Bathsheba and Martha - Heart of the Bride

Martha and Bathsheba

Like many of the street kids in Kitwe, Zambia, Bathsheba and Martha fell for the lie that life on the streets was better than the struggle at home.

Extreme poverty drove Bathsheba to the streets hoping to find food and money for school fees. She quickly discovered that life on the streets was much more difficult than she had imagined. After 8 months of scrounging for food and desperately searching for a place to sleep, she met one of Daughters of Destiny’s outreach workers and considered a different life.

Martha left home to escape an abusive aunt. She imagined a life of “freedom” on the streets and the ability to find all that she needed. For over 2 years she slept on the roof of the markets and suffered the abuses that girls on the streets face. Then, she met an outreach worker from the Daughters of Destiny program and was exposed to the love of Christ.

Today, the smiles on their faces tell a different story. Bathsheba and Martha entered the Daughters of Destiny program in 2018 where they learned about Jesus, furthered their education, received trade training, and gained valuable life skills. Both of them have surrendered their hearts to the Lord and have been transformed by the gospel of Christ.

New Beginnings

After 2021 settled down and began to leave 2020 behind, the world started to reopen which meant that the AHZ Outreach Ministry was cleared to resume. With a new building close to town, the program quickly regained all of the steam it had before the pandemic hit. Friday night outreach in town reaches hundreds of kids who then feed into the Learning Center Program where 20-25 are coming regularly for education, training, and discipleship. Our team has embraced a focus on “The One” this year which translates to more individual time spent with each child. That is a costly endeavor as far as time is concerned, but it pays huge dividends in relationship and heart transformation.

Opening our second boys home, natural attrition, and the graduation of our first Daughters of Destiny girls have created room for more boys and girls through the Outreach Ministry. Three new boys and two girls joined our program in 2021. One boy and the two girls are still in the deprogramming phase and need a lot of prayer as they consider a permanent life off of the streets. That seems like an easy decision to us, but it is a difficult one to those who have grown accustomed to the false freedom of street life. John and Stanley both come from impoverished one parent homes with siblings and were on the streets for more than two years. This June, they entered the boys residence program and have since surrendered their lives to Christ! They are hard workers, athletic, and hope for a much better future.

Speaking of more room… The story is much too long for a newsletter, but God provided a new piece of property in 2021 that will house a much needed new program. There are older boys on the streets that aren’t suited to a long residence program. They need a few years of discipleship, life skills, and trade training in a program that is separate from the long term residence. On top of that, an unexpected call from a nearby trade school revealed that God had already laid it on the heart of that ministry leader to provide trade school to Abbas Heart boys. God has given the property and the trade school, now all we need is staff and boys!

The best new beginnings are those brought about by the regeneration of the heart when someone surrenders to Christ. In 2021, one Daughters of Destiny girl, three residence boys, and four boys on the streets surrendered their hearts to Christ and continue seeking Him in discipleship!