A Day in Fringilla

(Brighton, seated, and John playing on our outing at Fringilla)

(Maggie enjoying the swings at Fringilla)

(All eyes are turned towards the horse as the children wait their turn)

(Kimani & Brighton playing on the seesaw at Fringilla)

(Adam & Miriam at lunch )

Hello Dear Ones,

This has been a rather interesting week. On Tuesday, the generator broke temporarily and we were concerned because we could not pump water into the tank which supplies water to the houses as well the construction site. This is a very busy time at the farm because we are trying to finish up the two cottages which will allow us to admit twenty children by end of December. Construction work on the other 4 cottages has begun and the foundations are currently being dug. Benedict and Kathleen have being living in a rented guest house but will hopefully be moving into the Village during the first week of January once their home, which is currently under construction, is completed.

Schools are out now for the Christmas break and it has been a new experience for our six children who begin attending the Okada School when they moved into the Village in October. One of our boys got himself into trouble this week when upon arrival to school, he made a beeline straight to the female teacher and gave her a big “how wonderful to see you and am I happy to be in School this morning” hug. The teacher's reaction was swift and shocking to our four year old and to us as well when we learned of the supposedly terrible cultural crime he had committed. She spanked, yes, spanked Adam for hugging her! Apparently, the teacher took offense because Adam, a boy, had the audacity to hug her. This grieved all of us because we take great delight in hugging the children and providing them with the affection that they need. Our housemothers take pains to teach our kids what we think are good manners and respectful behavior, but it now appears that we stumbled this one. Our housemothers who are Zambian seem to think it could have been a personal attitude on the part of the teacher and/or cultural prohibitions concerning teachers and students. Poor Adam was so hurt and confused such that when he returned home from school, he made straight to his room without saying anything to his mom and auntie or hugging them as usual.

All of us were delighted to hear that at the end of the school year ceremonies, our children placed very well in their class. Isaac placed number one out of 48 students! We know that your prayers for the children are being heard because when they began school, it was the last term of the year. In order to celebrate their hard work at school we took them to Fringilla Lodge, which has a beautiful garden park setting, so that they could enjoy lunch, play on the play ground and go on horse rides. It was fun to see their excitement as they waited for their first ride on a horse!

Malaika celebrated her second birthday in Zambia! She is now a happy seven-year old! We celebrated her birthday with her new playmates at the village and friends from Zimbabwe.

We are daring to hope that Zesco, the power company, may be getting ready to do some serious work at Village. They have dug holes for poles and a few days ago, they brought out a roll cables for installation. Please continue to pray earnestly for power by the end of the year, due to our need for reliable power.

Please pray for rain because we should have them by now but they are late. Almost ten acres of land has been prepared for our crops and we cannot plant them until the rains begin. It has been raining in other places not far from the Village but we have gotten very little.



Grateful for your interest & support,


The Kamaus

November Update

(Brighton)

(John)

(Maggie, 3 days after arriving at the village)










(Maggie, her mother, and social worker during intake process)











(From l. to r., Moses, John, Maggie, Kimani, Malaika, Adam
hanging out on our veranda)













(Oh, how charming!! What a lovely sight to greet you in the morning! )


Greetings to you all,

We hope this finds you doing well. Our little family at the Village of Hope continues to grow, some of you may already know that two more boys, Brighton and John recently joined us along with Maggie. We now have a total of six children. We are enclosing their pictures with this update. There are another 13 boys and girls who are waiting to come in once the plumbing on the other two cottages are completed and the windows are installed. On Monday of this week, Miriam and Kamau went on yet another screening exercise to identify the 6 boys and one girl who will bring the total number of kids at the children's home to twenty-five.

Our four welders are busy making metal bunk beds to accommodate all these children, we were having problems getting the wooden bunk beds into the children's bedrooms due to the small size of the doors, on two occasions, we had to get the beds in through the windows after first removing all the glass panes. We also think the metal beds are more durable and even cheaper since we are making them ourselves.

