MFA news

No. 4. May 2004

A Year full of blessings!

Sharonne looks back on a great year for MFAZ

DEAR ALL. MANY WATERS have passed in the Zambezi river since you last heard from us. We have already got MFAZ’s second year well underway, and this year with 31 students. Our first intake of students took their City & Guilds first year exams last December. They all seem to think that they have passed it. We shall hope, pray and see!! The results were due some time ago, but we’re still chasing them! Anyway, we are all systems go at the college. The workshop seems to be always full of young Zambians looking and learning about how cars work. They seem to be just like my husband, taking the engine apart and putting it back together.

FOR CHARLIE AND I it was a year full of blessings. Last February I found out that I was pregnant; it was an answer to many prayers. We have been waiting for our own children for a few years. We know that God’s hand was upon us for every child that is conceived is a miracle. On October 26^th 2003 I delivered Samuel Charles Maurice Watt after a long labour, and except for being physically and emotionally exhausted all was well with us both. We thank the Lord.

WE HAVE NOW BEEN back in Zambia for some months, have endured the heat and the frightening thunder and lightning storms of the rainy season, and are now enjoying the cool nights and lovely sunny days that the dry season brings.

Computing at MFA

ONE OF THE EXCITING developments this year is that we have started teaching our second year students basic computing, as a part of their life-skills course. The computers, donated by Somerset County Council, have been installed in the computer room. Bill Hoover & Sharonne have been getting to grips with Windows, Word and Excel (not to mention Solitaire, which actually helps very well with learning mouse control!). The students are loving it! We hope that they will still want to be mechanics when Sharonne and Bill have finished with them at the end of this term!

Bill Hoover explaining something to Kennedy and Ason, while Abel and Brian concentrate hard in the foreground!

MFAZ Restores a shattered hope

Emmanuel Sikaundi writes:

THIS IS THE EXPERIENCE of a young man whose hope in the Lord is high even in the midst of struggles. I once worked as a Farm Manager for five years, during which I was subjected for a period of 21 months without a salary. This meant going through a trying time especially after having experienced retrenchment from the previous Company which was privatised. I’m so indebted to MFAZ, which came to this part of the continent as a blessing to Zambia.

I started work as the Storesman, and immediately my second born daughter got involved in a terrible accident. At this time I received support from the Watts, and also when we eventually lost the child. In all these experiences MFAZ supported me.

This College is really supporting many, to cite a few: my child is at school and other dependants like my sister who is at a Teachers’ College, and others who are doing their primary education, are also benefiting. This has been made possible directly from my earnings in the form of my salary and loans to support them. I personally benefited as I was able to learn to work on the computer, which is a rare opportunity in our setting in third world countries. This course was facilitated and sponsored by MFAZ. The sky is the limit as there’s room to reach higher heights! I should say the working environment is so much more conducive than I ever experienced in any of my former companies.

I now have a hope and optimism for my future, especially when you are disabled like me. Here at MFAZ I’m looked at for what I can do, and other potentials in me are being realised and developed.

Emmanuel Sikaundi has been with MFAZ since its opening in Jan 2003, and is a highly valued member of staff.

Soapbox and the Library

THE TEAM FROM SOAPBOX came last August for 3 weeks, helping us to refurbish a new library. I say refurbish because it used to be a very run down old servants’ quarters. It had one toilet, one shower and 4 rooms. When Soapbox arrived Charlie asked the team to design and change the old structure to make it into the new library. They did so extremely well. From the six small rooms that it used to be, they broke the walls, blocked some doors and made it into one big room with two arches in the middle where the structure supports the roof. It looks really good, they have transformed the building. The library is now open and operating, enabling the students to study in peace.

Please pray for MFA