A Unique Work of God

 

Today an official of Africare, a large organization in the United States that has been serving in Africa for 40 years, came to visit.  He has lived in various countries for around 20 years and has visited over 35 African countries.  Benedict and Pastor Emmanuel gave him the grand tour of everything.

 

He was very impressed by what he saw.  The interesting thing is that he doesn't know of any other organization doing what we are doing here.  The pairing of business with orphan rescue is working, and more and more support is being generated by the business.

 

So for those of you who read this, have maybe visited here, pray for us, and give, you are helping to enable a unique approach that will serve as a model and inspiration for many other organizations.  So please keep praying and giving and visiting.  You are part of this too.

 

Changed lives

 

Today at the Chimwemwe Ladies Club I was struck by the fact that this club has been going on for 2 ½ years.  And the women keep coming and enjoy being part of it.  But the biggest thing is begin to look around and see how God has been changing lives.  M.M. has gone from drinking a lot to working in the sewing factory and not drinking.  J. also has stopped drinking so much and doesn't show the effects of drinking.  M. has used her creative skills to help improve our bags, and she is now working in the sewing factory. Women, who had no skills or sense of accomplishment, now are proud of what they can do and they have gained confidence as women.

 

And then there are others.  Felix, who was once laughed at by the people in the village, is using his art to help the school, and now is painting big road signs for us.  Workers who had no jobs before are learning to weld, drive big equipment, run businesses, and so much more.

 

Amazing things are happening not only in big ways, but also in quiet ways as people's lives are being changed.

 

Felix and Road Signs

 

Last summer when our son Christopher was here, he designed our road front signs with a new logo.  The team from Delaware worked on finishing some of the painting. 

 

With the opening of the take-away, we have been told by several people that if we put a sign "clean toilets and shower" out on the road, that will bring in more business.  So we asked Felix to work on using the basic design we have and painting new signs. 

 

He has been working on that and his first endeavor was quite good for a first time.  The second sign was even better. Yesterday I asked if he liked to working on the signs.  With a big smile he said, "I like."

 

So now we have a sign painter and he has another skill!

Volcanic Ash

Everyone has heard about the travel situation in Europe with the volcanic ash coming in from Iceland.  Ann Rachel and Paige are scheduled to fly out in the morning to return to the states for a special doctor's visit.  There plans call for them to fly to London and then to BWI.  So, as you can imagine, they are trying to figure out what to do.

In February, Brent Miller had his travel plans all rearranged due to the snow storm.  Now it is volcanic ash.  Our unpredictable world.

So pray that they can get their plans changed to fly through South Africa, which is probably overflowing with all the cancellations to Europe.

Clothing Boutique discount

Our Clothing Boutique has been open for about 3 weeks.  Liteya is the salesperson.  Sena has been helping some.  He calls her in when someone wants a discount.  For example, someone might like a pair of shoes that have a bit of a tear or are a little too worn.  So Sena marks them down.  The other day she told me about a woman who came in and tried on a dress.  It didn't quite fit.  She asked if she could have a discount since it didn't fit and she would have to have someone readjust it.   Sena, with her wise business sense, said, "it isn't our fault that it doesn't fit.  No discount." 

Always interesting to see how folks around the world try to get an extra bargain.

Dick and Anita

 

For the last week we have had a family visiting here.  Dick first met Kamau about 20 years ago in YWAM in Kenya.  Dick and Anita are now serving in Chipata which is about 9 hours from here in Zambia.  He is from Zambia.  Anita is from Micronesia.  They have 5 children.

 

Dick preached at our church on Sunday.  It was a blessing to all of us.  One point he made I want to share.  This is what he said:  When one person says to another person, "Mind your own business," we take it as an insult.  But when you have been given a job by God, then the question is, Are you minding your own business?  Are you doing the thing you are suppose to be doing or are you getting off track and doing other people's business? 

 

I will never view that phrase in the same way again. 

Books for Sale!!!

 

I've been working in the Community Center to get all those thousands of books sorted and on the shelves, so hopefully we can start selling them.  They've been in storage for quite a while.  Someone did try to set up a container with the books but they were all a big hodgepodge.  So I'm almost done with that job.  I hear there are some more boxes of books in another container, but I'll ignore that for now.  I think that once we get the word out, and people come and see how nicely they are arranged, we will be able to sell a good number. 

 

One day when our Zimbabwean friend, Di was helping, as she looked in one box, there was a rat.  Brenda, the gal who works for us, tried to kill it in the box but it escaped and went running.  I thought I was getting better about mice and rats, but I found myself running to another part of the room.  It hid behind some books until things were quieter.  Also in the box was a baby rat that Brenda took care of.  We see droppings around as we are sorting and shelving.  Not quite like libraries in the states, unless librarians don't tell us the whole story.

 

 

A Rural Boy's Skills

 

Yesterday afternoon Roman was sitting on the verandah with Benedict and me.  He was telling us about different things he had done before he came here.  He explained that there is kind of big bird that swoops down and gets little chickens.  So one day he was hiding nearby and when the bird came, he used his slingshot and killed the big bird.

 

He told us about how an uncle would dig down to get a burrowing kind of animal.  You have to put a rock on the hole where it might escape, and then you dig down and get that animal to eat.  I'm not sure what kind of animal he meant.