On Tuesday November 7th, we interviewed another House Mother, her name is Ms. Rose Chipoya, she is 43yrs old. Rose previously worked at a Kindergarten for 7yrs. She has been involved in her church children's program for many years, she is also a mother of 6 children, her last born is 17yrs. Rose is a musician, she was very active in her church music program, and she can play different kinds of wind instruments such as trumpet, saxophone, and trombone. She was married to a pastor, the marriage ended five years ago after her husband walked away with another woman in his congregation.

We thought that you may want to know some background information that we have available for the children.

Biographical Sketches

Maggie Mpundu- Age 5, speaks Bemba. Maggie is a single orphan in that her father is deceased. Her mother first approached Kimberly after church one day and asked her to please take her child because she was unable to provide for her. Kimberly recognized Maggie from when an outreach was held at Pastor Zulu's church. She had noticed that Maggie seemed to want to be standing close to her at various times throughout the day as activities were taking place. When the event was over, Maggie did not want to leave and resisted the efforts of the woman who had come to take her home.
At first we were hesitant to consider Maggie for admission into the Village because our main focus is double orphans, but then we began to notice that Maggie was in an unstable environment. On one occasion Maggie appeared at church alone and stayed for the whole service. After speaking with her, we learned that she had walked alone from her house, which was a little over a mile away. Then we began hearing reports that Maggie's mother had been arrested for setting her boyfriend's house on fire and Maggie had been taken somewhere else. After her mother was released because it could not be proven that she had committed the crime, Maggie was brought back, but we continued to hear that she was in an unstable situation. We had been praying that the Lord would make His will known to us concerning this little girl because she kept appearing before for us and we began to be concerned for her welfare. A week ago while we where at church she refused to sit with her mother and when it came time to leave, she caused a scene by crying loudly and struggling to break free from her mother so that she could follow us. It was very heartbreaking as a parent to witness this unnatural interaction between a mother and child. We all felt strongly that the Lord wanted Maggie to be in a safe place here at the Village and she was accepted a few days ago. It is interesting to note that on the day that we picked her up to come to the village, the only tears she shed was when her head was clean shaven at the barber shop.

John Jaula- Age 6, speaks Nyanya. John is a double orphan. When John was first identified by Kamau and the social workers, he was living with an aunt. He was not attending school, but herding goats in the heat of the day. The aunt refused to release him to the village at first but when the headmaster of the local school learned of her refusal, he told Kamau that he would speak to her because he himself knew of the desperate situation of the family. Some weeks later, Kamau and the housemothers had been praying for the children that were scheduled to arrive that week and they included John in their prayers. When Kamau returned home, he received a phone call from the social worker saying that the guardian had released John to come to the Village.

Adam N'gamo- age 4 & Moses N'gamo -age 7. Both speak Lenje. Both brothers are double orphans and they were being cared for by their 70 year old grandmother who was also caring for four other children. She was struggling to provide food for them.

Isaac Phiri- age 7, speaks Nyanja and can understand English. Isaac's 77 year old grandmother, who was a former nurse, was caring for him along with six other orphans. She had no income and had great difficulty in providing for him. When Isaac was admitted into the Village, his Grandmother was very relieved and she stated that she could now die in peace knowing that her grandchild will receive good care. Isaac the youngest of the seven orphans in her care.


Brighton Lunda- Age 7, speaks Lenje. Brighton's situation was very desperate, a double orphan his caregiver was his 63 year old grandmother who is a drunkard. She said that she was incapable of providing for him. A few days after he was admitted to the village, his grandmother came to visit him and to complete the admission paperwork. When Brighton saw her come, he was visibly disturbed by her arrival; it was as though he was afraid that she was coming to take him back. Only after she assured him that the village was now his new home, did he seem to relax an continue to play with the other children.

Here are the names of the children who are scheduled to be admitted into the Village, please be praying for them:

Sharon Jaula- age 7 & David Jaula- age 4. These children are siblings who are double orphans. They speak Nyanja and are cousins of John Jaula who is currently residing at the Village of Hope.

