Love Global Foundation

School Visits

Ng'ombe Presbyterian School

For the past two days I have been bringing the team around to visit the 7 Faith Work schools that CACZ runs.  Here is a photo of one of the schools we visited.  This school has 518 students from grade 1-9 and only 10 teachers!!!

We got to meet over a thousand students in the 2 days and minister to them.  The team did some ministry and prayer with the kids, it was a great couple of days. 

In one hour I have to leave for the airport to pick another team which is arriving at 11pm Zambian time.  It will be a busy next few days. 

Pray for strength and also that this flu which is trying to catch up with me will go away, I can't get sick right now.

Thanks thats all for now

Busy Month

Well we have made it to May, and how quickly this year is moving. 

The teams who visit House of Moses from the USA have started to arrive and this means that I have become a lot busier.  Usually I will work a full day and then also some evenings and every weekend.  I am the one who is planning their stay, arranging meals, arranging transport and bringing them around to the different homes and schools that Christian Alliance for Children in Zambia runs. 

I get to meet a lot of amazing people that God has inspired to help the children of Zambia which is the best part of being involved with the teams.  I get to see firsthand people who have had a calling for years to come to Africa finally make it and get to see how their prayers and donations have been put to work.  Currently there are 2 women from the States and on Tuesday another team of 4 arrive.  Before the end of this month we will have 21 people staying at House of Moses on teams.  This is just the beginning.

Please pray for strength and endurance for myself and for Matildah as well as I will be at work longer periods.  Matildah has also begun her new semester in University so we are thankful for that as well.  Thank you for your continued support and prayers. 

It is only through your support that we can continue to do this work so we thank you so much for every dollar that is donated. 

You can donate directly from online or send a cheque to:

: Love Global Foundation

Mail your cheque to:

Love Global
200-8167 Main Street, Vancouver, BC, V5X 3L2

**Don’t forget to put Kevin and Matildah Van Ravenstein in the Memo line.**

Schools Opening Soon

Kevin teaching Computers to Grade 5 Students

Hey all,

It has been quite a while since we have last updated, and we are truly sorry.  Things have been very busy here and we will try updating a few times this week to get everyone caught up. 

Schools closed on April 12th here for a one month holiday.  The Tuesday before on April 9th was my last day of teaching.  I will begin again in May. 

I teach Grades 3-7 usually about 25 kids per class.  As we have 5 computers in the class I can only teach 10 students at a time, so I have to split each class into 3 groups. 

As none of the students have ever used a computer before I have to start from the beginning.  In the first term (which just ended this month) I was teaching finger positioning and typing.  This next term I will be expanding more on different aspects of the computer as well as for the older students start with Internet. 

Teaching these students, many who are orphans or vulnerable children, is one of the most rewarding parts of working in Zambia. 

Thank you for your continued support so that we may continue our work here in Zambia. 

God Bless

Soccer Tournament

Hey all !!

Just a quick update.  We have been planning a soccer tournament for the schools here that Christian Alliance for Children in Zambia supports and it started last week.  I created a webpage and you can follow along http://www.fwsoccer.webs.com/

We have a team here from Stop Hunger Now and were quite busy over the weekend.  This is the first of many teams this coming summer and it will for sure be busy. 

Here in Zambia International Women's Day is a National Holiday.  I find it very encouraging that women are having a more equal role in Zambia and we only hope that the work we do here will help to encourage and empower women. 

Thank you to those that continue to pray for us and our work. Also we thank those that write to us we enjoy reading about whats happening in North America as well. If you want to send us an email you can through kevin_6489@hotmail.com. To our donors and supporters your generosity is amazing and we appreciate you so much.

God Bless

Container Arrives

As we look forward to the season when teams come and visit House of Moses, usually April to August, we also have many other activities going on. 

I continue my weekly computer lessons at one of the schools for children in grades 3-7 and now I am also starting to plan a soccer tournament for 8 schools for both boys and girls.  The final takes place when Barbara Hughes and her team come in July and has been an annual tournament for a number of years.  The schedules have been set and the first games are next week Friday. 

The container that was sent from Alliance for Children Everywhere in the US arrived on Monday.  As everything is unloaded by hand it took a number of hours but is such a great blessing.  It had boxes of Rice from Stop Hunger now, School Kits, and plenty of Diapers and Wet-Wipes for the nurseries. 

Matildah is much more in the swing of things now and was quite busy the past weeks finishing up House visits and also compiling all the photos and notes that were taken during the visits.  Distribution has been this past week, everyday going to a different low income neighborhood checking up on the children on the program. 

