Sunday, July 5, 2009

Back from Zambia

Here are some highlights from our time in Zambia. As we gave the soccer goals to the three government schools (Kamena, Teta, and Serenje) the whole community would come out to play and celebrate. These gifts were a huge success and were a huge bridge-builder among the people that we are ministering to.
This is one of our Hope kids out in Kamena. You've perhaps seen his face as he is in some of our printed material. I was saddened to see him quite ill this time, notice his very apparent distended belly...And here is a couple of trips back...The Ribbon-cutting was phenomenal! See the District Commissioner do the honors. He is the equivalent of a "governor" in the US. He stopped one of his lower ranking officials and asked why the Hope Center was not given MORE land! He is enthusiastically behind our efforts and that gives us a lot of freedom as we minister. God has given us faor with the most important governmant official in the land!

They even found a lady who could bake us a cake for the ceremony. Everyone got a taste, too!
Our Hope kids looked great in their new duds we brought them. And they each got a Fanta to drink. Life is beautiful!The last week there, Tim Day joined us as we had training for the church-plamters and many of their wives. Seeing their growth and maturity over the last couple of years has been one of the most rewarding aspects of being invovled with the Hope Center. These men will graduate in the fall and a new batch of men will begin training in 2010 for three years. God keeps growing His church in Zambia!These are the men who helped create the vision for the Hope Center. Navice, the director, and Geoffrey Malwita who came from Kitwe to see the realization of this dream!

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