Are you able and are you willing?

Greetings in the name of Jesus from Zambia! The Luwizhi's family has been in Zambia for over 3 months now and we have discovered a lot of things in a short time. One major thing we have discovered is that transportation is expensive and necessary for ministry to be effective. We had made a purchase of a vehicle before we even came to Zambia thinking we were going to be doing a good thing, however now that we are here we are discovering that while we helped another missionary family move on in their ministry to do their DTS by purchasing the little car, we as a family can not travel outside the city with this car. We can not do village ministries as we feel called to do and when we have the two girls in their carseats no one else can travel with us in the vehicle. This is not a productive or a good thing when serving the people of Zambia. Many people need a lift but we are unable and feel terrible that we have chosen to travel safely in the car with the girls in carseats as African's do not use them and they don't understand our reason for using them. However, God has entrusted our family with these little blessings and we need to protect them in every way possible, so our need is for a bigger vehicle with 4 wheel drive to go minister in the villages! Our plea to all of you and your friends is whether or not you are willing and able to make a very small sacrifice. One definition of sacrifice is (the sacrifice of one's own desires, interest, etc., for the sake of duty or for the well-being of others.) With that definition we are asking whether or not each person reading this can make a sacrifice of one meal eating out in the amount of $10 to help raise the money needed to purchase a vehicle for our family to use for the ministry of God. Many of you have a lot of friends and many people can and are willing to give a small amount so please share this with your friends and lets see how God will provide for this need. We are in need of at least $15,000 to make this purchase so if 1500 people commit to $10 this will be possible. You can send your money to Vincent Luwizhi P.O. Box 12 Van, TX 75790


May God be with you and bless each of you who read this in Jesus name!

Love the Luwizhi's Family!

Time flies by when you are having fun!

May is bringing cooler weather to Zambia and we are thankful for the cool down, however it is beginning to feel cold to us.  We question ourselves daily on how can we from the states be feeling so cold?  We have just realized that we are acclimating to being African a lot quicker than we thought.  Today is our 2 month anniversary for being in Zambia.  Although things progress here a lot slower than in the states we do feel like God truly had a plan for us to come here.  Our family has adjusted very well to living in Zambia.  On the home front the girls are enjoying themselves and are learning new things almost daily.  Madisyn is picking up on quite a bit of the local language Nyanga and Ahlyvia is learning to use her voice too, however she just screams, screatches and shreaks for everything.  I have been working with Madisyn a couple hours a week on school work and she is doing very well, she really enjoys learning and loves to read.  When given time to herself you find her with one of our books, just making up the story as she goes.  We are encouraging her in this area and hope that she will be reading in the next year.  She already is beginning to sound out many words on her own!  On April 28th, Ahlyvia got her first tooth and all of us are very aware of the new tooth as she bites everything and everyone!  We also moved to our new house on the 26th of April.  We are still trying to settle in and there are many things that are not finished yet, but we are living amongst the chaos.  I am learning every day more about the African culture and believe it or not so is Vincent.  Things happen a lot different than we are used to.  A lot of people keep quoting me the phrase, "T.I.A. This is Africa."  I just smile and keep being persistent until things are done properly.  I hope to give the Zambians a new look at work and work ethic, I tell them it takes just as much energy to do the job wrong as it is to do it right! 
We are hosting our first visitors this coming Saturday, we have the privelage of picking up a couple that will be doing DTS at West Lusaka's YWAM base.  WE are honored to have people come stay with us. 
Samantha has become quite involved with volleyball both on the campus where we stay and in the community in which we are working.  She plays with all men and keeps them on their toes, on average 3-5 times a week she is playing for 2 hours at a time. 
Ministry is evolving too, we are diligently working at getting all the needed resources together for the adult literacy program which will be 3 days a week for 4 hours a day.  Please also be praying with us about our animal husbandry pilot project we are attempting to start within the next two weeks.  There are some needed repairs to be done to the area in which we will be housing the animals at the farm and for that we are in need of finances to get this project up and running.  The community Grippis is taking the steps forward that are needed to get them registered as a cooperative.  Later this week they will be voting, please continue to pray for this process to go quickly and smoothly.  We just also discovered that one of the local leaders of the community has fallen quite sick and we are going today to lay hands on him and pray for his health and well being.  The school is doing very well the students are learning a lot and are loving being in school.  We also have been working with a pastor who has begun a discipling in the community with us, he has been holding services on Sunday's and Wednesday and participation is small but is steadily growing.  The first week there were 17 in attendance and now I believe they are up to 25.  Praise be to God for his work in this community.  Please continue to pray for the people of Grippis and for us as we are diligently trying to be the hands and feet of God to the poor and disadvantaged here in Zambia. 
WE still want to share our desire for people to come here and help us in our ministry in Zambia, the work is plenty, but the workers are few.  Please pray about your opportunity to come to Zambia and have an experience that you will not regret.  Our desire is to have at least two teams come here before the end of 2010 and for even more teams to be planning for 2011.  Get in touch with us as God places it upon your hearts to come and serve along side the Luwizhi's.
We thank God daily for this opportunity and we also are thankful for all of you who are supporting us in prayer and finances.  WE still need some more monthly support to be able to sustain us while we are here.  We will be sharing with you in the near future about our tent making desires here to generate income that will be utilized directly in helping the poor in Zambia.  Our desire is to get people to assist in building a project that will be able to sustain itself to be able to raise part of our project monies right within the country of Zambia.  We know that there will be big projects that will need assistance from the West, however smaller project that will empower the local people we feel will be possible with an income generating project. 
Please visit our website http://www.luwizhiactofmercy.com/ and also follow us on facebook.  Please also share our story and website and blog with all your friends and help us to get more people who are willing to join our ministry team in prayer and financial support! 
Love and Blessings from the Luwizhi's Living in Lusaka

