Baby Michael is growing

Baby Michael is now 2 1/2 months old. We weigh him weekly and bit by bit he is gaining and staying healthy!

God is at work in this wee one!

Lawyer speaks with Sponsored students

Every Saturday the Sponsored Students volunteer at the ZMF-C farm, Seven Fountains Farm.

Yesterday, Anne Sampa, our friend and fellow board member - also a lawyer, encouraged our sponsored students after the work was done.

Anne told her life story - one of a very humble beginning and one that the pupils can relate to! Her father died while she was 12 years old leaving her mom to raise 8 children on her own. Her mother earned money by selling tomatoes and other items in a Lusaka market. Hard work that paid off.

She kept the family together and today Anne is a lawyer and many of her siblings also have successful careers and are able to financially care for their families.

She is a role model and stressed: Don't lose hope or spend your time taking pity on yourselves for being a single or double orphan, seek God for guidance and trust His plan for yourselves, be serious about school, know the advantage you have of being selected by ZMF-C for sponsorship (its not by coincidence), and WORK HARD - at all times!

Anne is a lawyer in Lusaka and now has her own law firm with 2 other female lawyers. I tease her that she is the Zambian #1 Ladies Detective agency!

Please continue to pray for your sponsored student!

Teacher House handover ceremony

Emphasis on: Handover + Ceremony.

Zambians follow protocol! On monday the District Commissioner of Kalomo (a government representative and employee) and the DEBS - the district education board secretary joined us at Siabalumbi and Katangu (Nalabumba) to be part of the off

icial handover of the teacher housing built by ZMF-C (Regina congregation donation and Pacific Christian School in Victoria).

Now, that housing is officially in the hands of those communities.

Both communities celebrated after the many speeches - with dancing, drumming, chibwantu (local drink of celebration), fresh maize, village chicken, rape and nsima.

Thank you to Regina Church of Christ and PCS for your continued committment to the wee ones in Zambia. Both of these communities are doing very well academically and are getting a reputation of being academic leaders/giants amongst community schools in Southern Province.

Praise God for your continued support!

Innocent Fungwe - grade 10 Kalomo High School

Innocent - or not so Innocent, as some of us call him, is one of our 82 pupils at Kalomo High School. 82 this week, but by next week could be 92!

Innocent has been with us since 2007. He is sweet and truly Innocent. We had him repeat grade 9 last year even though by Zambian standards he had passed. A few weeks ago I saw his grade 9 results for 2010 and he made it by "flying colours". Innocent was humbled by the repeating of grade 9 and he is now fully ready for the grade 10 challenges.

Please pray for this sweet, and innocent double orphan.

Sponsored by Jonathan and Sarah.

Blessings

Sue

Greetings all,

I hear Canada has been very cold! I also heard the groundhog did not see his shadow! Hang on, the deep freeze will end soon!

In Zambia it is hot, every day. It has not rained for almost 2 weeks ~ oh, just a minute - it showered yesterday! Clouds are forming in the horizons, and the rainy season is not over until end of March or April.....so maybe it will thunder, electrify and pour today! The maize is lookiing great and prediction is for a bumper God. Continue to pray for our friends and brothers and sisters here that the rainy season will indeed produce what is needed for these ones to eat!

This is a test blog as e-mail capability has changed in the last week! Let's see if this sends.

My prayer today:
Psalm 103 - "Let all that I am praise the Lord; with my WHOLE heart, I will praise HIS HOLY name. Let all that I am praise the Lord; may I NEVER forget the good things he does for me."

Make your list mentally - write it down. What are these good things? Do you have family to pick you up when you need that? Do you have food today? Do you have health? Do you have an education? Do you have a job? Do you have clothes? Do you have a church family? Do you have a Bible? Do you have friends? Do you have a spouse? Do you have children? Obedient children? Healthy children? as Jesus said often "if you have ears, listen!".

Blessings on you this Lord's day. Enjoy your church family as you praise God together!
I head to SFF church in a few minutes to worship with a small but joyful group of believers! Praise God and may all of our faith grow - today.

Love
Sue, Mom/grandma/aunty

Grade 9 results are in!

