House of Faith Orphanage Update | 18 July 2009

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18 July 2009

Silembe, Zambia


We now have 4 homes completed at House of Faith Orphanage (HOFO), with the capacity to host 48 children. There is some work that remains on the second bathhouse and this will be completed as the addtional homes fill-up. We did and started work on our community center several months ago. HOFO is currently hosting 28 children.

Our community center will be a multi-function facility. Our primary objective to provide an activity center for the children while they are not in school. In addition, the facility will include several apartments for staff, and short term missionaries. An update from Mike Jones, GO! Director for African Missions, in Silembe, Zambia follows:

We have been in a bit of a rush the past few days with Constance in the hospital, visits to Social Welfare in Livingstone, vehicle repairs, preparations for the Carolina Team coming, construction activity, and my resting after taking Constance home with building supplies as I was not feeling very well (I feel fine today).

The community center is coming along. These men have never worked at these heights before. The ceiling will be 15 feet in this room. The floor has sand and water, sand to hold the water as the slab cures.

There will be one large meeting room, storage, two large bunk rooms for work teams, and one apartment for the Orphanage Director.

Since beginning this structure we have had one of our work crew fall from the scaffolding. Please pray for safety for the work crew, the children, and the staff at HOFO.

Man power is the only power found on this building site except our truck delivering materials.

The re-enforced concrete bean over the upper windows has been poured. We will build up the peaks to give us something to help hold the trusses as they will be raised by hand.

This side of the wall is at ceiling level, where trusses can be set.

Moving scaffolding takes time. Hope to have the trusses up next week after this side bricks are laid and the peaks at least half way up.

The stage will be poured after a couple of courses of bricks are laid on the curing slab, filled in with dirt, and tamped down. About half of the workers were paid on the 15th and went home. We have enough money to finish paying the workers for this month, leaving nothing for cement needed in week 1 of August, or furniture like beds. In addition, we will need another $2,350 to complete the roof.

This was Constance in the hospital. The doctor said her recovery from meningitis was miraculous. I took her and Elizabeth (Elizabeth stayed with her the whole time) home to Mapampi yesterday. Constance doesn't warm up to people easily, but she smiled when we crossed the Ngwezi River.

The team from NC will help install more toilets and sinks in the bath house, and install some shelving in the kitchen pantries.

After the end of this month the building crew will be cut in half again, as no large jobs requiring many people will remain.

Baby Anna will stay with us in Kalomo a few more days. We think she is fine but need to watch a couple of things a few more days. Social Welfare told us we will pick up 6 children either Wednesday or Thursday. Another 4 children will be coming soon after.

Baby Anna came to us earlier this month at 4-days old. Anna's mother died shortly after give birth to Anna.

The addition of 10 more children will bring our growing family to 38 children. There are many children that we currently host that are not yet sponsored. All funds that are generated through these sponsorships go directly to support the children in Zambia. For more information on this program visit us at: