Greeting in the Name of Jesus.

Family news

It’s February already and in the coming days I will be traveling to Australia. I have a full calendar over 6 weeks – this will be my shortest trip to Australia in the past 21 years. As life and ministry has developed it becomes harder to leave, as the operation lift / UnContained Love / shipping containers still requires me to be hands on.

Angela and Immanuel will be in Zambia – Angela will be keeping things running in Zambia; Immanuel is in grade 9 which is an examination year here in Zambia so he has a very full study program even having school on Saturdays to practice for exams.

Life in Zambia

God has been good to us these past few months. We thank God as He has blessed the Nation with rains. In Kabwe we have had a couple of dry spells the last of which was the most concerning as the maze (a staple crop / white corn use to make a flour) had tasselled which means this the point the plant lays the seed on the cob – without rain the plant can stop laying the seed/corn kernels, but praise God we got two days of rain with hopefully more to come.

Nationally We are still living with 10-12 hours of load shedding (blackouts) each day but we personally have been building our solar capacity slowly and we have adapted and essentially limited the impact on us.

But the ramifications are been felt wider with so many small businesses like bakeries, barber shops, metal fabrication, etc. just simply stopping trading. As well as larger scale operations like mining and cement production all taking a massive hit. So you can see and feel the effect in the public.

Kenya

As reported in the last newsletter the Kenyan container has arrived and the life changing has begun. I will do a special report on that shorty.

Kabwe Children of Promise

Over Christmas we were blessed with support to once again help host a Christmas event for the home, blessing all the children with gifts and a Christmas party.

For a couple of children, it was bit overwhelming to be a recipient of something brand new, which was special. To our supporters we say a super big thank you.

Siavonga

In the beginning of January we had a small working holiday with family to Siavonga on Lake Kariba. I had the opportunity to ministering at a church.

Also, I was able to go and visit the hospital where the new chaplaincy program has started and see a few of the donations we made in action

The regional hospital is key to reaching the lost and opening doorways into the islands of Lake Kariba, the 1000s of villages along the lake shore and into the villages of the Gwembe Valley, some of Zambia’s least-reached peoples.

I was able to visit a rural village where the team had planted a church. This is also where medical goods have been taken – it’s a small hospital (two rooms and an office) but when you see the files room you understand the population is huge. These people are actually the residents that were displaced with construction of Kariba Dam. The Donation has extended faith with the traditional rulers and opened an area for church planting that is massive.

The team in Siavonga have been very active in church planting in many of these rural places.

Caleb Centre for Autism

In January the Caleb Centre held its annual walk and run for Autism awareness in conjunction with the Zambian amateur athletics association. The event was well attended, and we were blessed with a break in the weather.

In the past few weeks with sponsors from Denmark working with the Caleb Centre PTA, they have established a school bus run which has been a huge need to get consistency with children but also make it possible for children from vulnerable families to come each day.

We are now in a phase with the Autism Centre where we need to put administrative structure in place to allows us to grow. We fully appreciate that Caleb Centre is beyond just a small school in Kabwe, but we are pioneers for the whole country and beyond.

We regularly get appeals for help from people in other countries that just feel alone as they navigate life of parents of a child on the spectrum in Africa where even diagnoses are rare and help doesn’t exist.

UnContained Love – Zambia testimonies

We have received recent reports of wheelchairs reaching people in need.

Most commonly it has been victims of stroke in village compounds that cannot afford the wheelchair – these blessings have been an answer to prayer for the recipient and their families.

God’s love is not Containable and he can use anyone to bring the answer to prayer or the Gift of love.

Chaplain Reports

Chaplain team in the Copperbelt is growing, with the opening of hospital after hospital as well as continuing with regional radio programs. Our heart looks to see this growth reach thousands upon thousands.

In Kabwe in 2020 we look to restructure the operating support and administration, and will get into this after Easter.

Lukunga Swamp

We also received a massive blessing with funding coming through from a social enterprise company that looks at supporting water projects. We had put forward a request for Ngwena in Lukunga swamps which can struggle with outbreaks of cholera. We have been successful and received a grant.

In short, we look to bring clean water for the school and church, but we are building into the community with agriculture/irrigation for women and fish farming with the youth and men. As we wait for the roads to allow the drilling rig, we begin the background setups with the groups doing the full registration with Government establishing administrative framework with strategic plans, as well as constitutions etc. So stay tuned! This is beyond planting churches and community schools, but growing the community, starting business, farming, aquaculture, is not just surviving from handout to handout, but building an economy with their assets – the plentiful land and water and access to the swamps.

South Sudan

Just before Christmas we ran a small fundraiser to send Paul the military chaplain to visit his family for the first time since 2011.

In the process I got meet his eldest daughter online. She shared the experience of having their father come and visit the refugee camp (Kakuma, Northern Kenya).

The day of the arrival there was a massive welcoming ceremony where many of the elders and South Sudan community came to not only welcome him but honour his service to South Sudan and to hear about home and things God was doing.