We currently have three mission partners- Mission Jamaica, All Kids Can Learn International (AKLCI), and Redeemer Lutheran Church. For the past few years, Zion’s Global Mission Committee has identified a special project that is beyond our annual support for our partners. This identified special project then becomes our focus for the annual golf event. On a beautiful late August day, 63 golfers and six event helpers had a wonderful day raising over $5100 for this year’s special mission project “The Foundations of Farming” at the Village of Hope (AKLCI).
A little background on AKCLI- the Village of Hope and its school: Several years ago, Benedict and Kathleen Schwartz, from the U.S., started an orphanage in the bush country of Zambia. They felt the need to help the many children orphaned due to AIDS. At that time, approximately 20% of Zambia’s five million people were orphans. The Village of Hope sits on about 260 acres of land out in the bush country. Over the years, with the help of God, the village has raised many children, providing them with a wonderful place to live and grow into adults. Shortly after they began caring for these children, they realized they needed to educate the children in their care, so they started “The School of Hope’’ which is located on the property. This accredited school grew beyond the children living in the village and currently accommodates hundreds of children from the surrounding area. As they moved forward to educate all these children, they realized there was a need to educate beyond K-12, so they started a college initially to train others from all over Zambia to become teachers. Through the help and support of many, the college is an accredited institution in Zambia and has expanded its curriculum. That brings us to why we were playing golf. A new college curriculum “The Foundations of Farming” has been developed to educate youth and young adults to become effective small-scale farmers so that they can feed their families as well as provide some financial support for them. The dollars that we raised will help set up and equip the School of Hope College with soil science laboratory equipment.
Through the generous support of the golfers, the helpers, the congregation, and our community we can continue to provide financial support to our mission partners. We are such a blessed community and have so much to share. Thank you to all for sharing your gifts with others.
