hope church and a new orphan house

hello, all!

i hope that yall are all doing absolutely fabulously! i'm finally getting over the worst of whatever i had last week (mumps? the flu with a secondary infection? an african cold? who knows...) and am fiiiinally able to get out of the house and jump back into school, church activities, and helping out around the base. 

resurfacing back into life after being completely MIA for a few days has let me see how much activity goes on around here in just one week. the south african, australian, and dubai teams are for the most part gone (a few team leaders are staying behind to scope out how teams from their churches can get involved with the zambia project in the future); brian, lucas, and lucy (all medium-term interns) have left; bryan's traveled halfway up to the DRC to the middle of the bush to visit unreached villages for 3 and a half weeks; and james and jess (a married couple in charge of the training school) are back to work with the zambia project on a semi-permanent basis. students from all over zambia, too, are arriving to work with wycliff translators to transcribe their language for the first time (the first step in translating the bible into different languages is figuring out how to write the language down!), and the base is also preparing for potential church leaders from the bush to come stay and attend bible school in august. and that's just been in the past week!

i know i've only been in zambia for a couple of months, but i've seen amazing progress within the zambia project as a whole just while i've been here, as well. when we went to mawe kulipe in mid-may, felix (one of our all-star translators and a former five-star soux chef) shared his dreams of opening a restaurant in hope church's new building. his goals were to provide the church with more income, easily cater meals for church events and meetings, and invite people from mongu into the church for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. since we first talked about it in mawe kulipe, hope church has moved from its 2-year tent home to its first permanent residence (which used to be the most notorious night club in all of mongu) and felix's restaurant is now booming. his next project is to open a bakery inside the church to employ youths in the community and to provide hope church with even more money for outreaches.

felix serving lunch to catherine and wes on the veranda outside his restaurant at hope church

lucas, elijah (the little one), and mobi enjoying a couple apple max's at felix's

ali, one of the waiters at felix's restaurant and an all-star kids' church leader

lucas and rapheal hanging out in the church courtyard after a sunday service

in addition to providing a space for semi-dustless worship (walls are incredibly underrated - yay for a permanent building!) and for felix's restaurant, the new site for hope church is now also home for patricia, elvis, and their family. patricia and elvis work for the church full-time: patricia as a teacher at VOH school and a young adults cell group leader and elvis as an events facilitator and construction supervisor at the church (there's still quite a bit left to be done in converting the run-down night club into a suitable place for worship!). their three sons are a constant source of joy, hugs, and shenanigans for all of us at church!

patricia and elvis

  

bryan and elijah, patricia's youngest, outside patricia's house

oh, brotherly bonding - gibson, ethan, and elijah out on the terrace

 

bryan with the boys

when paul and marinette talked about the zambia project in virginia last october, they shared their plans to build 14 orphan houses in mongu, 22 classrooms for the VOH orphan school just outside of mutoya, and 6,000 churches in the western province. their vision was (and still is) huuuuge - and lack of adequate building materials, construction and transportation costs, and delays in getting orphans and orphan houses sponsored are big set-backs. however, in just a few years, the zambia project has already built one beautiful brick orphan house for 7 orphans, is building 4 classrooms for VOH, and have planted 110 churches. 

with enough answered prayers in the form of people and finances, though, miracles can happen in a matter of hours! just last week, the teams from south africa, australia, and dubai laid the foundation for 3 new church starts (one in imalo, where dubai and i were), finished 2 water wells in mawe kulipe and nalulau (the one that we started a few weeks ago), and ran an all-day clinic for a week to provide much-needed medical supplies and consultation. we also received some good news only yesterday - construction for the new school will likely finish by september, just in time for the new term. hallelujah, baby!!!

a little closer to home, short-termers from south africa and australia helped lihana with construction at the malnutrition clinic, putting in floor tiles, painting, and finding glass that will actually fit the window frames. it also took only 2 days for a few medium-term interns, hope church leaders, and south african short-termers to build a new house for moonga (a student a VOH school) and her extended family:

wes yawning, acting shocked, or singing opera (we're not sure) at the construction site

 

george, a youth pastor at hope church, putting up stakes for the walls

local kids checking out all the activity

moonga (right) hanging out with friends and cousins at the construction site

 

good work, team!

early this week, hope church leaders officially dedicated the house to moonga and her family, along with a gift of 2 warm blankets and a set of extra clothes. when students at VOH were drawing pictures of their houses and families at school this week, jane, one of the medium-term interns here, asked moonga what her house was like. moonga was shy for a few moments, thought about it, and eventually looked up to jane with a huge smile and said, "my house is beautiful." moonga had never had something so basic and fundamental as a house before - and the zambia project helped make that simple dream possible! 

it's bizarre how real things are here - i get to work with, talk to, touch, and hug widows, orphans, the unreached, the malnourished, the impoverished, the sick, and the dying every single day. i can't tell you how weird it is to hug a child and know that they don't have a mom or a dad, they won't get to eat dinner in a few hours, and they'll be cold tonight because they don't have adequate housing. on the other hand, though, i get to know amazing men and women like felix, patricia, paul, and marinette who give their lives to God and Christ's church every moment of every day to address these problems, not just on sunday mornings or during their five minute quiet time before they go to bed. despite the frustrations and struggles of not having enough - enough money, food, clothing, warmth, walls, time, medication, clean drinking water - the people who work with the zambia project are making progress and success solely because of God's grace. now that's a reason to praise God!

you're all in my thoughts and prayers, and i love and miss yall tons! in His peace,

stephanie :)