When she visited missionary friends in Kenya in 2013, Megan Elmore ’09 felt called. She was working at a mortgage bankruptcy law firm at the time. “The day I returned to America,” she says, “we were having a huge meeting about getting so many proofs of claim done. And in my head I’m going, I need to make sure I’m getting 15 claims done to kick people out of their houses when I just got back from Africa where people don’t even have houses. That was a turning point for me. I submitted my two-week notice a week later.”
With a business management major, Elmore turned to Google and searched: “African mission opportunities microloan.” Through Bright Hope International out of Chicago, she secured a yearlong internship in Zambia, helping give microloans to churches. On her days off, she helped distribute cans of baby formula to mothers with HIV. She had not been particularly interested in children, but it wasn’t long before she was playing with the babies. Then, when she began checking up on churches in rural villages, she began playing with those kids. Before long, whenever someone asked, “Where’s Megan?” the answer was “Just find the kids, and she’ll be in the middle of them.”
When her year of service was up, she started looking for opportunities to stay in Zambia. By then she knew she wanted to work with vulnerable children, and so when Christian Missions in Many Lands (CMML) asked her to partner with them to found an orphan care center, she jumped at the chance.
Elmore is now stationed in Mansa, just an hour away from where she had been serving in Samfya, but the difference is night and day. Elmore had been a microloan intern with minimal responsibilities. She’d lived on a safe college campus where everyone spoke English. She’d had running water and a flush toilet and reliable electricity.
In her new position, Elmore directs Mansa Fountain of Blessings orphan care center, which opened in September 2015. She runs board meetings with CMML leadership. She’s responsible for seven staff members and the feeding, clothing, and education of 47 orphans. She lives in a higher-crime area (her pet German shepherd patrols outside at night) in a house without running water and with daily electricity outages that last eight to 12 hours. And fewer people in her new life speak English, so she’s started learning Bemba, the local language.
But it’s clear she finds the tradeoff well worth it. Children served by Mansa Fountain of Blessings live with guardians, usually aunts or grandparents who’ve taken them in after their parents have died, often of AIDS or malaria. They visit the organization three days per week for a Zambian meal and Bible studies. The center also pays for their public school tuition and uniforms and provides two sets of new clothes and shoes twice a year. In addition to her director responsibilities, Elmore, like most missionaries, fund-raises to support her own presence in the country. Unlike most missionaries, she (with help from her dad, mom, and sister in Texas) also fund-raises to support the entire operation of the center.
Mansa Fountain of Blessings is in its infancy, with no kitchen, no stove, no fridge, no running water, no bathroom, and only one classroom in which to teach children, who range from grades one through seven. But in spite of the growing pains ahead, Elmore says, “What keeps me going is that kids here don’t take education for granted. We recently got some books donated to us, and the kids were just ecstatic.”
Mansa Fountain of Blessings offers an opportunity to sponsor one of the children at the center in Mansa, Zambia. To learn more about Elmore serving in Zambia, Mansa Fountain of Blessings, or sponsoring a child, visitfortheloveoforphans.org.