These grade 9 teachers were like giggling teenagers as they excitedly perused the Grade 9 results that have just came in a few weeks ago! Mrs. Moono, Mr. Simasiku and Mr. Kanchele, proud teachers, are seen here rejoicing at the Namwianga Christian Basic School grade 9 results! All of our ZMF-C sponsored students made it to grade 10, a big acheivement, except one!

And not only that 4 of our grade 9's at Siabalumbi Christian Community school and 1 at Nalabumba have qualified to grade 10. That is a complete record for community schools! Great work - teachers and pupils and Mrs. Mbumwae for continually stressing all aspects of education delivery!

Grade 9 results are in! Teachers, Mrs. Moono, Mr. Simasiku and Mr. Kanchele are seen here rejoicing at the Namwianga Christian Basic School grade 9 results! All of our ZMF-C sponsored students made it to grade 10, a big acheivement, except one!

Alice and Lucia - 2 very special ladies

These are my friends, Alice and Lucia. Both of them were almost dead a few years ago and now look at them! ZMF-C donors sponsored them for a few years until they were feeling better and literally back on their feet and then also sponsored them to attend a trade school.

Now, they are "tailors" and have built their own shop at Katungu, the site of a school development mostly funded by ZMF-C donors.

Alice and Lucia are hoping now to start sewing uniforms!

Maybe one day there will be a Shoprite at Katungu!

Thanks to all who have helped with the Hope for Tomorrow fund! You have helped to save these precious lives! And to allow their children to have their moms around for a much longer time. What a gift that is!

Meet Woodgate

Woodgate is sponsored by ZMF-C. He is in grade 12 at Namwianga Christian Secondary School. He is a village boy - but the great thing about attending a boarding school in Zambia is everyone wears uniforms and from Monday to Friday you can't tell the village boy from the city kids, unless you listen closely. Village kids always sound like village kids - but the uniforms have a way of levelling out the playing ground.

Woodgate is a village boy and a very sweet one! His village is near to where I stay and I know his granny as well as quite a few other family members.

Woodgate has been sponsored since he was a young boy in Basic School and I often wondered how he'd ever make it through this education system. But he has, and he's doing very well academically! He's worked very hard and taken advantage of every opportunity. For the year 2011, his teachers have assigned him the title of "spiritual leader" which means Woodgate needs to organize the student body so that chapel time is coordinated. He finds speakers (other pupils, song leaders...) as well he organizes choirs to go to various village churches. Woodgate is quiet and humble and completely reliable.

He wants to study agriculture in college.

After Woodgate washed the Isuzu for me on Saturday (for some cash, peanut butter buns, tea, and a whack of homemade cookies) I gave him a computer lesson. His hands are very big - he needs a bigger keyboard than this one!
He studies computer at his school, but there are not enough working computers, so he is only learning theory and had not yet learned how to turn on the computer. So...now he can!

Sponsored Students weeding time!

Usually our day to work in the Sponsored student maize field is on Saturday. But...we are way behind in the weeding and applying the fertilizer. So...since the ZMF-C agents, Ruhtt and Shepherd were at a funeral today I loaded up the Mitsubishi Canter truck with 51 grade 11 and 12 pupils and took them to the farm to weed the 1.? hectare plot.

It only showered briefly, otherwise they all worked hard for a few hours and then I delivered them back to their school - just in time for their supper of nsima and soya pieces.

The field is located on Seven Fountain Farms (a ZMF-C farm) which is about a 25 minute drive in the big truck!

The purpose of the maize field is to be able to share with those that need maize - (gets ground into meal - for nsima - the Zambian's diet staple). Our Basic School kids get some of the maize because they are boarding students that need to supply their own food.

So...the helped are helping the helpless! And that's the way it should be, shouldn't it?

Also...while we weed, I get to find out so much about the kids - their village, their family, why they need sponsorship....and they ask many questions about Canada! "what do you grow in Canada, madam?" -

Grade 9 results are in!

Namwianga Christian Basic school teachers celebrate "their success" - great scores for their grade 9 pupils!

And of those that successfully passed our ZMF-C pupils did VERY well.

Innocent Fungwe, Allent, Jefrod, Oscar, Kiswick and Luka aced the scores and are all assigned to Kalomo High School for Grade 10.

I saw Innocent on the road today after collecting his results and he was grinning from ear to ear!