re:Proposal

Hi again Joyce,
I realized that I did not include one of the key reasons for asking help with the school for our children. As we grow and take more children it is critical to have the infrastructure in place to provide for them. That means having the capacity to provide quality foundational life skills and Christian education. As I mentioned, we began teaching them in their cottages. This meant that they spent almost all of their day in their own houses. We expanded it by adding our living room. A week ago, we made the two small classrooms at the community center their classrooms. This was much better. They get to walk a distance to school now and are not being housebound.

As we move towards 100, then two hundred children at our 230 acre location, the school facility needs to expand. As I mentioned, Holland Christian's gift of 4 cottages will double the number of preschool, first and second graders. The two classrooms we currently have will not accommodate twice the number of children. So, we have been praying that the Lord will help us to keep pace with our capacity to meet the needs of taking more orphaned children.

Thanks again,
Benedict

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Kathleen Schwartz <kathleensings@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Sep 14, 2008 at 9:57 AM
Subject: Fwd: Proposal
To: "Johnson, Joyce" <jjohnson@calvarycrc.org>

Hi Joyce, I didn't know if this went through to you. Just wanted to check. Please let me know if you get this.
Thanks & Blessings,
Benedict

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Kathleen Schwartz <kathleensings@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Sep 8, 2008 at 2:46 PM
Subject: Proposal
To: "Johnson, Joyce" <jjohnson@calvarycrc.org>

Hi Joyce,
Benedict here. Yesterday was a fun Sunday. I was scheduled to speak at our church. Just before the time to leave, I got a call that one of Kathleen's Chimwemwe ladies needed to get to the hospital; that she was in labor. I picked up Christine Phiri, went to the woman's hut. Just as Christine walked in to help her to the car, the baby came!! So, I was blessed to take baby and mom to the hospital to be checked. Still made it to church on time! You never know what a day will contain...

Anyway, the proposal: Kathleen and I think that the biggest gift would be for Calvary CRC to help partner with our School of Hope. We started classes today at the newly constructed community center: classes had been in the children's cottages and in our house/visitor house. We have two classrooms now. But, thanks to Holland Christian, we should double the number of children over the next eight to twelve months. So, we will need help completing the larger school building, hopefully before the rainy season. At this stage it has nine rooms, no roof, no windows glass or doors, no electricity, and no water. The classrooms at the community center don't have water or electricity yet either.

It is our plan to eventually offer a place for employees' children in our school, and to also open it to the Zimbabwean farmers kids. It would be a wonderful setting for racial reconciliation in Christ!

What we would ask from Calvary is $11,000 for teacher salaries for a year. This starts with the current two teachers, and adds two more over the next 12 months. This amount also includes housing for the teachers as part of their contract. We are currently having to take the school expenses out of orphan support funds.

We estimate that getting water to the school, putting on roofing sheets, toilets, doors, student benches for the classes, shelves, and glass for the windows would cost another $11,500. So, our request would be for $22,500. 

Another neat tie in as our partners in the School of Hope is the fact that Susan Lukaart and Angie Royce live in your area, and are both part of the School of Hope education team. They are coming to Zambia in October. They can help liaison with Calvary, and any members who want to get involved, help gather various school supplies that teams from different churches can then bring over. Gathering items for a school is something that Sunday school classes can easily get involved in, as well as a pen pal relationship with our kids. Please let us know what you think.

On another note, the Caterpillar Skid Loader is busy helping to create the fish breeding pond, establish the driveway and parking area for the market and shops, get the farm road ready for the rainy season, and it even pulled the Land Cruiser out of a ditch last week. Wonderful piece of equipment!

Thanks Joyce. We are grateful for you!

Blessings in Jesus,
Benedict

A Baby is Born

 

This morning Benedict was scheduled to preach at the Chisamba Community Church.  Before we left, he was over at the internet.  A call came from Christine saying that Judy, one of the Chimwemwe Ladies who was very pregnant, was not feeling well and might be in labor.  They were asking me, Kathleen to take them to the hospital.  However, my car was too low on gas, so Benedict left the internet to pick them up.  First he picked up Christine and they went to Judy's house to pick her up.  Benedict waited in the car and was getting a little nervous since he knew we had to get to church on time.  After a little bit, here came Christine carrying a bundle wrapped up with several blankets!  When Christine had arrived, at that very moment, the baby arrived!    So Benedict took the minutes old baby and mother and Christine to the hospital so that she could be checked.  By the middle of the day she was back home.  She may have had to ride a blue bus back to her village, I'm not sure.

 

This evening as we returned from Lusaka, Sena and I stopped to see the baby.  As with all new babies here, he was bundled up with 3 or 4 blankets, a little hat on, and buried so deep in all the covers that you could hardly see him.  I will go back with a gift and with my camera later this week so I can take a picture.

 

 

 

Wind and Fire

 

Today we had some excitement.  This is the fire season, with everything so dry.  Well, a fire started somewhere near or on our property.  It is very windy here and the fire ended up coming very close to the houses and burned most of our property.  Benedict and Sena and the mothers and children were out getting containers of water to keep the fire from coming too close to the houses. 

You could see the big flames and very black smoke.  Everything looks terrible, from my perspective.  However, there were areas of the property that we were going to have to pay someone to "slash", i.e. cut the long grasses.  So I guess we saved some money.  Of course, once the rains come everything will be green and grow back fine.  The fire didn't hurt the large vegetable garden or any of the flowers and landscaping around the houses.  Instead of having a day of rest, Benedict got to be a fire fighter.

 

Funeral and Elections

A couple of months ago, President Mwanawasa had a serious stroke and was taken to a hospital in Paris.  After several weeks of rumors about his condition, he died.  This is the national week of mourning.  Wednesday is a National Holiday, the day of the funeral and burial. 

Here in Zambia power is not automatically transferred to the vice president.  Sometimes that is true, but at other times an election is called to elect someone to finish the 5 year term remaining.  So there is much talk here about who will run from the various parties and who might be in a position to win.  There are prayer meetings being held about this matter.  The other night there was all night prayer in Liteta for the Mwanawasa family and for the election.  It is interesting to talk to people about who they think believe will run and who will win.

One potential candidate would be very bad.  He has said he would follow Mugabe's lead, the president in Zimbabwe who has destroyed that country.  So just as people are praying about the election in the United States, so many people are praying for the elections in Zambia.