The Lord is doing Marvelous things in Zambia

We have been amazed at how quickly God is moving the Villages of Hope in Zambia along. In order to help our friends and partners keep up with it, we will be posting God's mighty deeds on this site.

March - April, 2006 Trip to Zambia:

1. Ken Mueller & Benedict Schwartz travel to Zambia
2. Africare provided vehicle and driver
3. April 4, 2006 – signed contract for 230 acre Farm
4. Zambian national agricultural research center committed to helping us with agriculture plans
5. Second AKCLI-Zambia Board Meeting
6. Memorandum of Agreement drafted between AKCLI and Africare
7. World Vision VP introduces us to Andrew McKeachny, a commercial farmer who agreed to help us get the commercial agriculture in place
8. We decided to buy a block-making machine to make our own construction blocks at a cost of 40 cents each.
9. Ken began workers clearing the land for the first four buildings in the Village of Hope

February, 2006 Trip to Zambia:

1. Benedict traveled alone to Zambia
2. AKCLI obtained attorney to help with registration processes & land acquisition
3. Applied for & received incorporation for AKCLI Company LTD., to commercialize the Farm
4. Setup Zambian Board of Directors; met, & initiated AKCLI-Zambia Registration process
5. Began planning with Africare for Orphan Youth Agricultural Training Program
6. Met with World Vision VP and began discussions re: Agricultural sustainability for support of orphan villages.

January, 2006 Trip to Zambia:

1. Schwartz, Tuttle, Mueller & spouses traveled to Zambia & Namibia
2. Don Weippert, orchard farmer sent by Partners Worldwide, evaluated possible agricultural sites
3. Africare provided 2 vehicles and drivers
4. Lord led team to 230 acre Nyrienda Farm & discussions for purchase began
5. Africare program managers met with AKCLI team to discuss roles and future program collaboration

Open Doors

In January, after looking at 12 different properties and traveling over 2,000 miles throughout Zambia, the men of our team were led to land. It is some of the most fertile in the country, borders the main north/south road, and has electricity running through it. It belongs to a family. Three sisters and a brother now live on the land. They are taking care of 16 orphans and have opened a community school that has 260 poor village children. These siblings are from a family whose grandfather was an evangelist in Malawi, their father came to Zambia as a church planter. Although they have had many people want to buy the land, their prayer was that God would send someone who would carry on their work when they are gone since they are getting old. In April, we purchased 260 acres from them. Praise the Lord. This will be the location of our first Children of Hope Village in Zambia. Construction will begin in June, and children will begin to arrive in November.