Notes of thanks for Zambia
Grace Baptist Church now has a name publicly displayed and completely electrified. 🙏 thank you Pastor Steve Vaughan and Christ City Church for support.
The vinjeru basketball court is complete!!
Tuesday 21st March
We have now all safely returned to life in Dublin. Our last few days in Kapiri were wonderful. Here’s a summary of what went on:
On Tuesday and Wednesday, lots of our team members continued to get involved in teaching lessons – English, Maths, Agricultural Science, RE and PE. Jez somehow managed to incorporate some songs into his PE session!
Some of the people on our team studying & working in healthcare prepared a lesson on basic first aid. This was carried out with the boarders involved in the Red Cross Society, and the following day with many of the staff members working in the school. We even had a live demonstration of bandaging a wound, due to an unfortunate interaction between Ross and a roof.
Some of the team got involved in practical jobs, including painting a kitchen and a badminton court and building a chicken coop.
We continued to build relationships with the boarders and staff in the school. The boys played a football match (Ireland v Zambia!) and the girls got stuck into some Sports Extra activities. We had a chapel service one evening, similar in nature to CCC’s prayer and worship night, and were able to spend time sharing testimonies and chatting 1:1.
On Thursday, most of the team, along with Martin & Karolyn Simbeye, flew to Livingstone and spent a day at Victoria Falls. Three team members stayed behind in Kapiri to spend one extra day in Vinjeru Trust School and to look after the Simbeye children. We were reunited as a team in Lusaka on Friday and spent our last day together enjoying some Crocodile burgers and getting a few souvenirs to bring home.
All in all we had the most amazing trip. We feel as though we gained so much more than we gave. We wish to thank everyone who supported us to go on this trip, and we hope that you will join us in continuing to pray for the work that is ongoing in Kapiri.
(Written by Emily)
Tuesday 21st March
We have had a wonderful past few days in Kapiri.
On Saturday we held a youth outreach event in Grace Baptist Church, with over 150 children! The younger children learnt a bible story, sang songs, played games and did crafts together. The older children were introduced to Sports Extra games, which they loved, as well as hearing a testimony and a short talk from some of our team members.
We then went in twos or threes for dinner with families from the church. Again, we had the opportunity for wonderful conversations with these families about faith and how this is lived out in vastly different cultures. We have continued to experience the local cuisine whilst dining with these families; Vanessa was given a lesson in making nshima, while Laura and Ilana sampled a delicacy not dissimilar from a grasshopper!
On Sunday we attended the service in Grace Baptist Church. This was 3 hours long – something Jez thinks we could introduce to CCC! It was a great blessing to be able to worship in both English and Bemba, and to hear some of the church members share. It was also a privilege to be able to participate in the service with a testimony and teaching, and to run Sunday school outside in the sunshine.
After church we headed to a local dam with Pat, Faye, the Simbeye children plus a few additions. We enjoyed the beautiful scenery and swam in the waterfall. We also had the wonderful opportunity to witness Jonny getting baptised. We finished off the trip with a delicious takeaway shawarma (a little bit like a kebab).
The new term at Vinjeru Trust School began yesterday. The boarders returned on Sunday evening, and lessons began for both boarders and day pupils yesterday morning. Some of the team had the chance to assist with teaching lessons: English, maths, agricultural science and music, and some participated in the primary and secondary school assemblies. Other team members had the opportunity to visit the houses of some of the locals, sharing the gospel with one family and sharing advice for another family with a child with special needs.
We had the chance to spend some time with the boarders yesterday evening, supporting Pat and Faye with the evening devotionals and learning some new songs and dances.
(Written by Emily)
Friday 17th March 2023
Today we had another amazing session with approx. 25 children. We played games, taught some traditional Irish dancing for St. Patrick’s Day and learnt another two stories from the book of Daniel, ending with the classic Sunday School tale of what transpired in a certain lions’ den. The children joined in enthusiastically with the songs, stories, games, and crafts.
Faith and work sessions with about 50 school teachers and other staff continued over two days, split between 4 sessions. Steve led the staff through material covering the biblical view of work, rest, idolatry and our hope in future glory, while the rest of our team facilitated discussions on different tables. This led to many great and challenging conversations, and seemed to draw the connection between faith and work very well for teachers who perhaps had never thought about it before.
For the second day we joined with members of Grace Baptist Church in Kapiri Mposhi to hand out flyers in the local area inviting people to our planned youth event and Sunday service. We went out in pairs into the highways and byways – each accompanying a member of the church, who provided the local knowledge and Bemba language skills. We are praying that many of those we met will come to the events and that God will touch their hearts. On returning to the church we shared a precious moment with local church members as we joined them in singing Bemba hymns from their hymnbooks to tunes we recognised from the English versions. We now have a basic familiarity with ‘O Lord My God’ and ‘Count Your Blessings’ in Bemba!
For dinner this evening we went to local families in groups of two or three. Myself, Emily and Rachel went to the house of one of Vinjeru School’s teachers. She lives with her parents, her siblings, her nieces and grand-niece. They were all very hospitable and delighted to host us and hear about our travels. They also shared a lot about their culture and faith with us. We tried okra and nshima which is a very typical Zambian dish and it was delicious. We felt extremely blessed to have spent the evening with them.
Later we then had a bonfire when we came back from our meals. The smoke thankfully keeping the mosquitos at bay, we sang lots of traditional songs in true St Patrick’s Day spirit along with Faye on the mandolin.
(written by Emily, Ruth, Jez, Ilana and Laura)
Thursday 16th March 2023
The team have sent their first update over via voicenote and hope to be able to write something themselves very soon. You’ll be delighted to know they’ve all arrived safely and are getting stuck into life in Kapiri Mposhi. They had a fun trip over, including using their 8 hour layover to practice sharing their personal stories of faith and the gospel with each other. They are reading Colossians together during the trip and enjoying studying it together.
The flights went smoothly, apart from a missing guitar which they are hoping will arrive tomorrow. There was an ‘interesting’ bus ride from Lusaka airport, where at one point the bus almost tipped over trying to skip a queue of traffic – Vanessa described it as “everyone leant on the left side, and a few prayers were said, but all was well!!”.
They arrived at the school yesterday evening and had a great time meeting all of the Simbeye family and seeing Pat and Faye Tice. This morning kicked off with a faith and work session with 50+ school staff, and a kids group with lots of singing and fun. After lunch the team helped out with flyering for the local church where the Simbeyes and Tices belong. This was a chance to chat to different locals and invite them to a sports and crafts event for kids, and a special church service. Tonight they’re enjoying being together with those who live on site and sitting round a campfire!
(written by Caroline)