Allinder Dec 2018

“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men”
(Colossians 3:23).

Greetings from Rafiki Village Zambia!

It is a trite but true saying that “it takes a whole Village to raise a child,” and when that Village has seventy-five children living there and another 135 children who come for school every day, it takes a Village of many dedicated people working heartily as unto the Lord.

Last month, the preschool classes had a unit entitled “People who help me,” and learned about the many people, in addition to the teachers and Rafiki Mothers, at the Rafiki Village who help in all manner of ways. In this newsletter, I would like to share about some of these.

Our Rafiki Village is blessed with good water, well-kept grounds that are regularly cut with a tractor or mowers, electricity from the national power company, and a generator for when that electricity “takes a holiday.” All of this is possible because of the plant manager and the maintenance crew. Without their skills and dedication, our lives would be much drier, darker, and dirtier!

Plant manager and assistant working on pump for the water tanks

Another important person helping to raise all the children of the Rafiki Village is the Assistant ChildCare Administrator. This person assists the ChildCare Administrator in supporting the Rafiki Mothers, keeping the ever-growing children in clothes and shoes, and overseeing the food purchases. Our Village is a thirty minute drive to the nearest vegetable market, and a sixty minute drive to a supermarket to buy staples like peanut butter and ketchup, so you can see why this role is so important.

Assistant ChildCare Administrator after a shopping trip

The resident children are responsible for washing some or all of their school uniforms daily. But the bulk of the laundry—sheets, towels, play clothes, and hundreds of cloth napkins—require commercial washers and driers. These machines are operated by our laundry workers who diligently keep up with the ongoing needs.

Laundry worker with stacks of napkins

Guards also are an important part of our Village. Their main job is to keep the Village secure, but they also greet our visitors and befriend our day students.

Guard saying goodbye to day students

Not all the children who come for school know all the people involved in running our Village. But they all know the cooks! These are the men who come every school day at 6:00 a.m. to prepare breakfast for the seventy-five resident children and their Rafiki Mothers as well as the 135 day students. At lunch they provide for all 215 students, plus Rafiki Mothers, plus twenty-seven teachers, and then they end their day with dinner for the Rafiki families. The preschool children mostly know them because they are the ones who bring snack every day to class!

Snack time!

On weekends, the cooks take on a new hat—that of teacher. Every Saturday and Sunday, they teach the older resident teens how to prepare meals for the families. So far, the teens have learned how to prepare nshima (the national staple), greens, bread pudding, sausages, chicken, and the Saturday morning staple—pancakes.

Older boys learning how to prepare pancakes under the tutorage
of two experienced cooks

What makes all the workers at the Rafiki Village noteworthy isn’t just their hard work, but their smiles, encouragement to one another and the children, and the fact that they work as unto the Lord. They are making life-long contributions to the lives of the resident and day students by being examples of godly men and women. Please pray that the workers at each Rafiki Village know God’s blessing as they labor in His service.

I would like to conclude this newsletter with a sincere wish that you have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!