Worship Together in Kitwe

One of our favorite parts of the Church in Africa is their worship. They sing with their whole bodies and they pray like they mean it.

Before the wedding cake time, they sang a song that is traditional song and dance at weddings. We don't really know what is said - but they were having fun singing it!

MARCH 2014 Letter LIVING WELL

Your prayers produced much fruit! We had a great trip to Zambia and encouraging feedback from our February events. We hope the details will encourage you as well.

We have immediately launched into gathering a team for our June mission.

We can still use many more people to minister to the kids at Wisdom Community School (WCS). If you are interested in being a part of our team, please let us know ASAP! We have to finalize our arrangements by March 6th. Whether you work on the building/grounds, help with the Bible camp or minister to the teachers, we have a place for you! We train all of our team members. [see details]

February Events: We taught 18 couples at a retreat on Valentine’s weekend. The group was very interactive, attentive, and gave good feedback on their experience. On February 21st, we led the Together Forever event at our church. Ed and his team cooked for 200! Everyone had a lot of fun and were very encouraged in their marriages. We filmed two TV segments for the local TBN. And we added four new couples to our counseling schedule. Thank you for your prayers! We have one more event to teach on February 28 - then we can rest!

Only through your prayers were we able to actually get through all our mission agenda in January. See more info on the enclosed sheet. Our mission was:

Ed and Austin, the lead pastor who
organized the local pastors in Kitwe

Dedication of Well

• Pastoral Marriage Conference in Kitwe - very interested and involved couples. One couple was making plans to divorce but God healed their marriage that week. The pastors organized themselves to continue to meet bi-monthly to encourage and support each other in developing marriage ministries and strengthening marriages. [more pics & info - teaching, renewing vows]
  
• Dedicating new water well at WCS (donated by Lakeview Baptist in Guthrie) - the water is so clear and clean, it’s being used daily by the school and community.
  
• Giving Christmas gifts to the students of WCS (donated by Berean Class, PCBC) - God multiplied what we brought because the kids multiplied from the year before!

  

  Children at WCS showing gifts

• Presenting textbooks and school supplies (donated by PCBC Awana children) - we expanded their textbooks and supplies tremendously.

  

  Darla Holinsworth with AWANA Club donation

• Church ministry - preaching once and teaching two evening sessions on marriage and parenting; they are asking us to video our sessions so that they can be used more extensively in churches.
• Teaching fire safety, emergency skills to WCS and others (by John Holinsworth)  

  

  A volunteer demonstrating how to safely
  put out a skillet fire with John Holinsworth

  
  At one meeting a man attended who had been to one of his trainings last June. He testified that he got choked on some meat and used the Heimlich maneuver on himself and was able to breath again!
• Training marriage educators in Nairobi 

  

  Edwin and Caroline

  We spent several hours with a young, energetic, godly couple. We shared our materials and experience with them and have set up a long-distance mentoring relationship, as they seek to strengthen marriages in Kenya.
  
• Meeting with contractors for classroom building #2 - we selected the contractor for next classroom building and construction has begun! Thanks to you, our supporters, we were able to begin construction immediately! [pictures of construction]

Wisdom Community School is exploding with students!

When we first visited the school 2 years ago, they had 160 students. Their school year begins in January. At enrollment time this year, 143 children came to enroll in 1st grade! They do not have room for that many students; they narrowed it down to 80. The community recognizes that the school is growing and developing and providing a great opportunity that their children would not otherwise have. 

We also got to meet with the 7th grade students that you, our supporters, helped sponsor to go to the public school.

7th grade students from WCS

Thank you for your continued support! We could not continue this ministry without you! We love and appreciate you and your support of what God is doing! 

Our love in Christ,

Donna and Ed Edwards
P.S. Please pray for the team that the Lord wants to send to work at WCS in June.

Teaching Pastors in Kitwe

We normally teach for five days at our pastors' marriage conferences when we go to Africa. We knew that we had a lot to accomplish on this trip, so we decided to teach for 3 days and do part 1 this year and part two next year.

The attentiveness of these pastors/spouses is always encouraging to us.

They are laughing at Ed or one of his jokes - not sure which!

Our youngest participant - just 4 weeks old!

LIVING WELL teaches pastor couples in Kitwe, Zambia

What an enthusiastic group of pastors and spouses we had in Kitwe, Zambia!

After three days of teaching on marriage, worship and eating together, we had a time of renewing their vows, topped with feeding each other wedding cake!

Ed and Donna, along with team members, Darla and John Holinsworth, saw marriages healed and strengthened.

We have been teaching pastor couples in Africa for 12 years. We seen changes in the way people dress (more Western) and their habits (men sit with their wives without being prompted). We see them trying to filter through some of their traditions versus what God's Word says.

Through all the years, however, some things never change. People are the same everywhere. Their daily life looks a lot different from ours, but they struggle with the same issues in marriage. We are continually encouraged though to see the way God's Word applies to all people of every tradition, race, and time period.

We have many pictures and experiences to post. Stay tuned!