Gift Sibanda – age 5, speaks Lenje, Bemba and Nyanja. Gift is a double orphan and is currently residing with his grandmother. We are asking special, focused prayer for this child because we have learned that his grandmother is a traditional “African Doctor” which is the modern term for witch doctor. We are not sure what he has been exposed or dedicated to and we were told that he suffers from headaches and stomaches on a regular basis.

Inonge Shabila, girl age, 5
Precious Moyo, girl age, 7
Joyce Jaira, girl age, 5
Natasha Kaleya, girl age, 6
Dockline Mushota, girl age, 3 & Selita Mushota, girl age, 6
Mary Jendela, girl age, 6
Sharpi Mvula, boy age, 5
Phillip Musonda, boy age, 5
Gertrude Mumbuluma, girl age, 6

Slithering Encounters

This morning, we got quite a scare when some workers brought a huge puff adder which they had tried to kill earlier near to our house. They had broken its neck with a shovel but it was still moving, sticking it tongue out and baring it's fangs in a threatening way. This is now the eighth snake killed since June this year when we moved into the village, another one was killed last week on Monday. But today's was the meanest, thickest by far, Kamau usually gets a kick out of teasing Kimberly about keeping one as a pet due to the obvious aversion she has when it comes to this creepy variety of species, but today's discovery was past being funny. This is because we now have kids running all over the place. The locals even told us that this kind of snake is very dangerous. We burnt it and the smell was so petrifying we had to close the door. Any snake charmers or catchers out there?

Hello Every one!!

If you would like to read about the Villages of Hope in World Magazine in the article entitled, "From Hopelessness to Hope." please click on the following link:

http://www.worldmag.com/articles/13484

The Kamaus

Just Look at These Faces!!

Adam

Isaac

Moses

Pictures

1. Adam

2. Isaac

3. Moses

4. Adam, Isaac, and Moses with Kimani after a few hours in their new home.

5. The boys, Social workers and guardians arriving at the village

6. Adam & Moses with their Uncle

7. Isaac with his Aunt & Grandmother

8. Adam, Moses and Isaac a few minutes after arriving at the village

9. Miriam, Rose, Kamau, the boys and Kimani and Malaika

10,11, 12. The boys received wire toys for presents

13. Moses & Adam

14. Isaac

15. The children relaxing at the reception planned for them

16, 17, 18. The first day of school

“He who waits for the perfect conditions will not sow.” Ecclesiates

Dear Friends,

After many unfilled promises from the power company we decided to wait no more and on Thursday, October 4, we welcomed the first three children into the Village of Hope. The children, all boys, are double orphans, having lost both parents to HIV/AIDS pandemic. They range from ages 4-7. Their names are Isaac Phiri and Moses & Adam N'gambo, both brothers. The morning was filled with anticipation and excitement as we awaited the arrival of the children, their guardians and the social workers at the village. There was much joy expressed by all as we introduced the children to their housemothers and showed them their new home. Kimani and Malaika did a wonderful job of welcoming the boys and making them feel at home and they played with them all day. They also presented them with new wire toys, which are popular among the children in the area.

After the reception was finished, the guardians departed and with the exeption of a few moments of crying by four year-old Adam, the boys settled in nicely. The two brothers speak the Lenje language, although Moses who is the older silbling, can speak Nyanja which is the most common language in Zambia. Isaac speaks Nyanja and can understand a little English. We were happy to learn that Rose, one of the housemothers whom we recently hired, speaks their language as well as many others!

It was interesting to note that when Adam first saw water running from the tap, he was fascinated and wanted to play with it. When Moses was shown how the toilet works, he was visibly disturbed and frightened by it!

To celebrate the arrival of the children, we planned to have a fresh chicken for dinner. Kimberly received quite an education as she watched Rose kill the chicken in a very orderly and swift fashion. She laid the chicken on the ground with its wings pulled back and she stepped on them with one foot and with the other foot she stepped on its feet, which she said would keep the chicken from disturbing her as she cut its neck. After the head of the chicken had been removed, she waited until the body was still and then she took it to Miriam who poured boiled water on the feathers so that they could be removed easily. She then cleaned and dressed it and practically every part of the chicken was fried, including the head! Although we were not adventurous enough to sample the head, we found the other parts to be very tasty! Kimberly now thinks that she is ready to try it on her own, which is exactly what Kamau has been wanting to see happen for many years now!

