November 2023 Newsletter

Hey friends and family! We’re thankful for the room and space to be able to update you all after almost four months back in Zambia.

To be frank, it was never our plan to stay in the U.S. so long and we were longing to come back to Zambia- to be fully in our calling and in our own home. We were so grateful for our time in the U.S. and the amazing access to all of the healthcare and family and friends we were surrounded by in the first few months of Marlow’s life. It was longer than expected because of waiting on her passport, but we were so excited to get back to our life in Zambia!

While excited to return, this time leaving home was the hardest it’s ever been for us. Luke and I are avid travelers, and even leaving for Zambia initially was difficult, but this past August was harder than ever. We were saying goodbye to a support system, people who could help with the baby as we navigated being first-time parents, comfort, supplies/medications/a healthcare system we were used to. We were embarking for the second time, but it felt like the first, because we were coming back to a home where we were completely and solely responsible for a little human.

Marlow’s very first flight at 3 months old was 14 hours long, followed by a short layover and then another 5 hour flight. God heard our prayers because this is the shortest flight path we have ever taken to Zambia before. Marlow did amazing, somehow miraculously adjusting to the Zambian time right away and being so accommodating on the flights. After finally arriving, it was so nice to see familiar faces! We drove to get a few things to eat for the house and headed straight to our home that has been waiting for us since December. While a little dusty from not being lived in for so long, it felt like home right away. Everything felt new again, because we were not just us, roughing it and being fine with whatever accommodation- now we had a tiny baby with us under the mosquito net. We watched the big, African sun set and were so vigilant, watching her all night, wondering about her future childhood and all that lay before us.

We immediately began visiting all of the people we missed in the compound, and it was so fun to finally introduce Marlow to them all. Everyone was so excited to meet her and it’s as if she blended right in. The good thing is that Marlow loves meeting new people, so she was so excited by all of the new people holding her and doting on her! We’ve set a few rules in place to ensure that she stays healthy with all of the people wanting to see her, as this culture is so relational and it’s so normal to hold everyone’s babies. For us, we have a limited amount of people who can hold her and it must be people that we know and can trust. Because she is not used to the environment and how many sicknesses that can spread, we have had to be pretty cautious.

After a few days of settling in and getting what Marlow needs, we began meetings again. We call our team the “Dream Team”- our Hands of Hope leadership here in Zambia. We spend a lot of time meeting together, discussing issues that arise, strategizing, problem-solving, and looking through each area of our ministry to determine whether or not we are aligning our actions with the vision God has given us. I’m so grateful that we found an amazing nanny to help me part-time with Marlow while I’m in meetings and at work, and Marlow loves being at school and being doted on by everyone there. It hasn’t been an easy transition or easy balancing the amount of work with also wanting to be a present mother and father, but God’s grace is covering us and we are thankful that we get to have help here.

Last year, Luke and I learned a lot of lessons from living in Lusaka, not just about God but as us. One thing we decided to do this time around is live our real life here. We spent a lot of time last year working 24/7, staying busy all the time, and then being so exhausted on weekends and not moving from the couch. Of course, last year I was pregnant and I don’t think I realized how tired that made me. I thought Zambia was exhausting me! Haha! I didn’t want to cook or clean or do anything, but now that Marlow is earth-side, I have so much more energy and we’d decided that we were going to truly enjoy living in Lusaka. We decided to make more time for our family, friendships, and having a better work-life balance. This can be really difficult, as we can work all day and then the U.S. side will be calling just as we are ending our work day. We are trying to find a better balance in this, and also having friendships with other people in nonprofit work. We love the work we do, but we realized that our pace wasn’t sustainable with a family, so we’ve spent more time actually going places, like restaurants and recreation areas in Lusaka, as well as truly enjoying Zambia as a country.

