Sonile's New Uniform

Hey everyone!  I wanted to encourage you by sharing some of the things God accomplished here in Zambia through our Father’s Heart sponsors last week.

Our Zambian Father’s Heart Team has been working on paying school fees for our sponsored children for weeks.  On Friday, they withdrew 115,000,000 Zambian Kwacha (a little more than $23,000 at the current exchange rate) from the bank and made payments to the individual schools on behalf of individual sponsored children.  Exam fees were paid for the children taking required nationwide exams in grades 7, 9 and 12.  Exam fees are critical and must be paid for a child or else the child is ineligible for taking the end of year exam in December to pass to go to the next grade.  For the schools requiring uniforms, uniforms were purchased.

Sonile Zulu, a sponsored girl from Kanyama, who now attends Toronto Community School here in Lusaka was singing about God’s goodness all the way home with her Discipleship Leader Vera Banda when she found out that she was getting a BRAND NEW UNIFORM!  These kids feel official and accepted when they are wearing what the other kids at school are wearing.  Our Father’s Heart Team made up of zone leaders and discipleship leaders went to every school to make a large payment of school fees.

The results of Father’s Heart efforts and your faithful sponsorship was that in just this one day 802 sponsored children had their school fees paid.  The discipleship leaders immediately started sending in reports of what happened.  Children were screaming with joy!  Parents were so happy that they were literally dancing in their houses.  The discipleship leaders were so excited for their kids and the school directors kept calling the office to thank us.  All over Lusaka the Lord’s mighty name was being raised up and glorified!

802 Kids Worth of School Fees: ZMK115,000,000 (Over $23,000) Largest bill equivalent to $10 USD!

Thank you so much for making this happen.  Just this year we have already paid over 150,000,000 Kwacha in school fees.  Please know that every month you pay your $36 it is making a major impact in the lives of the kids you sponsor.

We have been having SO much fun lately at the Family Legacy office as we’ve been preparing and collecting all of the supplies for the houses at The Tree of Life Children’s Village that are scheduled to open this June!  From brightly colored towels, rainbow striped sheets, and warm fleece blankets to cherry red melamine plates, cups, bowls, and everything in between, these kids will be SET TO GO come opening day!!   My incredible sister Heather (our Father’s Heart Coordinator in Zambia) found this wonderful local artisan who will be helping us decorate the children’s rooms with the most fun and entertaining animal print wall hangings and pillow cases!  This picture of a lion pillowcase is just one example of the artisan’s endearing work…we are thrilled with how much life will be pumped into these children with all the brightly colored household items…Imagine moving from the dirty, disease-ridden slum compounds of Lusaka into this fun, Spirit-filled, loving home at The Tree of Life Children’s Village! We are still trusting God for the remainder of the funds for the infrastructure campaign so that this incredible opportunity will become a reality!   Thank you to everyone who has donated to this cause ~ we all had a BLAST choosing all these fun blessings for the children, and I CANNOT WAIT for these homes to finally open!  A special thanks goes to Julie Rives who spear-headed this effort and rounded up lots of volunteers and donations from all across Texas.  Obviously, our sweet Lord and Savior is to be praised above all…it is Him who makes all these daily miracles possible!

The first Team Meeting has come and gone.  We had a great turnout at all three cities and everyone is very excited about Camp LIFE 2009.  Greer spent some time talking about the theme for this year which is Love.  Our theme verse is John 3:16 and we really want the children to grasp the concept that God loves them each individually.  Greer shared the story of Emma, a little girl who emphatically insisted that God did not love her.  You can read Emma’s Story here.  It doesn’t mean much to know that He loves you if you don’t really know who He is.  We are going to spend some time teaching the kids about the all-knowing, all-powerful, all-consuming, ever-present, never-changing God who loves them and knows the details of their daily lives.

We want the cross to be always in front of these kids because Jesus’ sacrifice is the ultimate testament of His love for us.  In order to emphasize this we are going to be doing the Lord’s Supper with our groups of orphans.  We want the kids to understand that Jesus willingly gave Himself up to be broken and suffer for them.  Our prayer is that as we are teaching the kids about God’s love for them, us American Ambassadors will come to recognize how much God loves us right now regardless of what secrets we may be trying to hide.

We also announced that we will be giving the children backpacks and a Bible this year at Camp.  You can read more about the backpacks here and learn how you can help to give every orphan a Bible this summer.  We know that the children are going to absolutely go crazy over this!

We talked about some logistics like getting your passport if you haven’t already and to begin raising support for your trip right now!  We have lowered the price of Camp LIFE and you can get that price if you sign up by the end of February.  You can log onto the Mission Control Center to see all the details of your trip and make sure you approve your flight itinerary within 14 days.  A link to the video of the Dallas Team Meeting will be posted on the Mission Control Center this week.

If you haven’t signed up then I’m not exactly sure what you are waiting for.  Maybe you are waiting for a sign from God.  Here is your sign:  For every American who comes to Camp, 12 orphans get to come to Camp.  So if you aren’t there, 12 orphaned children will miss Camp.  You can go ahead and sign up now.

We will be having a conference call for those not located in Texas on Sunday, February 28th at 8PM CST.  Please be checking your email for more details.

If you missed out on the first Team Meeting, then be sure to make the next one in March.

Austin: Friday, March 27th from 7 PM until 10 PM
Houston: Saturday, March 28th from 1 PM until 4 PM
Dallas: Sunday, March 29th from 2 PM until 5 PM

When we announced at the Team Meetings what we would be giving the kids this year at Camp, it was met with huge approval from the Alumni.  This year on top of shoes and shirts, each orphan who attends Camp LIFE will get an Evangelism Backpack.  Each backpack will have our Camp LIFE 2009 logo on it and inside will be an EvangeCube Bible and a EvangeCube Card.  The EvangeCube has been a huge success at Camp LIFE because of the varying levels of English comprehension amongst the kids.  The EvangeCube gives them a simple way to understand the Gospel with images that transcends reading ability and language barriers.

If you have come to Camp before, then you know one of the most common requests from the kids is to have a Bible of their own.  This is something we have always wanted to do, but we have to consider the children who cannot read yet as well as those who cannot read or speak English.  The Evangecube Bible allows us to meet all of those needs.  The Ambassadors teach the kids throughout the week using the Evangecube, so when the children receive a Bible they will see the now familiar pictures from the Evangecube located in the first pages.  The second most requested item is for their very own Evangecube.  Included in their backpack is an EvangeCard, which is a smaller card that folds just like the EvangeCube.  Now the kids can share the Gospel story using their very own EvangeCard.

These backpacks are an extra expense that we have decided to suprise the kids with.  The entire package only costs $8 per orphan and we have 12,000 orphans who will come to Camp this year.  Please talk to your friends and family and help us buy enough backpacks so that every orphan who comes to camp will get their very own Bible and backpack.  To help raise enough money for the backpacks, you can print out this flyer and have people mail it back in with a check or credit card number.  They can also go to our donate page and choose Camp LIFE and Evangelism Backpacks in the drop down menus then pay by credit card.  If you are going to Camp LIFE this year $96 will buy enough backpacks for each of your kids.  If you aren’t going then you can still participate by helping us give a Zambian orphan a Bible.