our vision is simple:
love does.
HOW WE STARTED:
In the beginning, God gave us a huge vision to see the youth of Zambia become disciples for Christ. We wanted to do this by showing them radical, Biblical love through service.
So if “love does,” then the question is: Where do we start? We started with Kids Club seven days a week. Kids can be educated in a number of ways. We believe education is key in beginning to break the cycle of oppression.
We then looked at how Jesus often served during His time on earth. We saw Him meeting physical needs, which opened the door to meeting spiritual needs. Following His example, we knew we had to confront the issue of malnourishment in Simukale.
To do so, we started the Feeding Program. We would love for this to happen five days a week, but it currently happens every Saturday. In the beginning we fed 150 kids each week. Today, we feed an average of 225 kids weekly. Our Feeding Program has not only improved the health of our kids, but we also teach them about Jesus Christ as the Savior.
what happened next:
By this point, we were on fire and excited about what the Lord was doing. We wanted to do more. We wanted people in the United States to get involved on a personal level. The best way to do that while also changing the life of a child was through sponsorship, so we started our Sponsorship Program.
But we couldn't stop with just the kids. We began creating jobs for men and women in the village. Our first job project was our Community Garden, quickly followed by Basket Makers. We now have women of the community learning how to sew! They make bags and aprons to sell both in Zambia and abroad.
There are eight men who now have a stable job working on construction projects. We will soon be finishing up our Chicken Run which will also employ a father from the community. That was our start, and we call it our Isaiah 1:17 Response:
“Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; lead the case of the widow.” Isaiah 1:17
where we’re heading:
God gave us a huge vision. We saw a place where orphans from Simukale could grow up in loving homes, receive a quality education, learn a trade, and become a disciple of Jesus. In Zambia, 3 out of every 10 children are orphans. To meet the needs of the orphans, we not only needed to take them in, but we also needed to give them a family they could call their own. We call this our James 1:27 Action:
"Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world." James 1:27
We are in awe of the lives that have been transformed by the Gospel and the obedience of believers who love “the least of these.” When you meet extreme poverty and stare it in the face, there is no other response but to react, and this has been our reaction so far.
