Mission of Love Community Orphanage is an organization ordained by Christ and established by Amber and Jako Joubert. Amber is a missionary from the United States and Jako is her husband, a missionary from South Africa. Jako has been going into Zambia to witness to and serve the Tongan people since 2001 and Amber joined him in 2003. In the past 5 years, they have worked very hard to establish a place in the Mpapila village to reside. Now that they live in the village full time, they are able to build deeper relationships with the Tongan people and have a great impact for God's kingdom in that community. In addition, First Baptist Church of Woodbridge has been sending teams out every year, since 2005, working alongside Amber and Jako helping them build shelter, houses, and an orphanage. Thanks to God and the hard work of His faithful servants, the orphanage was completed last year and now has orphans in it. They currently have 9 orphans (ages 6mo.-16 years) who live with 2 full-time house mothers and 2 part-time mothers. The mothers take care of the children's meals, wash, and other daily routines with the help of the children. All but two of the children attend a community school about 4 kilometers away from the orphanage. This school has 300 students and three school teachers. The headmaster has his grade 12 education with a teaching certificate and the other two teachers have their grade 7 education. The children consistently show up at school and are not given adequate attention or teaching. As a result, half of the children in the orphanage did not pass their grades this past year and are having to repeat the grade this coming school year. The children are in desperate need of someone to pour time into their education by tutoring them in their studies and investing into their future. As I noted in earlier blogs, I feel God has enabled me to be that person and is calling me to serve in the Mpapila village as soon as possible. The vision Christ has laid at my feet is to tutor the orphans, while building a preschool for the younger children. As the preschool becomes established, I will be teaching there, in addition to tutoring the older children. While working at the preschool, I will also be training the house mothers to run the preschool and teach the younger children the things they need to learn before entering a community school. A large part of teaching will focus on English and helping them be more confident in their speaking abilities and expanding their vocabulary. I am heading over to Zambia in the spring and will be sending out support/update letters this week to seek partnership, with those around me, for the mission God is sending me on...
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| The Children and House Mother's at the Church |
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| The Children and Mothers Outside of Amber and Jako's Home |
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| Receiving New Dresses for the Summer! |
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| The Orphanage 2010 |
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| The Kitchen in the Orphanage |
"Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world."
James 1:27
