The Road to Revival: Vol. 2, Issue 3, March 2024
Land Update
As you may know by now, we have owned land in Nyenyezi, Zambia since 2019 with the hopes of one day building a Reviving Africa Community Centre with programs to uplift and benefit the community. We’ve gone through many hurdles with the land ownership, with confusion between the Chief and Elders on which properties were taken and which were actually available for us.
In early 2021, we finally agreed on 15 hectares of land, and at the end of the year, our missionary officially moved into a temporary mud structure. We were off and running with our outreach events, using our temporary structures as a base, so it’s safe to say it was a complete surprise to us when we faced yet another difficulty. In the summer of 2022, a lady came along claiming the land belonged to her late husband and remained in the family after his passing. Threatening to file a complaint against him with the Human Rights Commission, the Chief had no choice but to move us into a new property once more.
The Reviving Africa team prayed for God’s favour with this situation. We prayed that the Lord would guide our steps and ultimately place us strategically and where He wanted us to be. We praise God for answering our prayers this year and giving us the best land option yet; an extra 5 hectares of fertile land with a stream running across it. God more than compensated us for our troubles.
However, we want to be good stewards of what God has given us and of the money we have raised as we move forward in the development of Reviving Africa: Zambia. For this reason, we are registering the title deed of the land under the government of Zambia as State land instead of keeping it part of the Chiefdom land, which is where our complications were. State registration would be the safest and most guaranteed way to protect our land assets in case of future land disputes or should a new Chief take the throne who may have different plans. The process is long to transfer and file the paperwork but through much prayer and wise counsel, we believe this is the next right step for R.A.
We’ve had 2 successful meetings with the Chief to start the year, agreeing to begin the transfer of the land registration. Land surveying has taken place, (see pictures below) with the official documentation to follow within a few weeks. Once received, there are more permits and applications to apply for in this process of officiating the title deed. We look forward to updating you along the way as we involve different government ministries in filing the appropriate paperwork.
Please continue to pray for favour with the elders of the land, our neighbours, the Chief, and government officials as we continue to pursue this very important step to protect our land. Once completed, we are very excited and hopeful to send out a team to begin building phase 1 of our community centre sometime this year!
