[I had intended to post photos and commentary from Africa over the last two weeks but I had no Internet access from my computer, so what follows over the next few days are chronological posts of a few of the things we experienced and did while in Africa.]

After our first full day in Johannesburg, South Africa, we boarded a small plane that took us north, flying over Zimbabwe where there is much political turmoil today, to the northern border of Zambia, just south of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. From this small airfield we boarded a van which took us to on a four hour journey northwest along the “copper belt” of Zambia to the town of Solwezi where our lodging was located. We then drove another 30 minutes down dirt roads to a bush village where the Lusa Project is located. This project is what I would consider a miracle and a modern day fulfillment of the words of Isaiah 51:3, “He will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing.”

In 2006 Nancy Brown and a team from our church first visited this site, along with Tembo Kalenga, the director of SHADE - one of our southern Africa mission partners. They found an amazing older woman, Mama Yoba, who, with her husband, had opened their home to orphans. At one point they had 22 orphans living in their 400 square foot mud brick home and sleeping under a tree. They developed a program to care for them, and for women in their community. By the time our team arrived they were feeding more than 600 orphans a month with the help of donations. But the dream was to do more.

They hoped to build a building to house a variety of training programs for women, to teach them life skills and help them to be able to earn income to support themselves. The dream included building large gardens so the community could be self-sustaining, and fish ponds and a hen house to raise eggs and poultry.

The United Methodist Committee on Relief had already provided funds for the aquisition of land along a stream (critical to providing a water supply for irrigation and the fish ponds). It appeared to me that there were perhaps ten acres of land that were a part of the Lusa project. What was needed was funding for buildings, sewing machines, tools for farming, seeds, a hen house, fish ponds, chicks and tilapia as well as a stipend to add part time staff. As a church we agreed to provide these things - and we became a part of this miracle.

Today there are acres of corn, cabbage, greens, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, onions and sugar cane growing on the hillside that was once only dust and brush. There are four fish ponds filled with tilapia. There is a hen house with a hundred hens and chicks and dozens of eggs laid every day. And there is a community center used seven days a week for multiple programs serving hundreds of children, women and men in the community. Three different churches meet in the building each weekend. A small house is used to care for women dying with AIDS. And there is so much more happening here.

Church of the Resurrection has provided all of the funding for these buildings and ministries, but it is the local people at Lusa who make this ministry happen - most are unpaid, working only for their meals, but their dedication to Christ, their concern for widows and orphans, and their desire to see a future with hope for their community, compels them to do what they do.

Here are a few photos of Lusa: 1. The place where, just 2 years ago, the programs of Lusa were held - under two large trees outside Mama Yoba’s home. 2. The new community center that houses Lusa’s programs. 3. Just a portion of the community gardens making Lusa self-sufficient and feeding hundreds while teaching life skills. 4. Fish ponds where tilapia are grown. 5. Small hut where women dying with AIDS are cared for.