We celebrated Luke’s birthday with a round of golf (he played, we watched) and we took our friends out to dinner for a send-off for our friend Kelvin, who is under our college sponsorship and is now going to school for agriculture (for future agricultural sustainability projects in Mumbwa). We visited our friends in Mumbwa, met the chief of Mumbwa, and started preparing for our first USA trip, where we would have our ground-breaking ceremony for the Mutanya Transformation Center. We also started exploring the area we live in, and took the most beautiful drive to see the neighboring villages and all of the Vervet Monkeys! Last month we even got to go to Kasanka, driving 11 hours with the baby to see the largest mammal migration on Earth and camp out in the national park.

Many have asked us, what does your day-to-day look like? To tell you the truth, every day looks completely different every day for us. For some, that may be frustrating, but it really is how our family thrives! We have days where we are running around town, pricing out items or buying items for the school. Some days we are having meetings in the office all day, with leadership, staff, and teachers, while others we are meeting with different people to come help with our school for things like construction or repairs. There are days of working-from-home and mostly working on spreadsheets, communicating with donors, calling with the U.S., and making phone-calls with contractors here. Some days are spent investing in the community here and participating in their activities, which is a really valuable piece of this puzzle. Our most frequent and favorite days are at school, always planning and strategizing how to flesh out what God has asked of us. How to make the most with what we have to help those God has entrusted us with.

At school this year, we have been planning for 2024 in terms of staffing, facilities, and how to achieve goals that will bring us more towards the vision of transformation. We always have the most joy at school because we can see what God is doing lived-out. After driving 40 minutes, the last 10 are down a dirt road, driving over large rocks and all the divets where the flooding waters from rainy season have carved into the earth. Bump after bump leads to a block, and when you turn the corner, the magic starts from there. Children that aren’t yet in school run to our car, yelling our names and waving furiously, smiling big! Some of these children aren’t old enough yet, go to school at a different time, or haven’t been able to go to school yet. As someone rolls the gate open for us, our car drives into the gravel court-yard where you can hear the BEST sounds- the sounds of a classroom thriving. You hear children laughing and singing, speaking to the teacher, our teachers teaching through a lesson. Most of the time, it is so hot that it can feel so sharp and suffocating. But as you exit an air-conditioned car into the draining heat, you hear enthusiasm from every corner. We sit for hours with a fan in the room, sweating and discussing how to use every dollar and opportunity for the betterment of these learners and their teachers. We strategize how we believe God is positioning us and what He’s calling for us to do next. We wonder about how we’re going to make it next year and pray for God to deliver on His promise to take care of this school, as we are bursting at the seams and have so many children that need help. We’ve been doing a lot of reading and research on what really helps people here, rather than hurting and creating cycles of dependency. We are committed to God’s direction, and we know that He’s asking us to create empowering practices that uplift and encourage the transformation that He has set in place.

If you want to see a tour of the school, watch the video below!

In the middle of the day, you’ll hear children getting food for lunch, playing games with the gravel rocks, and gathering around a plate of nsima and relish to share. Fridays are for sports and culture, and it feels like a mini-stadium. The roars of cheering encourage net-ball players to keep going as they play bare-footed in hot gravel. The chants of different grades deciding which grade-team to root for are so full of small and adolescent life. It’s all the sounds of a childhood we are getting to create a space for- one with a kind of joy that can only happen here. God is making it happen here, and using us, teachers, and a few walls with peeling paint to make it happen. Every donation, every dollar sent out of generosity, speaks so largely here. When the kids are done with school, you’ll hear loud prayers of thanksgiving to God before high-fiving friends and walking home. It’s so special to be doing this and experiencing it all. We love it, it’s hard, we feel so blessed to experience it, it takes so much out of us, there’s a lot of pressure, and yet all the pressure is lifted by God. There are so many “and” feelings- it’s not one or the other. That’s one thing I love about life with God, and He’s with us in every step.

In terms of our wishes, we are praying to be able to meet the biggest needs- to have grade 8 and 9. We had to stop at our original plan, grade 7, while the big goal was always to get to grade 12. But honestly, the funds just haven’t been on our side. Which is always the anthem of any nonprofit, but especially one as “home-grown” as ours. We are also praying because our school is very much taking a loss- we believe our teachers should be paid fairly, and because of this, we need $300 per classroom per month. Our big goal is to have each classroom sponsored so that we can keep our school going, and we currently have 9 classrooms. We honestly need to have grade 8 and 9, as many of our students will not be able to go to school because we stop at grade 7. Our school needs more room, and updates, and the needs just keep coming. For those that have ever worked in a school, you know that there is constant upkeep needed for a school to be well-maintained. We know that God will provide for us and that we can trust him with all of these needs.

