Students Prepare, Provide for Zambian Children
The students at Brentwood Christian School have worked hard over the last seven years to help take care of the people of Zambia through fundraising and vitamin packaging. This year they went above and beyond by packaging enough vitamins for 8,000 children.
Church of Christ missionaries have been working to bring the gospel to Zambia for nearly 100 years by preaching and helping those in need. But in 1995 a group of Christians decided they could be helpful and spread the love of God through an organized medical mission, called Zambia Medical Mission (ZMM). Each year the group of people serving has grown, and the number of Zambians served has grown too. This year, more than 100 volunteers went to serve and 20,220 Zambians were seen in six different clinics.
BCS students have helped ZMM by raising money for medical supplies since 2005—raising between $8,000 and $20,000 a year—and in 2007 students began helping with the packaging of vitamins for children. During the first year of packaging only the older students were allowed to help. By year two the organizers developed ways for the younger kids to be involved, all the way down to kindergarten.
“Every child who comes through the medical mission lines receives a package of vitamins,” said Michele Broadway, a BCS teacher who has taken part in ZMM since 2001. “Zambian children don’t have good nutrition. A simple cut can take months to heal, and a simple cold can turn into serious illness. These vitamins can make all the difference in the world.”
This year the majority of BCS students got involved with the packaging. Teachers brought entire classes to take part through the school day, and 8,333 packages of vitamins were put together in a two-day period. In previous years this process had taken weeks.
Now the vitamins will be taken to Abilene TX where they will be packed into a shipping crate headed for Zambia so more than 8,000 children will have a better chance at health, and life. This project is just one more way BCS is aiming to develop the God-given talents of our students for lives of Christian leadership and service.
