Here in Zambia!

"We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love be with us, Lord, even us we put our hope in you." Psalm 33:20-22 NIV

Hello dear friends,

I have been in Zambia two months and I am so pleased to be here at last. I live with about 20 other people on a farm near Luanshya (if you want to check Google Maps! Small town near Ndola). We are a community of half Zambian and half international Hands at Work volunteers which is a great mix. I live in a house with four other ladies. One is Zambian and the other two happen to be Australian. We are very different ages and backgrounds but getting along very well and it is a happy home.

I have an exciting new role supporting a Service Centre working in the region of Kabwe. Kabwe is three and half hours from where I am living and closer to the capital Lusaka. Most weeks I travel and stay in the Service Centre in Kabwe for two or three nights and then return to our main base. The communities in Kabwe are some of the most rural we work with and many are really off the beaten track. It is rainy season and so my team and I (some of them pictured here) literally have to drive over submerged bridges to get to communities. We drove through this water and joined the road you can see behind us. Once back on the dirt tracks, you can't see much but tall grass and maize fields. Then suddenly there is a gathering of people under a simple shelter and lots of children shy and sweet waiting for their meal. Afterwards they will disappear in to the greenery for a long walk home. I have met many committed Care Workers, both men and women who have faithfully served their communities for years. They and the team have been very kind in welcoming me to join them.

My role is to do anything to support the team to get the job done. So that might be to assist with report writing, planning and work projects. Recently, we have busy paying school fees for children and buying new cooking equipment for all our feeding points. We have also been responding to the crisis of many of our most vulnerable families having their houses collapse in the heavy rainy season. I met a widow with two young sons whose small house had washed away. She and her children were huddled in her tiny, leaking, mud floored cooking shelter and the rains were still coming. What joy it is to pray with her and encourage her to keep hope alive and then the next week start building her new brick home that will never be swept away. The youngest boy is five and is very proud to point out this is his new home. I am grateful to all the church partners that make such projects a possibility and save people from fear and despair.

It has also been a great joy to be part of a team and I am looking forward to the opportunity to get more involved with the communities we work with.

Please pray for ...

• the steep learning curve I am trying to scale. There is a lot of detail to this new role and I still have the roles I had last year. So, right now my life seems like an endless swirl of constant deadlines and things I am yet to understand!

• good health for the all our volunteers and people in our communities. Malaria seems to be as common as a cold and can be serious for people in poor health.

• the families whose houses are still collapsing as the rains continue. Pray that we have the funds to keep responding, so that widows and orphans don't remain homeless.

• vulnerable families who have no means to feed themselves because heavy rains have ruined their maize crop. Pray we can have a suitable plan to help.

• my new team and I to bond well and work together supportively.

Thank you for your support and prayers, it such a blessing. Emma

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