The Bridge Vision
Please be aware that the following is in no particular order or timeframe as to how these things may come to pass. Some of them could begin tomorrow if we had the staff and/or start-up capital. God willing, and for His glory, the following will be accomplished:
Over the next 15-20 years, we hope to have a fully-staffed and fully-equipped working office in all nine provinces in Zambia.
We should have a website and a computer expert to maintain and update it on a regular basis. This same person will ensure that we have photos of our current work for the monthly newsletters and teach basic computer skills to new staff as a course offered through our Training School.
Bridge has obtained 20 hectares (roughly 50 acres) that we plan to develop into a model village in the Copper belt Province beginning in 2008,which will become our National Headquarters. This will be a working / teaching farm which will also include an animal husbandry component.
Our Training School will be there which will teach the theology of development, as well as farming, gardening, and animal husbandry. This will be run by School Administrators (a dedicated volunteer couple who raise their own support) to teach one school per year. It is our plan to develop a dormitory complex to allow some students to board. Facilities would include four fully-equipped classrooms, as well as offices for the principal and a secretary, plus a kitchen and dining room. During those few times each year when there is a school break, we plan to open these facilities for churches who wish to hold conferences, or utilise them for personal prayer retreats for staff.
The Training School would become self-supporting over time, as students will pay us to attend. We will eventually need a farm manager, plus both livestock and agricultural supervisors (who should have teaching skills). Those learning farming techniques will provide free labor, as it will be a part of their training to work either with the livestock and/or in the fields. We envision some students coming from within the communities we are working with, some from the public sector and perhaps some from the staff of small NGOs or other ministries. From those attending who fulfill all the requirements and wish to work with us, we can choose the cream of the crop, as God allows us to expand into other provinces.
In addition to the farm, we will need an Office Complex as a convenient point of contact for our partners/visitors. This facility should have offices, a board/meeting room, plus kitchen and a reception area. This office would be staffed with a Secretary/Receptionist, a Fundraiser, and an Accountant. We will also require a Human Resources Manager who will be responsible for not only staffing the various provinces with those who have graduated our Training School, but will source needed Zambian volunteers, schedule and coordinate short-term foreign volunteers, and oversee team organization and planning (as our aim is to host at least 2 teams each year in every province).
One of the most exciting aspects to this area of development is that we will plant a Church. We envision this church being used for conferences, Bible Studies for all age groups, and teaching for local pastors.
Within this model village, we also plan to build a Skills Center and a Medical Clinic. The Clinic will be equipped with beds for a birthing center with a fully-trained midwife in attendance. Early in 2007 we started a Community School for orphans and vulnerable children. Eventually we will have our own building on our own property. Those running the Center, the School and the Clinic will have housing built for them.
Further, it is our plan to construct ten homes to help alleviate the burden of orphans in the community. It is our plan to place six children with a Christian caretaker in each home, thus reducing the stigma and depersonalization of living in an institution. We further plan to help the caretakers with nutritional supplements, as well as pay for the education of the children.
In every province we hope to have Bridge-operated lodging facilities - each with its own minivan for transport. We plan to open up these facilities to churches or other ministries for a nominal fee when we are not using them, for additional income generation.
We wish to put together our own Drama Group in each province, supplementing it by ‘employing’ some street children by offering them food, shelter, spiritual teaching and counseling, as well as love - in exchange for work - thereby alleviating their distress, as well as giving them a head-start on a future with a hope. With all the orphans in this country, this should not be difficult to accomplish.
In every province we will need to be fully equipped with the vehicles we need - plus a full-time staff mechanic in each province to see to their upkeep. It’s conceivable that once our larger farms are self-sustaining we will require a lorry. Eventually we hope to have our own drilling rig for boreholes, and in due course of time, perhaps a bus.
We plan to own and operate businesses throughout Zambia to generate income. The following are examples of what we envision: a block-making business for construction, a lumber mill, a chain of tailoring shops and laundries, perhaps an internet café, outlet shops, public phone stands, and eating cafés specialising in pizza and ice cream. Eventually we hope to have a children’s play park and Christian bookstore in every major city in every province. As an extension of these bookstores we want to include an on-site library (as opposed to a lending library) where people can come and read books, or listen to tapes/videos. We also hope to have several hammermills (portable mills to grind grains into flour). We wish to train women to make crafts for export, forming a partnership with us, which will empower them plus generate income for Bridge. In every province we will have working farms to help us be self-supporting. Most farms will be full-service - that is, field crops, garden, livestock, fishponds, honey - and perhaps in some provinces either banana or pineapple plantations or orchards. We will require market stands and butcheries to sell our products, and each farm will eventually have its own tractor. These types of things plus our markets for our produce, field crops, honey, fruit, and meat will eventually allow us to be self-sustaining.
