Stories from Sheryl Muncy

I sat down with Mrs. Muncy this morning and she shared some stories about the trip from her perspective.  Mrs. Muncy, by the way, has been a Godsend to us, serving as our trip manager.  She has put in hundreds of hours by now to organize this trip--taking care of passports, visas, medication, and many other details.  We appreciate her enormously!  This trip would not have happened without her.

The second bathroom stop that had lights and
toilet paper at no charge!

"The kids have been so flexible, especially during our last leg of travel on Thursday (the endless bus trip).  When we had the second flat, I was just getting ready to make an announcement, when Ahilyn started to pray.  It was a beautiful and emotional prayer.  I was so impressed and proud of those kids for thinking of that.  They just continue to surprise me with their spirituality.  Sometimes you think kids don't have it, but they do.  Their prayers were answered.  We had no more flat tires, and we found an unattended, free bathroom!

"I kept praying about the drivers, too, that they would be able to stay awake.  The driver ahead of us was swerving at some points,  everyone did their part to keep the drivers awake on that long trip.  Pastor Ralph kept talking to our driver, asking all kinds of questions; he (the pastor) only slept about 20 minutes the whole time.

The two buses that took us safely through the Zambian night.

"When we stopped the first time to go to the bathroom (through a dark ally and into a dark place that only had a candle to see by), something told me to turn around and look back at the bus.  As I did, Ahilyn's window was open and I could see her face.  She didn't look right.  I asked her if she wanted to come.  She said no.  I said you look like you're feeling bad.  Why don't you just come and walk.  You look pale.  She said she wasn't feeling good and I saw she had tears coming down her cheeks.  She apologized for her tears.  "I think I'm just really tired," she said.  I told her "it's OK to cry.  You're tired and it's to be expected."  As we got up and moved around, she began to feel better.  I just felt good that I had seen her there and was able to talk with her.  I think it's brave that these kids open up and share their feelings.  You never know if you're going to be rejected with those feelings, so I'm really proud of these kids.  They have all shown flexibility with things that are totally out of their control.  Getting to know these kids more and more and creating a bond with them that no one else will have...it's pretty amazing.  It's a real privilege.

"Last night at VBS, it was amazing. When I first got there (I got there a little late), they were ready to do the craft.  I gave the craft boxes to the girls and they were a little shy at first to work with the children.  But little by little, our girls got closer to the little ones and before you knew it they were kneeling down and smiling and helping them with their craft.  It was a neat transition to see them move from apprehension to comfort with the little ones.  The kids were singing all at the top of their lungs at VBS.  They loved the songs!  It was so neat at the very end when we were cleaning up, this girl and her tiny 1 year old brother came up to Narce.  She picked him up and was holding him.  It was a sweet moment.

Breakfast on Friday morning

Several students have said that they want to come back here as adults.  Something's making an impression on them."