Author: Bruce Coffy

I remember in 2008 I received an email from Mr. Weddy Silomba from my church in Zambia.  Mr. Silomba’s words struck my heart as I saw with my own eyes what really was happening as I was travelling training Child Evangelism Fellowship workers throughout Zambia. The following is Mr. Silomba’s words in his email。

“Dear sister, I thought I could share this with you.  My work involves support to people living with HIV/AIDS, orphans and vulnerable children and enhancing efforts aimed at prevention of HIV among other things.  It can be heart rending when I travel in the country side and see the level of suffering especially among the young children.  Malnutrition, hunger, lack of clothes, (I wonder what the children wear in the cold season because at the time of my visit, they were barely wearing anything). The problems are vast.  MY question is, is it possible that some material support can be organized for these groups that are doing great work for the little ones…?”

With God’s help, and that of Mrs. Vann, Mr. Silomba, my family and many others who became part of the board of the Village Hope, we established Village Hope International Ministries in 2008.

Village Hope started by collecting clothes, shoes, school supplies, hygiene products and shipping them to help orphans and needy children in Zambia. The late Mrs. Annie Vann, Christ Baptist Church and Damascus Missionary Baptist Churches, came along side and helped with the shipping. Without long, God added to our blessing by allowing me to inherit a piece of property from my mom. I dedicated the property to Village Hope for building a trades school to help young people in Kasempa.

In 2010, construction of the Trade School started. The warehouse (where we keep tools) was built in no time, and we quickly moved to construction of the main building. Construction was also slow because of insufficient funds. The building project had been put on hold for some years until God started to speed up the project in 2019. In that summer I had an opportunity to speak at Faith Fellowship Church in Macedonia, Ohio. A couple from that church approached me to inquire information concerning Village Hope International Ministries. We made the connection and as a result, a mission trip to Zambia was planned and made in August 2019.

Mr. and Mrs. Vitantonio running a family foundation have been supporting world missions for many years. They felt the calling of God to support Village Hope after the mission trip to Zambia. Mrs. Vitantonio, Lenore soon volunteered to help out in our communication department. Another Christian brother Howard has also volunteered as our IT person. Together we updated our Village Hope website and gave it a new look, adding many mission videos in Zambia.

We gave our first public annual Fundraising Dinner in December 2019. Thanks to the support of Faith Fellowship Church and many brothers and sisters who contributed their time and energy, we experienced a successful outreaching and fundraising event. In a warm Christmas seasonal atmosphere, we enjoyed our beautiful dinner and the wonderful presentations of our guest speakers. The event has been made a video kept in our website as a precious memory.

From 2019 to 2020, God has provided enough funding for Village Hope to finish building the outer walls of the Trade School in Kasempa. It is our building project phase 2. We have made a video to record the building process. It is a big building that includes approximately 3,100 sq. feet of classroom, dining, kitchen, storage, office and bathroom, plus approximately 4,450 sq. ft. for 17 living quarters. On completion, it can benefit approximately 250 boarding students annually. We are looking forward to see it completed in the coming years. Meanwhile we praise God and give thanks to all our supporters in their different ways financially or prayerfully, and in their voluntary works.

Ruth Munkubanda-Powell
Founder of Village Hope International Ministries