Isaac's 77 year-old grandmother had been taking care of six other orphans who were left behind after four of her children died. Isaac is the youngest of her grandchildren and she begged us to admit him because she said there was nothing more that she could offer him. When Isaac was welcomed into the children's home, she said that she now feels as though she can die in peace knowing that her grandson will receive the care he needs.

Moses (7), and Adam (4), were living with their grandmother who was also caring for four other orphans.

On Tuesday the 9th of October, we welcomed 6 year-old Brighton (not shown) into the village. His grandmother had been caring for him. We also received the good news that a little boy name John will be arriving on Friday. This is an encouraging answer to prayer because we were very concerned that he was being used as a servant by those who were keeping him. He is old enough to be attending school but he wasn't. Kamau and Miriam saw him taking care of goats in the hot October sun. When the guardian was first approached by Kamau and the social workers about bringing him into the village, she refused and instead tried to get us to take one of her own children who looked like he was well cared for, while John was unkempt and looked malnourished. Two weeks ago, after Kamau, Miriam, and Rose were praying for him, Kamau received a phone call from the social workers saying that the guardian and other family members had given permission for him to come. Praise the Lord for changing their hearts!

Praise

**Thank the Lord with us as we see over a year's worth of prayers answered as the Village of Hope officially opened to receive children!

**The transition of the children is going much smoother than we anticipated. They already calling the village home.

**We praise the Lord for the sound of playing and laughter that has filled the air!!

Prayer Requests

**Please pray for Maggie, a little girl who is currently in a very unstable situation. The mother was recently involved in an incident where she set the hut of her boyfriend on fire because he was spending time with his first wife. The mother wants us to admit her into the village because she is not able to care for her properly. If it is the Lord's will that she come to live at the children's home, ask Him to clear the way for that to happen. Pray for Maggie's safety while we are waiting for the process of admitting her.

**The situation with Zesco, the power company has frustrated us to no end. Please continue to pray that God will intervene and that we will have power by the end of the month or sooner. It has become critical because we have just planted crops that require irrigation. There is also a shortage of fuel in the country so the use of the generator to pump water for irrigation and into our houses is not reliable.

We thank our Lord for all of you! Your prayers are being heard and answered.

The Kamaus

July/August 2007 Update

Pictures: (Very top left, the dirt pile is an attraction for Malaika and Kimani) (Family picture of Kamaus at Livingstone near the Zambezi River), (Moving into the cottage), (the water tank and generator used at the village), (Miriam, Kimberly, and Mary Zulu in Miriams cottage),(Wisconsin team planting a flower bed at the village), ( Outreach team from Maryland at Okada School), ( The slithering variety of unwelcome guests killed near our house), (Malaika holding Natasha), (Kimani holding Orlando)

Mwauka Bwanji (Greetings in Nyanja),

We have moved into our cottage and have been there for almost a month. We find ourselves adapting well to life without electricity. We do have a generator which pumps water into the house which we have found makes all the difference because for the first few days of living in the cottage we did not have water which made it somewhat challenging! We have also been using candles and kerosene lanterns at night in order to conserve the petrol that is needed to keep the generator running. This is because petrol is very expensive here; it costs about $6 a gallon.

For cooking, we had bought a gas burner that we had been using even when we were in the other house because of frequent power outages. We have acquired a charcoal brazier as well. We do have a refrigerator and stove but we are not able to use them yet because they use up a lot of power, so Kimberly has been learning to cook like the villagers who do not use refrigeration. She is excited about learning how to roast and dry meat over an open fire to keep it from spoiling. This has actually been a great time of learning how to function without modern conveniences so we are very grateful.