Almost a month has passed!

A month has passed? Seems not possible that so much time has passed.  Vincent has been busy with meetings with the community about the work to be done there as well as meetings with FMC.  We are awaiting the response from the meeting with the Ministry of Lands, about the possiblity of moving forward with the clearing of the land for the community school.
Samantha has been busy with the children daily as well as attending a ladies bible study once a week.  The girls are doing great and have adjusted to living in Zambia very well.  This past week we did have some constipation issues with Ahlyvia so we are trying to find ways to get more fruit into her diet.  She however loves to eat and trying to stop her from eating is not a pleasant experience for any of us. 
Madisyn has met several friends here in the compound in which we live and enjoys going to the park to play with them.  She is learning a few words in one of the local languages and enjoys trying to speak in their language.  She greets the local people with the greeting "Mwele Bwange" which means How are you?  Madisyn the other night was very sweet, the power tends to go out several times a week for an hour or 3 and the other night, once the power came on she screamed out Halelujah, thank you Jesus for putting the lights back on.  That night I told her a secret that we may have ice cream together if she asked her Daddy, she went and asked him and he told her yes we could.  Her excitement was huge, and she said this will be great mommy, daddy and me can watch a movie, have ice cream and familyship time, she said won't that be great?

We are anxiously awaiting the completion of our new house, yesterday they dug a trench all the way from the electricty pole to our new house, see the picture attached.  The completion is very close to being finished we are very excited to be moving there and completely unpacking as we have only unpacked the necessary things so far.  Please pray with us that we are able to get good prices on furninshing the house and that the internet man is able to get us set up quickly! 
Well will update more once I hear from Vince about his meeting this morning in town, but in the mean time keep praying that the Government will come through for the Grippis community!

Come and help minister in Lusaka, Zambia

Greetings friends and families from the rainy season in Zambia.  We are pretty settled now in our own little house and we are beginning to fill up the calendar for the upcoming year.  We need teams and individuals to come out here and have a great missions experience.  There are many positions available such as helping teaching at a village school, construction of latrines and orphanage homes, and lastly come help us to build a church in the Grippes community.  Any other expertise and talents are welcome to come and teach crafts and other skills to the Zambian people.  Roundtrip ticket approximately$1500, accomodations around $17 a night, ministry village experience priceless.  After your ministry experience we can show you nature in its best by driving to an African Safari only 45 minutes away.  So you can come and take both worlds back home with you. 

