Teachers and committees....

Hello everyone,

Its been a month of teachers and committees!!  I am feeling quite exhausted as we begin the month of March!  I am also excited too about the developments happening in Early Childhood here in Zambia.

I called the head teachers from the three Early Childhood Centres in Southern province to a meeting in Lusaka, so that we could discuss a code of conduct for teachers and also how to make a handbook for parents at each centre.  We had a very productive meeting and hopefully by the end of this school year we will have made progress in our policies and documents for each centre.

Mwaka from Mazabuka, Jane from Livingstone and Angela from Monze!

At Matero CCAP congregation in Lusaka, there is a building for Community schools.  When this school was established it was doing well, but in recent years it has become run down and is hardly functioning at all.  There is potential to turn this building into an ECD centre for the compound as there are many young children around.  I had a meeting with church members and we are doing a needs assessment to see if the community feel there is a need for another ECD centre.  A follow up meeting will be held in the next couple of weeks.  It is an exciting prospect as the building if repaired is a wonderful structure and could be a great asset to the young children in the community.

The meeting with church members at Matero

the building which needs repaired

In April, the Synod are having a Spiritual retreat for the ministers and I am part of the organising committee.  This takes quite a large chunk of time as we have 2 retreats, one in Lundazi in Eastern Zambia and one here in Lusaka.  Finding accommodation within the means of the church is quite challenging and the venue we had booked in Lusaka has now been double booked so we have to start again.

Rev M Chilembo, Rev S Kabaghe and Rev A Kanyinji...part of the organising committee for the Spiritual retreat

In Lusaka, at Kabwata congregation, we used to have an ECD centre.  When covid hit Zambia the centre was closed and it never re-opened.  However, the congregation are keen to open again and we are planning to do so in 2023.  We are currently doing a needs assessment in the area to see if there is a real need for another ECD in Kabwata compound!  As usual, we have a committee overseeing the process!  Here they are with Rev N Daka the minister!

I did a road trip to Southern Presbytery to visit our three ECD centres and meet the ECD committees there.  The aim of the visit was to assist the committees to set up a mission and vision statement for each centre.  Of course it also gave me a chance to meet the teachers and see the children too!

We have vast numbers of young children - in Mazabuka there are around 60 children and there could be many more if we could accommodate them.  There is a great need in our communities for ECD but few children have access to such a service.

In Monze the children were playing outside!

In Livingstone, balance is key...

Lovely to see children in Mazabuka with lots of play materials

Committee members in Livingstone ECD 

Committee members in Mazabuka ECD (with Rev S Kabaghe centre)

So, as you can see it has been a busy month between travelling and meetings and all the planning and writing up of these trips that takes place around them.

There is a lot of encouragement as I see so many children coming to our centres and yet there are also a lot of frustrations too, but at least we are moving slowly forward which is wonderful!

As I prepare for the month ahead I am teaching 3 classes in a Youth and Children's ministry course at Justo Mwale University and I am thrilled to be able to share some knowledge with the ministers in training!  I also have to travel to Mazabuka to help recruit a new teacher...so it will be another busy time!

Of course, I still take time to walk in nature with my camera and see the beauty around me...I feel privileged to live in a city that still has some green areas around!  All of these pictures were taken within the premises where I stay...its really green and lush because of all the rains at this time of year.

This stunning hawk stunned itself on the window which gave me a chance to take a photo...it was fine a few seconds later and flew off!

My birthday is at the beginning of February and I was treated to afternoon tea in a local tea house by 2 of my good friends here!  It not only looked delicious but tasted so too!!

At a time when so many in the world live in fear and there is so much suffering, I pray that the little we can do as a church to help our children in Zambia will make them resilient and strong people for whatever lies ahead in their lives.  

'Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty'

Wishing you all a wonderful day ahead!  Thank you for the comments on my last post - its always good to get feedback!

Blessings,

Diane xx