Melvillesworld

Mechanic Graham

2008-12-10T00:00:00.000-08:00

Here in Zambia you often have to turn your hand to things that back home would be easy to deal with once you had scanned the yellow pages and got the right company out to fix the problem. Since being here Graham has done more work on cars than in the last 20 years and this last weekend turned his hand to mending the washing machine! When it was spinning the noise was terrible and it was obvious that something was stuck under the drum. This meant dismantling the whole machine to disassemble the drum and the offending piece of wire was right at the back of the drum. By this time it was practically dark so he left it in pieces ready to put it together in the morning but it rained. This wouldn't normally be a problem but our laundry room has three walls and a bar gate and so the rain comes in so then everything had to be dried with the help of our one little heater and a fan. So does it work now?
Well first time around he forgot to attach the drum rubber to the front panel so it leaked! Fixed that and also a small leak discovered in the front glass, so for now we are back to normal!

Church building projects

2008-12-07T04:11:00.000-08:00

It seems to us that wherever you live, if you attend a church long enough, there will be a building project! That has certainly been our experience so far and our church here in Lusaka, International Baptist Church (it is actually very Zambian!) announced that it is hoping to move forward with their building plans very soon. It is a very different project to the ones we are used to. Our church here has a reasonable sized building but there is no electricity whatsover and this is one of the things that they want to change. There is a Sunday School room where the children meet but this has no windows and no proper door ad as with all the rooms except the main one, no finish of any kind on the rough concrete floor. The roofs are corrugated metal so it is very loud when it rains! And as for air conditioning during the hot season - well we can just dream....! There are classes for the adults and children before the main service and some of these take place outside as there is just a couple of extra rooms in addition to the the sanctuary. It is however a place we have come to treasure and look forward to coming to every week. The church is so friendly and our pastor has an amazing heart for his congregation - he is also the bursar for a theological seminary so he is a busy man. Every week we come to worship, hear God's word and see friends - no electricity perhaps but it is a wealthy place indeed.

Living Waters School

2008-11-28T23:35:00.000-08:00

This week I visited Living Waters School in Mtendere with Megan, our community schools worker for Action Zambia. It is run by the church and the children there are generally getting a good education. The school year here in Zambia runs from January to December with three months in school and then one month off. So school for most kids, unless they are sitting exams, finishes for Christmas at the end of November. The photo shows them all lining up before classes start. Children in so many ways are the same wherever you go. They are joking, shoving each other, waving shyly at me and Megan and quickly paying attention if the teacher spots them trying to goof off! On this particular occasion we were there as school starts and the sight outside the gates was a sad one. On either side of the 'road' leading to the school/church there are a number of bars and despite limited opening hours they are pretty much open all the time. Some of the men outside them were obviously somewhat the worse for wear even though it was 8.15 in the morning! I had to be careful to take photos surreptitiously! Beer here is sold in cartons, just like milk cartons back home. The road is muddy as rainy season has started and it was strewn with discarded cartons. Probably not the sort of environment you would like your kid's school to be in but we are thankful that the teachers at this school are committed to God, and to the children, so despite the surroundings, the kids here are getting a great opportunity.

The Puppies Return!

2008-11-16T10:53:00.000-08:00

Yes the puppies have returned! Well not all eight of them but the first two that left us have now been back for a couple of weeks. Their new owners had a trip back to the States for a month and asked us if we could look after them. We weren't sure if it would work out. We had the feeling that dogs don't welcome their offspring back in quite the same way as us humans do! But after some initial growling and sniffing things have been going well. Chisomo, the mum, made it very clear who is the boss - she is! Coco wasn't quite sure about sharing cuddle time with these new arrivals (for a huge dog he is the biggest softie!) but they are all getting along very well now and it is fun to have them all here, especially as Coco likes to play a lot so he has playmates for a while. The two pups left our place as Cutie Pie and Fluffy but thankfully were re-named as Buster and Brown. Much more appropriate for two puppies that are going to be as big as their dad ie probably at least 80lbs once they are a year old! So here are some photos so you can see h0w much they have changed from two little mainly black fluff balls at six weeks old to the handsome four and a half month olds that they are now (Buster is the paler one).