I also want you to know the victories that we are experiencing at our school. Here in Zambia, students take big, national examinations in grade 7 in order to pass on to the next stage, which is Junior Secondary School. We are currently waiting on the official results, but have high hopes as we got amazingly high results in the mock exams. We recently had a parent meeting with our students’ guardians and when we opened the floor for testimonies, we heard so many of our teachers thanked because of how amazing their child is doing. They are seeing their child’s ability to read or add or understand concepts improve and they see our standard of excellence really working in their child. Most importantly to us, they have been experiencing their child talk about how they learn about the Bible at our school. Every morning, each class begins with a devotion, where children learn about God, pray, sing, and praise Him. Students go home, telling their caretakers and siblings all about what they’ve learned. Our teachers are more dedicated than ever, really showing more and more effort in their commitment to our standard of excellence. Our school’s environment is the best it’s ever been, and even though it may not currently compare to schools in the USA, we are determined to get here. They deserve every bit that our kids in the USA get- we believe that and it’s what we’re going for.

If you’ve read prior newsletters, you know about the heat here. I don’t know if I forgot how hot it is here, but I can’t emphasize enough how much weather matters here. I watch the TV show “Alone”, where contestants battled the freezing temperatures of Alaska or somewhere in Canadian wilderness, and thought about how much weather impacted their every move. They would take advantage of warmer temperatures to hunt and store food, and when it snowed or was too cold, they were forced to stay inside. Here in Zambia, I relate so much to movements being determined by weather, especially for those that live in the villages with no electricity. So many months of this year were spent in heat that feels sharp and creates a type of ache in the body. You can’t drink enough water and there is no relief. As a professional, I’m always wearing pants/a long skirt/a long dress, and am sitting in an office with two tiny windows near the ceiling. We talk among the little sunlight, with sweat beads dripping down our face as we type emails and take meeting minutes and write down how best we can do something with armpit stains and the fatigue that comes with heat. We have a fan that we bring into the office when we arrive and it at least circulates the air, but if there’s no power, you sit in hot, stuffy rooms as you power through to make the best of the situation. And we actually have the best of the situation- our teachers are walking around, singing, teaching, and advising with students, all suffering from the intense heat. We even read heat advisory warnings sent out by the government, advising all to not do any extra physical activity. They wrote these warnings to people who walk outdoors as the major mode of transportation. As you can imagine, the days can prove to be long, and even night feels so warm, that many nights, we decide to go to bed early so that we can enjoy our one room with air conditioning.

I feel like I also need to talk about funerals here. It’s interesting, because without being here, it’s really hard to imagine, but funerals really set your agenda each week. I have never heard of so many funerals and how much precedent they take in Zambian culture. And funerals here are so all-encompassing- the grieving family experiences loss, accepts guests from all over the country, the church and the family take donations to feed said people during the time between the passing and the funeral, and then they also feed all the people that came to the funeral. The family also has to pay for everyone’s transportation from the funeral home to the graveyard and back again. In the midst of a passing, people come to the home of the family to pay respects, give what they can, and give their condolences. The church that the family attends makes all of the arrangements for the funeral, as well as staying with the family all night, singing, praying, speaking words of encouragement, and making funeral plans. The people stay up all night, grieving with those who have lost someone. The process not only takes 3-5 days, but many do not sleep during the night, and most people attend a lot of funerals throughout the year, especially those who are very active in the church. When the funeral day arrives, there is a long process, and you stand in the graveyard, in the hot son, among bones and unmarked graves and gravestones of so many people, many young and without a birth date recorded. It is sobering to realize how many people are dying here, and yet, the world keeps going on. Life is precious gift- God has used living here in Zambia to teach me how precious and fleeting life really is.

