Dear Friends Everywhere!!

Yours, and our, prayers have been answered!! After more than a year of seeking the Lord and beseeching the cement company for favor with them in a national shortage crisis...we finally have cement!!!

Today was my 62nd birthday and I was blessed to find that even though we ordered and paid for 600 sacks of cement, we got 727 sacks. Although the US dollar declined, the Zambian Kwacha gained strength, and so we got an extra bonus of 127 sacks!!

We have been thanking God all day, and now the builders will work extra hard to see to it that the

House of Martha building project will go ahead with full force so can move the children into their new home.

Thanks for praying and giving! The photo attached is cool...dust covered men unloading a truck full of cement. :-)

Blessing you!
Sandra

Apr. 15, 2008

Dear Family and Friends:

I first want to thank everyone for their prayers and support in the time leading up to my departure, through my travels and during my stay in Zambia. I arrived in Zambia Thursday, April 3 and other than being extremely tired I was excited that I had finally returned. Ever since I left in the middle of January I have felt called to come back, not only to help the people of Zambia but also to reunite with the friends that I had made during my short stay. Although there are some similarities to this time and my trip in January, the trip as a whole feels completely different. The place where I spend my evenings is actually an orphanage called House of Moses, for kids aged anywhere from 1 day to 3 years. I could not have asked for a more amazing place to stay because everyday I am reminded of why I am here. Although I spend my days helping out with construction of the new House of Martha orphanage, I try to spend as much time as possible in the nursery at House of Moses with the children. The kids are just amazing and everyday I am becoming more and more attached to them.

The construction that is taking place right now is the renovation of a house into an orphanage so that the children in the current House of Martha will have a larger and safer place to stay. This past rainy season the current House of Martha was in serious danger of being completely flooded. So that threat, along with the lack of space is the reason for the new building. As of now construction has been slowed by a few problems. A major issue in Zambia right now is the lack of concrete. Most of the smaller companies that were able to get concrete are charging outrages prices because they know that the demand is so high. Although we are trying to find other companies who are still at cheaper prices we may have to resort to the increased prices because, as of this Thursday we will have run out of concrete completely. We are also currently having a difficult time obtaining the bricks that we had ordered. This is causing us to stop work at the orphanage for the time being and is forcing us to go to other properties doing minor repairs while we wait.

Christian Alliance for Children in Zambia currently operates 3 orphanages and has set up many schools which they continue to monitor. It is a nonprofit organization which relies solely on donations for the day to day running costs of the orphanages as well as construction costs. Please consider helping this organization in showing children God's amazing love. Your prayers as well as your financial support will go a long way in building up the future of Zambia. Thank you from all of us in Zambia.

If you wish to contribute to this worthwhile cause, donations can be forwarded to my home church for a tax receipt. Please make cheques payable to Fleetwood Christian Reformed Church (9165 160 Street, Surrey, BC V4N 2X7 or passed on through my parents, Nick and Joyce Van Ravenstein) and mark on the memo line—Zambia project—Kevin Van Ravenstein. They will then wire the funds to us here in Zambia. Thank you for your amazing support.
God bless!
Kevin Van Ravenstein

Dear Mrs. De Vos,

My name is Daria Charlesworth and I am the Director of Guidance and
College Counseling at the Purnell School, an all-girls boarding school for
grades 9 through 12 in Pottersville, NJ. I have had the good fortune to be
a chaperone on a community service trip our school has sponsored to
Zambia, and so I helped supervise nine junior and senior students while
they stayed at the House of Moses in Lusaka. We visited the Helen De Vos
Christian School in the Kanyama section on March 11, 2008. I wanted to let
you know how impressed we have been by the school building, by the faculty
and students, and by the incredible progress that has been made there.

