Here in Kabwe!

'My Father's house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you may also be where I am.' John 14:2-3 NIV

Hello Dear Friends

Oh dear, long time no blog. I got rather busy and my blog fell off my able to do list. Praise God that it’s a new year and there is opportunity for a fresh start. So, I am starting with better intentions to keep it up.

I have moved to Kabwe and I'm settling into a new house with a new team that is now able to walk more closely with Kabwe and Chisamba Service Centres. I am looking forward to being able to work daily with these teams.

Right now, we are experiencing a crisis for many of our most vulnerable families whose homes have fallen in the very heavy downpours and stormy rainy season. Poor families build a home with mud brick that can crack easily or simply be washed away. So, we have been doing assessments and helping people with temporary shelter. The goal is to build permanent homes with burnt bricks and iron sheet roofing which can stand the rains.

There are many stories to share but I want to share one from before the rains began. Gogo Agnes cares for three of her orphaned grandchildren. She is 70 years old, quite deaf and struggling to feed them. The children come to our Care Point in Baraka B and are still at school. The Baraka B Care Workers heard that the family had been asked to leave the mud house they were living in. They had no land and no house and now the owner wanted the house they were staying in back. The Care Workers advocated for the family with the Headman and he granted the family their own piece of land. We found the family there but sleeping out in the open. Only a few grass screens around them and no roof. Just the open sky. The rainy season was going to start any day. A family soaked by constant torrential rain for many months! How could they survive? (The first picture below shows Gogo Agnes standing in their open shelter).

Kabwe Service Centre needed to act fast. We put a budget together, got approval, organised the builder and bought the building materials. Can you imagine Gogo’s surprise and joy when the truck drove onto her land with the burnt bricks. We are told she wouldn’t sleep just to keep them safe before the builders arrived. The new simple two roomed house was built in a week. The night the family moved in, the rains started. Hallelujah! a new home provided in time. (See Agnes in the picture below, standing in-front of her new home).

There is so much to marvel at in this little story. Gogo priases God and the people of God who helped her. I love it that everyone did their part. From the Care Workers, Service Centre, partners and people who gave financially. All who were able to bring real hope to this family. A very heavy burden has been lifted-off Gogo Agnes. She and her grandchildren are safe. It is my hope and prayer that this has added 10,15, maybe 20 years to Gogo’s life. That she lives for many more years with the strength to support her grandchildren into adulthood. She is their beloved mother. How we praise God for her.

Please pray for:

• peace, safety and health for Gogo Agnes and that the maize crop she planted produces an abundant harvest.

• her grandchildren to praise God, as their grandmother does, and know Jesus as their saviour.

• the many families across Kabwe and Chisamba who have lost houses in the rains.

• the Service Centres and those that support them to make good and timely plans to help these families recover and be provided with adequate housing.

• the new team in Kabwe supporting the Service Centres. To work together well in wisdom and unity in the way we serve each other, our communities and the most vulnerable.

Names have been changed

Thank you for your continued support and prayers,

Emma