Village of Hope

One of the major motivations behind visiting Zambia was to see old Kistler family friends, the Schwartzes. Kathleen and Benedict run an orphanage just north of Lusaka called, “Village of Hope” which is aiming at developing a sustainable model of orphan care.

As of now, there are 42 children at VoH, all referred by the local social services branch. The children range from 5-12 years old and are grouped into houses. Each house has about 8 children and a mother who lives with the kids. VoH runs a farm to feed the children, a restaurant and market to sell excess produce, beautiful school, and is starting chicken production. It was a wonderful time, marked with frequent power outages and lots of great food.

One favorite memory from VoH was playing a version of dodgeball with the children. One team all stands between two representatives of the other team who throw the ball back and forth. They try to hit the people in the middle like dodgeball. However, games were won by scoring 100 points between people getting out. Additional points were awarded if a person in the middle caught the ball, with more points received if more of your teammates are still “in.” I have to say I dominated, which was a lot of fun.
Most importantly for me, I was blessed to see that the children were all joyful. They sung and played and danced and smiled constantly. I (Matt) preached a sermon on the wise and foolish builder parable and they all seemed to appreciate the message. They also challenged me to a foot-race which was considerable fun (and an ego-boost for a moderately slow person). The entire time and place had a sense of hope which gave its name true meaning.