Election Fever

2008-11-06T09:45:00.000-08:00

It has been virtually impossible to miss the huge change on the American political landscape as the intense debate and media coverage culminated in victory for Democrat Barack Obama this week.
Zambia has also just emerged from election fever. President Levy Mwanawasa died on August 19th and elections to replace him took place one week ago on October 30th. The electioneering was just as intense. A huge difference to what we are used to was the element of tribalism, particularly in the rural areas where many will vote according to the direction that their tribal Chief gives. There were four contenders but the main two were Rupiah Banda who had been acting President since Mwanawasa's death and Michael Sata. The former represents MMD - Movement for Multiparty Democracy - the party that has been in power since 1991, standing for economic continuity and stability for foreign investors. However, the charges of corruption during Banda's time as vice-president and as he campaigned have been widespread. His closest opponent, Sata, stood for the poor and is hugely popular among the underprivileged population here in Lusaka. He is often accused of being hot-headed and speaking before thinking. So election day came and it was very quiet. The day was declared a public holiday to give everyone the chance to vote and the quietness continued throughout the weekend. Rumours abounded as to possible danger, especially if Sata lost - that machetes were impossible to buy as they had all been purchased and that the army was going to be out on the streets. In the end peace generally ruled other than a few isolated incidents. Sata had the lead until Saturday night when Banda took it and never looked back. The claims of corruption continue and Banda was certainly inaugurated with great speed, just two hours after the final total was announced. As always in politics it is impossible to know the true story but Banda will be president now until 2011 and then who knows what will happen then. If you want to keep up with Zambian politics, check out www.Lusakatimes.com - a great window into what is going on here.

As for elections, I'll let Rachel have the last word. After dinner tonight she looked over her dad's shoulder as he read the BBC and said 'Oh, is Obama in the lead' - so there was one person who didn't know the result.....

Satanism in schools?

2008-10-18T01:59:00.000-07:00

We recently heard a shocking story that highlights how prevelant superstition, witchcraft and animisim are here in Zambia, even in a city like Lusaka. Friends of ours have four children, are strong Christians - the father is a pastor and is well-travelled, they are well educated and committed to strong Biblical teaching and building up the church. Just over a week ago they were asked to come to their youngest son's school, he is 13 years old. They expected it to be about his performance in a particular subject and were surprised when so many staff were there ready for this meeting. It turned out that their son had shared his lunchtime drink with a friend and that this boy had gone home and allegedly suffered terrible dreams which in turn his parents ascribed to the 'fact' that he had been cursed. The curse was believed to have been cast by our friends' son and because it was so strong the conclusion was that the father (ie our pastor friend) was involved too. The worst is yet to come. This innocent 13 year old boy was pressurised into signing a confession by the teachers that he was practicing satanism and had cursed his classmate. Unbelievably, this is not a private school but a government run secondary/high school in one of the nicest parts of Lusaka.

This has obviously been a very testing time for our friends and they are, not surprisingly, moving their son to a different, non-government school. It also demonstrates how in Zambia, as a 'christian country' such evil practices and beliefs lie just under the surface in all walks of life.

Jacaranda

2008-10-12T05:25:00.000-07:00

The last few weeks have been terribly hot, but beautiful too, as some of the trees burst into flower. The colours here are fantastic and here is my favourite. This is the Jacaranda tree that sits in the middle of the car park/parking lot at the school that Philip and Rachel attend. As we walk to and from school each day the road we go along is lined with these trees that form a beautiful purple parade. Often as you look around in Lusaka there is rubbish by the side of the road, people in desperate straits and the signs of a country where over 80% of the population live below the poverty line but you look upwards and you see the beauty of the jacaranda tree.

The dangers of Bus Travel

2008-09-27T06:06:00.000-07:00

Today there was a meeting of a number of Pastors at our house. One Pastor turned up and had lost his glasses. He was very embarrassed as it meant he could not see people well enough to recognize them. When he explained how he had lost them, it made me thankful I was not with him. The bus he caught to get to us had caught fire. With sparks and flames everywhere, people were rushing to get off. The buses are small, should only hold 14 passengers but often have over 20, the most I have counted including children was 25. Here are a few pictures I took using my Nokia N93 of the inside of a bus last week, I have reduced the resolution for the blog but I think you can get an idea of how bad it was. I was in the front with another man and the driver and was expecting it break down at any point. As it turned out we didn't get very far until the police stopped us and impounded the bus - but not for the condition it was in but for having too many passengers. We joined the line of impounded buses and thankfully we got a refund to get on another bus. We then had to walk along to the front of the line where an empty bus picked us up - all of us - so overloaded we carried on on our journey.

