One of the main areas where Seeds of Hope International Partnership (SHIP) is concentrating its efforts is in a very poor area of Ndola called Mapola which means "blessed". This is a new name for the area which used to be known as Chipulakusu or "cursed". It's home to about 65,000 people, 40% of whom are under the age of 15 due to HIV wiping out the generation older than that. There are lots of orphans taking care of orphans. The housing density is very high and the majority of homes are simple mud huts with makeshift roofing materials - sometimes tarps, sometimes a collection of plastic bags, or whatever can be found to shed water. Its difficult for these young adults to feed their parentless families let alone pay fees to go to school and learn job skills. Three years ago a man named Francis Feruka left his accounting job at a hospital to start a church in Mapola with the desire to bring hope to this community. Francis has a tremendous heart for people's physical and spiritual existence. He is a person of amazing intregity and patience. As he became involved meeting these needs in Mapola and other areas Seeds of Hope was born. Francis now not only pastors Mapola Vineyard Church, but he is also director of SHIP.
In April, a team from our church, the Boise Vineyard, visited Zambia to see where they could join in helping these ministries. The needs in Mapola spoke the loudest and together with Francis they decided that a training center to provide literacy and job skills (such as sewing classes) would be a practical way to bring hope to the community through the church. Back in the states the Boise Vineyard really got behind the project and raised $25,000 in a special offering to fund the training center. I had the chance to visit the building site this week the day after the concrete slab floor was completed. The slab was a herculean job as everything was done by hand by church members. This means the water was handpumped from a well about 30 yards away, carried to the mixing slab where gravel, sand and cement were stirred together by hand and then shoveled into a wheel barrel. The footprint of the slab is about 30x60 ft with a thickness of about 6 inches. Slowly over the course of three days the entire floor was poured without the use of any machines. The picture above shows me standing on the new slab with Pastor Francis and Kennedy, who is a church member who worked hard to make the slab a reality. Later in August, two teams from Boise Vineyard are planning to come to Zambia to help with the completion of the building. The building will be made out of blocks of compressed soil which is a standard building method in Zambia. To do this the large mound in the background of the picture (which is a termite mound incidently) will be excavated by hand and the soil pressed into blocks using a hydraulic press and the addition of a little cement.
In April, a team from our church, the Boise Vineyard, visited Zambia to see where they could join in helping these ministries. The needs in Mapola spoke the loudest and together with Francis they decided that a training center to provide literacy and job skills (such as sewing classes) would be a practical way to bring hope to the community through the church. Back in the states the Boise Vineyard really got behind the project and raised $25,000 in a special offering to fund the training center. I had the chance to visit the building site this week the day after the concrete slab floor was completed. The slab was a herculean job as everything was done by hand by church members. This means the water was handpumped from a well about 30 yards away, carried to the mixing slab where gravel, sand and cement were stirred together by hand and then shoveled into a wheel barrel. The footprint of the slab is about 30x60 ft with a thickness of about 6 inches. Slowly over the course of three days the entire floor was poured without the use of any machines. The picture above shows me standing on the new slab with Pastor Francis and Kennedy, who is a church member who worked hard to make the slab a reality. Later in August, two teams from Boise Vineyard are planning to come to Zambia to help with the completion of the building. The building will be made out of blocks of compressed soil which is a standard building method in Zambia. To do this the large mound in the background of the picture (which is a termite mound incidently) will be excavated by hand and the soil pressed into blocks using a hydraulic press and the addition of a little cement.
