Phil's ZMS Newsletter - November 2007

No this is not Zambia! It’s close to the welsh border. I’m back in England for the month of November enjoying the weather, catching up with family and friends and taking a rest.

Covenant College

On October 12^th the College came to a close for another year with the 7th graduation ceremony. Seven more students had completed the three year course and graduated. Cees returned to Holland to be reunited with Miriam and his children. They all hope to return to Covenant College next February.

The new student dormitory is nearly finished, just the painting to do and then it will be ready for the start of the new term in March 2008. This will provide much improved accommodation and washing facilities for the students.

Covenant College Farm

The last couple of months on the farm have been a busy time of preparation of the fields. Twelve lima (quarter hectare) plots have been ‘holed’ and fertiliser and lime placed in them waiting for the first big rain to enable sowing of the maize. As I write there have been some rains around but as yet the big ones have not yet started so sowing has not begun. The students have been regularly taken to the fields to learn this new method and each have been provided, on a loan basis, with the inputs to do one lima each. In this way we hope to show in many villages how to increase yields.

The Hammer Mill was nearly completed when I left CC Farm mid October. This will house the milling machinery to grind the maize into the maize flour and also for crushing the oil from the sunflower seeds. The machinery will be installed in December and we trust will be in operation soon afterwards. This development has been possible now that we have our own electricity supply which was finally connected at the end of September.

Children’s Ministry

Marjanne continues to be busy visiting and teaching the teachers of the CEF schools, taking children’s club in the afternoons for the CC staff children and on Saturday afternoons for all the children from the nearby villages.

A baby and a truck

One joyful (it turned out to be!) time last month was the birth of baby Christina. She is the daughter of Barbara and Tuesday Banda. Tuesday joined us at the MacDonald’s home as farm supervisor. He called me at 1.30am one Sunday morning in October to say Barbara was about to give birth. I picked them up with, thankfully, two other ladies and set off for the hospital in Lusaka. We reached about halfway when the ladies screamed for me to stop. Then said OK go fast, fast! Then they screamed again and I managed to stop in a hotel entrance. Tuesday and I got out and paced around like nervous fathers as the two ladies helped Barbara. Just two minutes and we heard the beautiful sound of a crying baby! Born at 2.10am on the back seat of my truck! We carried on to the hospital, woke up the security guard to open the gates and then the nurses who were sleeping in armchairs. They came out and tended to the baby which was taken into the hospital. Barbara climbed out of the vehicle, walked straight past the waiting wheelchair and into the operating theatre! Tuesday and I went home exhausted! After morning church we went and picked up mother and baby and took them home. Both are still doing very well and the backseats of the truck have been taken out, scrubbed and put back again!

PRAYER POINTS

• Give thanks for the time of rest I’ve had with family and friends.
• Pray for all the students that they will be diligent with their farming loan packages.
• Pray for continued wisdom in all the decisions that have to be made in the various projects.
• Pray for a good rainy season as so many lives depend upon good rains over the next four months.

Thank you for your continued support.

With Christian Love,

Phil