The Least of These

“ ‘For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me’… The King will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to Me.' ” Matthew 25:35-40

Mwapona buti (good afternoon) to you from us here in Zambia, Africa! After five flights and a six-hour-long bus ride we arrived here to the Namwianga mission and are already two weeks into our journey. Our group is composed of eleven Harding University speech-language pathology graduate students and three supervisors, and we are also joined here by a group of three pharmacy students and one professor. It seems that we all find new purposes for our stay here as each day passes, but ultimately we are all here to serve our God and creator and to improve the quality of life for His children here in Africa.

For the next six weeks we will be conducting speech and language therapy with children ages birth to five in an orphanage here in Namwianga called The Haven. Zambians define orphans as those who are missing at least one parents, and those who are missing both parents are considered to be double orphans. The Haven is composed of three buildings: the first with healthy infants, the second with healthy toddlers, and the third with sick infants and toddlers with diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV. We as clinicians have been divided into three different therapy groups: one to address feeding and swallowing difficulties in infants who are struggling due to various illnesses and challenges, one to address the emergence and production of language with toddlers, and one to assist and help three children with special needs.

In our quest to improve our clinical skills and grow as future speech-language pathologists, we are learning a host of other lessons in our short, six-week visit here. We are learning how fortunate we are to live healthy and long lives as the average life expectancy of a Zambian is thirty-nine years. We are learning how wealthy we are as a person who owns a bicycle here in Zambia is considered rich. And we are learning that if we want to see change in our world, we must become the change we wish to see.

In coming here to Africa, I believe that we have truly met the “least of these” that are referenced in Matthew 25 as we work with these small, helpless children who were born only to become parentless with a variety of personal challenges. After our first day of feeding tiny infants struggling to eat as a result of their different diseases, these were the words that came to me:

Today I met the least of these
as I sang to two twins with no mommy,
and as they sat and cried
as I said goodbye,
I knew that things would never be
the same for me.

Today I met the least of these
as I held a baby girl who had TB,
and as I saw the rise in her chest
as she gasped for every breath,
I knew that things would never be
the same for me.

Today I met the least of these
as I played with a little boy with HIV,
and with every beat of his heart
I felt my own break apart,
and I knew that things would never be
the same for me.

Today I met the least of these,
and it made me fall straight to my knees.
The pieces of my heart rearranged,
and I will be forever changed,
and I know that things will never be
the same for me.

We are blessed to be here growing and learning to give even just a cup of cold water to the least of these.

Charissa Collins