Greenfinch Church in Zambia
When we discovered that our Greenfinch team could not travel to Zambia in 2020, we were keen to bless the Care Workers in our partner community of Chilabula in lieu of a visit. So we arranged, with the support of Hands at Work, for the purchase and delivery of ‘hampers’ containing items ranging from toiletries to fertiliser, as well as a bible in the local dialect of Bemba.
Hands at Work was able to send a video back from the Care Workers singing with joy about their hampers and bibles, which really engaged everyone at Greenfinch.
We have a whole bunch of people in our wider church family who knit blankets for distribution from Kachele. They all knitted for England (or should I say Zambia!) over Lockdown – so much so that the church was overrun by blankets. So our knitters have turned to hats as a new project, keeping an engagement with our African outreach.
We have also previously published a Facebook page for the times we run a trip to Zambia so that our church family and other supporters can follow our teams. However, we have now started posting general updates such as news about the COVID pandemic from Zambia, just to keep people focused on our partnership even if we cannot visit.
We are also asking those who have been out on teams to make short video messages which we have sent to Chilabula as an encouragement via WhatsApp.
As, sadly, we will not be able to send a Greenfinch team in 2021, we have been able to fund works in Chilabula to improve facilities for the children – water-filtering equipment and repair of the Life Centre windows and doors.
We have shared this with the church through regular communications, and Chilabula features on our weekly prayer request email to the whole church.
Out of sight but never out of mind!
Rachel & Garry Summers on behalf of Greenfinch Church