Luke here: We just lost a child at our church this past Sunday and it just hit close to home for Savannah and me. His name was Warren Mwila and he was one of the sweetest boys you could ever meet. He was only 7 years old and had dreams of becoming a police officer. Every Sunday he would run to me, hug me, and tell me he loved me as he lifted his arms and wanted me to toss him in the air and catch him. He will be missed by the entire community.

As many of you know, ministry is not always easy, in fact, it mostly never is easy. Ministry doesn’t always look like walking down the street and miracles follow you everywhere you look. Those things definitely happen, but it can’t be what sustains us. If it is, how do you respond when something like this happens? When you walk into a grieving home of a mother and father and all you can do is lie on the floor with them and cry, victory can’t be what sustains you. It’s love. Love sustains.

The love of the Father is what comforts and unifies us. It’s what we are all looking for, and it is the only thing that satisfies.

Warren Mwila:

Here are some pictures from his funeral:

While all of these plans and processes may sound logistically and physically exhausting to someone in the USA, what I’ve experienced is how blessed the people here are when they lose someone. You are never alone, always encouraged, and people are there with you every step of the way while you lose someone. And people lose people a lot here- the lack that people experience is so overwhelming. We see lack of safety, healthcare, accessibility to needed services, and education that contribute to such a large amount of deaths. At first, I’m ashamed to say that this became logistically frustrating for me- someone was always not able to make a meeting or do something because there is always a funeral. It seems every week I hear of a funeral. But looking at it now, I realize how sad it is that I ever felt that way. We recently lost a child in our church that was very near to us and it felt like such a massive blow. And I’m just sad. And I can’t help but be sad that I was ever frustrated by continuous grief that a country’s people face because of the lack. How blessed is the U.S. for not constantly experiencing death, having it right in front of your face all the time. Sometimes we forget the real truth: every single breath is a miracle. So much could’ve gone wrong, but by God’ grace, it went right, and I’m still here. I’m in the middle of Zambia, where people are genuinely always telling me they can’t or won’t come because they believe it is so dangerous. While I understand the concern, I largely don’t believe it is. But sometimes, it really is dangerous. Marlow had to get a polio vaccine because of an outbreak. Cholera is spreading. And while we make wise decisions and don’t put ourselves in compromising situations, there’s still more risk than there would be in the U.S. And maybe I forget that. I thank God that he lets me forget. I recently was talking to Luke about this and as soon as this came out of my mouth I couldn’t shake how true it was. I said, “Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe it’s way more dangerous than I think it is, but I’ve never known it, because God has protected us from it all.” I think it’s true for everyone in the world, not just Zambia. The world is full of fear, and a lot of times we know that the world isn’t as scary as people try to make it out to be. But maybe it is scary, and we just don’t know it, because God’ grace has covered us and we are all okay because of His provision. I just want to take a second to pray with you who are reading this…

God, thank you for your provision of life. Whether the person reading this is in the compound in Lilanda or in South Carolina or anywhere else on Earth, we know that this world isn’t safe. It’s isn’t our home. You are home to us, God. And when we feel comfortable here, and forget that death isn’t that far away, remind us to thank you that you’ve given us such a rich and abundant life that we have the ability to forget. Thank you for your protection- that so much can go wrong, but it hasn’t. Whether it’s the drive to work or the handshakes with someone who is sick or the tire that by all accounts should have been flat but it wasn’t- we thank you that you make all things work together for our good, because we are people who really love you and we recognize your care for us. Keep keeping us safe, God. And help us to be aware of Your hand and Your presence in every detail of our day. Thank you for breathing life into our lungs, and for sustaining that life. Thank you that I’m breathing right now, that blood is running through my veins, that I can look around and see your goodness surrounding me. Amen.

