Progress on getting title for the land has been very slow but seems to be happening. These are some of the problems…
It turns out that Rosaria does not have clear title to the land. At first she said 2 other people had a headman illegally remove her name from title and add theirs when she had been unable to attend a meeting with them, because of her sick children.
At the meeting with 26 headmen they said it would take 4 years to untangle the legal mess. They were proposing we consider another piece of land 2 very rough kilometers farther along the “road” which we had seen the week before, but did not realize it was not Rosaria’s land. At the end of that meeting Farzam insisted on stopping to see Rosaria’s actual land. He was, I believe, led of God to pull me back onto the track of being given the land upon which Beverly actually had the vision of the campus. I had found it easy to get convinced that 4 years of waiting for a legal entanglement of her property might mean we should settle 4 other property. Of course we are open to God changing His direction to other property but at present we are proceeding towards THE original ‘vision’ property until God closes the door or not.
More clarity came yesterday at a meeting with Rosaria and one of the so called illegal people (Joe). It turns out that “her property” is really 1/3 of what she had been saying (Did she know that? We don’t know.) and that ‘Joe’ and ‘Muenga’ each have been granted LEGALLY one of the other two portions. Also they each have a receipt showing they have paid survey fees for their portion. Rosaria does not have a receipt. A man MAY confirm on Monday that she paid. If not, well, the headman have indicated that she was awarded her portion because she taught school in the area for 9 years. But nothing is for sure yet. PRAYER IS NEEDED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Another aspect is as follows. Two weeks ago the Commissioner of Lands asked us for 3 letters. One from me (MATE) outlining what we want to build. One from Rosaria outlining entanglements of her possible ownership. One from Pastor Ernest Sitali, of Springs of Living Water Church outlining his connection to me.
As an aside both Farzam and I have great peace in connecting with him as CEO (or whatever) of this project in Zambia. His is one of the 2 schools Beverly was responsible for building and whose church is even now being built with money she raised. I have been given the privilege of directing the final amount of Action “Beverly workfund” donations to any Action project, so I chose to contribute that to the completion of the last building which God directed her to be involved with. Please join in prayer that even more will be donated for its completion, as Action Zambia has told Ernest that they are not in a ministry any longer which raises funds for such building.
Back to the Commissioner of Lands. He told us there already was a meeting scheduled (now ain’t that a miracle) between The MINISTER of Lands and the Chieftainess for this week (delayed now till next Tuesday. 14th) to settle the ownership and hopefully give title to each of these 3 people and others on other plots in that same area.
The Minister is responsible for State Land, the Chieftainess for Traditional Land. However the minister must frequently request of chiefs everywhere, additional land for the state for an ever increasing population. Chiefs everywhere are reluctant to give up Traditional Land. This particular chieftainess never gives title. So PRAYER IS NEEDED that if she has control over the land God wants for this project she will give title.
All of the above has been explained in a page or so. It has been considerably more involved than that. There have been meetings almost every day and sometimes several. The story has changed a number of times. While we think we have the whole truth today we have thought that many times over these weeks. However the Lord has not closed the door. With the meeting of the Minister of Lands and the chieftainess on Tuesday 14th there seems every possibility that we will know on Wed. 15th.
Farzam has this week contacted the Department of Development and submitted a letter outlining proposed buildings. They have predetermined sizes of classrooms/buildings for specific numbers of students. This should be helpful in design. While he leaves Zambia for home on July 23 he can do some design work at home. We want however to include input from the local area ie. Have kids in present area schools design decoration, playground etc, have adult input from churches and school teachers.
On a personal note this is wonderful wonderful work. You could say we are having the time of our lives. Little hot water, showers that don’t work, no hangers, very old taxis, (two blowouts in two days on one of them) whatever, hardly come into the picture. Some days I have been sooooo tired. But the people are SO appreciative. For me even the temperature is perfect, 20 on a hot day and COLD (maybe 10) at night. I fear for the poor who have no blankets. However Oct. is HOT at about 30-35 in the daytime and 25+ at night. This year God is sparing me from that.
