Staff Writer

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.

Faith is only 8, our youngest resident, but life has not been easy to this point for this little girl.

She is the firstborn in her family, and her father and mother are both in prison. We found her being raised by her grandparents who are in their 80s – a very rare age in Zambia.

Vincent is Wellspring’s first “boy”, but at this time is part of the ministry as a non-resident.

Vincent is 14 and in grade 6. His father is in prison and his mother struggles to survive by selling vegetables. Vincent stays mainly with his grandmother.

Naomi turned 17 and decided for her celebration the house should enjoy Hungry Lion (Zambian KFC) and a small cake.

The girls enjoyed the celebration with singing and sharing. A tradition in Zambia is that when you have a birthday cake, the person whose birthday is being celebrated is to cut the first piece and then shares a bite of that piece with everyone in attendance. A video of that tradition is included.

Today Micah, Annie, and Mary joined the house as the newest residents.

Micah and Annie are sisters coming from a family of 6. Their older children are brothers, and none of them were able to complete school past 8th grade. Their mother is 46, never educated, and struggles to raise $2.00 a day to support the family.

WellSpring celebrated its first Christmas as a family. On December 25th the families of the girls were invited to come to a special meal and time of celebration.

As the girls are settling into the house and their new lives, we reach the holiday season. Zambian schools are on holiday and that means Clara and Naomi’s younger siblings have come for a visit. Diana just completed her 7th-grade year and over the past couple of years has become a fan of working with Legos.

Today was a special day as we celebrated our first birthdays at WellSpring. Jolima and Naomi turned 11.