Since the last update, we have been doing a
mixture of things. We’ve been into the communities, seen Victoria Falls and
taken part in a kids camp. On top of all that, we have also been playing our
usual roles in the office.
For the past few weeks, I have been traveling to another one of our Zambian service centres in a small town called
Kabwe. At the moment, the team are in need of some close financial support so
it means I travel down every Monday and return to Kachelle Tuesday evening. It
has been a privilege to get to know the team there and work alongside such
heroes and heroines who are serving the most vulnerable. On one of these visits
to Kabwe, I was lucky enough to have Morgan accompany me as well as 2 visitors from
the USA Jesse and Jaime. They came
to visit communities in Zambia and learn a little bit more about Hands at Work.
On the Tuesday, we all went out to the community to do home visits. It had been
a while since I had been in the community so I was looking forward to the
chance to meet some new children and Care Workers in Baraka Community. Balaka
Community Based Organisation cares for 100 of Zambia’s most vulnerable children.
When we arrived in the community we received a warm welcome from all the Care Workers and especially
the coordinator David, who I had met before in the service centre. They made us
feel a part of the community right away. We split up and Jesse and Jaime went
with one group of Care Workers and we went with another. As we were walking, I started
chatting with Mwangala one of Balaka Communities 24 Care Workers. He has 3
children and has been a Care Worker for 3 years. He also explained to me some
of the difficulties the children face in the community of Balaka. The dry heat
and lack of water makes it very hard to grow anything in the dry season and
means that food is often very difficult to find, let alone buy. But through the
3 essential services program, Balaka Community Based Organisation is able to provide
one hot nutritious meal a day for each of the 100 children they care for.
We walked 45 minutes through the bush to
our home visit. We where visiting a family of 6 living in a few huts. There
were 2 cousins; Maggie mother of 3-week-old Seena and Susan mother of Sam and
Thabiso they lived together to support one another. An older brother lived in a
separate hut on the same property. Tragically his hut burned to the ground only
a week before our visit and he lots what little he owned. We sat down and learnt a little bit
about this family; life is very hard for them. Maggie is looked down upon
throughout the community for being mentally challenged and so many people shun
her, you could see the pain in her eyes. Despite this, she was such a proud
mother. After spending time with the family we helped out around the house; sweeping,
fetching water, doing dishes and collecting wood for the fire. Morgan and I
both had a turn at hauling the water, it is much more difficult than it looks;
the Care Workers made it look very easy. Before we left we took time to encouraging and pray with the
family. They were such a beautiful family and they have not been far from our
thoughts since that day.
For the past few weeks, we have been
eagerly anticipating a new baby at Kachele (the farm where we are staying in
Zambia). Prag was due on 20th August and on the day before, she went
into labour very early in the morning and after a few hours, she gave birth to
a girl named Shalom Favour Mwenda. During the past week, she has been sleeping
a lot but we have had the chance to hold her and have a cuddle.
Back in July, we were very blessed to be
invited to Victoria Falls with a team from Canada which included Morgan’s mum. We
boarded a tiny plane at the nearby airport in Ndola and then flew the very
short flight to Lusaka, Zambia’s capital city. After spending an hour or so
there, we boarded another small plane down to Livingstone, the home of Victoria
Falls. We were staying at a guest lodge and just spent the few days relaxing
and recovering from the busyness of the past few months. When we visited the
falls in April this year, they were very full and we got completely soaked. But
this time, it was a lot drier and we were actually able to see the beauty of
the falls. They were magnificent and it was remarkable to see the difference a
few moths can make in nature. While in Livingstone, we took a day trip over the
border into Botswana and went on safari, first on the river and then on land.
It was a nice way to get out into nature and see some of God’s creations. On
the final night before the team left back to Canada, we went out on a sunset
river cruise. It was lovely and to make it even better, we saw some elephants
bathing and drinking by the side of the river. It was very special to see. The
following day we said goodbye to the team and headed back to Kachele.
From April to September in Hands we have
‘team season’. This is a time of the year when teams and visitors from all over
the globe come to see what Hands at Work is all about. Some are returning and
some for the first time. One of the opportunities available to teams is to host
a kids camp here at Kachele. A chance to take a group of vulnerable children
out of there community for a week to love them, share with them, build
relationship with them and let them just be kids. Greenfinch church from Ipswich
was here visiting a couple of weeks ago and held a kids camp for the children
they support in Chilabula Community. Morgan and I managed to spend a little bit
of time with them during the camp and it was great to see what joy and fun the
camp brought to these children’s lives. They did activities such as crafting,
sports, acting and of course lots of singing. During the week, the kids stay at
the farm with us and for some of them it is the first time they have ever slept
on beds or had running water. It is so easy to forget just how fortunate our
upbringings have been. At the end of the week, the groups parted in a tearful
goodbye, you could see the love that they had for one another. Each member of
the Greenfinch team has children and Care Workers laid on there heart, they
will think of them, pray for them and share their story over the next year and
God willing they will meet again. This is the essence of a church partnership
with Hands at Work; the global church partnering with Hands and the local community
to see transformation in Africa. When the stories of Africa’s most vulnerable
children are heard one by one, we give a voice to Africa’s orphan crises. No
longer will the poor be nameless. -Psalm 9:18