While we’re here, you can imagine that it’s hard to miss so much from home. We miss big birthdays, holidays, get-togethers, hang-outs, and yes, even though we have FaceTime, it’s really not the same. Some may say, “Well, you chose to be there. You chose to miss those things.” And I’d like to address that. Luke and I didn’t just choose to be here, we heard God’s call and said “yes”. A calling doesn’t come lightly, and responding with “yes” doesn’t create an amazing, light, dreamy experience in which this mission is everything we’ve ever wanted. I of course am not saying this to be self-righteous or say that the sacrifices are all for our own glory. I want to say that God has moved in our hearts to say “yes” to something that is very hard, like many other people who work in ministry. And with obedience to God comes lots of sacrifice that is not worth it because God has given us an easy go, but it is worth it because whatever we lack here on Earth isn’t needed in comparison to God’s glory and the completeness we have in Him through Christ. We don’t have money for a down-payment on a house or retirement savings or savings accounts for our kids. We have what we need right now, which is given to us by God through many of you reading this. We are not owed anything by this world, but we certainly wouldn’t choose to move across the world to do this just because it sounds fun. This is God’s mission, and we are doing our best to yield to whatever He says. We know God will care for us, no matter what comes. If we move back to the states one day, God will take care of whatever ‘setbacks’ we had by moving here. We are so thankful that God chose us to come here and that we get to say “yes” to what God has, even with all of the missing out and heartache that comes with it. Being in the heart of God’s will and experiencing His presence is what we want.

One huge encouragement to come from this calling was our first Insight Trip, which we hosted over 10 days and in 3 major areas- Mumbwa, Livingstone, and Lusaka. Our group was able to experience our Mumbwa Transformation Center groundbreaking ceremony, help with children’s ministry, go on a safari, learn about Zambian culture, experience the classroom and sports at school, and volunteer with our sponsorship program. It was so encouraging to have people see what we do here in real-time and see the amazing things that only God can do. We saw our team get to experience children in the village say yes to Jesus in the dust and dirt and hot sun. In the middle of the dark of night, with only stars to be used to see, we heard silence as people of the village watched the Jesus Film and got to see the story of Jesus visually. We laughed as our team got to play sports with our students and sweat in the sun as they handed bags of food to our caretakers of orphans. It’s special to have people from your home see and experience God here- Zambia really is a special place that God is using, not only for Zambians, but for Americans and people all over the world to really experience Him in a new, fresh way. If you’re interested in learning more about an Insight Trip in 2024, click the button below!

2023 Insight Trip:

Interested in missions?

We are still learning here in Zambia- learning the language, learning the healthcare system for our now 7 month old baby, culture of church, school, and home, how to deal with police and governmental systems (which is a whole thing), how to communicate what we mean, how to not take offense to things we don’t understand, how to get across what we want to say over phone calls, how to decipher the deeper meaning behind phrases, and how to constantly “count the fruit”- count what God has done and made fruitful through efforts done here. God is teaching us so much here, and I can’t emphasize enough how different things are here. But I’m so grateful- Zambian people have really taught me what it means to love one another, to share, to grieve together, to hope together, and to have a full dependence on God.

I want to end this by asking you a question. Is there a way you can use your time to volunteer with Hands of Hope? We are looking to add people to our board and committees that are currently giving, have a heart for this mission, and want to help. We have areas that are in need of help, such as fundraising, missionary care, church partnership, child sponsorship, and more. If that’s something you’d be interested in, please email us at connect@handsofhopeus.com.

Praises:

We are healthy!

Our baby is happy! She is crawling, standing, babbling, and smiling at anything and everything!

God is taking care of us. We can see His hand on our lives.

Prayers:

We can meet the amount our family needs in funding to stay here in Zambia!

We can fundraise enough next year to keep the school sustainable! We have future efforts of sustainability coming but right now we have a huge lack in how much we need for the school.

We are praying that we continue to improve in our Nyanja and our knowledge of Zambian culture.

Thank you for taking time to read this, to pray with and for us, and to consider next steps with us. I hope that this newsletter encourages you and gives you insight into how big God is and what He’s doing here in Zambia.

In Christ,

Savannah Black (and Luke and Marlow)

Hey friends and family! We’re thankful for the room and space to be able to update you all after almost four months back in Zambia.

March 2024 Newsletter

July 2023 - Traveling Back to Zambia