Pastors at Lusaka Theological College

2008-08-24T11:51:00.000-07:00

I have been teaching on Tuesday nights at a small college in Kanyama - a township/compound in the south of Lusaka (it was the one that got badly flooded) It is called Lusaka Theological college and is set up to be a low cost college for pastors in the local area. I have just finished teaching them a 12 weeks course on Galatians and Romans and last week gave them back their assignments and their final tests. The nights usually end up, and sometimes start, with no electricity so we end up using candles. It is a bit of a dangerous drive back after dark in the compound, especially going through the city market at night. The traffic jams up as there are no police out at that time and every mini bus driver thinks only of himself. I once got stuck for nearly one hour trying to get through and felt very conspicuous as the only white. Fortunately it is still early enough so the drunks are mainly just merry! I started taking a long detour around, but that means either going over a very risky mud bridge that is only just wide enough for my four wheel drive, or going through the heart of another compound on a very narrow mud road. So, partly as a treat for them and partly for me, we held this last class in our office in town and had pizza and a fruity drink. I had sent out a text message saying we would be having pizza, so they turned up smartly dressed because they thought I sent them a message saying "I would take their picture"!!! I worked it out after a while where they got the idea of the picture, when I realized how few had seen pizza. As it happened I did bring my camera and here are some a few pictures. I started with 14 pastors at the beginning of term, but one died a few weeks into the course from a stomach ulcer. A few were traveling as it was the summer holidays so there are just eight of them here.

Here they are singing a few songs at the beginning.

The last photos are them posing with their papers, results and a copy of Wentworth Pikes "Sharing The Bread of Life" which Doug Nichols from Action International had sent across previously.

President Mwanawasa Dies

2008-08-19T09:41:00.000-07:00

Ever since the President suffered a stroke at the end of June and was transferred to France for treatment, there has been rumour and discussion as to the state of his health and whether he would ever be able to act as president in the future. No photos were shown of him in hospital and the government came under attack for their tepid comments on the issue. Well now that is all at an end. Today it was announced that President Levy Mwanawasa of Zambia died around 10.30 am local time. Seven days of mourning start today although exactly what that means is unclear. Zambia has only had three presidents since it became an independent nation and Mwanawasa is the first to pass away. Constitutionally presidential elections have to be held within 90 days so the coming weeks will be vital ones for Zambia. A poor nation, Zambia has nonetheless been stable and peaceful and economic progress was being made. Please pray for the country's continued political and economic stability and for peaceful elections.

Visitors

2008-08-12T10:32:00.000-07:00

We have had a great time this summer (well winter here of course) with visitors coming out to see us in Lusaka. Sarah's mum was out just as school finished and treated us to a fantastic helicopter ride over Victoria Falls! It was lovely to get out of Lusaka for a couple of days and return to Livingstone which we last visited back in 2004. Next our friends and neighbours, the Klingenbergs, came and we enjoyed spending time with them. Philip and Bernard practiced their catapult skills in the garden and Rachel loved having Aleah and Hayley to hang out with. We took them to our friend, Ernest Sitali's, church which proved to be a very Zambian experience and enjoyed shopping with them as they looked for chitenges and other momentos of their trip here. Last but not least, Sarah's brother Stephen and his mum, Claire, arrived on Stephen's 18th birthday. In true Zambian fashion we had a punture on a dirt road within 15 minutes of leaving the airport as we travelled to a lodge to celebrate. We managed to soak him in water (the thing to do to people on their birthdays here), get him photographed right next to an elephant and to end the day he was presented with a wonderful cake accompanied by a fantastic rendition of 'Happy Birthday'. The college where Claire works has adopted our community schools this year as their charity, so it was great timing that Megan was running teacher training workshops during their visit which Claire had the opportunity to attend and meet all the teachers. It was a flying visit - just 5 days in all and we wish that they could have stayed longer.

It was great to spend time with friends and family, to cuddle our puppies, to share some of what we are doing here, introduce them to some of our Zambian friends and customs as well as just enjoy their company (OK - and the goodies they brought with them!). We really appreciate everyone's support whether it be financial, an encouraging email or turning up on our doorstep - thank you all for coming!

