This is the story of James from Mulenga, Zambia told by him - a partner and servant to the poor and vulnerable in his community.
After hearing George Snyman's speech at Kaniki Bible School in Ndola in December 2003, I was moved with a strong conviction to do something about the weak in society. My wife, Sukai and I started praying and planning about this. Our prayer was that the lord give us excess money so that we start a feeding programme for little ones – orphans. Even after praying from December 2003 to July 2004, we could not even afford to buy plates and pots for cooking.
Then one day in July, my wife just said to me, ‘let’s just start this even without the new plates and pots’. I asked ‘how?’ she said, ‘we start with the pots and plates that we use in our home.’
This marked the beginning and indeed confirmed that God uses what we have in our hands as demonstrated in the following scriptures Matt 15:32-39, 1 Kings 17:7-16 and Exodus 4:2
Gods hand was upon us that even the fears of failure that we had melted away because his provisions increased through our business. Twenty kids were privileged to have at least a meal everyday and this brought great joy in our hearts.
Along side this, we used to visit and help the sick without any training. All we had was the word of God and medical advice from my brother in Christ who is a qualified clinical officer. Together, we encouraged many sick people in the area though most of them died and this gave me great sorrow, I remember constantly praying the prayer of Paul in Philipians 2: 27 so that God could spare me from sorrow upon sorrow.
I am sure the story of the divine connection to Hands at Work is clear to you. How we shared the same seat on a bus without me realizing who you were till I reached home. The meeting at Lusaka International Airport after your flight was delayed for a day and me instead of using Ndola airport 60km away, bought a ticket from Lusaka 360km away from Kitwe. I call this a divine connection. God arranged that we meet again and already I have seen why- the expansion of His work. It is no longer my wife, my friend and I only but a team of 18 people after the training that you facilitated as Hand at Work through the team from Canada. Praise God for this because more people are cared for now than before and my prayer is that one day all the sick in Mulenga shall pass through our care and hence be exposed to the gospel of our Lord and saviour. God has provided a Clinical Officer and Pastor in our team.
I believe God used what was in our hands and in our kitchen to sustain this work. Should this story be of value to what you aim to do without money, please do not hesitate to ask me further questions.