In 2004, HICF took a missions team into Zambia to work on a project supporting a school for children living in rural bush villages. The project for the team that year was to complete the building of a teacher's home near the school. While working on this project, we met a young man who obviously had been gifted with intellect and leadership.
After a few days, we asked why this fellow was here working for one U.S. dollar per day as a laborer. We found out that this young man, Brigadier, was from a distant village originally. He was a wonderful hunter and true bushman as a boy and teenager.
His story is so worthy of telling about overcoming so many adversities and moving to live away from his mother in order to attend school, and of tremendously long walks as a child to school everyday.
For times' sake -- we met Brigadier when he had finished an undergraduate year of law school at the University of Zambia in Lusaka. The Americans who were helping him ceased their aid and he was left with virtually no hope of continuing without a miracle from God.
He never asked for help, never spoke to us of his need. The HICF team leaders found out about his needs and impressed with his integrity, we committed to pay for the rest of his university obligations and law school costs.
Through the next several years, we visited each year in our winter. Each time, we would find out struggles Brigadier had faced, such as sleeping in a maintenance closet for a year and sharing a twin bed with a friend. Each young man was sleeping with his head at the other's feet.
One time, riots on the university campus forced Brigadier to hide in a concrete culvert for days.
Each year that we returned, he made the six hour journey to see us and to help with projects we were working on. Building on the orphanage and even traveling with the team to carry out a medical / evangelistic outreach were never activities that Brigadier saw beneath him even while God elevated him through education.
In May 2006, Brigadier graduated from the University of Zambia and HICF was there to witness the momentous occasion.
We traveled six hours to Senkobo and Brigadier never took off his graduation gown.
The HICF team rented a 4x4 vehicle to take him to his village four hours out into the bush. He wore his cap and gown all the way. What a moment it was when he stepped out of the truck in to the village of the aunt who first took him in to allow him to attend public school.
( a traditional gift from HICF - way cheaper than a car!)
HICF then picked up the bill (with the help of a young lawyer who visited the fellowship one summer) for specialized, required legal training to prepare for the Bar
Brigadier overcame difficult living accommodations, lack of resources that other students enjoyed, and transportation issues.
With all of his difficulties, he took the Bar exam in the summer of 2007 and felt confident that he had passed. The school declared that someone had cheated and forced all students to retake the exam. Brigadier was disappointed, but tenacious in his drive to finish. Finally in December 2007 the news came -- over eighty student took the Bar and forty-nine passed - Brigadier among them.
Facing unbelievable costs for required clothing to complete his ceremony before the Supreme Court of Zambia, (such as a $1300 wig, among other fees), Brigadier moved forward with HICF by his side.
On February 8, 2008, a miracle took place. The boy from the bush stood before the Supreme Court of Zambia to be sworn in by the highest judge in the land, referred to as "His Worship".
You could say that Brigadier won the Lottery, so to speak, but the Lottery doesn't require the integrity or invincible spirit which this young man displayed. It also does not take into account the providence of God or the sacrificial giving of Christians in America.
Thank YOU, Father, for trusting us with this life.
