HOW GREAT THOU ART!!

How great thou art!! I have never really sat to think about what these words mean until this morning in church. Last night I threw a party to raise money for my trip and invited everyone I could possibly think of here at Mizzou expecting to raise maybe 5 or $600. Last night at about 8pm it began to snow and the roads were starting to get slick and I was really starting to get worried about people even being able to come but I have been told that the Lord provides and as of last night, I can truly tell you that he does!! About 30 people or so braved the snow to come and hang out and together we raised over $1400!!! These people that came over were college students! I have never seen such an act of generosity in my entire life and I and truly blessed to be able to call these people my briends. I have also received a donation from my Grandmothers bible study of about $275 which, for those of you playing along at home, gets me up to more than $5700 in donations thus far with the ultimate goal of $6500!! The provision of our God are unmatched. To all of you who came, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Words cannot express how much your generosity meant to me and to the Children of Zambia. Back to the song “How Great Thou Art.” This morning, the worship leader spoke of an aging man in Jamaica on his trip with several students from Mizzou over Christmas break. The man was blind and wanted to sing, so someone came over and played his guitar to the tune of “How Great Thou Art” as the man sang and as he came to the chorus all he could speak through his tears were the words “How great thou art!” I feel as if the song writer was searching for words of more meaning as he yearned to express how incredible God truly is but all he can say is “How great thou art!” This morning as it finally hit me how much money was donated last night the only words I could utter as I got choked up, sat down, and cried were, “How great thou art!” God is truly great and those words have so much power and strength and sometimes that is all we can say when we as humans, as finite beings, get a just a glimpse of God’s infinite greatness. Because of the generosity of these college students, 56 kids get to come camp this summer and get love and get a chance for us to reveal the love and hope we have in Christ. Thanks again to all who have donated, those kids need it so badly and you have given something that they have never had before, Love.

Purpose

As I think about this summer I feel that it is necessary for me to tell you what exactly I will be doing with Family Legacy when I am in Zambia. Family Legacy is a ministry that is set up to help kids in Zambia who have lost one or both parents to the AIDs virus. Every summer they put on what the call Camp Life for these children. They started about 5 years ago and helped about 50 orphans. This year, 300 American workers are going to team up with as many Zambian workers to help serve over 8000 children!!! That is incredible!! Last year, 180 Americans helped 5000 kids. There are 8 weeks of camp and a new group of kids will come every week. Every day of the camp the kids are bussed in from their neighborhoods to the location of the camps. Many of these kids grow up with Uncles or friends if they are lucky but most of them are abused and neglected. The world tells these kids that they are worthless because their parents died of AIDs. The theme for this year is "The truth will set you free" letting them know the truth in Christ of who they are and breaking their thoughts that they are worthless. For this week, they come to camp where they are showered with love for a week. We love on them, teach them, and show them that they are indeed worth something and that while they may not have parents here on earth, they have a Father in Heaven who loves them and wants to know them. These kids are lucky to eat two or three times a week and this week at camp they get food every day! Once they leave the camp, Family Legacy is not done taking care of them. They have full time Zambian workers that go out to all the places that come to this camp and keep encouraging these kids to grow up and make a difference in their community and the impact is far greater than what i can write on this page.
Another vision of FLMI (Family Legacy Missions International) is their Tree of Life Childrens Village. There will be 25 homes with 12 orphans in each and a house mother and father. There will be a clinic where they can get treatment for any illness including AIDs treatments. They will get schooling up through the 12th grade (most are lucky to get to the 6th or 7th) with a Bible College and convention center type set up where they will be able to host Camp Life very soon. There will be cabins for the American volunteers and a private school where the very wealthy people in Zambia can send their children and the money made from that school will fund the ENRTIRE VILLAGE!!!!! How awesome is that?!! And that is not all; there is a plan for 12 of these villages nation wide! That will serve 3600 orphans at a time with a vision to teach these kids the skills they need to eventually leave the village and enter the real world and change the entire nation. It costs $60,000 for a house in this village and if any of you would like to donate to that fund please email me. adt4g9@mizzou.edu. Thanks for taking the time to read this and hopefully there will be many more to follow.
Allan

First One!!!

Hello all and welcome to my blog where I plan to document my entire trip from now, raising money for my trip, until my return in August. Please forward this blog to everyone and anyone you can think of. Well, I am new to this bloging thing but God is so great and it is the best way I can think of to inform everyone of how great he truly is. There is a link to Famliy Legacy Missions in the "About Me" section of my profile.
Since I realized that it was God's will for me to spend my summer with the orphans of Zambia I have been able to raise about $3700 without even spending much effort on fundraising at all! I have recieved several donations from people I dont even know; thanks to everyone who has forwarded my letter. I work as a waiter right now and at work last night I told all my tables about my trip and raised $45 just from telling people about it and now even more people know about what Family Legacy is doing in Zambia. On Saturday, January 20th I am hosting a party to try and raise money so if anyone would like to donate, the 20th is a great day to do it.
When I was sitting in church yesterday morning I was praying and asked God for a good verse and opened right up to Proverbs 21:13; "He who shuts his ear to the cry of the poor will also cry himself and not be answered." This is a humbling verse when you think of how much money we have in America that we spend on Starbucks or other things that we really just dont need. I fear that in the U.S. we often shut our ear to the poor and it wont be good whenever we cry out and no one will be there to hear us. Please, do not turn your ear from the poor. I am not saying that we all have to go to Zambia whenever we have so much need here that we need to take care of too. Thanks for reading my blog and check in often as I plan to update this whenever i get a chance and especially tune in on May 22nd through August 11th when I will be writing in from Zambia. If you would like to donate to my trip just make a check out to Family Legacy Missions with my name, Allan Thompson, in the Memo line. The address is;
Family Legacy Missions International
5005 W. Royal Lane Suite 252
Irving, Texas 75063
(972) 620-2020
Thank you for your time.

In Christ,
Allan