We have just finished hosting the second team that came for outreach in the community and helped to begin some landscaping at the village. This team is from Wisconsin. They built a flower bed in front of our cottage and now the challenge is to keep the oxen from getting into it! Imagine, trying to shoo away cattle from your front yard!!! On Saturday the team held a type of festival for the children that attend our church in Liteta. It reminded us of the festivals that our church back home held. The children had never done these things before and it was wonderful to see how much they enjoyed it.
The previous team was from Maryland they ministered to the children at the Okada School next to our village. It was really awesome and over 200 children attended the VBS. We were able to clearly present the gospel to all of the children, so pray that the seed of God's Word will take root in their hearts.

A special type of joy for all of us has been seeing brothers and sisters from the U.S. come to the Village of Hope and use the unique gifting and abilities that they use in their every day lives, and become a blessing to the community in which we live. These are some of the skills that were used and/or taught while the teams were here:

Welding & Design
Landscaping
Setting up a Gant Chart
Teaching morning devotions
Teachers sharing techniques with local Zambian teachers and encouraging each other
Architectural layout and site planning
Teaching and playing volleyball and basketball with local youth
Nursing
Singing and playing musical instruments
Arts and Crafts
Puppetry
Mechanics
Workshop to train us on how to teach English as a second language

This was a clear demonstration of how each member of the Body of Christ can play a valuable part in building the Kingdom of God.

We have hired our first house mother in preparation to receive the children. Her name is Miriam Sakala and she has vast experience in child care having worked for SOS International for the last eight years. She will also be the trainer for future house mothers and is now our next door neighbor at the village!

Anticipation is running high as we approach the admission of the first children in the village. Preparations are now at an advanced stage and we will be meeting with Social Services to help facilitate the intake of children by mid-September.


Animal Encounters Part Two

Two members have recently been welcomed into our household with the addition of two kittens named Natasha and Orlando. Their responsibility is to dispose of unwelcome furry visitors so that other unwelcome creatures of the slithering variety will not come around looking for a meal.

This is very timely because on Wednesday of last week, two snakes were crossing a road which leads to our cottage. One of the workers was able to kill one with a hoe but the other one escaped and was seen jumping up into the underside of our mini-van. They looked for it but they could not see it under the car. They kept assuring us however, that these types of snakes were not very poisonous (As if this would provide a measure of comfort to us!) We have since learned that not very poisonous means you have a chance to get to the hospital!

Four hours later, Kamau was in the mini-van with members of the visiting team from the U.S. waiting for the road workers to allow him to pass. All of a sudden, two female road workers started screaming and running away! They were pointing at the van! From the underside of the van, a snake about five feet in length had unwrapped itself from its hiding place and it was now crawling onto the road!
The driver in the car behind Kamau ran over it and killed it. We were stunned that it would have stayed underneath the van hiding for so many hours. Needless to say, we both find ourselves wondering what unseen passengers may be riding with us every time we leave the Village!


Prayer Requests

• Pray for a smooth transition for the children as they begin to arrive at the village.


• Pray that all of us will bond quickly with the children.
  
  Praise
  This is a dry, windy season in Zambia and grass fires have been very frequent. On several occasions the fires have spread into the village. The flames were so close that not only could we see them but we could hear the crackling and feel the heat. On one of these times, Kimani and Malaika prayed and asked the to stop the fire and within minutes the flames were visibly lowered and then died out.

Thank you again for your various expressions of support for our ministry, cards, notes of encouragement, giving, and your prayers!


Kamau, Kimberly, Kimani & Malaika

May/ June Update

(Top) The oxen ready to work hauling the abundance of maize harvest.

(Just above) The opening of the Farm Market

Praise and worship begin the work day each morning.

These three pictures show Kimberly and Mary teaching Bible class to grades 4&5 and grade 7 at the Okada Community school.

Greetings Dear Friends,

I hope this finds you and your loved ones doing well. On April, we were delighted to welcome our dear friends Dave and his wife Debbie Durant from our church in Delaware who came to visit us here in Zambia. They had taken the time to record greetings from people in our church and six months of messages which our Pastor has been preaching since we left Delaware in September.

