Dear Friends
First we want to apologise for the great gap between this newsletter and the one before.
Well life has been pretty busy, but very exciting. You all probably know by now that our lives revolve around Mechanics For Africa! Since arriving back in the UK last August, most of our time has been spent setting up the project. We are very privileged to do the work despite the many challenges that we daily face.
When the Lord laid it on our heart to start the project (that was 20 months ago) we never thought it would be that involved, but the truth is, that although there are many details and plans to put in place, it is worth it, and I believe that God even through these times is preparing us for the work He has for us in Zambia.
One of the first major steps was to identify a property in Zambia. This Feb we went to Zambia and were able to virtually complete the purchase of the property there. This has now been completed which is wonderful. We are really pleased with the property; it’s a ten acre plot, with lovely grounds including wooded and cultivated areas and a couple of hundred yards of river frontage. It’s a really peaceful area, and has a lovely house. There is ideal space to build the college classroom and workshop buildings.
Below are some thumbnails of pictures of the property. To see the full sized picture, click on the thumbnail, then use your browser's 'BACK' button to return to this page.
Coming back form Zambia left us with only a short time to
get ready to launch the project on April the 7th. It was an excellent
day, and thereby a great encouragement to us all. David Sutcliffe (Pastor of
Milford Baptist Church) gave an impassioned introduction including the first
public showing of our video wonderfully edited by Johanna. The Charity Patron,
The Rt. Hon. Virginia Bottomley JP, MP., made a very well informed speech
encouraging us to pursue the vision, and underlining the great need for better
transport and education in third world countries. It was so exciting to see the
support that we had from people, we both felt that this is not just our idea but
that the Lord is in it and with us.
Since then we have spent most of our time setting up the systems, fundraising and trying to put things into order. One of the big tasks and a great consumer of time was the project proposal. We believe that although we walk by faith and put our trust in God, it is also important to present the project in a professional way so that it will be of interest not just to the Christian world but also to the business sector. I have to say we are getting there though it has taken longer then we expected.
But our greatest challenge is fund raising. Our aim is to raise £159,000 in set up costs and £140,000 in running costs for the first 5 years. So far we have raised about £43,000 plus a £42,000 interest free loan to buy the property in Zambia. Included in this figure is about £15,000 worth of workshop equipment which was donated to the project by Dragoman (an adventure holiday company) & TWAM (Tools With A Mission; a Christian charity) and so we are doing well but the road is still long. We see the fund raising as a great opportunity for our faith muscles to grow. We praise the Lord for all His provision to MFA.
Well I guess you want to know what next for the project and for us. At the end of September we will be students again for 10 weeks at All Nations Christian College in Ware, Herts. We are very excited about the opportunity to take time to learn about and experience the word of God in such a great setting us A.N.C.C., especially considering that from September their Principal is a Zambian from Ndola. We are looking forward to making new friends with other nationals, but most of all to take time to expand our knowledge of God.
At the end of January we are planning to move to Zambia, hoping to meet our container at the other end. We then take Feb & March to settle down and to renovate our house on Emmanuel Farm, which will lead us to April when the rainy season is starting to ease off, so we could start digging the foundations for the school. We are planning to build the school and complete it by October before the rainy season starts, and at the same time we will be recruiting Zambian staff and interviewing students.
So as I said earlier we are so privileged to be called to bring hope where there is no hope; to bring prosperity where there is poverty; and to bring The Light where people have been living in darkness.
We want to take this opportunity to thank all of you how have been supporting us in prayer, finance and just accepting us as we are with all our short comings. We are so grateful to you.
We want to end the letter with a few prayer points. Please pray:
Thank you all. We hope that the next letter won’t have such a gap.
Many blessings in the Lord
Charlie & Sharonne.