Mission Zambia - June 2012

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James 1:27

On our last trip to Ndola, Zambia, God touched our hearts with that verse.

We visited Wisdom Community School in a slum area outside Ndola. In two rooms, they teach 160 children, grades 1-4, who could not attend school otherwise. The kids are orphaned or twice orphaned (both parents died). They live with an elderly grandparent or an older sibling. The school has no water, electricity, or toilets. They have very few books but can read and speak English. The school is community-based but Christian sponsored. The way out of poverty for these kids is to have an education . . . . . . . unreachable in their present circumstances, without this school.

The school has many needs that we believe God wants to meet through our ministry. The school is made from basic earthen/cement bricks and a tin roof. The first need is to put on cement/plaster on the outside to preserve it and then paint the outside and inside.

• We are assembling a team to take with us to do the painting. We are raising funds to have the plastering done before we get there and to buy the paint.
• We are assembling another team to work with the children while the team is painting the school. They will do VBS type activities, Bible stories, and soccer. 

In conjunction with the Water 4 Foundation, we are evaluating the possibility of drilling a well and providing toilet facilities. We may not be able to complete that part of the project on this trip, but will in the near future based on feasibility.

The children at our church are donating new (or slightly used) books, which we will ship over and give out when we arrive. We also want to provide a Bible for each child.

When we visited there, the school no longer had funding for the three teachers and one caretaker. Our young-married Bible study class took on the funding of the teachers and caretaker for 2012 at the cost of $400/month.

While the teams work at the school, we will teach a pastor’s conference on marriage and family as we have done over the last 10 years. We provide study Bibles for them and fund all of the expenses for 50 pastor couples to attend.

We pray that you will consider being a part of our team to go or to send. [see our website for more information]

John Piper said, “There are only three kinds of Christians when it comes to world missions: zealous goers, zealous senders, and disobedient.”

Our love in Christ,
Donna and Ed Edwards
P.S. The cost of each team member is over $4000, we have to pay $3000 each by the end of this month for our plane tickets. Please pay that God will provide the funds.

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