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Zambia trip October 2017

Zambia 2017 - One second a day

In October 2017 Pastor Richard, together with David Summerhill, Pete Moorcraft and Sue Hall travelled to Zambia for the 2017 Path of Life Ministries Cave Gathering Conference held in Solwezi and also to visit the school that we support through School4Kids. Sue is the Chair of Trustees for New Life Church Bristol and this was her first visit to Zambia.

The first video is a "One Second a Day" for the entire trip.

See also Sue Hall's own description of her first expierence in Zambia. Click here

Visit to Beacon of Power Academy

On Wednesday 18th October we visited the school and presented the children and parents with gifts and then watched as the teachers taught their lessons. As always when visiting the school, it was an extremely valuable time and the children and parents greatly appreciate our support. This year, instead of taking gifts with us, due airline baggage constraints, we collected financial gifts before we left for Zambia. With these gifts we were able to purchase a range of stationary items, toiletries and a few fun gifts for the children, plus some nice glassware and clocks for the teachers. We probably were able to provide more this year through the financial gifts than we've done in previous years when we've taken out physical gifts with us.

Following are some specific items regarding the school.

Change of name

School4Kids - Beacon of Power Academy

The first thing to note in this report is that the name has changed from Beacon of Hope School to Beacon of Power Academy. Part of the reason for this is that government has taken over all community schools, which Beacon of Hope was one, and now make pupils pay in order to attend. Many community schools have either closed or gone private. Hence Beacon of Power Academy is now a private school. Whilst this officially is still a fee paying school as far as the government is concerned, the fees are paid by School4Kids sponsors.

Current status of classes/year groups and teachers

There are currently 51 children in the school and these cover years 1 to 4. Because the academic year in Zambia is January to December, in January 2018 everyone will move up one year. This means that the school will need to employ a new teacher for year 5. This should already be funded by the increased allowance that we set last year. In two more years the school will have a complete range of primary age groups from 1 to 7 (note, in the UK it is Reception and then 1-6). However, moving forward Maureen wants us to consider extending the school to also cover secondary school ages - see vision below.

School Premises

The children are still using the church building for their education. This is because the new school building isn't compliant yet with government requirements. The current expectation is that it will be another 12 months before the school will reach compliant status.

The school building has been extended by 2 new classrooms plus a tuck shop and toilets. There is space for 3 more classrooms plus an office. The plan is to complete all of this outstanding building work plus a boundary fence by end 2018.

The well has been capped but it needs to be made deeper and will require a pump in order to be used for the school. The water supply is part of the compliance requirements for the school. The plan is that this water supply could also be made available for the surrounding community.

Challenges

Zambia 2017 - Days 1 and 2

Some children's attendance is poor. The parents are not understanding the importance of education and therefore don't insist on their child's attendance. Maureen is addressing this with parents.

The curriculum is still in flux from recent government changes, but where it is established there are still no books to support the classes. This clearly makes it hard for Maureen to plan.

There is still a requirement for schools to teach IT. To be compliant, Maureen believes that having a couple of desktop computers would be sufficient. She hasn't asked for funding but it is something we might want to consider.

Theft. The school building has been broken into a few times causing damage to the door locks. There is someone living there now to protect the property.

Miscellaneous

The children now have new school uniforms.

Next year Maureen, in order to continue to manage the school, will have to take part in official educational training. This is all part of the increased involvement of government in the handling of schools and churches. Evans and Joseph have both been required to study and take exams in order to be recognized pastors.

School Vision

Maureen says that only educating up to level 7 doesn't give the children much of a chance of a job in the future. Children need to be educated through secondary school.

Her vision is to extend Beacon of Power Academy through all of secondary ages but as a self-funded entity, i.e. children who attend the secondary school have to pay as in most schools in Zambia and this would fund both the teaching staff and also School4Kids sponsored children who have gone through the primary school. Her goal is that some of this would be up and running in January 2018 so that it will run for 2 years before any of the primary school children would need to attend.

There would likely be some setup costs yet to be determined.

We continue to thank all who faitfully sponsor the School4Kids project.

Cave Gathering 2017

Zambia 2017 - Days 4 to 7

Average attendance on the first three days was 300+ and 400+ on the last day. This included the first sessions which are normally poorly attended. Richard had raised with Pastor Evans earlier in the year his concerns regarding poor attendance on the first day in previous conferences. We were really pleased to see that Evans had addressed this concern.

There were many more pastors there this year from other Solwezi churches and also Apostle Isaac from Lusaka and Prophetess Miriam from Zimbabwe. As a result of this it is likely that the size will increase further as the network of Evans' influence increases. This could have an impact on future costs which needs to be planned for.

On the first day Richard felt stirred to pray for people to become Christians and also for those who felt they needed to recommit their lives to God. There was a very large response, mostly in recommitments but there were certainly those who were giving their lives to God for the first time.

On the Saturday Richard also felt stirred to pray for the sick - this was a step of faith on Richard's part. A significant number of people came forward for prayer and Evans told us since that many testified to having received healing. For example, there was someone with a bad back, another person who had pains in their ribs, several women with stomach problems and other conditions. We thank God for the healings, known and unknown.

This was by far the strongest conference we've experienced over the years we have been coming out to Zambia. Evans prayed for everyone at the end from the stage. In previous years that had been an expectation that the visiting speakers would pray for everyone individually. This would take a significant amount of time and energy. Evans' approach this year was far more effective and also emphasized his leadership of Path of Life Ministries.

At the end of the conference Dave suggested we had a water fight where children were invited to throw water bombs at all the leadership (UK and Zambia). This was a massive success and will now be a tradition! Pastor Joseph has said he will repeat this back in Lusaka. We have bought him 100 water bomb balloons.


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