We were very encouraged to see faces and hear recorded voices of our dear church family and it made us realize how much we love and miss each one of them.

During their visit, Dave and Debbie were encouraged to witness first hand what the Lord is doing here in Zambia.

...from Kamau

The work continues to progress well here at the farm. The digging and construction of the septic tank and the soak away were completed towards the end of April. Finally, the two stubborn oxen have completed their boot camp training and have now begin to bear the yoke and burden of the work at the farm.

We bought an ox cart a while ago and have now begun use the oxen for various tasks at the farm which was very timely as the tractor had broken down and we were unable to use it. For now the oxen have saved themselves from ending up on our dinner plate! (At least temporarily, as I see it!)

The morning devotions have been going great, we usually meet every morning from 7am-7:30 before the work day begins, we start with praise and worship and then a brief sharing of God's word. So far about 7 individuals have made a commitment to live for Christ and some have begin to attend church on a regular basis. Many of the workers and the Conservation Farming students have shared that hearing God's word taught in the morning before they start work has meant a lot to them and enabled them to reflect on the things of God's throughout the day.

The very latest development has been the opening of the Farm Market which was June 19th. The goal of the market is to aid in sustaining the children's village. The surplus of the food grown at our farm will be sold there and also local farmers that we have befriended have agreed to supply their produce to sell at the market as well. The market is located on the Great North Road which is Zambia's busiest highway and we have already witnessed a fair amount of customers.

Finally, the screening of children who potentially will be admitted at children's home began in May. Together with two social welfare workers from the district office and four local community outreach workers, myself, and Miriam, a lady who will be the first house mother of our children's home visited five families and screened eight children. The first child we met was a girl named Inoge who lost both parents five years ago as a result of the Aids pandemic. She is five years old and her grandmother is taking care of her. She told us of her struggle to provide for the little girl because her only source of income is working temporarily as a house help for a family not too far from her village. The grandmother also explained that when she first started to take care of this child, she did not expect her to survive for long because the girl was constantly sick and at one time had sores all over her body. However, Inoge has now sufficiently recovered enough to attend Kindergarten. She begged us to take the child because she feels very limited in what she can do for her.

We then visited another family where we found a girl called Precious, her mother has died and her father is somewhere in Lusaka. As in almost all the cases with all of the children we screened, she is being cared for by her grandmother. The grandmother is not sure how old Precious is, she told us she will try to obtain her medical form which will assist in getting the details needed. Precious is cheerful yet a shy little girl, she appears to be seven yrs old.

We later met a family of four adults and two children, all the adults including one seven year old boy where on ARV'S ( Anti-Retro viral ) treatment due to the HIV virus. The other child who is four years old looked somewhat healthy. He has a mother who is 19 years old. The relatives told us that they have been taking care of the child, their health challenges notwithstanding, because the child's mother has neglected him. She gave birth to him when she was sixteen years old. She also has no source of income to provide for her child. After our visit with this family, we then visited another grandmother who is a peasant farmer, she is taking care of six orphan children. Four of them were at home while the other two were at a nearby school. The youngest ranged from four yrs and the oldest about 9yrs old.

It was very disheartening to see this frail looking grandmother single handedly running what appeared to me as a little orphanage. It seemed as if it took every ounce of the strength she had to get up and work on her little garden to provide for the children. The tragedy of the Aids pandemic in Africa is that it is taking the strong and leaving the very weak, the grandmothers and the children. One of the boys had the virus, I asked the social worker if he was on medication and he told me no. I wanted to know why the 7 yr old was not taking medication although the government hospitals are providing free ARVs and I was told that the grandmother is already too overwhelmed with trying to obtain food for the children. Also, it is hard for her to find the time to walk to the hospital which is a distance from where they live. I looked at that child and wondered if he even knew what ailed him. It was quite obvious that his future is very bleak if no intervention takes place. The social worker instructed the community outreach worker to liaison with the grandmother and look into putting the child on medication right away.

