A New Year at WISDOM Community School

The Lord faithfully provided for all the needs of WISDOM Community School in 2015. We thank YOU for your support, love, and prayers for WCS.

Teachers at WCS express their gratitude for God's provision.
(L-R) Ruth, Sonile, Rogers, Miriam, Monica (not pictured: Abigail, Clara)

A new school year begins in January 2016.

What is ahead in 2016?

• New students in the 1st grade - they have no preschool or kindergarten exposure, so everything is new to them!
• Growing attendance - each year, each grade gains more students.
• Alumni students - Besides the students in grades 1-7 at WCS, the WCS family has students who have graduated WCS to go to higher levels. Attending 8th grade next year are 14 former WCS students and 8 are attending 9th grade next year in the local public high school. LIVING WELL helps fund the higher education of these students. 
• One new teacher - Monica, pictured to the right above joins the WCS teaching staff for 2016. 
• New curriculum - The Zambia education department has issued new curriculum in most subjects for each grade. That means the school needs new books! 
• Kitchen building - When the Lord provides the remaining funds, a kitchen and storage area will be built - hopefully near the beginning of the year!
• School lunches - When the kitchen building is complete, the school will provide lunch (dependent on available funding).

To accommodate the growing needs, funding is needed. 

Immediate needs are:

• Monthly salary for the new teacher. TO DONATE NOW.
• $100/student for the alumni students (22 students). Enrollment fees have to be paid by January 10th. FUNDS  are needed immediately to be able to pay for these fees! TO DONATE NOW.
• New curriculum. Some has already been purchased but much more is needed. We buy according to our funds, even if we don't have enough funds to be able to buy all that we need. TO DONATE NOW.
• Classroom supplies - the basics, pencils, paper, etc. TO DONATE NOW.

If you want to be a part of providing an education to the children in this school in a slum area, please DONATE NOW!

New WISDOM Teacher

Beginning in January 2016, WISDOM Community will have be completely staffed with seven teachers for all seven grades for the first time!

Please pray for Monica, our new teacher. She has a diploma in Early Childhood Education and graduated last year. Monica will be teaching the 3rd grade, which will have around 60 children in one class. 

The new school year begins in January in Zambia. Their elementary schools comprise grades 1-7.

Congratulations to WCS 7th Graders!

WISDOM Community School's 7th graders took their exams to qualify to be accepted into the 8th grade. All 14 of them passed! Three of the boys will go to a more advanced 8th grade; the remaining 11 will attend the 8th grade where we currently have 8 former students attending. They will begin the 8th grade in January when the Zambia school year begins.

Teacher Miriam helping with the mural at Camp Wisdom.

We are very proud of all of these children and are very excited that three are exceptional! 

Special credit goes to Miriam, the 7th grade teacher. Miriam joined WCS this school year. She is a highly qualified teacher and has more credentials and experience than most of our teachers. Her faithful teaching showed up in the exams of these 7th graders!

In Zambia, you must pass the qualifying exam to be able to proceed to the 8th grade. Students in the 7th grade can choose to drop out after the 7th grade or they can take the exam. If they do not pass, they can repeat 7th grade or dropout. The "regular" 7th grade in that area is located with the public elementary school. The "advanced" 8th grade is located with the high school.

LIVING WELL is raising funds to help with the cost for these children to begin their secondary education, plus continue to assist the ones who are currently attending 8th grade and begin the 9th grade in January. We are pledging $100/student towards their expenses next year.

If you would like to help a child from this slum continue their education, you may DONATE NOW.

Give HOPE to a Child in an African Slum

DONATE NOW

Water from a Faucet!

No more pumping the water by hand!

Because of YOUR support, we were able to install an electric pump and water tank with a faucet.

As you can see in the picture, water buckets are lined up, waiting to be filled. Even very young girls are responsible for bringing this vital water  to their homes for their families. 

The water faucet makes it immensely easier for anyone to draw water, but it also preserves the life of the pump.

We are very blessed to have an ample supply of water in this well. It stays clean and clear all year round - even in the dry season. 

This well supplies water for many homes in this slum community. The water is used for all of their cooking and all personal hygiene needs. 

       

NEXT STEP: KITCHEN

Now that we have electricity, a water tank, and an electric pump - we have everything we in place to build a kitchen - we only need the remaining funds, $8,450! Once it is complete we can begin making lunches to Feed the Children of WISDOM.

BUILD a KITCHEN for WISDOM

Food and Water - life's essentials.

We have clean water, all year at WISDOM Community School.

Now, we want to provide a healthy lunch for over 350 children in this slum outside of Ndola, Zambia.

For a kitchen to be feasible and effective, we need:

1. Clean water - COMPLETE!
2. Security Wall around the campus - COMPLETE!
3. Electricity - COMPLETE!
4. Water tank with electric pump, water can come from a faucet - Ready to begin building!
5. Kitchen building with cooktop, sink, prep area, storage rooms - NEED FUNDS!

   We need $12,000 proceed with the kitchen building. 