We arrived at the school in two four-wheel drive vehicles, carrying a
total of 15 people- nine students, my colleague William Warlick and me,
and administrators from CACZ. It is difficult to describe how rugged the
trip to the school was. Once we entered the Kanyama compound the road
became a dirt path strewn with jagged rocks, which made the trip very slow
and bumpy. Pools of standing water from recent rains were also part of the
roadway. We stopped in front of the cement wall that encloses the school
and we were greeted by many children in dark blue uniforms with “Helen De
Vos Christian School” on the backs of the sweaters. We entered the school
and it was like being in a different world- fresh concrete walls, new
windows, an open courtyard, and beautiful wooden doors were evident as we
walked into the compound. In the Library we were surrounded by cartons of
books and cardboard boxes containing brand-new desks as well as food
supplies for the children. The physical plant is unlike anything we have
seen in Zambia, and we toured at least four community schools in the two
weeks we spent in Lusaka and Siavonga. But more important is the
excitement and brightness we saw in the eyes of the students as they
settled into their beautiful new classrooms. They are so eager to learn!

One of the requirements for our nine students from Purnell was for them to
plan a lesson to be taught to Zambian 5th and 6th graders. Our students
split into two groups and taught two classes at he the Helen De Vos
School, one for 5th grade and one for 6th grade. Our students expected
the Zambian students to be disinterested and blasé, as American students
might be. Nothing could be further from the truth. The students were
polite, engaged, and so excited to be learning something new. We were
impressed by the high level of attention from the Helen De Vos students,
as well as the enthusiasm and interest of their teachers. In fact, one of
the teachers said to me, “I wish you were here for three weeks, I could
learn so much from your students!” The Purnell students had prepared
posters, worksheets, art projects, and songs related to the lesson on the
water cycle, in an effort to use all sensory modalities- visual, auditory,
experiential- to explain the concepts. The students and faculty at Helen
De Vos were so welcoming and eager to learn from us.

Your gift of this school is extraordinary, and I wanted to let you know
how important it is in the overall context of education in Zambia. In our
travels we have met so many wonderful children who are motivated to learn,
yet have such poor facilities that we wonder how they can possibly
concentrate on their lessons. At the Helen De Vos School they are safe,
well fed, have desks and materials, and have a peerless opportunity to
succeed. It is an experiment in Zambian education that must continue,
because it has so much potential to change the lives of Zambia’s future
leaders. Though I am not affiliated with a church denomination (Purnell
School is non-sectarian) I am so impressed with the work of the Christian
Alliance for Children in Zambia as well as your magnificent high school. I
see this school as an enormous contribution to the future of Zambia, and I
hope you will continue to support it.

Sincerely,
Daria Charlesworth, RN, MS
Director of Guidance and College Counseling
Purnell School

In Zambia extreme demand for electricity has created havoc in the country. The power company ZESCO has issued a nation-wide schedule for what they call load-shedding, where entire areas are cut off for hours each day, or in some cases days at a time. The nation is both selling power to South Africa to raise support for new generators, and at the same time, building new generating capacity on Lake Kariba.

This will go on till 2010 at the earliest. Here in Chelston, where House of Moses is located, we were made aware of our schedule yesterday. We will be without power on Mondays and Thursdays from 5AM till 9PM. The power will come on for 2 hours only at mid-day. With the CACZ offices located on the property and all of our babies needing water from our well which is electric driven, we are left with no option but to try to look for the funds to buy a generator that will run everything except the stoves. In faith we are going to purchase one on Monday. The other homes will be OK as there are fewer children and they have a city water supply.

If your church family is looking for a project, this would be an excellent way for them to invest in children in Zambia. The cost will be $2,000. Even with the generator, we won't be able to use the stoves, so we will be doing quite a lot of barbecuing—at least every Monday and Thursday.

The new Helen DeVos Christian school is now open, has 227 students, and is operating smoothly. Both teachers and students are glowing with pride at being able to study in such a quality school and everyone is working hard, even under the budget constraints.

We are lacking some furnishings, such as stools in the lab and shelves in the

closets. We will need more shelves in the library and are looking forward to a large stove in the container being sent in March from Seattle. We will need to spend at least another $2,000 on furnishings in the next month. Several other items such as refrigerator, laboratory fume hood and other incidentals will be on hold for now.

If you would like to help with these needs, please visit our secure online donation page.

Many thanks to all who have contributed to this project, especially for Annette Baldwin's oversight and constant pursuit of excellence in bringing this dream to reality.