2008-07-02T11:11:00.000-07:00

The Puppies Arrive

2008-07-02T09:18:00.000-07:00

June 28th 2008 was a crazy day! We had friends over to celebrate Graham's birthday (which was the next day), my mum was visiting and we had three other overnight guests. To add to the excitement, soon after dinnerr (this is all the day before we went on our long journey to Livingstone,) our German Shepherd Cross started to give birth. Then some time later the next one arrived as you can see from this photo. Quite soon it became quite a spectacle and our over night guests took their seat at the event! Megan was doing all the hard work of helping Chisomo, having done this before and she kindly looked after them all while we away. Eventually by 6am the next morning our 'old lady' had produced 9 puppies! Sadly we have lost one but the other eight are going strong. To see some more photos including some of Graham getting soaked on his birthday then check out Meg's blog on: http://zamchic.blogspot.com. Why would he get wet? A birthday tradition here in Zambia - you throw water over the birthday boy or girl! So Graham got hit with water balloons plus a couple of bowl fulls courtesy of our team leader and a local pastor!

Philip graduates from year 6

2008-06-21T03:41:00.000-07:00

Philip and Rachel have just one more week of school and next year inevitably brings changes but especially for Philip. At LICS they follow the British school system and so he moves from primary (elementary) to secondary (junior high/high school) next year. They have already graduated and there was a splendid 'ceremony' to mark this event. The class was all dressed up and paraded in solemnly. They then performed a number of songs and skits - Philip had the lead part in one and was fantastic (and my parental prejudice has been backed up by other's opinions!). Following certificate giving and photo opportunities we all had refreshments and then the class went off for lunch at a local hotel and the day was finished by an induction evening explaining more about the secondary school - it is going to be a big change! Here is a photo of him receiving his certificate from the headmaster of the primary school.

What are you having for lunch today?

2008-06-21T03:30:00.000-07:00

What are you having for lunch?
It’s a question we ask every day. You may be going out to a restuarant with a friend, having a sandwich at work or school, or cooking a hot meal at home. I recently sat in on a social science class at Living Hope school in Mtendere compound, Lusaka and that question wasn’t asked because everyone knew the answer – nothing. Action Zambia, via donations, provides enough money for the school to give each child a cooked meal on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays when school is in session. On Tuesdays and Thursdays you see children run around the barren playground but no-one is eating.
The first question that the teacher asked was how many children had bread and butter and egg for breakfast. Maybe three children raised their hands and everyone bantered about such extravagance. The next questions that were asked were far more sobering. ‘How many are in your family?’ and ‘How many meals do you have a day?’ Families in Zambia are generally large and the children had been listing the reasons for this – child mortality is high, provision for the parent’s old age, to help work the fields in rural areas and because of a lack of education or access to family planning. These are tough things for 5th graders to consider. As to how many had three meals a day – maybe 30 %. The rest generally said they had two meals a day and one brave soul who lives with his grandparents said he only had lunch. After class the teacher confided that many than just one child cope with just one meal a day but are too proud to admit it in front of their classmates.
So what are you having for lunch today?

2008-05-01T08:03:00.000-07:00

Here is a present from Philip to you all to have a little fun and remind you of the tribal situations in Africa. Praise The Lord that Zambia doesn't currently have the situations in Kenya and Zimbabwe. (If you want any more games, Philip's bug page on our web site will be posted soon and have some games!)

Tribe

Compete in the rituals to become the new chief of the tribe.

Play this free game now!!

Making Nshima

2008-04-25T11:20:00.000-07:00

Nshima is the basic foodstuff here in Zambia. It is made from mealie meal, flour made from corn and is cooked with water to make a thickly textured substance which has a mild corn taste. It takes quite a bit of stirring and certainly works your arm muscles! The photo shows Philip and Rachel assisting Josephine, our house help, as she cooks it but I think she did most of the hard work... It is then eaten with 'relish', a word used to describe a whole host of accompanying dishes from chicken cooked with onion and tomato (the Melville's favourite) to kapenta - small fish fried whole with salt. To many Zambians you have not really eaten unless you have had Nshima! A pastor friend of ours says 'rice is rice but nshima is food!' You have probably heard of the increasing price of foodstuffs worldwide and mealie meal is no exception. It has risen around 20% in the last few months and this is going to cause real hardship to thousands in Lusaka and beyond.

Birthday season

2008-04-20T08:39:00.001-07:00

Most of you know that Philip and Rachel go to school at LICS (Lusaka International Community School) and that made their birthdays recently far more international than usual! They turned 11 and 8 respectively and we just had a few of their friends round to celebrate. What was so great was that these six kids come from all over the world. There were two Americans (but one of them was born in Botswana), one Chinese, one Dutch, one Brit and one Zimbabwean. Here is a photo of Rachel on her birthday with her friends.

