September 2022

We spent the first days of September readying the school to be occupied for the kids, because school started back September 5! Once school started, we did another food distribution, and began the process of working on updating and confirming all the information we have on our 57 sponsored students. One of our big goals we have is to be sending consistent sponsor letters and really encouraging relationships between sponsor and child, so we began collecting information from sponsors and students. We talked through all of our plan with the sponsored families, and they were so excited to get to know their sponsor. We spent time with each of the families, and it was wonderful getting to know them even better and ask them questions about their situations so we know how best to continue serving them. The people who have been doing food distribution here know these families so well, so it was really sweet to see them together, as friends meeting again.

After food distribution, we took Pat to the airport and he left for home. We really enjoyed having him with us, and his wisdom and insight into all of the construction of our projects was so valuable to us. We also had a wonderful time visiting the next few days with our friend from Kenya, LJ, who Luke knew through Newspring Church. He and his family run a school for orphans in Kenya! He gave great insight and I know it was really sweet for both Luke and I to have someone who was ahead of us in mission work pouring into us!

We also (thankfully!) got a grant through the Aiken Rotary club to get more textbooks for our school. In most schools you see here in Zambia, students do not have textbooks/workbooks/sheets printed for them to work on, so most days teachers are copying down pages of the book on the whiteboard, having students copy the board, and teaching and doing exercises from that. It really means that less learning happens, because there’s so much copying. A lack of books and resources here truly sets us back educationally. Having books, even having half of the amount we need, is such a game-changer. Students in small groups can look through a book, see the words and pictures, and follow along with the teacher much more easily through the lesson. So, our team (Luke, Savannah, our administrator Charles) spent an entire day combing through options and were able to make some headway in having books for our students! We didn’t get everything we needed, but were able to make great progress.

We then had my Mom, Ginger, come and stay with us for the next ten days! She wanted to come to Zambia to really help us come settle in and work through some things with Hands of Hope, since she is the Hands of Hope USA president! She brought rugs and food and even some supplies for our school. Her help made the biggest difference in our house . Furniture and decorations here are so different than what we’re used to, so we are really thankful for all of her help bringing familiar things into our home! It really is starting to feel like home now.

*Receiving Ginger at the airport with the “Welcome Team”*

This month we also began renovating the school office and storage for teachers! We still have a long way to go, but are thankful that now we have lockers for textbooks so we can keep them safe and have actual storage in the office. Our goal is to do a complete renovation and create a Hands of Hope office/teacher’s meeting room in our one open room. This is all part of our “Phase 2” renovation of our school, which we are currently in the process of.

Luke and Ginger also got to go to their first Rotary Club Meeting in Lusaka! It was really exciting to have them go and meet with business people in the greater Lusaka area, making connections and really getting to the heart of Rotary Club- serving their own community.

From Luke: Going to rotary was really cool because we were able to meet so many other people in the community doing great things. One person we met actually builds schools all over the country and graciously offered to visit the Trust School and see how he could help. It felt as if the Lord led us to the exact person that we need to bring our vision for the school building to life! We also met a politician who focuses on bringing electricity to remote villages in the bush… the exact thing that we are doing in Mumbwa. The Lord’s hand has been on every thing we are doing, and he continues to blow our mind doing so.

Through the days of Ginger’s visit, and just being here in general, we’ve been so excited about what God is doing. Luke has truly stepped into an amazing role, and I’ve seen him walk so boldly in faith! Below is a testimony from him!

From Luke: One day, Savannah, Ginger and I decided to go to the cultural center in Lusaka, which is comprised of a multitude of clay huts that sell anything from handmade African drums to giraffe sculptures to live chickens. It is the best place in the city to buy Zambian things. In one of these clay huts I made friends named Franco, who was trying to sell me a drum, and we struck up a conversation. The Lord ended up opening a door for me to tell him where I am from and why I am in Lusaka. The next thing I know I’m preaching the gospel in this clay hut and 10 other people are gathering around to join the conversation. As soon as they did I felt like the presence of the Lord filled that clay hut. I stopped everything I was saying and just asked, “Do you guys feel the Lord’s presence in this place?” They all energetically agreed and I felt like the Lord was wanting to do something in that moment. I started asking them who wants to receive prayer or healing or salvation to which one lady, who’s name means ‘fear’ said that she wanted to ask Jesus to come into her life. The ten of us all prayed together and “Fear” who I started calling Blessing, starting calling out to God to invade her life. It was one of the most powerful experiences I’ve felt here. After we all started praying in our native tongues and I felt like the joy of the Lord was surrounding that small clay hut. We all hugged and went back to our lives, completely filled with the Holy Spirit.

