Meeting Martha (15 yr old) and her household

Andrew, Craig and I met Martha, a 15 yr old that cares for a large family in a compound outside of N'Dola.

Child headed households are one of the most significant problems that come with HIV/AIDS and poverty.

The challenge is food and school/education. And, how do you establish trust and make a real difference--not just take pictures, and just go away?



--Posted by Pete

You Are Good Worship Song

Craig's Post - We met with small group leaders at the Vineyard Church in Zambia. Andrew did a great teaching from Acts 2 on small groups. I video taped this because they passionately worship so well there. Truely praising God as they sing this simple song. It was a real pleasure to worship the Lord with these brothers and sisters in the Kingdom of God.
Words... Everybody Testify the You are Good... You are good, Jehovah, You are good.

HEAR THE CRY Africa Concert Promo

Cape Town / Cape of Good Hope

Craig's post
A few photos to show the most beautiful place I have been to.

Micro-loan Opportunities -Craig's Post

Damas - Our Guide and Host
We had a productive meeting with Damas Kumfwa (our host and the Vineyard regional coordinator) about potential opportunities for Micro Loans to mother swith HIV/AIDs. Providing these mothers an income would allow for:
1. Them to be able to pay for ARVs (they can live a very long time with HIV with proper treatment and nutrition).
2. Them to be able to feed themselves and their children.
The other advantages of micro loans is that they provide great accountability (they are repaid or not) and the loaners will often re-loan the money when it is paid back.
Damas has a large community center (donated for use by a local Italian business man) where the businesses could be housed until the money is paid back. There are four immediate micro loan opportunities.
1) Teaching sewing and giving a machine to each woman.
2) Cement block making… they have assembled 3 machines that would stamp out the blocks. The center is in a growth area of N’Dola and with poor infrastructure, blocks are typically acquired locally for building. This is a very good time to begin because the rainy season is coming to an end and this is the time for building season.
3) Pottery making – they are making pottery wheels out of old car axles (very industrious again) and will train women on how to make pottery and sell them a pottery wheel.
4) Chickens – they can purchase chickens for women to raise for recurring revenue selling eggs.
This is a very exciting opportunity for HEAR THE CRY and these mothers.

Day 3 -Zambia - Craig

EMM Job Training Center (Justin)
Day 3 – Zambia – Craig
Comforter Photo
Andrew and Pete have been making fun of my flowered comforter… I think they are just jealous (that’s what my Mom always told me).
Emmanuel Mercy Minisries (EMM) – Site Visit - Craig
Damas, Andrew, Pete and I went to see the EMM office in downtown N’Dola. EMM is an NGO which receives money from The Global Fund, amongst others. Justin met us there and gave us copies of their financial reporting statements and showed us how the business office is set up. One of the primary things they do is to test sex workers who they call “single mothers” to maintain their dignity. The reason they are targeting this population is that is a “high-end risk group”. The sex-workers have sex 5-10 times per day and is a major cause of the spread, exposing 25-50 people to HIV/AIDs per week per positive worker. EMM has tested nearly 100 sex-workers so far and approx. 35% have been positive for HIV/AIDs. They inform workers as to their HIV status and retrain workers to have other job skills (sewing). They provide counseling to the positive workers, and also help them to obtain ARVs (Anti-retro viral drugs) at the appropriate time. Although this part of EMM’s work is not glamorous, it is very important in stopping the transmission and growth of the disease… when I was getting my malarone pills to prevent malaria, the nurse said that the best way to not get malaria is to not get bitten by a mosquito and the same applies here, where it is much better to prevent transmission than to deal with treatment and all of the ramifications of the disease.

Becoming a Millionaire/ Emanuel Mercy Ministries

Justin Pete and Craig

Craig’s Post #3
I used to want to be a millionaire and on Thurs I achieved my goal when I received over 1 MILLION kwatcha (for my 300 dollars). It was very exciting (until we spent 25000 kwatcha on coffee later).

Zambia-Emanuel Mercy Ministries
We met with a potential NEW partner for HEAR THE CRY today (and again tomorrow morning)- Emanuel Mercy Ministries (EMM) which is an NGO – Non-Governmental Organization fighting the pandemic of HIV-AIDs in Sub-Saharran Africa.
We met with Justin Muntanga, an EMM board member and the Secretary of EMM. Justin has an amazing personal story… 9 years ago Justin was kidnapped , chloroformed, thrown out of the taxi when the kidnappers were persued by police (at high speed). Justin’s scull was crushed and he was pronounced dead by the doctor at the hospital. He was in the morgue for 10 hours and another (neurologist) showed up there to confirm he was dead and found a slight pulse. He was in a deep coma for 6 months and the doctors wanted him off life support because they thought his brain function was never going to be functional. He survived and is completely normal. I can give you the whole story in person if you ask.
One of our goals here is to improve our financial reporting for our ground partners here in Africa. EMM is very exciting to us because Justin is an accountant and the receive funds from the Global Fund. I believe we will receive a lot of information from Justin tomorrow to solidify these accountability requirements.