Church team return from Zambia project
The group from Hillsborough Presbyterian church
A GROUP from Hillsborough Presbyterian church have returned from Zambia having worked with the Oasis Village Trust project.
Oasis Village Trust is a charity run by husband and wife team, Nicky and Ziso Moyo, longterm missionaries in the Ndola area of northern Zambia. Their most recent project involves the building of an orphanage for 60 children of varying ages, including those who have been orphaned by Aids.
The team from Hillsborough Presbyterian 'Young Adults Group' headed out in July to lend their hand to the project.
They also delivered many essential supplies to the community. Small hand tools, mosquito nets and educational materials were provided by the congregation of Hillsborough Presbyterian Church through a Christmas gifts programme. These were distributed to those most in need, along with baby clothes and blankets provided by some Rathcoole Primary School parents. It was both a wonderful and humbling experience for the team to be able to provide simple items which brought such pleasure.
The team began building at 6am each morning and by the end of two weeks they had buiite a large section of the orphanage perimeter wall and two brick kilns (made up of approx 1000 bricks each). Their hard work and dedication to the task saved the project many hours of manpower and around one thousand pounds in cost. The team spent long hours working on the project, even working an immense 10 hours non-stop on their first day on site. Their work was made all the more diffacult, as the building site didn't have any of the machinery we would see here in this country. Instead cement was mixed with spades, bricks transported by hand and safety measures were not even in the equation.
As well as the physical labour on the building site, the team were taken to two local villages, Sakania and Mackensie, as well as a variety of schools in order to spread the word of God to the young people through song, dance, drama, crafts and games. The impact that the team had on the young people was immediately evident as they scrambled over each other to make sure they got the craft the team had made for them, and joined in with the songs with clapping and smiles on their faces.
This trip to Zambia was a culmination of over a year of fundraising and hard work with help from family, friends, church members and the community at large. The team are very grateful for all the support and encouragement they received. They wish to take this opportunity to thank all their sponsors and both Laurelhill Community College and Marks and Spencers for allowing them to hold events.
The group will be sharing their experiences of Zambia and the Oasis Village
Trust at a special service at Hillsborough Presbyterian church on October 10
at loam. Everyone is most warmly welcome to come along and join in the
fellowship. Tea and coffee will follow the service.
Below: The group from Hillsborough Presbyterian church
Ulster Star
01/10/2010