We will work to ensure that we maintain a good network of relationships with other like-minded organisations - both within and without the country, as well as have favor with government officials. We will become equipped to hold seminars for capacity-building for other organisations.
In due course of time, in addition to our current Health Department, we would develop new departments - in Advocacy, Agroforestry, Women’s Issues, Spiritual Outreach, etc. We should find ourselves involved in reforestation projects and infrastructure projects throughout the country.
Our Health Department, created and implemented in 2005, is in the process of creating a team of peer counselors and psychosocial counselors. As funds permit and we are able to purchase a Mobile Clinic, we will also begin to recruit volunteer medical personnel to help us. This mobile clinic would offer counseling, prayer, and VCT, as well as dispense ARVs. There is an overwhelming need to educate the youth about this disease. Therefore, we plan to begin youth activity programmes to sensitise them about HIV/AIDS and STIs through Bible Studies, sports, drama, etc. They will be encouraged to help stop the spread of these diseases by promoting a programme of abstinence. Additionally, our programmes will include awareness and prevention training of other physical ‘killers’ (cholera, malaria, TB, etc.). We plan to continue our annual participation in World AIDS Day, cooperating and networking with like-minded organizations and ministries.
We cannot say what will happen in individual communities, as each one is unique and has its own needs. Nevertheless, wherever we are working, we should envision lives and communities transformed… people with restored dignity and hope… people able to send all of their children to school to get a proper education (as well as have access to adult education for themselves)… people living in good homes, earning a living wage, owning their own land… people having proper medical care available for anyone who needs it, plus having the necessary security… everyone having the opportunity to sit under good spiritual teaching and counsel… people having a good and steady supply of clean water, seeing the decrease of AIDS (and other diseases), and a definitely improved environment. We should as well, see individuals develop skills that will improve the quality of their lives, as well as promote a better future for this country.
It is our desire to raise money to build housing for the aged. We wish to help stem the tide of abuse against women and children. We will work to see that Bridge has a hand in implementing gender balance, empowering both men and women to play a part in the politics of this country, teaching them that they have untapped personal resources, inner strength, and worth. We plan to give the women of Zambia a hand up with mother-to-child care by offering them skills training and education, as well as through the establishment of a revolving fund that will offer small loans to help them start their own business.
Further, it is very much our desire to impart to everyone with whom we work that everything is from God’s hand, and to see many souls harvested for the Kingdom. We believe that through the church, as well as continuing our process of lifestyle evangelism, we will help the poor to restore their identity as children of God, and help them recover their calling as stewards in His Kingdom. We will work to implement strong cells for Crossroads (our programme of nationwide intercession for Zambia), within all our communities, and in many churches.
We plan to strengthen pastors and church leaders by implementing BBS (Bridge Bible School). This would be set up in each province as a mobile school that will enable us to take the lessons to where they are, and would be staffed by qualified pastors who have also gone through our Training School. They would make a circuit of our communities to teach them, as well as plant churches. Further, we will work toward Ruth’s dream of establishing a Bible School for women.
In January 2006 Bridge began switching from facilitating to implementing, thus making us less reliant on partners who are not always able to follow through with their promises. This, however, continues to require our staff to attend various conferences, workshops, and seminars for additional training.
In January 2007 we began setting aside a percentage of our income to tithe into other ministries. In the future it is our desire to establish a Trust Fund to help Zambian youth obtain higher education. We are exploring the possibility that perhaps as a part of their agreement they would - after their graduation - give one year of service to work in one of our communities, in appreciation.
Later in 2007 we joined in partnership with ISAAC and Dr. Jonathan David. This will afford us in the ensuing months and years to share the gospel in surrounding countries as well as within Zambia.
Beginning in 2008 we believe that God is also opening doors for us to expand the Crossroads vision into surrounding countries. It is an exciting time, bright with promise and full of hope, as we are faithful to walk out what God has revealed as His plan.
When all of the above is well in place, we should be firmly established in Zambia with enough staff and resources to complete the work there - and we should be looking into expanding into another country.
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Addendum:
How or when all this may come to pass is not our business, but our entire staff believes that nothing is impossible with God. On our part it will require a lot of hard work, dedication, prayer, sacrifice, perseverance, and courage in order to reach our goal and obtain this vision. However, we are confident that these goals are God-inspired, worthy, and attainable.
Please pray with us that, as we are faithful and obedient to the leading of the Holy Spirit, lives will be turned around and communities will be transformed to the glory of God.
