March 2024 Newsletter
I’m excited to write to you with a renewed and refreshed sense of purpose as I’m writing this. God is continuing to fill me up by His spirit through His grace and I’m excited to share what He’s doing through me and our family in Zambia. I really pray that this newsletter encourages you in faith and that it causes anyone reading to invite God into any space where unbelief has crept in.
Sponsored Children Receiving Christmas Gifts
After a very HOT hot season, we were able to celebrate Christmas with our Hands of Hope students! Not only were we able to give each child’s family a chicken and macaroni noodles, but we were also able to give them a sweet gift that a generous member of Cedar Creek Church created- hand-made pencil pouches with pencils and all kinds of cool goodies that the children were so excited about! They were able to worship as one together on Christmas and then have a feast at home to celebrate! Thank you to everyone that gave and was a part of this amazing program. Luke and I were also given a trip to be able to meet my family half-way and stay with my family in Europe for Christmas- what a gift to be able to spend time with our famliy we missed so much! It really renewed our spirits and was a sweet time that God gave us.
January was a hot and very heavy month. The first of a very severe cholera outbreak in Zambia came to its peak, and it really hurt the areas that we go to church in, have friends in, and serve in. Schools were closed, church programs had to be adjusted, and I felt it was eerily similar to Covid times for myself. Because of this outbreak, I wasn’t able to have someone come in for childcare anymore, and found myself being a full-time stay-at-home-mom with Marlow. While it was a huge blessing, many of you know that my personality is naturally at odds with a role like this. I love being busy, productive, and collaborative. And suddenly, I was none of those things. Luke went into the compound cautiously one time a week, and continued working from home while I was with Marlow. I was convinced I could at least work from home, but found myself only able to work in the evenings. Those of you that have had nine-month-olds understand, and especially those who have had babies that don’t nap longer than 30 minutes! During this time, I will admit I struggled. I was so renewed and excited and passionate to get into homes and take the risk to keep pushing with our school efforts. 2024 has had so much newness, exciting new plans and roles for so many staff members, and I was unbelievably excited to jump in. Having to stay at home and settle for phone calls and organizing things from home at night was discouraging to me. For about a year, I went through an amazing spiritual counseling experience that God used to show me who He was and to truly know what it’s like to live LOVED by Him through Christ. So when these moments of my role being stripped from me came up, I knew God was showing me who I am- a beloved, precious daughter of the king. Nothing that I do can add or take away from that. This period still brought a lot of fruit, but I want people to know that so many things in this ministry do not go to plan, and God is ministering to me as much as to anyone else. Luke worked so hard to pick up my lack of being able to work and truly has done an incredible job.
In other exciting news, Luke has been appointed as the new President of Hands of Hope! I’m so excited to have him in this new role as he has God lead this ministry through Him by His grace. He’s already been hard at work in this new role and is leading Hands of Hope with integrity and discipleship on the forefront of his mind. He has been hard at work in accounting, planning for the nonprofit, meeting with all of our leaders and staff, connecting with churches and potential partners, as well as planning for our future insight trips to Zambia! Along with that, Marlow is now learning to walk, saying ‘mama’ and ‘dada’, and is in maybe the most fun stage ever!
Chlorine Sanitizer Installed in Hands of Hope Trust School Borehole
Cholera Prevention: Washing Hands
I want to address cholera, as I know many don’t know a lot about it or how a place can get this deadly disease. Cholera is gotten because of unclean water- in Zambia’s case, it comes from people drinking water that has been exposed to animal feces. Once people contract the disease, it can be spread through particles, just like Covid-19: coughing particles coming in contact with someone’s eyes, nose, and mouth. Cholera spread very rapidly and many programs, such as church, had to be cut short and they had to take many precautions. Our compound was the worst affected in the city, having many die before ever being able to reach a clinic every day. Everyone had to boil water and stay in their homes as much as possible, especially those with young children. This really affects people in terms of the economy, as people who are not out selling are not able to earn money to feed their families. The outbreak grew so big that the ministry of health overtook the national football (soccer) stadium, having to announce names daily of those who had died to crowds waiting and even sleeping outside it to see if their relatives made it or not. It also really caused problems with education in Zambia, as the ministry of health had to go inspect, give direction, and re-inspect all schools to ensure there were proper sanitization measures such as the chlorination and treatment of school water. The Zambian school year starts in January, but we weren't able to start until February. Normally, the school year has three terms with three one-month breaks, but now our students will only have a week-long break before starting term two. We thank God that it didn’t last longer, as this time is precious and we really needed to begin. Our school is completely equipped and safe for our students, and throughout this whole outbreak, none of our students contracted cholera! We thank God for his protection once again, and we are praying this outbreak causes initiatives by the Zambian government to take steps in sanitation to protect the people here.
