Traveling to Zambia
The dates for my 2014 trip have been set. I will be leaving August 25th for Zambia. I will depart Zambia to return on September 30th. I always make my tentative schedule known for those that follow the effort. It will be as follows:
August
26th – depart the US
27th – arrive in Lusaka
28th – collecting the materials for well repair and transporting them to Siavonga
29th – 31st – Leadership workshop with church leaders
September
1st – plant a new congregation
2nd – rest
3rd – plant a new congregation
4th – preparation for village church lectureship
5th – 7th – village church lectureship
8th – 9th – well repair
9th – 10th – travel to Lusaka
11th – 13th – well repair
14th – “outreach church service”
15th – rest
16th – 18th – village church visitation
20th – 21st – travel to Copperbelt and meet with church
22nd – travel to Muyombe area in the north (specifics not yet determined)
23rd – 25th – workshop in north
26th – return to Siavonga
27th – review work and catch up on needed tasks
28th – Siavonga worship
29th – travel to Lusaka
30th – depart Zambia
This year I will have some company for a couple of weeks. Audrey is traveling with me along with her brother Tom and sister-in-law, Denise. They will remain until the 10th and then return to the states.
We hope to repair between 10 and 15 wells depending on needs and funding. We also hope to drill at least 2 new wells during my time in Zambia.
Well Repair
Just this past week we have been able to repair a couple of badly needed wells. One was at the village of Nabbanda. It is a large village and there are two wells for the entire village. One is working (we repaired it earlier). The second was a well where the council put in PVC pipe etc. It did not work for more than a month. Ideally this would be great. PVC pipe is not subject to the usual breakdown of steel pipes. But it is somewhat new and in this instance fell victim to a couple of problems. We are not certain that it was correctly installed but it was also too deep for PVC being over 150 feet deep. Healing Hands provided the funds and we replaced everything in the well and it is now working.
Providing clean drinking water significantly improves the life expectancy and quality. This has become an important part of our effort in Zambia.
It is a good feeling to know that we have helped the people with the wells. They are always grateful and happy when we come and when we are finished with the work.
We also received funds from an anonymous source to repair another well in a needed area. That well was also repaired during this same period of time. It is located in the village of Martinangala. Originally we were supposed to repair the well at Zalaunga Community School. However, a situation arose that made that repair impossible for now. But there are always other wells in need of work so we shifted our target to Martinanagala. The well services several thousand people so it is welcomed by those folks. When the well was restored the apron around it was also repaired and enhanced. This is important because a broken apron can allow water back down the well and has the potential to pollute the well and render it unsafe and thus unusable.
This well had been down for quite some time. This means that the people were forced to use another source of water. That usually means a long walk with a long wait at another well or finding surface water which has its own set of problems as we have often said before.
A sincere thank you to all those who have (and will) helped with water well repair. It has greatly strengthened our influence in the district. But, more importantly it has opened doors that have and will enable us to spread the Word in the district.
To this date we have been able to repair or drill nearly 100 wells. I estimate that we have improved the situation of over 100,000 Zambians. We have received thanks from the government and the chiefs of the district.
We will continue to work on the repair and maintenance of water wells.
House News
The foundation and slab should be completed by this weekend. It has been a big project. The next phase would be to begin making blocks to build the walls.
That’s what’s new for now.
Mushali kabotu (go well)
Charles
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