Grace Vineyard
Mission to Zambia
Mission to Zambia
Dear Friends,
We are excited to announce that we have a Grace Vineyard Missions Team returning to Zambia, Africa in August. We have a 3 person team made up of Bryce Ohst, Emilio Montaño, and Ron Ohst. We will have 2 areas of focus: serving the orphans at Breath of Heaven Children's Village and equipping Zambian Vineyard pastors and leaders at a School of Ministry.
Our team will fly out of San Diego on August 4th, arriving at Breath of Heaven Children's Village on August 6th. We will be carrying suitcases full of over 100 backpacks to give to the orphans. We will bring gifts for the children - things like soccer balls, basketballs, spike ball, indoor games, and more. Emilio has recently completed a Disciple Making program at his home church - Calvary Chapel Oceanside - and will bring materials to lead the older kids in Bibles studies that they can continue on their own after we leave. Bryce and Emilio will remain at Breath of Heaven for the entire 2 weeks. Ron will leave with Katongo, Breath of Heaven Worship Center's pastor, on August 14th, to the city of Solwezi where he will be teaching and meeting with pastors and leaders from the Zambian Vineyard association of churches.
We are looking for people to join our support team. Read on for more details, but the short version is that we need people who will commit to pray for us, and we need people who can carry some of the financial burden with us as we look to raise $11,000 from our own donations plus the donations of friends and family who share our heart to minister to orphans and equip African church leaders. The link for donations is: gracevcf.org/donate-zambia
(The following description is from the Breath of Heaven website at bofheaven.org : )
Breath of Heaven Children’s Ministries is an international humanitarian organization which is committed to bringing hope and a future to orphans and vulnerable children. Our current vision is to build a Children’s Village complex in Lusaka, Zambia, which will provide residential care for up to 168 children in a family-like environment catering to their physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual needs. When built out, the complex will consist of 14 individual family homes, a community church, school facilities serving students through grade 12, a Vocational Training Center, and a fully equipped medical clinic. After opening our doors in January, 2010, we now have 10 homes completed with 96 children in residence. In addition, the church, school, and medical clinic are all in operation. These facilities allow us to serve the spiritual, educational, and health needs of the surrounding community as well as the children in our care.
The current population of Zambia is 20 million people. Extreme poverty and the AIDS/HIV crisis continue to take their toll. According to USAID September 23, 2023 report, it is estimated that there are 1.3 million orphans and vulnerable children as well as adolescents who are infected or affected by HIV. As many as 500,000 are double orphans who have lost both parents. There are thousands who have no one to care for them. Most eat only one meal a day and many live in fear of being physically or sexually abused. They have also been abandoned and rejected. They come to us depressed, frightened and feeling unloved. They have lived a life of hopelessness and despair.
We believe every child has a right to a family home where they are loved, secure, protected and free to be a child knowing their tomorrows are full of hope and that dreams can become a reality. This is our commitment, challenge and promise to the orphans of Zambia. These are the children we are called to rescue.
Watch this video to learn more about the Vineyard Churches in Zambia.
From August 14-18 Ron will be teaching at a School of Ministry for pastors and leaders of the Vineyard churches in Zambia, alongside Damas Kamfwa, the national director of the Vineyard in Zambia, and John Fischer from the South Africa Vineyard. In addition to teaching in the school, we will have one-on-one sessions with leaders for personal prayer and coaching, and we will put on a community outreach in conjunction with a local Vineyard Church.
While it's certainly true that financial partners are very important, it is no exaggeration that the most important kind partner we need is those who will support our work in prayer. If you would like to partner with us in prayer, could you drop me a quick email at rohst@gracevcf.org to let me know. You already know a lot of the details of this trip from what I've written so far, so please consider spending time praying for all of these practical and spiritual needs. Our team will be connecting with literally hundreds of lives over these 2 weeks and we need the Holy Spirit to fill and empower us to bring lasting impact and fruit that remains.
The Total Cost for our travel expenses and putting on the School of Ministry and Outreaches will be just under $11,000:
Cost Details:
$5,400 - Airfare for 3, San Diego to Lusaka
$1,890 - Housing & Food in Lusaka
$3,650 - Vineyard School of Ministry
$10,940 - Total
Note: Zambia is an extremely poor nation, so when we put on a school of ministry we pay for food and housing for the students as well as our Zambian team.
An international missions trip like this needs many supporters to help carry the load. If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to help our team meet expenses, you can donate online by clicking here: gracevcf.org/donate-zambia or send a check to Grace Vineyard, 102 N. Freeman Street, Oceanside, CA 92054, and write "Zambia Mission" on the memo line.
Thank You!
Thank you for taking the time to read this digital support letter. And thank you for considering partnering with us with your prayers and financial donations.
Please reach out to me with any questions or comments at ronohst@gracevcf.org or 760-713-6478
with blessings and love,
Ron Ohst