Evidence of Drought in Mumbwa
One really big concern in Zambia is the drought that we are currently experiencing. Zambia’s biggest industry is agriculture, and this rainy season has hardly seen any rain. This is the first drought since 1994 according to a few local people, and this one is much more severe. The month of February normally has constant rain, but has instead been completely dry. People are losing their livelihood, and because of the weather, the cost of food will be very high and not affordable to many families in villages or compounds. They have never seen such a severe drought in their lifetime. There is a silver lining, being that this drought has helped stop the spread of cholera, but it is very concerning for the whole country. We were recently visiting our friends and the Transformation Center we are building in the village, and the crops were withering away. People are so discouraged and are always praying that the rains will come. I hope you join us in praying for that too. It’s hard to see people who are already disadvantaged and suffering still suffer more. They are watching their food leave their mouths as the plants wither in front of them and they sweat away, trying to keep livestock cool and find means and ways to help the plants survive. We don’t know what the future holds, but we know some communities have already had stores begin rationing food. We know God is faithful and can take care of these people.
We have so many new roles for so many of our staff, and I’m so thankful that we now have a greater capacity to do our ministry in excellence. A big transition is our friend Jack is now our Child Sponsorship Manager! I’ve been able to work with him on increasing our ability to follow-through with many of our students, so we’ve been able to easily (because of language) check in with our families and hear how they are doing throughout the outbreak as well as giving them their school supplies and uniforms they’ll need for the coming school year. It’s been so encouraging to have more capacity to check grades, offer support, and hear of needs. As we are being intentional in home visits, we’ve been let into their struggles in home situations- we currently have multiple children dealing with health concerns like seizures and anemia, as well as academic concerns from those that deal with intellectual disabilities. It’s really unfortunate that so far, I haven’t found any services for these kinds of things, but we are praying for God to make a way for children with these disabilities!
Sponsored Children with New School Supplies: backpacks, shoes, uniforms!
Without going into too much detail, we have really experienced God’s protection over our family. Unfortunately, we’ve been through some attempted thefts, but I am testifying to God’s goodness and HIS covenant of perfect peace- Not one thing has been stolen of significance from us and we only can thank God Himself for that. These instances have caused us to suddenly remember that God has His hand on us. We are not promised an easy life or easy circumstances. Zambia is incredibly safe in so many ways, but living with people experiencing severe poverty brings about theft pretty often. We hadn’t had to experience this, but even these attempts have made thieves come up short. We find safety in God’s arms and He protects us in supernatural ways!
An exciting thing that has been going underway is that we now have been able to buy a piece of property that was bordering our school! We have been fervently praying that God would allow us to buy this land, as there’s so many things our children at our school need (such as a place to safely eat, a more secure border/gate situation, room for our future junior secondary school). We praise God that an anonymous donor at True North Church gave money to be able to purchase the property and begin some renovations. Not only are we going to be able to meet the needs of these learners, but also to be able to host events for the community with this space! We have just begun some renovations and will begin using the space immediately for some temporary needs until we can do a full renovation to expand our school. We are in awe that God uses people like this- they simply want to obey God and in turn, 300 vulnerable children and their community in Zambia are blessed. God’s ways constantly surprise me and surpass my expectations and understanding. All glory to Him!
New Property for Addition to Hands of Hope Trust School
We have also been really blessed in being able to use blessings from the U.S. to bless others! We were so honored when our October team came and brought all kinds of needed school supplies for us! We set them aside for the beginning of the year since the end of the year was testing, but then of course the beginning of the year was delayed, so finally in February we were able to gift our teachers with needed quality supplies to each of their classrooms! They were cheering and showing off all their new classroom items and it really means the world to them. You can’t find such quality of school supplies here in Zambia, so it was a huge blessing to the team of teachers.