A few other updates are the real life of people working for a nonprofit- lots and lots of budget meetings, conversations about how to sustain and improve our projects, and great meetings of the minds!

*A meeting with our Hands of Hope team in the office*

In the midst of all of this, we were excited and fortunate to be able to take our first break, and travel to Livingstone with Ginger and Bitwell! This is where Victoria Falls, one of the natural wonders of the world, is located. It is truly one of (if not the) most breathtaking places on Earth. We were amazed in awe of God while we were there. It was huge, and felt like it just kept going for miles! While there, we were also surrounded by baboons. In fact, one mother baboon with baby in tow, charged Ginger when she saw her walking with a drink. Bitwell luckily knew what to do and threw his drink at her for her to enjoy, and she happily obliged (haha!). We spent an evening in a Zambian culture show, where we saw lots of traditional dancing and performances and ate great food! We also stopped along the way from our hotel to some game areas where you can walk among animals, such as zebras and giraffes!

Victoria Falls

We then made our way to Mumbwa to pay a visit with Abraham and Agness and their family. We spent time with the people in Mutanya village, went to the two church plants to worship with them, and Luke even got to play soccer with them! On our last day in Mumbwa, we met the new chief of Mutanya and went to a soccer match between two villages- it was amazing to see everyone from the Mutanya village there to watch and cheer for their team, “Manchester United”. We had so much fun meeting and being with everyone, and ended the evening dancing with everyone and eating dinner with our Zambian family back at Abraham’s lodge, called the Mandalitso Lodge.

Spending time with Mutanya Villagers

With the Congregation of Ebenezer Baptist Church, one of Hands of Hope’s church plants

The soccer pitch for Mutanya village

As we headed back to Lusaka, Ginger spent more time at the school and with the students before heading back to the US that night. Her 50th birthday was later that week so we threw her a little airport party before leaving. It was really sad to realize that this was our final visitor for awhile, and it was really fun having my mom here with us. We will really miss her, and all of the people who visited us at the beginning of our journey here in Zambia.

*Ginger spending time with students at Hands of Hope Trust School*

The last weeks of September was spent adjusting to a day-to-day, something we hadn’t really had since we got here. We came to school every day, working in the office, spending time with kids during break times, getting to know the teachers, dealing with car troubles, helping students write sponsor letters, hosting a school picture day, lots of power outages (since it’s dry season and they mostly rely on hydroelectric power), construction on the school, and lots of being very hot with no AC.

*Some of our sponsored children writing letters to their sponsors*

We got to be at our first Scripture Union, which is where our school comes together on Wednesday afternoons to preach the word of God to all of our students. A guest teacher or administrator preaches, and there is time for worshiping and praying as well. It was really beautiful and powerful to see our full purpose for our school coming to life!

A huge prayer request was answered when we hired a full-time reception teacher for the remainder of the year! She goes to Patmos Baptist Church with us, has already volunteered to lead children’s church, and has totally won us over! We are really excited to have her with us- it feels like God really knew exactly what our school needed and all it took was patience and openness to what He had for us.

We also got to watch our friend Jack, one of Hands of Hope Ministries’s college sponsorship program recipients and Hands of Hope teacher, graduate (after all graduations had been postponed from 2020-2021). We also had another one of our Hands of Hope teachers graduate, Mastone! It was so exciting to celebrate their accomplishment and all of their hard work! The next week, we also got to see another Hands of Hope Ministries college sponsorship program recipients- Clara! She is Bitwell’s daughter and had graduated in 2020 with a nursing degree. It was beautiful to see all of these wonderful people finally being celebrated!

On the last day of September, God fully answered another prayer, and we had our first Town Nyanja lesson with one of the co-authors of the only book on Town Nyanja! We have been practicing every day since! Thank you for everyone who prayed through this- it has been such a relief and blessing to have a tangible way to learn this language! And also, the teacher owns an aweseome coffee shop, so we are very happy!

Praises

God fully answered our prayers in finding teachers for reception and to teach us Nyanja! We know God sees us and hears the prayers over these things.
We are thankful for the donations and funds coming in to cover books for the classrooms! It really does make the biggest difference.

Prayer Requests

God would position our minds and hearts to hear from him, through all of the cultural changes and differences here in Zambia.

We would quickly learn Nyanja and have the ability to communicate more with the people we are serving!
Our fundraiser coming up would be successful! We have big goals for next year, and the main goal is being able to adequately pay our teachers and fund our classrooms! We are going for something really big, so we know and stand firm on God letting the right people hear about these needs, and be generous for the sake of these people, children, and families that are being served through Hands of Hope!

Praises

Prayer Requests

October 2022

August 2022