BRANDON — When Shelby Reams asked a group of school children in Zambia, Africa, what they wanted to be when they grow up, most of them said they wanted to be teachers. Those same children talked about the war and famine all around them, the HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis epidemics that killed many of their parents, and repeated the phrase, “I will not live.”

“It was just amazing to hear these children talking about devastation…despair,” Reams said. “I realized they want to be teachers because at school…this is the place where they receive love and care.”

Reams is a member of St. Andrew’s United Methodist Church here. She and nine other members spent 15 days in Kitwe, Zambia, on a medical mission that provided general health screenings to 650 children there. They worked with Delbert and Sandy Groves, United Methodist missionaries in Kitwe on assignment from the General Board of Global Ministries.

The children are members of a community school run by a Catholic nun and supported by the Roman Catholic Church. “In Zambia, there are government schools and community schools,” Reams said. “Students have to pay $20 per year to attend a government school. The ones that can’t afford that attend community schools.”

Most of the approximately 800 children at the community school in Kitwe were orphaned or abandoned by their parents, according to Reams. Many live with extended families who treat them like outsiders or second-class people.

“They’re at the end of the food chain,” Reams said. “They don’t eat well and aren’t treated well.”

One boy whom Reams met had badly scarred hands. He told her he had picked and eaten some food from a field because he was hungry. By doing so he had disobeyed his aunt, who put his hands in a pot of boiling water as punishment.

“He’ll be scarred for life for acting like a typical little boy,” Reams said. “I had to try hard not to cry to his face. I just gave him lots of hugs.”

The time spent in Africa changed the mission team members, Reams said. “We’re so excited and ready to do many more things. We’re working on a list of things to do…like support the Chililabombwe church.”

The team attended worship at Chililabombwe United Methodist Church while in Africa. Reams was impressed by the similarities and differences between African church and churches in the United States.

“Just like in our churches, they had the visitors stand up, introduce themselves and say where they’re from,” she said. “But as I looked around at this church made from clay bricks, dirt and a tin roof…I realized this is a United Methodist church. We have sisters and brothers here.”

The opening hymn for the worship service was “How Great Thou Art,” and Reams said it was a “holy, spirit-filled experience” to hear the hymn sung by both Africans and Americans in their own languages at the same time.

The time she spent in Africa gave Reams a greater appreciation for some of the simpler things in her life. “We’re spoiled. We take so many things for granted,” she said. “When I got back home I really wanted a hot shower with good water pressure in a clean bathroom. I’m just appreciating everything more…family, roads. I saw a road being paved in Zambia. And I never got excited about seeing a road paved in my life, but I did then. Our perspectives will change forever.”