Tyler now has 2 teeth and is really growing well.  He weighs about 19.6 lbs and is sitting without falling over now.  He still is trying to learn how to crawl, he can’t get his arms and legs to do the motions at the same time, and has rolled over once or twice.

Thank you for your continued support

God Bless

Kevin and Matildah Van Ravenstein

House Visits

The last few days have been really busy which is good cause it makes me not miss Tyler too much. We have been doing home visits getting updates on sponsored kids for our work at CACZ.

Kevin didn’t come with us this time as he has been busy teaching computers. It’s amazing how most of the kids we visited for updates had been asking where Kevin was. Some would cry when we try to take photos of them but when we told them that we would bring them to where Kevin is, they stopped crying and it’s sad in the end because we couldn’t bring them with us.

Kevin has also been having busy but good days teaching. The pupils love learning computers and some even say they would love their lessons to be doubled. We think it’s a blessing being able to work with children and babies because we love them and the job itself.

Thank you so much for your support through reading our blog, your prayers and finances. We wouldn’t be here without God’s help through every single one of you.

Love,
Matildah

Matildah Returns

Matildah today returned to work for the first time since Tyler was born.  It will be hard for her to be apart from Tyler for the whole day.  It will be a busy week this week as there are a lot of field activities and updates to attend to.  She and I will be receiving updates from children on the Milk and Medicine program as well as from some of the schools.  It will be good that she is keeping busy so that she will not miss Tyler as much. 

I am also continuing teaching at the school on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week.  On Tuesday I will be teaching the grade 5’s and grade 7’s, Wednesday I will teach Grade 3’s and some of the teachers.  Thursday the plan is to teach grade 6 and also grade 4.  I have really enjoyed teaching and things are really progressing well.  Currently I have just been teaching typing and proper hand positioning to all the grades.  Grade 7 this week will start to use Paint and how to draw on the computer.  Using Paint drastically improves their control of the Mouse in the shortest time and I have found that the kids love drawing as well. 

We had our first team of the New Year come through House of Moses, even though they only stayed for one night.  Starting in April it will get very busy here.  This year I will be in charge of coordinating the teams.  As I look ahead I see the months from April to August as being quite busy and hectic, but it will also be a very amazing time.  I always love showing and informing the teams about the work we do here at Christian Alliance for Children in Zambia. 

Thanks for your continued support,
God Bless
Kevin and Matildah Van Ravenstein

Back to Teaching

Schools opened yesterday and so today was my first day back at teaching.  I taught one class of Grade 3’s and also one class of Grade 2’s.  As I teach the younger grades I always have to talk slower and explain things more, especially as they are learning English and also have a hard time with my accent.  I think today went well however, and the kids really enjoyed it.  This was the first time for each and every of the Grade 2’s to use a computer.  They were so in awe when they could draw using the computer.  It is always so amazing to see children learning new things.  This week I will also be teaching tomorrow (Wednesday) and Thursday.

Livingstone Trip Dec 23-Jan 2

Hey everyone,

Hope the New Year is treating you well.  We are doing great here.  We wanted to quickly give you an update on how our trip went, if you didn’t see the video you can watch it here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekT84DcMaKM

During our trip we made 2 stops in the village.  As we now have 6 children on our sponsorship program our goal this trip was to locate and visit each child at their home and meet their families.  We only knew general directions where some of the kids lived, and others we had no idea at all.  It was going to prove quite difficult to find them. 

It took us two days but we did end up finding each of the students.  Most lived a reasonable distance from the school but one of the students was very deep in the bush.  Our car ended up getting stuck a couple of times but we managed. 

Each of our sponsor students received notebooks, pens, pencils and reading books as well as clothing.  The boys also received soccer balls which they were so excited to try out. 

Finally having a chance to see where each of our students came from and meet some of their families was such an amazing experience and to hear how thankful everyone was really touched our hearts.  They all wanted to say thank you and appreciate the love and support they are receiving from people who don’t even know them.

Thank you to all of you that sponsor a student.   We also want to thank all those who donated items when I was in Canada in October.  You are changing the lives of children

New Video

Hey Everyone,

Hope your Christams was blessed and that you are enjoying the new year.  We have been in Livingstone (6 hours from our home in Lusaka) since Dec 23.  We leave tomorrow.  While in Livingstone we went to the village on a couple of occasions and brought donations.  I will write a longer update on our village trip when we get back to Lusaka but I just wanted to share this video with you.  Enjoy and thank you to all of those that donated items, everyone here says Twalumba (thank you)