African American Challenge

Buckets of Love

The oldest child cares for the entire family. The parents are either dying or are already dead.

Makwanja, a nine-year-old girl in Zambia, is in the early stages of HIV/AIDS. She cares for her siblings and her grandmother, who is also HIV positive.

Until today, she had no way to make the smallest skin irritation better.

Makwanja is one of the 700 recipients of a “Bucket of Love” throughout Zambia. This bucket will make her quality of life considerably better.

Buckets contain supplies needed by a caregiver, who often cannot afford the items needed to improve their quality of life. The lotions, vitamins, bedding and bandages help caregivers treat patients.

“AIDS not only impacts individuals, but also touches entire family units,” said Van Thompson, a Baptist Global Response representative in Zambia.

Baptist Global Response is a Southern Baptist relief and development organization. Churches in Mississippi, Kentucky and Tennessee partnered with BGR to pack 1,378 in-home care buckets. These churches then sent the buckets to several countries in southern Africa.

More than one million Zambians tested positive for the HIV/AIDS virus in 2007. There are likely many others that remain untested. A little more than five percent die each year. The average age in Zambia is 17.

“[HIV/AIDS] deaths are horrific,” said Troy Lewis, another BGR field representative. “One way the buckets help is in death. The buckets affirm their dignity, by providing cleaning supplies and towels. They provide comfort with over-the-counter drugs to take away some of the pain.”

The Baptist Fellowship of Zambia started the “Buckets of Love” program. The program allows them to deliver the buckets to those in most need throughout the country.

Others with terminal diseases such as cancer, tuberculosis and malaria also benefit from the buckets left at a Catholic hospice located in the bush.

The buckets provide family members with the tools to care for terminally ill relatives at home. For some, the in-home care kit is all the care they will receive.

“In America some of these things are readily available, but here they are just thinking about surviving,” said Misheck Zulu, an employee of Lusaka’s Baptist Theological Seminary who helped distribute the buckets. “Things like nail clippers and something for chapped lips make a big difference to them.”

One lady who received a bucket shared, “I had a dream that I would receive a bed sheet, but had no money to buy one, so God answered my prayer with you.”

The design of the project allows for half of each visit to explain the bucket. The other half is spent sharing the Gospel with the patients and caregivers.

Missionary Kevin Rodgers was surprised by how intently the patients listened to the Gospel presentation. Rodgers is a BGR partner and church planter. He wanted to make sure the bucket was given as a gift, not as a bribe to follow Christ.

“I tried to make sure they understood the commitment involved, and made it clear that they should not pray just to please me or because they had received a bucket,” Rodgers said.

Many told him they might not have tomorrow and this could be their last chance to know Jesus.

Rogers realized that any day could be someone’s last. These people live with that reminder every day.

“All were touched by the love of their brothers and sisters in America and were thrilled to know that you care about their suffering,” said Thompson. “Most especially they were thrilled with this reminder that God cares for them.”

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For more information or to donate to the In-Home Care Kits project, visit www.gobgr.org.