Kaufmanns Zambia - November Missionary letter

BUILDING RENOVATIONS IN KITWE

For those of you that have been praying during the year for God's blessings on our building project we would like to give a summary of what He has achieved for the furtherance of His Kingdom. There are many stories to tell about just how great and faithful God is. The beloved Saviour worked in hearts and several teams gave of their time to come and renovate the building and minister.

It was wonderful to see them working alongside our people. God supplied our every need with the brethren giving sacrificially above and beyond their means. All praise to the LORD Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of our faith.

The first team (Bryan and Sunshine Bird, George and Dawn Wilberforce (Coffs Bible Church), helped on occasion by Kevin Currell) that arrived in June and spent six weeks with us.

Sunny & Bryan and friend   Kevin Currell on the job!         Church Entry

All the old partitions in the building were taken down and new rooms were built using cement blocks.

Two local bricklayers were employed for this. The building now has two rooms on each side of the existing stage.

The Bricklayers                         Beginnings of Kitchen       New Church Entrance and Sunday                                                                                                                     School Rooms

Toward the back of the building a new entrance with awning was constructed. Three rooms were built on the back wall as kitchen,library and Sunday School room.

Walls were reconstructed on an existing slab attached to the back of the building.

Building up the Internal Walls      The New Addition to Church    The Extension to the Main                                                                                                                                Auditorium

The last team for the year (Jeremy Searle (Southern Cross Baptist) Assisted at times by team from International Baptist) constructed a roof on the new addition, awnings over the back doors, painting of window frames and finishing off existing drainage outside the building.

The area has been divided into two toilet blocks, a pastor's room, meeting room and storeroom. An old pit toilet was demolished with many blocks saved for future use.

The next team (Geoff Steindl, Dave Holowaty and Matthew de Pasquale from Good Shepherd Baptist) stayed for ten days.

Most of the building was electrified, plumbing for toilets and kitchen were put in, a well was dug and drainage was dug around most of the church in order to prevent the building and grounds, becoming waterlogged during the wet.

Future Projects as LORD provides:

1. Plastering and painting of walls.
2. Making various rooms usable by constructing shelves, bookcases, benches etc
3. Cementing in the well walls.
4. Storage tank for water
5. Completion of drainage and construction of manholes on completed drainage
6. Landscaping the grounds
7. Construction of a small caretakers cottage.

Thanks you again for the sacrifice of your lips to God on our behalf and your generous love offerings.

Love in Christ,
Until He comes,

David and Wendy Kaufmann.

Greetings!!

It has been a short work week here due to two Zambian Public Holidays.

Monday was Hero’s Day and Tuesday was Unity Day. We took full advantage of the ‘stop work’ situation and did a couple of “touristy” things.

On Monday we went to the Ndola Trade Fair, which is THE big event of the year in this ‘neck of the woods’.

If you have an exceptional imagination you may come close to picturing what it was like. There were literally thousands of people all packed into mini-buses, which are the main form of public transport.

This traffic jam eventually filed into endless lines of people all going nowhere. When we eventually did get into the show, it felt like we were walking in the wrong direction due to the number of people walking towards us. However, a backward glance revealed as many people coming behind us as there were coming towards us. . . . and it was like this all day.

Apart from a brilliant photographic power-point presentation of beautiful Zambian waterfalls and wildlife; and the curios we discovered at the end of the day; the rest of the show was focusing on trade and thus the latest and greatest machinery and technological advances were being displayed.

Classic examples include a pressure pump that works like riding a bike; a peanut husker that works like an ancient butter churn; a brick maker that you fill with cement and push down to make a brick shape - - - - - I think you get the idea!?!?

Tuesday was, in my opinion, MUCH more enjoyable. We drove an hour northwest of Kitwe to Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage. This ‘Chimp Farm’ is located very close to the Congo border and is home to several Chimpanzee who have either been confiscated from smugglers or taken from degenerated zoos etc and they have been transported there for rehabilitation.

Originally the Chimps are kept in large cages, and then they are moved into open enclosures before being eventually released into protected lands. As well as Chimpanzee this place also has some peacocks, some geese, some other birds, several roaming monkeys and a Hippopotamus named Billy. Having enjoyed seeing the animals we went down by the river and had a delicious picnic lunch.

Back at the "Works."

Although the work week has been short, much has been accomplished. Up to this point in time the building project has concentrated on the rear of the church. With the bricking up of the Entrance, the Kitchen, and Two Sunday School Rooms now complete; work on the front platform and its side rooms has now begun.

Last week the unstable outdoor slab was removed and the foundation was repaired, which enabled work on the extension to begin this week. When complete this area will include two more Sunday School Rooms, a Store Room, a Men’s Bathroom and a Ladies Bathroom. Our goal is to have all of the brickwork complete on the floor plan, which will enable a following team to manage the plumbing, furnishing etc. of the rooms.

On Friday night we were once again reminded how thankful we are that people are praying for us!!

John had just finished dropping people off from Youth and was on his way home when he came across a man bleeding profusely from his head. John pulled over and called a couple of men nearby to help him. Together they bandaged the head, applied pressure to the wound, put him in the back of the Ute and rushed him to the hospital. John was in radio contact with home base throughout the proceedings and his comment was, “He is bleeding severely, he has lost so much blood that I just don’t know if he is going to make it.” That being the case, Dad met up with John on the way to the hospital. Usually the emergency ward is full and the orderlies are all busy.

• We Praise the Lord that this night there was no one waiting, the doctor was right there and knew exactly what to do.

  When Dad and John left the hospital the injured man was conscious.

• We pray that as he considers how his physical life has been saved that he will realize his need to be spiritually saved as well!

I must tell you of a funny comment that was made on Bible College night. The students are practicing the song, “Rejoice in the Lord”. Dad said that since I was here I could play the piano for them, so I opened the book and played but very few students sang. Having completed all the verses Dad asked why they weren’t singing, to which one of the men replied, “We don’t know that tune, we sing it to another tune.” Dad smiled and asked me to play just the melody line for them . . . sure enough, all the students sang . . . and at the end of the song they agreed, “Yes, that is the tune we know!” Perhaps by the time we leave they will recognize the songs they know when full piano accompaniment is being played!

Once again, thank you for praying for us!!

We daily treasure your prayers,

Sunny for all.