Richard

2008-04-02T12:17:00.000-07:00

We had another reminder today of how tough life is here. Our guard/gardener, Richard, came to say goodbye as he went home this evening and asked if he could take home a couple of things. There were an old paint pot and a large empty Hershey's syrup tin. To us they are just a couple of things that were kept in the shed as they might be useful sometime. They are just as likely to get thrown away. Why did Richard want them? Because they are useful to carry water in. He asked before taking them so that there was no misunderstanding - unfortunately with some other workers things have been taken that we needed that should not have been, such as our ladder. Like most people that live in the compounds his house has no indoor plumbing and water has to be collected from a communal tap and so what is worthless to us has good value to him. He has a young wife, a daughter of seven and a baby boy who is just over six months old. Two of them have been in hospital in recent weeks and here the family has to take food to a patient, it is not provided. Do pray for Richard and his family.

A drive in a compound

2008-03-02T17:06:00.000-08:00

Februarys news.

2008-03-01T06:05:00.000-08:00

It seems like only yesterday we were doing an update for January promising ourselves we would be more diligent in February and now February has ended!
The good news is that the rains are getting less. That means some days are very hot. I (Graham) am traveling more on the mini buses which saves money on diesel, but is not quite so convenient. The buses are sometimes barely working with parts falling off. Sarahs first journey was on one of these buses and she wondered why it was taking such a strange route. The reason was because the bus was keeping off the main junctions where the police might be!
A new missionary took his first bus ride with me and just as we reached the bus station, the police had the front seat passengers get out and they got in probably for some road offense. We left as they were directing him where to park. The bus drivers are paid by paying the owner to use the bus at an agreed rate. Then any fares they collect over this rate they keep. This means they drive fast a furious and pack people in. I've started keeping a mental note of the most I have been in a bus with. Currently the record is 22. Bearing in mind these buses are about the size of a large people carrier / mini van - that is a lot of people. Do pray for safety for us - when the get involved in accidents - it is often very messy!

The church I am assigned to work with has a lovely Pastor with a large family. We have had the parents over for lunch before, but this week we braved the whole family. Like many Zambians, they don't like dogs, especially our not so little puppy, so we were provided with some entertainment when the puppy got out into the back garden where the girls were. They huddled together and screamed! He is 6 months old now and weighs more than our German Shepherd. Rachel adores her puppy, and would happily stay in Zambia for ever just to be with him! His voice has just broke, so now his bark sounds more like a proper dog so may be he will turn out to be a good guard dog. The German shepherd doesn't like other dogs and before we left our last house, attacked the three dogs in the house opposite. (I'll let Sarah post a blog about our move. )

A quick update from the Melvilles - it is very wet!!

2008-01-30T07:14:00.000-08:00

They are saying that it is the worst rainy season for 100 years. Some areas of the country are completely flooded and even here in Lusaka there are areas which are very bad. We have posted some pictures at http://www.melvillesworld.com/zambia/lusakaflood/ Here is a picture from some time back of the front of our house - when it rains it can really rain! The wind was so strong that the rain was blowing over the front of the car. You can just make out our guard in the guard hut at the front. The water was just about to go into the hut, but fortunately it drained away through the gate to the street. Still there was over 12 inches that collected in under an hour!
The good side is that it is not too hot at present and the kids love getting soaked! It is still warm after the rain and even a little hot if the sun comes out. The bad side is that it is making most people's lives a misery. As you can see from the pictures at the link above, houses are getting flooded and when it is all you have and your family around you are flooded, there is nowhere to go. With so many roads impassable and falling apart, it is driving up the price of food which is very hard on most people. Even the main road from Lusaka to Livingstone has deteriorated very badly and has added four hours to the journey. The water breeds mosquitos that bring malaria and worse the sewage is now mixed up with it, wells are contaminated and any day there could be outbreaks of cholera or other diseases.
We are very thankful for our high four wheel drive car even if it does leak through the old sun roof when it rains. We have seen many vehicles stuck in the water and mud.

Sorry we've been away for so long!

