Every sponsored child in the Father’s Heart program is assigned to a discipleship leader (DL) who works out of one of Family Legacy’s CRC’s (Community Resource Centers) in that child’s compound.  You would be amazed at the dedication our discipleship leaders have to their kids.  Literally, the discipleship leaders consider these children as their very own.  DLs are very passionate about seeing these kids’ lives changed for the better.  This is just an example of how a few of our discipleship leaders go above and beyond to minister to their children.

In our Father’s Family Lifeway homes, Family Legacy takes legal custody of a child and that child lives with us full-time.  A Father’s Heart sponsored child continues to live with their care-taker, but receives the benefits associated with their sponsorship.  Because of this we cannot prevent a care-taker from sending their children out of Lusaka (usually in exchange for money), and thus out of the reach of our Father’s Heart program and all the benefits therein.  Occasionally this happens and it is for the better, but many times the child is forced to move to live with care-takers who do not have the child’s best interest in mind.  In these situations, our discipleship leaders will try to find a relative who still lives in Lusaka and is willing to take the child into their home.  Over the past year, we have sent a few discipleship leaders to remote parts of Zambia to see if the care-takers would be willing to allow the child to move back to Lusaka.  It is a daunting task to travel a few hundred miles to go ask a stranger if you may take “their” child back to Lusaka to another care-taker, but our DL’s passion for these kids pushes them on.

Consider the case of Memory Chileshe, an 11-year old little girl from Jesus Cares – George school. Her discipleship leader, Kennedy, knew that Memory was being forced to move in with her violent uncle in Serenje, which is about 8 hours north of Lusaka.  After finding out that her aunt and uncle here in Lusaka were more than happy to take care of her, Kennedy took a bus to Serenje to ask the uncle’s permission. No one in Serenje knew Kennedy, as he had never been there.  The uncle absolutely refused to allow Memory to return to Lusaka with Kennedy “the stranger” and made all kinds of false accusations about Kennedy in front of a large crowd of people.  The people surrounded him and began to push and threaten him.  Kennedy thankfully escaped, but after a night of prayer he decided to confront the uncle yet one more time because he knew the bondage that “his child” was being forced into.  This time Memory was at home and when she saw Kennedy, she rushed up to him and gave him a huge hug.  When the uncle saw Memory’s love for Kennedy, he realized that he had been wrong in his accusations and Kennedy was able to convince him that going back to Lusaka was the best move for Memory.

In his trip report, Kennedy said “It appeared to be impossible, but God really saw me through.  I took her straight to her aunt and uncle in Lusaka and they were very happy to see her back.”  Father’s Heart also provided food to the family Memory would be staying with as a welcome home gift the day after they returned from Serenje.

We sent a video camera with Kennedy to help capture his trip, and below is some of the footage he took on his journey to pick up his sweet Memory.

Baby Joe is a sponsored child through our Father’s Heart program. Joe is a double orphan who was diagnosed with HIV this past year. Last month, in April, Father’s Heart reported on his latest trip to the doctor.  We’ve had quite a few people asking us about Baby Joe and especially the sores that had developed on his head.

A month later, our health department again helped Joe attend his monthly scheduled HIV/AIDS doctor visit. Our wonderful staff led by Getrude Mweemba, the Father’s Heart Department Head, ensured that baby Joe is weighed, has all the daily medication necessary, and gets his blood tested at the doctor. During Joe’s last regular HIV/AIDS check-up, we brought to the attention of the doctor some recently developed sores on little Joe’s head and by the Lord’s abundant grace those sores have been healed as you can see in the video below. Praise the Lord!

Of course since Joe has HIV/AIDS he will need to continue to make his regular doctor’s visits.  His grandmother cannot afford the transportation required to get to the doctor’s office across town each month.  Thanks to Joe’s sponsorship he is able to make those visits and get the medical attention required. The video below shows our staff delivering food to Joe and his grandmother. You’ll notice how full of life he is!

Francis with Discipleship Leader and New Backpack!

Francis is a nine year old Father’s Heart sponsored child from Garden Compound in Lusaka.  His mother had cancer of the eye and HIV and was not going to live much longer.  Francis’ Discipleship Leader, Mulela, was able to be right there for Francis and his mother day-in and day-out during the month of January.  Miraculously, after many visits from Muleya, his mom finally came to know the Lord and accept Christ as her personal Savior!  Her salvation came less than one month prior to her passing.   Because of Francis Chita’s Father’s Heart sponsorship and the heart of his Discipleship Leader, his mom is now in Heaven and they will be reunited one day!

Once his mother died, Francis’ grandmother was the only one who could take care of him.  His grandmother felt she had to take Francis to an orphanage because she couldn’t afford to feed him even though his mother’s dying wish was that Francis could stay with his grandmother.  By the grace of God and the generous heart of his Father’s Heart Sponsor, Family Legacy has been able to step in and provide monthly food assistance allowing Francis to stay with his Grandmother!

Real lives of little children all the way on the other side of the world in Zambia are being transformed and assisted every day through Family Legacy’s Father’s Heart Program — Will you consider sponsoring a Zambian orphan?

Today, I had the special privilege of visiting two darling girls, Rosalia C. and Patricia M. at the Father’s Heart Community Resource Center (CRC) in Mutendere.  This CRC caters to four community schools in the Mutendere area including Jesus Army, Jesus Cares, Mapode Boys, and Goodwill.  Mapode Boys actually serves both girls and boys as it used to just be an orphanage for boys and has now been converted to a community school.  Their sponsor had been having nightmares about her two girls and asked for us to check in on the girls!  The Father’s Heart project was able to intervene spiritually in prayer, physically through gifts, and financially through the paying of their school fees!  Please watch the video below about these two girls who attend Mapode Boys Community School!