"The best part of sharing this experience with five of my pledge sisters is that we are sharing a life change," sophomore Whitney Oliver said. "We will never be the same when we get home, and I am so blessed not to be going home alone." For Delta Gamma Rho pledge sisters sophomores Whitney Oliver, Abbie Adkison and Katie Barnett, pledging a club at Harding was just the beginning of a powerful friendship. At the end of their freshman year, the girls decided to study abroad on the Harding University in Zambia (HIZ) program. "We have grown closer to each other through the hardships," Oliver said. "Staying in Africa for an extended amount of time doesn't come without struggles. Whether it was culture shock, learning to mourn with those who mourn, or fear, we made it past these obstacles as a group by the power of prayer. I have learned to be fully submissive and dependent on God, and he used this group to get me to such a beautiful point." All HIZ students spent a large portion of their time in Zambia at the Namwianga Mission, a haven for impoverished children. The work students did at the Havens gave them a great opportunity to grow close to the residents who needed them most, according to Barnett. "The children here have changed my life," Barnett said. "I fell in love with a little girl named Maya. I held her when she was only three hours old. Her mother had just died during childbirth, and her father couldn't take care of her, Smiling at each other, sophomore Whitney Oliver and an orphan bond at the Namwianga orphanage in Zambia. Working with the children at the Havens was an essential part of the program. Courtesy of Whitney Oliver Sophomores Katie Barnett, Whitney Oliver and Abbie Adkison pound on a drum in a museum in Tanzania. The museum featured traditional African displays with which visitors had fun interacting. Courtesy of Whitney Oliver Oliver takes a leap, free-falling into the canyon below Victoria Falls. Students had the opportunity to bungee jump next to the highest waterfall on Earth while on the HIZ program. Courtesy of Whitney Oliver MIAr'oot\ tMtl Zambia so he brought her to the Haven. I held her for hours that day when they brought her in. I will not ever forget her." In addition to caring for orphans, the girls also had some crazy adventures in Africa, including a safari tour, white water rafting on the Nile River and bungee jumping at Victoria Falls, the highest waterfall in the world. "The most dangerous thing I've done was white water rafting down those class five rapids and honestly not knowing if I was ever going to take another breath above water," Oliver said. Ultimately, however, it was the people of Namwianga who formed a strong bond with the girls and helped them bond with each other in return. The Zambian people, the group said, taught them love lessons in unexpected ways. "After church one morning, I stood before a group of girls, and I didn't know it at the time, but they were about to change my life," Oliver said. ''A few of us asked them what their favorite song was, and one girl began to sing 'I Am a Blessed Child.' To see those girls in their Sunday best- withered dresses and broken shoes - singing, 'I am a blessed child,' humbled me. I have no words to describe the beauty of their voices or the truth in those words. I thought I knew what it meant to be blessed before I came to Zambia, but until that day I had never understood the definition of 'blessed.' I am a blessed child.J esus makes me a blessed child." John Shrable ~ .'1'1
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