Updates From Zambia

Last Saturday,Clara and Serah took six of the girls—Jolima, Martha, Idah, Mary, Annie, and Small Naomi—for a special event at their church.

Wednesday, April 12 was Clara’s birthday and for our house, that means the family gathers to celebrate the special day. As WellSpring we celebrate Clara, her ministry, her work, and the way she pours into the children and staff. She is seen as a sister, aunt, and mother to those in WellSpring.

On March 12th Zambia celebrated Youth Day. As part of the celebration, the “youth” of the church were in charge of the service.

​I was blessed to travel to Zambia from February 7th through the 22nd. I have been adjusting back to being in the US. The trip was overwhelming in so many ways. This was my first opportunity to meet the children God has blessed us to serve.

The word I keep saying is “Different” and I mean that in a way that is more blessed than I could have ever imagined. I remember God putting this calling on my heart and that day I heard the Holy Spirit say “it is to be different…” I can truly say even from the start it is living up to that standard we were called to.

The girls are loving being a part of their family at home playing games as well as learning important life skills. As a starting point, we decided to use part of the yard for the girls to learn to grow maize and a few vegetables.

This past Saturday, February 18th, the house held its first “Family Update Day”. This is a day where the immediate parent or guardian is invited to come and learn about what is going on in the life of their child, academic, social, spiritual, and health updates.

The girls enjoyed a special afternoon and evening on February 14th, Valentine’s Day. As they arrived home from school, they were greeted with special valentines created by the Webb girls (a.k.a. the “Webby” family) each girl received her personalized note, and Naomi helped them to read and translate as necessary.

Praise the Lord, I arrived on Tuesday with no issues with travel, all the bags on time, and passed through immigration and the checkpoints in about 5 minutes. Seriously the smoothest and fastest trip I have ever had from that aspect.

Schools in Zambia typically runs from the 3rd week of January until the 3rd week of November each year. During the first few weeks of January is when schools are finalizing the class lists and filing all vacancies for spots not claimed due to natural progression of students from the previous year. For the Wellspring Team, this meant there was a lot of work to accomplish in those first few weeks of January ensuring each of the girls were enrolled into their selected grades.

Idah, 14 years old is the first girl we ever met while out moving through the compounds on a Saturday back in July 2022. We found her aunt selling vegetables and begin to talk about life and how things were going.

Idah’s mother died when she was young and her father abandoned her and to this day has nothing to do with her nor is the family sure of his location. They just know he remarried and has not seen Idah since she was little.