Hello friends!

What a blessing we had this last couple of weeks! We were blessed to have the honor of hosting a group of wonderful people from our church in Delaware. The team of five were, Jason and Beth, a couple and a family of three, Steve, Karen and their son Ryan, they arrived on March 18th. They helped at the village of hope with everything from clearing a bush for a children play area, electrical wiring in one of the houses including landscaping and yes! lighting up our house with a generator which they brought with them all the way from Delaware! It was such a joy to see them meet and interact with the children whom they had only until then read about.

Steve, Jason and Ryan worked tirelessly running wires through the electrical conduit pipes. This was not an easy task because the workers had previously plastered the walls and this made it almost impossible to find conduit pipes in order to run the wires through.

Karen hit it off right away with Miriam, the head house mother and both of them got down to the task of beautifying up the Village of Hope! As a result we now have the makings of beautiful landscaping! They even started a flower nursery which will help supply various plants for the other houses and buildings coming up.

There was also the added joy of receiving electricity while the team was here so that they could share in our excitement! It was of great interest to us and a testimony to God’s faithfulness, that on the very day that the generator we had been using to pump water gave up the ghost, we received electricity! Kamau had had a conversation with one of the Zesco workers who told him that our neighbor, who used to work for Zesco as one of the engineers, has been waiting for power for five years! The technician was concerned about what his former colleague would think about us receiving power after only a little over a year, while his associate is still waiting to be connected. This is truly the power of prayer at work and a demonstration of the Lord’s intervention in giving us electricity sooner than what is obviously the norm here. Thank you all for the prayer offered up on our behalf!

Other Happenings

Presently we are at a stage of preparations for the next group of six children who are due to arrive here in May the 2nd. We have already hired a house mother Ms. Rose Chipoya, she will be taking care of the new set of children. Rose has been here for a little over a month going through orientation and training under the tutelage of the head house mother Ms. Miriam Sakala.

Interestingly, four of the girls who will be coming this week already have siblings at the Village of Hope, Mary Stumbeko, one of the new girls has a twin brother, Gift Stumbeko whose picture appeared on our last newsletter sitting next to our flower garden. With the arrival of the new group of children, the total number of the children at the Village will be 21. This will include six (6) sets of siblings. This is very intentional, as we believe children thrive better when surrounded by their fellow siblings. For this reason, we try to accommodate siblings especially if they fall between the target age of 3 and 7 years.


From Kimberly…

While Kathleen has been away, I have been participating in the Chimwemwe Ladies club on a regular basis in order to be of help until she returns. Mary Zulu and I have not been having Bible Club and tutoring time at Okada School right now so we both have some free time to attend the meetings, although Mary only comes once a week. During club time there is sharing from the Bible, question and answers about general health, and working on various crafts. I must say that I did not look forward to attending the club without Kathleen being present because communicating can be challenging without a translator and I imagined sitting there for a few hours surrounded by ladies speaking in their own language and not being able to understand what was being said. I was also feeling discouraged because during the teaching of the Bible lesson some of the expressions on the faces of the women looked bored or unfriendly. As Rose and I teach the truth of God’s Word, Mary is praying. The three of us feel the spiritual resistance and it was so strong that Mary and I both felt like we did not want to continue attending. However, the compelling pull of the Holy Spirit and the desire to communicate the gospel is making it so that we cannot quit. So we encouraged one another by reminding ourselves of all that the Apostle Paul experienced and yet he still continued to be faithful. In light of his example, we felt that a few bored and unfriendly looks and some murmurings from the ladies could be endured for the sake of the gospel.

Last week after the Bible lesson, Rose and I taught a lesson in learning how to make pancakes out of maize (corn) meal and it turned out to be an enjoyable time. This will be helpful to the ladies because sometimes they are not able to afford bread and this enables them to provide a treat for their families. Please be praying for this ladies group. Pray that Satan will not be able to continue to blind their minds to the truth and that light will shine in the darkness. Pray for salvation, changed lives, and healed relationships. Also pray against discouragement as this is a powerful tool that the enemy uses to resist the Lord’s work.

Unfortunately we are not able to send any pictures this time because we have been experiencing computer problems and Kamau has taken the laptop which has all of our photo software, for servicing.

Prayer Requests

Please pray for the new children who will arrive this week. Pray that it will be a smooth transition to this new environment. Their names are: Mary and Exilda Stumbeko, Natasha Kaleya, Sharon Jaula, Terence Kunda, and Roman Mwemba.

Pray for Rose Chipoya as she moves into her house with her children. It will be busy for her during the next two or three weeks as they all settle down and get to know one another.

We also have a huge team of about 25 coming on the 10th of May. They will be coming to help with the construction of the community center. Pray for safe travel, the logistics of housing, meals and availability of tools and materials needed to complete the project. Pray also that communication and unity between all involved will flow smoothly in a way that God will be glorified.

The Kamaus