Teaching Workshop and Teachers Receiving School Supplies
Our transformation center in Mumbwa’s foundation has officially been done and we were able to travel there a few weeks ago. We are so excited about the progress and can’t wait until this center can be a blessing to the people in the village! Luckily, we’ve been able to employ many people living within the village to help build and it’s been a great source of income for them. We also are starting our first pre-k/k-5 class, taught by a sponsored college student who goes to school during the school break months. Children who have never been to school because of lack of funds who are vulnerable will be able to attend and we can’t wait to see how God uses this class, who is meeting under a tarp with some hand-made desks and chairs. Thank you, Jesus!
In February, I finally was at a point to be able to start working again (slowly) and am now back full-time! I’ve been able to host teacher workshops on classroom management, host meetings with leadership team members, and invest in our people and students again. Working alongside my husband is really a gift to me, and Luke is an incredible servant-leader and has so many talents that no one ever knows about. It’s been so good to join the team back and work with him again. God has really answered so many prayers, from this meaningful work to friendship and support here in Zambia and I’m so, so grateful that Zambia is really starting to feel like home. Speaking of home, we also moved homes! While we loved our home before, we knew that we needed to move because of security and proximity to work. God brought us to the perfect home *despite* my effort to try and find the perfect house (like He always does) and since moving, we have loved our new house! It has already blessed our family so much and makes going to school and town much more accessible.
Hands of Hope leadership has always been really great at constantly asking “why?” and going back to the original calling God gave us and looking at everything we do with a “why are we doing this?”. With these questions have come a lot of amazing new initiatives! One that has finally been able to start now that cholera is getting under control is the Transformation Fellowship. We are calling all caretakers of our sponsored children to meet once a month and are coming together to worship, share testimonies, and learn life skills. Our goal is to empower these people to use what they’ve got for the glory of God, and instill foundational skills that many are born with to give hope into their situations. We are even planning on hosting business classes so that we can begin a small-business program with them! We hosted the first one in March and we had people asking if we could do it every week! They are so excited about communing with God in this way. We’ve invited them to join us at church (some are coming!) and hopefully be able to do more of this type of ministry as we gain more capacity over time.
First Transformation Fellowship
Luke and I have also been listening to a lot of Francis Chan messages lately, as well as some other amazing pastors and speakers, and we feel like we have fresh revelation from God. We have been having so many conversations about God and where he has us and what it looks like to really know Him and what life is like with God. Is being with God, communing with the Holy One, our favorite thing? More than serving the poor or speaking to non-believers about His goodness or encouraging believers or teaching about His ways? More than a comforting place to live or blessings from Him? These are questions that we ask ourselves and come to God with and we have such a renewed passion and zeal! The Holy Spirit has brought forth in the last two months a new wave of excitement about following Jesus that we just can’t contain and can’t stop talking about! It’s made going back to work not the answer for me, but the purpose of my being here on Zambian soil so clear. It’s made non-negotiables for our family so clear. It’s made our excitement about church even more! It’s been amazing to experience newness in God, which can only come from opening ourselves up to His spirit in us and meditating on His word.
We have recently been given a lot of incredible opportunities to be a part of some really incredible missions! Luke was just on a mission trip to Itezhi Tezhii! Here’s him telling you all about it…
Luke here! The trip to Itezhi Tezhi, which means 'very slippery’ in Tonga because of a few rocks that border the Kafue River just beside town, was so beautiful. One of our pastors in Mumbwa started a church here in 2004 and then was relocated to Mumbwa because of work in the 2010’s. He has since retired, but knows he is called to Mumbwa. This church has been struggling recently after their most recent pastor up and left in the middle of the night, so they called us asking for help and direction, basically asking for us to adopt them. So Friday, Bitwell (our pastor and Zambian father), Joseph (our Mumbwa pastor) and myself took off from Lusaka for the 5 hour trip west. The road is very bad to Itezhi Tezhi and is bumpy dirt for many of the miles. Once we arrived on Friday it was dark and a few of the church leaders met us to welcome and help us find a lodge to stay in. Joseph’s two sons still live in Itezhi Tezhi from when he lived there, so he was staying with his youngest son, while Bitwell and I stayed in the lodge. Friday night, Bitwell and I vision casted and prayed together over nsima (Zambia’s staple food). Saturday morning we met 12 of the church’s leaders at the church and met for about 5 hours. We