The Minks are on a Mission from God
Greetings, my name is Jeffrey Taylor and I am a member of Calvary United Methodist Church in Mt. Airy, Maryland. This year (2007) my wife (Debra), my 17 year old daughter (Michelle) and I will be traveling to the southern African nation of Namibia for three weeks in the summer. Once there we will be volunteering at the Children of Zion Village near the small town of Katima Mulilo. We will be part of two ten member mission teams, designated here as Team 1 and Team 2, sponsored by Calvary UMC. Team 1 will leave June 18th and return July 6th; whereas Team 2 leaves July 3rd and returns July 19th. The Teams have been meeting together on a regular basis since March 2007 to prepare their hearts, minds and servant hands for this trip. Their jobs will be varied to include: Intense Bible study with the older children, building more bungalows to house the older children and/or long term volunteers, preparing “fun activities” for the children, more serious teaching both in Science and Math for the kids on a one on one basis, and being willing hands to help, love and hold the children too. This blog is a record of their activities, thoughts, and pictures. We hope you enjoy and learn.
The Children of Zion Village (COZV) is a Christian Children’s Home for AIDS orphans and was established in 2003. It is built on 17 acres on the Zambezi River and located near the town of Katima Mulilo on the Caprivi Strip of Namibia in southern Africa. Administered by Gary & Rebecca Mink (pictured here), missionaries from Maryland, USA; it is home to 55 children from ages infant to 17 years. A child is placed with COZV when the local court determines that there are no family members who are able to care for the child.
Katima Mulilo is in a region known as the Caprivi Strip. It is an intersection of trade routes connecting several southern African countries. Despite its favorable location, scenic beauty, and exotic wildlife it also has one of the highest HIV/AIDS infection rates among adults in Namibia and the whole of Africa According to a Red Cross article, “The Caprivi region is also one of the hardest hit parts of Namibia, with 43 per cent HIV/AIDS prevalence, compared to 22.5 per cent nationwide.” The disease hits the most productive members of society making it difficult to support the economy. It also leaves thousands of children without parents. According to UNICEF, “more than 20 per cent of youth under 19 years old have been orphaned because family members have died from the virus.” While extended family and communities will try to support these children, the over strapped communities are too often unable leaving children without medical care, school, adequate nutrition, or sometimes even a roof over their head.
Other COZV Facts
-Place of employment for 22 Namibian nationals
-Facilities include children’s home, missionary home, school building, volunteer bungalow, staff apartments, workshop and barn
-Raising funds to build additional staff housing and vocational school
-Children are taught agriculture in our large garden
-Children are taught equestrian and animal care skills with our horses, goats, chickens, sheep, and ducks
-Plans are underway to begin a trade school, possibly including local construction trades, tailoring, auto mechanics, woodworking, weaving, computer skills and beautician training
-Daily prayer and Christian teaching keep the home Christ centered
-Many of the children play on sports teams with children from town and nearby villages
-Scheduled visits to many villages keep the children connected with their heritage
-Local residents sometimes join the children for Sunday worship
The Calvary UMC Connection
Calvary UMC has been associated with the Minks and COZV since its founding in 2003; however, the primary sponsor for the project is Mt. Zion UMC in Bel Air, MD. Financial support comes from many sources including individual donors, church mission’s giving and numerous fund raising activities. In addition to financial support COZV needs volunteers to aid the permanent staff.
Volunteers come in three time categories: Short Term Volunteers stay for several weeks, Medium Term Volunteers stay for several months, and Long Term Volunteers stay for a year or more. Most of the medium and Long term Volunteers are collage age young adults.
Calvary’s first involvement in sending volunteers to COZV on a “short term” mission trip occurred in 2006 when 4 individuals from our church traveled to Namibia for two weeks to work at the home. This was one of COZV’s first “experiments” with Short Term Volunteers to see how productive people could be over a shorter period of time. To say the least the mission was a great success since two of the team, Sara and Clydia, came back all fired up and co-opted 18 more people into going on a mission trip to COZV in 2007. Clydia and Sara eventually became the leaders of Team 1 and Team 2 for the 2007 COZV mission.
