Kabotu (Hello) from Project Samuel Zambia,
What a wonderful season we’ve had! After returning from North America with the exciting new addition of baby Alivia to our family - we’ve jumped right into ministry here on the ground at the Project. We’ve had a steady stream of visitors all summer long and the huge smiles and laughter from our children tells us just how very much they’ve absolutely loved it! It was wonderful to have the Pearmain family from North Shore Alliance visit us, and love, serve, and bless our Project Family as well as our village community. They spent time supporting local schools and teaching staff, tutoring our kids, leading devotions and trainings, and generally bringing encouragement and love all around! It’s been a joy for us to see our kids being loved and ministered to so well by them and many others. While we’ll enjoy a chance to catch our breath, we’ll also be sad to see this outreach season come to a close. We’ve really had some exceptional people come through our doors this summer.
Even in the few months we were away it seems that so many of the kids have shot up and grown. Where does the time go? We now have 18 teenagers around here! While teenage years are known for their challenges as a parent (and of course we aren’t completely without them) our kids continue to delight us with their warmth, respect and kindness. A teacher at their local school recently shared, that “Project Samuel kids are the cream that rise to the top!” We praise God for the way he is working in their lives and we continue to be proud of who each of them are growing up to be!
A few recent highlights have been the community outreach ‘Project Samuel Days’ that the teams have put on over the summer. They’ve done Biblical leadership teaching seminars for the adults in the community and blessed and ministered to hundreds of local kids through VBS style afternoon adventures. We’ve also been able to connect at a number of local schools, where teams have up-skilled, challenged, encouraged and prayed for both staff and students.
Here at the Project our kids continue to love to play soccer and sing, and recently they’ve also been enjoying sewing, coloring, bracelet making, and typing. Each evening we meet together for a short devotion where we worship our hearts out, dance together, and hear a short word from scripture. This is a special time of the day for our family.
Little Alivia is now three months old and we love the wonderful new adventure of life with a little one in the house. She is adapting well to the Zambian lifestyle. She has learned to sleep on the go, enjoys being in her carrier (as long as she’s facing out so as not to miss a single thing) and she continues to bring us all much joy, love and laughter. She has 24 big brothers and sisters who just can’t seem to get enough of her. What a blessing to be surrounded by such a community.
We want to say a great big thank you for your love and support of each one of us here at Project Samuel Zambia. We are grateful for you! Thank you for continuing to be a part of raising up the next generation of young Zambians for Jesus!
Faithfully,
Brenden and Kim Vowell