Supporters have already given $16,000 of the $28,000 total to do the water tank and kitchen project!

At CAMP WISDOM in 2013, we cooked lunch everyday for about 120 kids!

God supplied a wonderful cook with the expertise, the people skills, and the ministry heart to undertake this endeavor.

Norma McKinney serving lunch 2013

Along with a couple of local women, they cooked outdoors, over charcoal fires. They carried water from a hand-dug well with murky water. Then they washed all the plates and utensils by hand.

The kids loved it!

They came back for seconds until it was all gone!

Norma stirs the pot while her helpers watch.

 

We go to Zambia to make relationships and show the love of Christ, not to accomplish tasks alone! Agnes and Norma shared life over boiling pots!

Video Highlights of Camp Wisdom

Enjoy and celebrate the time that the LIVING WELL team spent at WISDOM Community School in June.

Building WISDOM

The construction at WISDOM Community School continues to move forward!

Last year, we added a new classroom building. We contracted the construction of the building with some features left out - the ceilings, painting, and electrical fixtures.

Our team, Ed Edwards and John Holinsworth, installed ceilings in the three classrooms. We hired local workers to paint the ceilings, re-paint inside the classrooms, and re-paint the front of the building.

 

We had already begun the installation of electrical fixtures. Those lights and outlets are now complete also.

We have LIGHT!

We installed light fixtures inside all five classrooms and on the porch of each building.

We also had the electrician include lighting at the guard house and some security lights for the property.

While we were there, the contractor was finishing another latrine for the students, the guard house, and gates for the security wall.  

Ndola doesn't have a Home Depot or Lowe's around the corner. 

But they have other options.....  

Some of the guys tagged along just for the experience of an African lumber yard.

Celebration at CAMP WISDOM

Children everywhere love to play! Add competitions and cheers - celebrations abound.

The children at Wisdom Community School do not have games or sports in their daily time at school. They love the times of physical activities that Camp Wisdom brings.

The LIVING WELL team led the children of WISDOM in a variety of games and activities.

They designed a challenging obstacle course.

Boat oars and water bottles became "dust cricket"

The BIG catch in dodge ball!

The parachute draws the kids together.

CAMP WISDOM paints the Creation

To aid the telling of the creation story, CAMP WISDOM created a fabric mural. 

The children painted and the mural came alive! 

They do not have any time at school (or anywhere) to draw or paint. The painting and drawing that they do during CAMP WISDOM becomes a unique and special time of creativity.

We told them to paint the animals, birds, and fish any colors or designs that they wanted. 

They came up with some very colorful designs!

Completed mural on the wall. All of the pieces are pinned in place.

CAMP WISDOM Puppets

For the third year in a row, the students at CAMP WISDOM have put on a puppet show. This year they did it every day - 9 times per day - to all the students. The puppets taught each lesson.

Special thanks to the PCBC kindergarten Bible study class for donating money to buy more puppets again this year!

After everyone else finished for the day, the puppet team stayed to rehearse. Darla Hollinsworth leads the puppet team every year, with lots of helpers!

Some of the puppeteers have worked with the puppet team all three years and love it! 

The puppets told the story of God creating the heavens and the earth, the sun and moon, the land and sea, the vegetation and the animals. The audience got to participate with their own hand puppets and the insects on sticks.

The story includes the story of Adam and Eve's sin and separation from God, and concludes with His story of redemption. 

On Saturday, the puppets told their story to their families and community. Hundreds of children and and adults turned out to see what WISDOM Community School is doing!

Besides the children from CAMP WISDOM (in the bright green shirts), many children who are not in school gaze at the stories told by the puppets. Some of these children are not old enough for school yet and some don't go because they choose not to or their parents don't encourage them.

Made by God for His Glory

The theme for CAMP WISDOM this year was creation. 

We put it on our t-shirts (designed by the incomparable Zachary Foster) and on our wrist bands. 



We sang about God's creation. 

We used puppets to tell the lesson. 

We made a mural that depicted the creation. 





We made crafts that related to God's creation. 

Our game time leaders even found a way to talk about being part of God's creation when they played!

350 CHILDREN of WISDOM Attend CAMP WISDOM

All of the CHILDREN enrolled in WISDOM Community School attended CAMP WISDOM, led by LIVING WELL Ministries.

Children of WISDOM assembled on 1st day to begin CAMP WISDOM

How do 10 Americans lead 350 Zambian children in a week of lessons, music, crafts, and games without having chaos?
Lots of planning and prayer!

With the help of all of the teachers of WISDOM and many more community helpers, the kids had a week of fun, learning, and love.

The team brought each child a CAMP WISDOM t-shirt. Now we know which ones are enrolled in the school and which ones are hanging around the school.

Team distributing t-shirts.

The children were divided into three sessions to attend at different times of the day. The team gave each child a wrist band, the color designated the session that they would attend.

Each child had a name tag. The color of the name tag put children into smaller groups for each session.

Check back soon for more photos of CAMP WISDOM!