The last family we visited consisted of a grandmother and the four children she is taking care of. Two of the children were at school. The two boys who were at home were about 5 yrs old and the other one 6. John the 6yr old, is an orphan and the grandmother is a distant relative relative. She decided to take him in because none of the other surviving relatives were available to take care of him. He looked very malnourished and untidy.

It was a very difficult day for me. It is one thing to read or hear the statistics, that Zambia has more than 1 million orphans and a totally different thing to actually meet and put faces to those numbers. It is not until you go out to the villages and begin to knock on doors and speak to people that suddenly, the enormity of this crisis hits you. You see the sad hungry look on the faces of the children and the lost, listless look in their eyes. Then you talk to the grandmother and you find out how burdened she is with worry about what will happen to her grandchildren when she is gone. You sense this dark cloud of desperation and utter hopelessness. This is a terrible tragedy, the magnitude of the problem is overwhelming. Consider the fact that we had only visited five families yet this is being repeated in every village in the entire country of Zambia and in Sub-saharan Africa as a whole. It rends your heart and makes you want to cry out to God for answers. I have to believe that God has a solution to this crisis, but it is so very hard to see these children suffering so!

After our visit with the families, the next step will involve setting up the process of admission.
In light of this, we would appreciate you joining us in prayer about the following:

● That we would recognize God's leading on which children are to be admitted first.
● Please pray for discernment for each member of our team, as some of the children we will receive may be coming from ungodly backgrounds steeped in immorality, witchcraft and abuse. For this reason, we need God to give us insight on how to minister, counsel them and even how to pray for them.
● We have a deep desire to hear God's voice and sense His leading in each step that we make. Pray that we will be still enough to hear Him and that we will not permit unclean hearts to hinder His voice.


from...Kimberly

Recently, Mary Zulu and I invited the students in our grade 7 class to write down prayer requests for us to that we could be praying for them. This turned out to be a challenging task for them and some required help from Mary to write down their thoughts. When the teaching was finished for the day and we returned home to go through the requests, we were grieved to see that many of the requests were to learn how to read and for us to pray for parents and other family members who are ill. These students will be taking important exams in December in order to determine if they will go on to high school level. As we read the slips of paper, we saw that many could not spell or write a complete thought. On many of them word “play” was written for “pray” and on one of them “mi” was spelled for “me.” We wondered on how these students could possibly hope to pass the exams in December and we felt the need to seek the Lord on what we could do to help them. The situation is such that, there is not enough money to pay a full staff of teachers at the school. The teachers that are there make very little income and some of them are volunteers. The class sizes are large and it is difficult to spend additional time with a student that may be struggling. Many of the parents of the children in the school are themselves illiterate and/or unable to assist their children in learning.

When we approached the headmistress to inquire as to whether we could provide assistance in tutoring for reading she graciously welcomed us and took us up on on our offer. Our second week of tutoring the grade 7 students is has gone well. We have divided them into two groups; those can read but need help with reading comprehension and spelling and those that are unable to read or read very poorly. Since we are not trained teachers by profession, Mary and I both feel inadequate to take on such a task but we know that the Lord is encouraging us both to be faithful in doing what we can and trusting Him for the results.

Here is how you can pray for Mary and I as we minister in Okada School:
● Pray that as God's Word is taught every week that the hearts of the children will respond and be changed.
● Pray with the passage of Ephesians 1:17-23 in mind, that those children who have responded to the invitation of salvation would grow up to be strong believers in the faith.
● Ask the Lord to continue to give Mary and I sweet spirit of unity and friendship as we work together.
● We really need the Lord's wisdom and guidance as we spend time getting to know the grade 7 class and tutor them. Ask the Lord to open up their minds to be able to understand and retain the new reading skills that they are learning.
● Pray that God will send out laborers because the harvest is truly great!

Praises

• 
  God has graciously provided a vehicle for us in answer to the many prayers that have gone out!



• We were able to get our driving licenses switched over without falling prey to corruption by going through middlemen who were demanding exorbitant sums for their assistance.