africa Factor”), so we
waited outside the small, brick facility in Kabwe with Bwalia, Odessa, and their family. As I stood there, holding Frederick, I was confronted by a man who was distraught that I was so near death with my baby. He kept urging me to leave, to at least “stand outside so the mwana [baby] won’t breathe the smell [spirit/death]”. It is a prevalent belief here that if an infant or small child is too near a dead person, that child will breathe in the death and bad spirits, bringing about his own sad and early end. Death is not, by the common African, attributed to disease, life-style, germs, parasites, or other related issues… it is blamed on spirits, jinxes, bad luck, etc.

As Fortune’s body was lowered into the small hole in the rustic, roadside graveyard, I couldn’t help but notice that there were several more holes dug alongside, each waiting to receive its own eternal occupant. Those graves will be filled today, as the other mounds in that row were created within the last few days. Row upon row, another graveyard quickly filling because of ignorance, fear, and sin. I learned that the small town of Kabwe has nine graveyards. Nine graveyards. There aren’t enough people here to warrant two grocery stores, but there are enough deaths to require nine graveyards.

Please pray with us as we bring God’s Law and love to Kabwe. Please pray for a people enslaved by fear and burdened with senseless death. Pray for us as we minister to their needs here in Kabwe.

Pray for a people who need nine graveyards and only one grocery store.