Kamfinsa has come on leaps and bounds recently, it is definitely exciting times!The AQ team has been preaching and giving words of encouragement in church services as well as helping to lead new cell groups which are meeting in different places in the community on Thursday mornings.  The church membership is at an all time high and weekly church attendance is consistently 100 or more people.People of all ages have reason to be excited!!The men have been working to complete the new Pastor's house and have made great progress.  All the materials apart from the glass for the windows and a final few bags of cement for plastering the walls have been bought and are being stored securely in the school. 

Lots of ladies have been meeting one of the school classrooms for the last 5 weeks to learn how to sew in readiness for the delivery of 4 sewing machines that came from the UK a while ago but hadn't yet made it out to the village.  On Thursday this week, however, I was able to take the machines along with a Landcruiser packed full of gardening and carpentry tools to Kamfinsa at last.  It took about 4 hours to catalogue all the items but the community were delighted to see the investment people from the UK have made in them.

As for the children, well their future also looks bright.  We had the amazing blessing last week of meeting a married couple (both teachers) who have a heart to go and live in Kamfinsa village and run the community school there.  They realise there is not a lot of financial backing in terms of them receiving a salary but are willing to sacrifice to see the area and people flourish.  The husband, Chama, says that "money doesn't just come from the UK or praying for it, but from working the ground with all God has given you".  He has great vision for the school and community which is excellent.  The more people who want to carry the load and share responsibility for the future of Kamfinsa, the better!  It also seems rare to find people that genuinely want to give of themselves so readily in the knowledge that their reward will be the fruit of their labour.  I think Chama follows the Biblical teaching of "you have to lose your life to find it"!  Please pray for this big step.  Chama and his wife may move into the teacher's house in Kamfinsa, soon after Albert and his family (who are currently living there) are able to move into the new pastor's house.  

It was amazing to discover that amongst all the boxes of tools/sewing machines etc that I took to Kamfinsa, there were also 7 boxes of Children's story books and 3 boxes of English and Maths textbooks, plus counting beads, dominos, clocks for learning to tell the time etc!  This means that when Chama does start at the school he will also have some classroom resources! Wonderful - a timely delivery!!  One of summer teams this year is hoping to also paint a number line and alphabet on the classroom walls to brighten up this new learning environment - we think it is all coming together!The gardening tools (there was even a petrol driven plough amongst them) will also encourage the community to grow more and more food which is in line both with Chama's belief that the people should be working the land more and also with the plan to build a hammer mill in the village.  We hope that the AQ team will head out to Kamfinsa in June to lay the foundations for this as we think we have all the funding needed for the project finally in place!  Below (right) is a photograph of the same hammer mill machine we are going to buy and erect a building for.  Also below you can see the sewing class that is now underway thanks to those Singer sewing machines! 

I hope you can sense the excitement in the many things that are happening in Kamfinsa - God is good, All the time!! 

Thank you so so much to those of you who have already donated - we're a third of the way to our target in just under a week! PTL!

Kaniki is 12km from the nearest town, Ndola, Zambia. It is within a few hundred metres of the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. Unemployment is high and many families can’t provide for the basic needs of their children. HIV/AIDS is a huge problem, with almost 50% of the adult population in the immediate area infected with the disease. This has led to a missing generation with many children left orphaned and being brought up by either grandparents or their older siblings. With such immediate needs education is often considered a low priority which means that many people are unable to read and write.  Children growing up here have little to aspire to when they look at the poverty which surrounds them.

For the last 12 or so years a project has been run from Kaniki Bible University College that have been providing for some of the most needy children in the area. The Kaniki Orphans Project (KOP) currently supports just over 300 orphans, paying for their school fees, uniforms, books and food. We encourage and support them along with any family members within their home environment. Within Zambian culture family is important and so we do not want children to be separated from their few surviving relatives. However we have become increasingly aware that paying children’s school fees in the current system is not enough. 

It was in 2011 that ideas of starting a school started to fill our minds.  As part of KOP we work relatively closely with the only local school in the area. It became apparent that many of the children were failing in school because of lack of English and huge class sizes. The school has over 1400 pupils and just 17 teachers. Many children go to school hungry and the teaching they receive is substandard– the problems are so complex that there is no easy solution for the school. 

Having been teachers in the UK, we know that education needs to be holistic and cater for all the individual needs of pupils – something which the Zambian system does not leave room for. We are going to start a school in conjunction with KOP that will provide holistic education for children in an environment which makes them feel valued, safe and secure, where they are able to develop and reach their potential and help them out of the poverty cycle so many Zambians are trapped in.

Class sizes will be limited to a maximum size of 20, teaching and understanding of English will be given top priority and we will ensure the children are given at least one good meal each day. The school plans to open to its first year group in September 2013. Adding an additional year group every subsequent year.

We have received most of the needed funding for the school building itself, but until 13th April did not know where we would find land. The perfect opportunity has arisen and we have been able to pay the 10% deposit because of this week’s donations. The plot of land is adjacent to Kaniki Bible University College and is 3.5 hectares (35,000m2). The price was negotiated down to K95,000,000  (that’s 95 million Kwacha or £12, 667). This is actually a good price for such a large area of land and will enable the school to be built in the ideal location. However, we have just a few weeks left to raise the rest of the money needed to secure the land! 

 
In a little less than a week we have raised £4434 (praise the Lord!!!!!) – so we’re a third of the way there! We need this momentum of giving to continue until we have the amount we need. We have until May 16th to raise the remaining money and have it paid into the account, details of which are below.

 
To donate money, please pay into the following UK account; 
 
Name – KANIKI BIBLE COLLEGE
Acc.no – 50086517
Sort Code – 20-08-44
Branch – Birmingham Kings Heath
Mark ‘land’ for reference

Donations of all sizes are welcome but they are needed urgently. One way you can help us raise the money is by selling off metre squares of land for 40p+ each to your friends, family, work colleagues, or classes if you’re a school teacher etc. Contact us (via the ‘get involved’ tab on this website) for a copy of the land grid to record people’s names who have bought metre squares and receipt tokens for those who would appreciate something showing that they’ve purchased some land to build a school for vulnerable children in Zambia.

Each person that buys one or more squares of land will have their name logged and kept within the school in Zambia alongside all those who have helped make this school possible.  

PLEASE HELP US GAIN MORE GROUND!!