Chosen Hope Summer Mission in Zambia

This summer Chosen Hope is joining with the Alliance for Children Everywhere to touch the lives of children in Zambia, Africa. Our mission is to bless young lives there with small gifts that offer hope and demonstrate love: school textbooks that bring the promise of an education, infant formula and diapers that aid survival and care, and clothing and blankets that wrap a child in the security of warmth and nurturing. These gestures may not eliminate all the worries of their days, yet we pray that they would, at least for a moment, eliminate the idea that they are alone--that no one cares for them. As people living in the hope of Christ, we take this on as a joyful extension of the hope that was offered to us on the Cross.

Alliance, also known as ACE, has been working with the orphaned and abandoned children of Zambia for ten years and has successfully built schools and care-giving centers in the capital city of Lusaka.  One such center, the House of Moses, is specially designed as a home to orphaned or abandoned infants, many arriving just hours or days after birth, weighing as little as three pounds, and some infected with HIV. They also staff two other crisis nurseries for children as old as 7, as well as maintaining the Faithworks Schools where 2,700 children have the opportunity to be educated.  But like so much of life, ACE needs people to come along-side their work, to strengthen and uphold it.  Chosen Hope is excited to do just that!

In speaking with the directors of these facilities, the enormity of their needs has become quickly apparent. Cribs, bedding, mosquito nets, infant formula, school supplies, textbooks, vehicle maintenance, toothbrushes, rubber pants for the babies, blankets, sweaters, shoes,.... the list goes on! Thanks to the generous outpouring of many of our supporters, Chosen Hope has raised over $4,000 for this project! Lori and I, as co-founders, will be traveling together with over twenty others to Lusaka this July. Know that we have already spent much time in prayer over this money!  How would God best see it used? How can we maximize these gifts to be able to reach the most children possible? While we have been communicating with ACE directors since March, we will personally sit down with them in just two weeks to ascertain their most urgent needs. Then, because of your help, will have the amazing opportunity to go shopping for hundreds of kids! Be sure to our website for journal entries while we're away (July 11- 25).   

More than any material gift, we hope to convey love and share hope with the orphans of Zambia. In the hopelessness of AIDS and oppressive poverty, we rest in the assurance that Jesus shines brighter than any part of the darkest corner of the world. Thank you for sharing in this mission with us! We are honored that you stand beside us.