Focus

Things have been challenging to say the least. This paperwork is taking so much longer than I had hoped. And with the well coming up dry and the rain season just around the corner building will be put on hold until after the rains are over... probably next April some time.

Of course there are many things to do still like fixing the community road that will allow access to the farm even in the rains. And I am really hoping to get the bore hole put in during this dry season as it is the best time to drill.

I had hoped to get some things moving and houses built so we could move to the farm soon but since nothing is going according to plan we have decided to shift our focus.

Instead of waiting to move we have decided to try to get some outreach programs going now. We have 3 ideas at the moment.

First we want to get a football league going. On our next trip we will work on clearing land for a football pitch (soccer that is ) and talk to the youth. We are hoping the youth from different villages will want to compete against each other.... if not then we will try the church youth groups. They can be coming to practice at the pitch and we should be able to organize a tournament for them with some prizes.

Second, we will talk to the people at the ministry of health to see if they would be willing to conduct under 5 clinics at our place. The closest one for the ladies right now is quite a far walk for some of the villages. We would have to build an insaka (a small shelter of wood and grass) and whenever we are there we could provide transport for the health personnel.  In future, when we have moved that side this could easily become a feeding program.

Third, we also want to talk to the churches that are out in that area. There is a Catholic church and a Seventh Day and a couple other non-functioning churches.  We would like to talk with the pastors and explain that we are not a church and are not after their membership but that we would like to work together with them. We could invite people (from all the churches) to come for some bible studies and teaching times and general encouraging of unity.  Being is such a rural area we were thinking this is the best way to reach people that are so spread out.  These meetings could use the same insaka that we intent to put up.

We really think this is a good idea to shift our focus to more ministry related activities. Please pray for us as we talk to the people in that area that they would be receptive and respond to the gospel.

september trip

We just recently returned from another trip to the farm.

We had gone with 3 things in mind.

First, we wanted to check on the well to see if the boys had found water..... they did not. Even after 20 meters the hole was dry. We will have to drill a bore hole instead. We have been getting prices. So far the prices range from 15,000K to 30,000. I am waiting for another quotation from a friend and then we will see what can be done.

Second, we went to put a fire break around our young pine trees. We had tried to get back up to the farm quickly but we still found the hills covered with smoke and ash. We were too late. The fires had already swept through. Fortunately we did not loose all our trees but we did loose some.

Third, we also went to follow up on the map issue again. We managed to get the map stamped by the three necessary offices. Upon returning to Ndola we took the papers to the lands office only to find that the man who said he would help us is in Kitwe for 3 weeks and his boss was sick. We will need to try to follow up again this week.

So all in all it was not a productive trip. Things did not go according to plan..... but as my friend reminded me.... "whose plan?"

We keep believing and pushing and praying.... We value your prayers and support.

Thank you to everyone who is standing with us.

God bless you.

Well

We traveled to Mpika on Aug 11. My goal was to dig a well. Once the we found water I wanted to start making bricks.  Unfortunately even when we left on Aug 27 they had not yet found water. They had already dug to a depth of 15 meters but still no water. I am, however, still hopeful that even after we left they managed.

I just wanted to post a few photos of the digging. It is such a hard job doing everything by hand.