worshipped and prayed and then their senior elder brought all of the church’s problems to us. The most prominent problem was they wanted for us to provide a pastor for them, but what ended up happening is we commissioned a senior elder to become the pastor. It was a much more and complex process than just deciding that, and I am so thankful for the wisdom and experience of Bitwell to know that pastors that are brought up from within the church have a much higher success rate than bringing from the outside. After this, Joseph, Bitwell, and I encouraged the leaders and answered any questions they had. It was a beautiful time and, of course, they prepared nsima for us. One of the men on leadership, Joseph’s son, works at the major radio station in town, and invited us to take a tour. He showed us all around and then took us to the live recording studio. Next thing I know he sat us all down and said we were going to do a live segment. So the 3 of us, along with Knox (a church leader) were able declare of the goodness of God and invite anybody in Itezhi Tezhi to attend church with us. It is a glabal radio station and we had listeners in Zambia, Kenya, the UK and the USA. A lot of my family members were even able to tune in and listen! After this, a few of them wanted to show me around so they took me to the lake, the river, and gave me a behind the scenes access to the power plant on the river. The next day was Sunday, so we went to church. They asked me to preach, so I was happy to do so! I gave a word on Psalm 27:4 where David’s prayer was to rest in God’s house all the days of his life. The amazing thing was 2 ladies attended because they heard us from the radio. 6 people responded, including one of the ladies who came because of the radio! After church, we shuttled everyone down to the lake (about 1 mile away) and we baptized 11 people, including the radio lady. It was truly such a beautiful moment! Whoever got baptized, an eruption of cheering came from the shore. This community is so close and cares for each other so much. I was blessed by them far more than I was able to bless. I connected with a lot of the members and feel like I have gained brothers and sisters for life. I am very much looking forward to visiting again and we’ve already identified with them other evangelism and church planting opportunities. Be praying for the people of Itezhi-Tezhi, and for the people of Uphill Baptist Church!
We are so incredibly sad, more than ever before, to be leaving Zambia for a few months. We desire to love people here and to be a part of the church here because we know this is God’s calling on our lives. But we are also so incredibly excited to bring what God has been teaching us into the United States and to share more testimonies of God and what following Jesus here has been like. We will be in the United States all of April and May with the goal to connect to churches, homegroups, businesses, and whoever will have us to tell about the vision of Hands of Hope. Of course, we are hoping to fundraise for the nonprofit, but we also just want people to be able to join in on this amazing thing God is doing here in Zambia! We will be arriving the end of March and cannot wait to see so many of you readers so soon!
If you are reading this and go to church, we’d love to come visit your church or small group! We are always ready to share about what God is doing in Zambia through Hands of Hope and would love to connect with you!
We are also hosting our third annual fundraising event, A Night of Hope! It will be held at Cedar Creek Church in Aiken, SC on Friday, April 26 at 6:00 pm. We would be overjoyed for you to attend and even invite others! We are having an African Giving Market, silent auction items, a raffle, a Hands of Hope update, testimonies from the field, and a delicious dinner! Please visit handsofhopeus.com/nightofhope to buy tickets and consider sponsoring the event!
Praises:
God is healing Zambia of this cholera epidemic!!!!
We found a house that God gifted us to be closer to school and our community!
We are healthy and safe (we have never realized how much of a blessing this is until now).
We have an amazing leadership team that truly embodies servant-leadership and is being noticed throughout the community- thank you, God, for good people!
None of our students have had cholera and our school is a safe place for them!
We hosted our first Transformation Fellowship this March and it was an amazing success! We were able to worship and testify to God’s faithfulness together with all of the caretakers of our sponsored students.
We have connected with believers in Itezhi Tezhi and are so excited to begin walking with them!
Prayers:
Continued safety over our family and loved ones while battling cholera and other sicknesses
God would multiply gifts given to bring amazing blessings to the communities we serve- the Transformation Center and our new property for Hands of Hope Trust School
We would continue to learn and be proficient in Nyanja (the local language)
Our students who are battling physical/chronic ailments- that God will make a way for them to be diagnosed and healed
We would connect with believers in the U.S.A. and for the right people to desire to be involved in Hands of Hope
We would follow the voice of God above all else and find our security and purpose in Him alone
We love sharing our life with you through these newsletters and are blessed that you have read this one. If you’d like to reach out to us personally, feel free to at luke@handsofhopeus.com or savannah@handsofhopeus.com.
In Christ,
Savannah, Luke, and baby Marlow
