With witch doctors still active in the Zambian bush, it's sometimes hard to leave such fears behind. Babies traditionally wear around their necks little charms that are supposed to protect them from demons. Jerry Beall, a Maryland pastor who is executive director of Sons of Thunder, a Christian group active in Zambia, reports: "When we get ready to dedicate a baby to Christ, we ask for the charm. It's a real challenge. The mothers stand there with a life-and-death choice they have to make, and you can see on their faces the concern."

 But when the choice is made, the joy is great. Adults and children in village after village greeted standees on the flatbed truck with friendly waves, and many dozens of smiling children ran after it, as in a Rocky movie. Zambians are friendly toward Americans, Beall says, because "they see we're here to give and not take."

 The Sons of Thunder effort includes a school now with 300 students, courses in growing more and better crops, and an orphanage where, as nurse JoAnn Byrum put it, "We get infants days or hours away from dying."

 Nigerian pastor Anderson Mwiikisa, 85, said that if it weren't for the American effort, "these children would be in the grave." It's that type of help that makes Americans popular here.