2007-12-27T08:41:00.000-08:00

Well we haven't been very good at keeping out blog up to date as these last couple of months have been so hectic. We have both been heavily involved in managing the office, on top of lots of other things. Sarah has also of course been looking after the children, from getting them to and from school to cutting Philip's hair. He has decided that he doesn't want dad to cut with the clippers and wants it longer! There were the usual additional activities at the end of term before Christmas including a swimming gala in which Philip ended up swimming in every race for his year's team due to lack of attendance of any other boys his age that day. He doesn't particularly like swimming much any more so we were very proud that he just got on and did it. Rachel on the other hand loves it and won all the races she was in.
We were all very pleased to have Madeline and Randolph, (Grahams parents) arrive in the middle of November. They have been to Zambia a couple of times before, so they settled in quickly and got involved with the work here. They both taught in an all day conference and Randolph then was teaching three afternoons a week with a group of pastors from the north of the city. We managed to fit in a couple of trips including one to visit a field a local Pastor was planting to help support his family. The "road" was a track that was flooded and in places quite deep. There was one that was very deep and as we tried to stay as close to the dry edge as possible, the angle of the vehicle had us wondering of it was going to roll over! The picture shows us dropping off some of the seed and fertilizer at the edge of the city. They were not sure they could trust it all to be left at the village.
The same pastor runs a community school where orphans and less well off children get a good education and three good meals a week. We were privileged to be at the end of term "party" which started with a program of singing and presentations from the children as shown in this picture here. The pastor then gave a brief sermon and then it was food and the giving out of grades. This school is one of best around and achieves a higher standard than the government schools. We have been in process of helping them build a better school building but unfortunately this got delayed with theft and corruption from the man in charge of the work. We have just restarted, so we hope that the children will be in the new building when they restart in January.
The finances continue to be a battle. The lack of clear record keeping for the past year is making Graham's job of straightening the accounts very difficult and frustrating. There are some small steps forward, such as finding duplicate and missing entries, but it often comes with a few steps back and a wonder how the bank statements were ever reconciled! The class Graham was teaching has come to an end and he just has the exams and a few papers left to mark. Although this is good in that it gives extra time back, it also comes with a hint of sadness as that was what we had mainly hoped to do while he was here.
We have also moved to a new office down town which will make it easier in general for people to get to the office although it makes it a longer trip for us. The office is in the heart of the city and rather small but functional. It may also stop people popping in so much and allow us to focus on clearing the backlog with the finances.
So 2008 promises to be a busy and eventful year but hopefully we will be better at keeping up the blog!!

Early Impressions

2007-09-30T11:56:00.001-07:00

Our children are beginning to settle into school now. The school is the Lusaka International Community School and although the facilities may not be up to the standards of America or England, it is certainly far better than the community schools I visited in the compounds/townships. Here is a picture of Philip playing badminton in the meeting area / sports hall / assembly hall. They hope this year to put some walls up as unfortunately the wind comes straight through. It make badminton interesting!!

The scenery around around the city is wonderful.
Right now it is like spring time and the blossoms on the trees are awesome. This is a picture taken as we drove home. This is a view down the main road that takes us towards our house at sunset (see our website FAQ for a picture of our house and road). Every morning when we open the curtains at 6.00am I see an equally awesome sunrise.

Last Sunday I was asked to preach at a compound/township church. The building is a basic concrete shell with a roof held up by some very rickety timbers. From the outside you could see large cracks where the walls are coming apart. The managed to fit over 200 people in with another 50 or so outside. The heat inside was stifling. The offering the members managed to give was about $6.00. Most of the people have no jobs and yet they were so generous to us giving us small local gifts and soft drinks. We had to sit at the front in the only two chairs in the church as guests of honor. It was a very humbling experience. They have asked me to come back and speak at an afternoon service for orphans. They expect 500 orphans to turn up and they hope to give them all a soft drink. Soft drinks cost over 50 cents a bottle so we are not sure how they will afford it. If anyone is interested in supporting orphans with a one time gift, please email me and let me know it is coming so we can give it to the church before Sunday. Details are at http://www.melvillesworld.com/zambia/support and remember to note it for orphans.

A Local School Project

2007-08-30T06:54:00.001-07:00

This is a couple of pictures of one of the school projects being done through a Church in the compound. This "building" has plastic sheeting as walls and is where the whole school met during the week as well as the Church on Sundays. Through donations to this project they are building a new school and will eventually build a new Church building as well. This project is Living Hope. If you wish to donate to this, you can visit our website at www.melvillesworld.com/zambia and see the support page. Instead of sending it for us, send it for Living Hope, or just schools. Here is a picture of the new building being built. They hope to have all the money to finish it soon so they can also train the local community as well as have a day school.