"the uncles"

Five and a half years ago, I was approached by a group of eighth grade boys who wanted help with their English. Every week, rain or shine, we met together to practice the English language and discuss school and life. I was new to teaching English as a second language and started every class the same way, “so… what questions do you have?” Haha. I have no idea why they kept coming back, but they did, week after week, year after year. We sponsored four of the boys through secondary school, continuing to encourage them in their studies. Last year, these four guys graduated from 12^th grade and we couldn’t be prouder of them. Somewhere along the way, they all blossomed. They went from shy, little boys, bumbling along in broken English, to confident, strong and articulate young men. 

We feel priviledged to have spent so much time with this group of guys and to be able to pour into their lives as we have. They were the inspiration for what has grown into our student sponsorship program at Choshen Farm. (http://choshenfarm.org/2012/09/26/sponsorship-students/)

Naturally, we were so excited and looking forward to bringing Bronwyn home to Zambia so these gents, who are like our kid brothers could meet their baby niece! One of the greatest gifts to us these past few months has been watching these four boys interact with Bronwyn, doting on her as if she were their own. They absolutely adore this child!

They stop by all the time just to see "Winnie," play with her for a while and hold her. They have competitions with each other to see who can get her to laugh first. They bicker over who gets to hold her, saying, “she doesn’t want you, she wants me!” They send her text messages to our phone telling her to have a good night. Its darling.

We are working hard to raise the funds to help these guys go to college. (college bound, we pray) They all want to be nurses or teachers and we know how much Zambia needs quality people like them! We recently sent one of the gang, Timothy, off to college and we miss him a lot. When we get together with the remaining three for supper once per week, we call Timothy to hear how he’s doing. “How’s Winnie?” is always his first question to us.

Bronwyn, you are so lucky to have an extended family who adores you!

So here’s to “the uncles.” Thank you, young men, for being a part of our family!