September 2004

Two years ago Lynne and Larry Zotzmann started hearing the word “Africa”. For years ministry concern had solely been focused on assisting and evangelizing local at risk children and youth. For a ministry that had never left the Hampton Roads area the word “Africa” in association with their ministry, Reaching Our Communities, seemed too large and too far away. At first they tried to ignore those who discussed the possibilities of taking the evangelistic part of the ministry, “Sidewalk Celebration”, to children living in squatter camps and townships of South Africa. But it became more difficult to question the prophetic messages that were being spoken over their ministry in regards to going to the children in Africa. In a conference discussing the end time harvest of poor single women and children, the statistics of children dying from AIDS and poverty in Africa was overwhelming. They had to go.

For the past 8 years the “Sidewalk Celebration” event has been presented to thousands of under resourced children living in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia. For years, in addition to the “Sidewalk Celebration” event, the ministry has steadily presented programs out of an outreach in one of Virginia Beach’s most at risk communities, Trailer City. Ongoing programs have included after school assistance, grocery distributions, summer camps, women’s groups, children and youth Bible studies, nutritional training, and equipping youth for “Sidewalk Celebration” events. At risk youth from Trailer City and surrounding areas now use their talents of drama, puppetry, and dance to introduce other at risk children and youth to the Gospel message of Christ’s love. Operation Blessing worked closely with them in developing an innovative nutrition program, Jump Start Your Heart, for at risk children. This program has now been implemented in many at risk communities in Hampton Roads including the City of Virginia Beach summer camps.

Incredibly busy in ministry they asked how in the world would they be able to add Africa to the ministry responsibilities. Larry and Lynne both serve as volunteers in this ministry. God began to orchestrate a plan. A volunteer joined the group. His father owned a Bible College in Johannesburg, South Africa. Larry quips, “What are the chances of God sending us that kind of connection? God began to give ministry team members dreams about African children.

Larry planned a scouting mission in the Spring of 2003. As he was flying over Africa a plan began to form. Why not go into the squatter camps to minister to the children utilizing the at risk youth on the “Sidewalk Celebration” team? The plan was overwhelming, as at risk youth do not have funds or contacts to raise funds. But it was God’s plan and God provided. This past summer a team including five teenagers, ranging from 14 to 18 years old, boarded a plane for the first time in their lives! Larry reminisces that some of the youth who accompanied him on this trip were from an initial group in 1994, of 37 children, who gave their lives to the Lord on the very first day of “Sidewalk Celebration”.

Once in Africa the hope was to train 30-40 young people, have them shadow the American team and then leave them with all the resources necessary to continue presenting “Sidewalk Celebrations”. One hundred twenty five pastors and youth arrived at the training! The American group excelled in training and equipping the African youth. The next morning the plan was to have the African youth shadow their team. In other settings the American team had found youth unwilling to step forward and go out after training. Not in South Africa. Larry laughs and says, “The African youth were so enthusiastic! It wasn’t long before they were pushing us out of the way and doing the whole program themselves. One of them even took my video camera and started recording for me!” The now blended team of new and old “Sidewalk Celebration” members went out hand in hand each day and evening into the townships and squatter camps of South Africa. Everywhere they went, whether at the Bible school, Aids Village, squatter camps, on a soccer field, or under a tent, large groups of children would arrive. No advertising. No free groceries. The children just began to come. Hundreds and hundreds of children would arrive at each ministry site. The altar calls were amazing with entire groups of children praying the prayer of salvation in both English and their native language, Zulu. All together the American team went out with youth from 13 churches into the townships of Alexandra, Soweto, Reinfontaine, Eldorado Park, Tembisa and Deipsloot.

The only exception to arriving to have multitudes of children come was their day in Soweto. Initially there were only about 12 children and 30 adults. The team asked if they could delay starting for about 20 minutes and go out into town to find more children. The pastor gave his permission and said, “Without the children this will not be beautiful.” There was much beauty when they returned with over 300 children and had to remove the sides of the tent to accommodate them all!

Larry was surprised to hear from African pastors that there was a lot of religion, even Christian religion in their country, but the children were nonentities when it came to evangelism. Africa is still very much of an adult based ministry system. Pastors said they never would have thought to intentionally evangelize children only and the South African youth certainly were not taught that they should evangelize others in the squatter camps. Larry says, “When they heard that is what they were suppose to do, and then saw our young people doing it, they got very excited!”

This Virginia team is excited too. Their non-stop schedule could have been exhausting, but they say seeing numerous young people powerfully touched by the presence of God, many for the first time in their lives, energized them. Each lesson in the ‘Celebration’ is based on a specific theme around a scripture verse. Each theme has a catch phrase word in it like hope, joy, or love. The ‘joy flags’ have the word for South Africa written all over them, JOY! Larry says he is being pulled by the memory of looking back over a sea of smiling children waving their flags as the team departed. “We want to return to Africa. South African children are dying at a huge rate from the AIDS virus. We can make a difference in their lives. The love of Christ is the most powerful tool we can offer a child. There are so many young African children who need to know there is a Father who loves them and a Savior who is their best friend. We desperately need to let them know that Jesus will walk with them throughout their lives.”

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