We are now 13 strong at the Teacher’s Quarters of The Esther School, with another 7 guests who are here temporarily; staying with us during the day and traveling to Chongwe to sleep in a guest lodge at night.
On August 13, we welcomed our 2 new North American Teachers, the first at the Esther School. Jean Selles and Rachel VanGent will be teaching Preschool and Kindergarten, respectively, along with their Zambian counterparts. Jean joins us from Montana with many years of experience in teaching and has quickly become the house “grandma”. She spoils us all by helping with the cleaning, cooking and by baking delicious treats on a regular basis. Jean is one tough lady and has yet to be phased by anything we have faced. You can follow Jean’s blog at sellesinzambia.wordpress.com.
“Grandma Jean”
Rachel is young and energetic and brings much joy to the team. She comes from California and spent most of the past year teaching at an orphanage in Mexico. Rachel also quickly jumped in and has been a joy to have around. Rachel’s blog is rachelvinzambia.wordpress.com.
Rachel
A week after the teachers arrived, our niece Lindsey and brother-in-law Mick joined us. Lindsey has made a committment to serve here for about a year and will be helping with the school and our family. Specifically, she is very gifted in music and athletics and hopes to be able to share those gifts here at the school, in the local churches, and around the village. Lindsey adapted quickly and has no problem jumping in to share some love with the kids from our village. She has also been leading us in worship with her singing and guitar. Lindsey’s blog is lindseyinzambia.blogspot.com.
Lins and the boys
Mick has since left us, but not before serving faithfully for about two weeks. Mick tends to be pretty low-maintenance anyway, but he survived on about 2 outfits, a bag of beef jerky and some trail mix. We knew Mick to be an excellent carpenter, so he was tasked with building the kitchen cabinets in the new administrators duplex, which he did and did well. What we weren’t necessarily expecting was how much extra time and attention he was willing to offer to the children and young men in the village while he was here. Mick was very generous with his time, talents and wisdom. He was a true blessing to us and to our neighbors and taught us all many things. Below Mick is pictured in a rare moment of rest while he was here. Mick doesn’t have a blog. Mick barely knows how to email.
Mick
For the past two weeks, we have also been joined by a work team that started with Jan Boone, the director of GEMS and Barb Miedema, former board president. They were later joined by Jan’s husband, Dale; daughter, Lauren; and son-in-law, Tim. Finally, Ron and Pat DeHaan have joined us – all for about two weeks. The team was instrumental in helping us prepare for the Grand Opening Celebration on Wednesday and the Student Assessment day on Friday. They have also been working feverishly on the administrator’s duplex so that we can all get a little more elbow room around here!
We have not only been blessed by the practicality of the help that these people have provided, but by the encouragement of being supported and seeing things move forward a little more quickly. We have also enjoyed seeing the vast diversity in how God equips and designs each person that he brings into this project. Tim, an electrical engineer by trade, was instrumental in designing and building an entirely new power supply system using the components that we had on site and some he brought from his home in Hong Kong (not a bad place to find electronic supplies). Pat is not only eternally optimistic and joyful, but is an expert at assessing and evaluating children’s developmental and academic capacity. This was obviously very helpful in our Assessment Day on Friday and in the current process of selecting our first 50 students. These are just a couple of examples of how God has woven together the story of this project and used his uniquely prepared children to carry out His will.
We are so thankful to all of these people and to all of you who offer encouragement and support in your own ways.
The DeKam Family in Zambia 