Chickens & More Chickens, What Are We To Do?

Chickens, slaughter house and bookstore!

Greetings Everyone!

Yes! We are now into chicken rearing, slaughtering, and marketing! This is one of the many emerging enterprises in our various business ventures. We have about 288 chicken layers which until recently were producing 210 or 7 trays of eggs a day but the number is slowly but steadily going down which means we will need to restock with a new bunch. I am told by those who know chickens that they began to produce less as they age, so I guess these are headed for the chopping block!

Our slaughter house or the Abbiator, the proper British term our Zambia friends like using (bathrooms are also called ablution blocks I guess it’s less intrusive as to what really happens there) is also under construction. Once completed, all the defeathering and dressing will take place here. We have also converted a forty foot container and the plan is to install walk in freezers to chill the chickens after dressing before transporting to our customers.

An interesting dilemma has presented itself before us as Christians in business. In order to cater to the Islamic community, many of the restaurants in the city of Lusaka require that the chickens are slaughtered using the halaal method which is an Islamic practice. A special technique which involves a muslim coming to our location to recite certain Islamic prayers during the process. This has caused us to wrestle with spiritual, moral and ethical issues. We looked at the passages in 1 Corinthians 8 and 10 which speak about food offerings to idols and the principle of the Christian's freedom in Christ. We came to the conclusion that we would not want to be a stumbling block in any way to fellow Christians and the community around us that we desire to reach for Christ.

Presently, as we seek out other vendors to market our chickens, we are trusting God to open doors which will not require us to compromise our belief in principles set forth in God's Word. We are asking that you pray with us as wait on the Lord for guidance and direction on this matter.

Our bookstore has generated a steady stream of revenue and thanks to all our friends most of the books are donated. This means we make 100% profit from the books. Usually we select the books we need for our school and then decide which ones we can sell.

These joyfully dancing ladies are from the local Ladies Guild who came to spend time with our children at the village. They taught them some songs and donated sweet potatoes!

Other Prayer Requests

This the time of year when we welcome many new visitors who quickly become members of our extended Village of Hope family and many returning aunties and uncles from previous visits. Please be praying for safe travel, a time of refreshment from the Lord and strengthened relationships among the visitors, missionaries, children and staff.

Happy Independence Day!!!

The Kamaus