God has blessed our family to have settled so quickly into living in Africa.  We feel at home already and are being blessed by the Zambian people on a daily basis.  Until next time...

Life in Zambia

Greetings everyone from Lusaka, Zambia!  Today is officially the fourth day since we arrived and the first business day we have had to do anything and believe it or not it is a National Holiday, (Women's Day). So well we have not gotten much done yet as far as communication!  WE were hoping to get some cell phones today so that we can attempt to drive around this crazy city alone without local people.  We enjoy the farm house and the people that we are staying with, it is just that we still have no running water!  So we travel to Peter & Debi's house to bathe ourselves.  Buying groceries is quite expensive.  Samantha had a bit of an accident yesterday as one of our housemates spilled soup all over the stove and the floor, because the pots and pans that we have to use have seen better days!  I went to help her to clean it up and my foot slipped on the floor and I was about to fall and steadied myself and my hand landed on the hot burner.  My hand was very badly burned, I spent about 6 hours with my hand either in cold water or on ice.  WE prayed over my hand that the hand would not be so terrible.  I took some heavy medication last night to get some sleep and by the Grace of God this morning it looks a bunch better!  Thanks be to God!  The first day we got here we went to the supermarket and bought a few things to get us started here on the ground, then yesterday we went to a place in town with a local person taking us to a place that had the same items a lot cheaper.  You may ask how much price difference? For an example we bought a bath towel at the supermarket store for 50,000 Kwaches and at the other store we got it for 15,000 K.  Ugh the things that you must learn when living on the land for 2 years!  Madisyn and Ahlyvia are doing great, Madisyn is very excited about all her new aunties and uncles!  She also is loving the Enchima which is the same as her daddy's Sadza.  Tomorrow is the day that we are going to talk to the owner of the flat/house we are interested in renting.  The only other thing that we wish we had here that we can not find to buy is some fly swatters, I wish I would have packed the 4 that I had at my house.  If anyone feels inclined to send us some that would be awesome.
Until next time....

Without YOU GOD we could not be here!

God was definately the master in control of our trip starting when we arrived at the DFW airport!  We had Godspeed as we drove up to Dallas as we got a bit of a late start to the morning, so according to time we should not have made it in time, but God took control of the wheel and got us there safely with plenty of time to spare!  Time we did not have to spare at all as we went to check in at the ticket counter to only discover that Samantha, Madisyn and Ahlyvia had tickets and there was no ticket for Vincent!  The only record they had was that we would be coming and that there were four infants total three named Vincent, but no adult ticket for Vincent!  An overflow of emotions flooded our minds from frustration, to fury, to confusion.  The ticket counter lady refused to help us she said that it was a matter of our travel agent and that she needed to issue a ticket for Vincent or he would not be able to go with us!  As the ticket counter lady proceeded to start checking the girls and my bags in Vincent called Raptim travel determined that she would get this resolved.  God bless the lady who checked us in as 3 of the our bags were over 50 lbs and she let us slide!  All we could do as these things started falling in place for us was to THANK GOD that he was in control and that even though Satan was working overtime to make sure that God's work was not going to happen.  But GOD reigned and he cleared all the obstacles out of the way to see His people go to do HIS work!  Another great success was that the ticket lady checked our luggage all the way through to Zambia so we did not have to deal with 8 suitcases, 2 kids and 4 carry-ons once we got to Joberg, South Africa!  Thank you Jesus!  WE got checked into our hotel around 8 pm and had a lovely South African meal, thanks to Barbara and Roy for the Rand it was the exact amount as the meal!  We are now getting dressed and getting ready to head to the airport now, please be praying that all our carry-ons will make it on the plane!  Will give more details soon.....

Praise the Lord!

As each day has been passing us by we are continually reminded that God is the one that is in controll and that His timing is not our timing!  Yesterday afternoon we got the long awaited passport for Ahlyvia, now legally we all are ready to leave.  Yesterday was also a very productive day in the packing department, Samantha had help from a very good friend in getting the bags as close to the weight as possible, only to find out that we now have a different bag allowance and need to re-arrange one more time!  Please continue to pray for us as we have two weeks from today before we leave.  Until next update....