Lisa is a senior, majoring in Elementary Education at Bloomsburg University.  She spent a month as a volunteer at WellSpring, learning just as much as she was teaching her students in grades 1 – 8.  During her mission trip, Lisa stayed with International Ministries missionaries in Zambia, Charles and Sarah West.   To read a longer set of Lisa's journals about her teaching experience at the WellSpring School in Kalikiliki, click here. 

WellSpring is a rural school in Chongwe, Zambia. Currently, this building is just four walls of bricks without a roof.  American Baptist missionaries, Charles and Sarah West have a dream for the piece of land this little building sits on.  They are working towards developing it into a community school/orphanage for vulnerable/orphaned children in the area. They are working on providing classrooms, rooms for teachers to live in, a library, and a community center.

 

The West’s future goal is to be able to create a place where everyone in the community can learn and grow together. The library, stocked with donated books, will be used by the children at the orphanage as well as people in the community that want to come read. All in all, it is an amazing opportunity to be a part of such a big project.

 

I met a lot of the orphans that may end up going to the rural school once it is completed and it just means so much to them that people out there really are thinking of them. The kids here have lost one or both of their parents to HIV/AIDS mainly and many times the orphans are just passed around to whoever has food for them. The WellSpring school was thought up by Sarah when she was out talking to people here at a church service and asked whose little girl was standing in front of her. Someone turned to her and said "Oh, she is an orphan. She is just passed around to whichever person here has extra food." Needless to say, that completely broke Sarah's heart and that is when she began developing ideas for a school/orphanage for children.

The completed rural school will be a place where the orphans can live together and develop life skills. They will be able to get an education, grow their own vegetables, take care of animals like chickens and goats, and live together, building a sense of community. There will be houses that will be built for the children to live in and there will be one house mother for each house of children.  Charles and Sarah were also talking about how volunteers in the future could visit the school, live on site, and work with the children through VBS, sports ministries, or educational purposes, but mostly to remind the children that they are not alone when they are connected by Jesus to their brothers and sisters around the world.

 

If you can’t go to Zambia and be a volunteer, there’s a couple other important ways you can help Charles and Sarah with their ministry.  Prayer is one, both for their ministry and the children at WellSpring.  I just found out, so maybe you don’t know, that Charles and Sarah are two of the twenty-three missionaries (or couples) that need additional people to sponsor their ministry.  They need to meet their support goal by the end of September.  You can be a part of their ongoing support, but even better, if you’re a first time supporter, your gift will be matched through the “Extra Lift Matching Gift” program.  To read more about the details of how you can support Charles and Sarah, click here.  To read more about the Wests, click here.    To read a longer set of my journals about my teaching experience at the WellSpring School in Kalikiliki, click here.  I can’t wait to go back to Zambia after graduation!!