Emma's Story

Emma was first met at the Camp LIFE infirmary. When asked what she was pained by, her response was “I’d rather die than go home…please don’t make me go home. I just want to die before you send me home.” No young girl should feel this way. 

Emma shared why she didn’t want to go home. She lost her father when she was only a toddler. This sent her mother into a deep depression, accompanied by heavy drinking and two subsequent failed marriages. Emma was deprived of basic food every day. She and her siblings’ only food source came from Emma’s own begging in the streets. She even saved her lunch each day so she could bring it home to her little sisters.

When Emma was seven, she was left alone at home with her sick baby brother.  She held him in her arms, not knowing what to do, until he died from malnutrition. She was blamed for his death.

Emma was physically beaten to the point of hospitalization for three days , only to return home to more beatings.  If she failed to do any of her chores, she was forced into a corner where her mother would throw hot, scathing knives at her innocent body.

Emma’s mom was rarely home, because she was out day and night working as a prostitute. Her step dad would arrive home before her mom and rape Emma night after night from the time she was eight years old. 

Emma grew each day of Camp and by the final day, Emma was a bright-eyed, joyful little girl. She learned that “The Lord is Her Shepherd” (our theme for Camp LIFE 2008), and that He will always take care of her.

The next week, one of the staff saw a girl on the side of the road completely stoic and void of life. She said she almost did not recognize Emma because after only four days of returning to her home, she had grown hardened. All the love and joy was drained from her face. Her mom had taken all the gifts she had been given at Camp LIFE - her bright green Camp LIFE jacket, new tennis shoes, t-shirt, and bandana were all taken away.

After hearing Emma’s story, our director arranged to pick Emma up a few days later and temporarily move her to one of our safe homes. They arrived at Emma’s home at 8:30 a.m. to find her mom drunk, and her one-year-old sister Esther with horribly burned skin on her head from a prior drunken stupor in which her mom caught the sheets on fire with her own cigarettes.

When they saw Emma she looked “enslaved” once again. She wouldn’t even look up, and who knows what kind of evil she had been exposed to in the dark hours of the night just hours before. They picked her up, sat her in their lap, and whispered quietly in her ear, “We’re coming to rescue you!” Thin fingers of hope squeezed, as if to silently scream “Oh please! Oh, please! If only this could be true!” 

Emma was scared that her mom wouldn’t allow her to leave, but Emma’s mom responded to the proposition with surprising and hateful words; “Yeah, take her; I don’t want her.”  Emma immediately leapt up, went behind a dirty torn sheet which served as a room divider, and came out in her “best dress.” Without a goodbye or as much as a look her mom’s way, Emma grabbed Holly’s hand and said, “Lez go, Auntie Holly!” And with that, Emma led them out of her house.

On the bus, Emma’s smile stretched from ear to ear as she kept saying over and over, “Auntie Holly! Tha Lawd eez My Shepahd! Tha Lawd eez My Shepahd! Tha Lawd eez My Shepahd!” She must have said this truth about 50 times! This little captive was free, and she knew it.

On May 29th, a few months later, Emma was one of the first children to move into the new Tree of Life Children’s Village.  Emma is now in a safe new place where she can grow into the child that God wants her to be.  Emma’s two younger sisters, Bupe and Esther, were also rescued and they now can live together without Emma having the burden of providing food for her younger sisters. The Lord truly provided for Emma Tembo!

To hear more stories of God's transformative work in Zambia, visit the Tree of Life page.

I am grateful for your interest in this ministry and support of my work. To donate to my support account, please visit www.familylegacy.com/anne.