 

Another story was about catching birds.  You cut down a tree that has sticky sap.  You let the sap dry somewhat.  Then you wrap it around a stick.  The stick is then put near some water.  So when the birds come to get water and land on the stick, their feet stick and they can't fly away.

 

And the amazing thing to me is that he told all of this to us in English!

Chimwemwe Ladies and the House of Esther Clothing Factory

A very neat thing happened yesterday at the Chimwemwe Ladies Club.  While I was gone to the US, the clothing factory was set up and a large group of women were coming to be trained on the commercial machines.  Joyce Mapoma, who owns the company we are partnering with, came to the meeting and announced the women being chosen to continue with the training.  First, Pastor Emmanuel spoke to explain once again that the Chimwemwe Ladies Club was different than the House of Esther sewing company.  We were concerned that we would have a lot of trouble since some of the women were not picked.  So there was that discussion first.

 

As the names were read out – about 20 ladies – each lady jumped up and others came and shook her hand or danced around with her.  One lady broke into tears and almost collapsed.  Some of her friends led her from the room.  When she came back she explained her tears.  She said that her husband had died leaving her with 3 children.  (She has remarried but that husband doesn't want to help with those 3 children.)  She had prayed and asked God to help her, to get her a job or something so she could take care of her children.  So she was overcome with joy.  The whole thing was very moving as the women were picked and saw the opportunity to have a job and earn money for their families.  Who would have ever thought these women out in the rural part of Zambia would have such an opportunity!

Businesses at work

Di Wenham and I ate lunch at our restaurant.  It is such a nice place to have.  While we were there, a man who had stopped to buy his lunch was complimenting the chicken.  He said he wished his wife could fix chicken like that.  It does taste good.  Over the weekend a big truck broke down and the driver really was glad that it did right there on our property. He said he felt safe, had good food to eat at the restaurant, and clean toilets and shower.  Both he and another guy said that we should put a sign on the road that says "Clean toilets" since people are looking for that as they travel between Lusaka and the Copperbelt. 

 

We opened the Clothing Boutique last week.  In the first 2 days we sold about $300 worth of stuff.  Sena is working there with Liteya.  The clothes are used from folks who have been here and clothes sent over on the containers.

 

Books, books, books

Today I did something that I really enjoy doing.  While I was in the US, all of the books that we have accumulated so far from various containers that have been sent from the states, were brought into the Community Center to put on shelves.  The idea was to have a place where they could be nicely displayed and then we would be better able to sell them.  Well, they were quite a mess – just put on shelves with no organization.  There are also lots of boxes still unpacked.  So today I began the task of organizing them.  There are many thousands of books- that is not an exaggeration.  Of course, I love books so much that I love to work with them.  Di Wenham, one of our Zimbabwean friends came over and was a big help.  Felix, our artist was also helping.  I was so excited to see him take initiative and understand how we were organizing them.  Brenda, who usually is cleaning at the school, also was there and she is a very hard worker.  For her small size, she can do a lot and lift a lot.  I was careful not to lift boxes or large amounts of books, but by the end of the day, my back needed a rest. 

 

I have noticed that since most people in Zambia aren't around books, they don't know how to put them on shelves, with the binding and name of the books showing.  The small thing of seeing that Felix and Brenda were learning why and how we put books on shelves a particular way was a great joy to me. 

 

The Community Center looks worse than when we started in some respects, but you can see how we are making headway.  I'll probably have to spend Friday there getting more done so we can have church there on Sunday and have a place for everyone to sit.

Easter Sunday

We celebrated Easter Sunday morning at our Hope Community Church, held in our Community Center.  We had decorated the room a bit to represent the joy of the Easter morning.  One of our worship teams (11 children from our Village) helped lead in worship.  The message focused on the book of John; Mary's encounter with the risen Jesus when he said her name and she recognized Him.

We had about 105 people in attendance, and only 18 were adults. In addition to our children from the Village of Hope, it was so moving to see all the children arrive from the Green Compound/Village.  These children had to walk about 2 miles to come to church.  Many of them were carrying younger siblings on their backs.  After the service, they just wanted to stay around and be part of anything that might continue to happen. 

As I look out on these young faces, I wonder what seeds are being planted in their lives.  How will their lives be different because of what we are doing here in our Village and as we reach out to them?  I believe that there will be fruit borne that we will never ever see but that God has planned for so many of these children.

The Lord is Risen!  He is Risen Indeed!

Back in Zambia

There has been a long delay in my writing for this blog.  I left Zambia around Feb 15 to return and help our daughter, Kristina, with her new baby, Zionalpha, born February 13.  I had a wonderful time with my kids and grandkids, friends - old and new.  I returned on Monday night and have been getting back in the swing of things.

Wednesday marked the end of the first school term of 2010.  The teachers had done a wonderful job in my absence and we had a closing with the housemothers and aunties on Wednesday morning ending with cake.  The teachers and I met over lunch at our take-away to discuss highlights of 2010 as well as goals we have for the next term which starts at the beginning of May. 

The children are doing well, they are learning to read and their math skills have improved.  They had cleaned up all around the school and done some landscaping so it looks so nice when you pull up to the school.  So today I gathered games, and other activities to give to the houses so that the children will have extra activities to do during the month's break. 

Sunday we will celebrate Easter at our Hope Community Church.  We have seen His risen power at work in our midst over the last year!