Oasis Village TrustLatest News - Issue 10
12.11.2011
Apologies…
I can’t believe it's been over a year since the last official update!… Issue 9 ended with the news of the Moyos coming over to N Ireland from December to May to have another baby and beautiful baby Zara promptly came into the world on 28th January 2011.
The Moyos had a fantastic, busy time here, catching up with friends and family and sharing their vision on Oasis Village. They left in May, just after we put Ziso through his paces in a relay team in the Belfast Marathon! He was delighted to be able to take part in some fundraisers while he was here.
Nicki also loved helping out, including at an afternoon tea fundraiser in the Ulster Temple that raised over £1800! Thanks to everyone who baked, helped and ate on the day!
Summer 2011
this year. However I went out for five and a half weeks and had a wonderful time. Although I was mainly there to help Nicki with the children, I loved going to Oasis Village to see the progress and I was delighted to see the canteen being built; they finished the roof a few weeks after I returned to N Ireland. I am sure you will agree that it looks brilliant!
Sardines on safari
My class in school also gave monetary gifts at the end of June and that meant that we were able to take 50 Sakania children on their first safari day trip. It was fantastic, but also very humbling to think that they live in Africa and most of them have never seen a wild animal before!… We went to a place called Nsobe and for the Sakania children that meant over one and a half hours sitting in the back of the Oasis truck. They looked like squashed sardines, but that didn’t stop them singing the whole way there and back! We played games and told a bible story and they had chicken, chips and a bottle of coke for lunch. They were so well behaved. Then we took them around the snake and bird park and in the afternoon we went on a safari drive in the truck; they were speechless as we turned the corner and a giraffe was standing there - it couldn’t have been more perfect. Then they all received goody bags and sang the whole way home! Wonderful!
Progress at the site
Ziso started the borehole in September and it is still a work in progress; we would value your prayers that the work will continue and that they will strike water soon. Apart from that it has been full speed ahead with work on the site. These pictures are hot off the press and I hope they encourage you as much as they encouraged me…Electricity
All the wiring for the electricity is finished. This was the hard part. Ziso has tested the electricity at the site and everything is working. The local electricity company is going to inspect and then install a line. It usually takes a month or two for this to happen.
Gates
The site now has proper gates on the sides of the wall; the front gate is a sliding one.
Plumbing
Pipes for the showers and sinks are in place. The next stage in plumbing will be to install the toilets, sinks and geysers.
Plastering The exteriors of the houses are being plastered and then they will be painted.
Painting
The tin roofs of the houses are being painted first with red oxide, which provides a protective coating against rust, and then a green colour.
Toilet and Shower Block
This is the start of an outside toilet and shower block to cater for all those who work at the site.
Bricks
Ten thousand bricks have been made in preparation for an office, common room and chalet no.9 These are not urgent projects at the minute.
Landscape
Tonnes of gravel and dirt have been bought to level the site. This is so that we can transform the landscape from a construction site to a more homely and friendly environment. The rainy season is about to start so a lot more trees will be planted.
Canteen
The door frames and window frames are in place. The canteen has eight doors and they are all near completion. The chairs for the canteen have also been made.
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First twins on the site
The first set of twin kids have been born at the site - mummy goat is doing well! I wonder should we call them Nicki and Annalisa!
Next few months…
Ziso says that by the end of this year one or two houses will be fully functional. The other houses will also be nearly habitable. The needy children of Sakania Village will receive priority for admission. Ziso has visited some of these children to carry out a preliminary investigation and verify their stories. So far a list of about 20 children has been compiled. We will start with bringing in 6 children for chalet no. 1 and then another 6 for the next house.
House mums
There has been a lot of interest from potential house mums. Ziso is about to start interviews; please pray that the right people get the jobs.
Fundraising News
This year we received over £6000 from the Belfast Marathon 2011. This event has definitely proved to be one of our best fundraisers and I would love you all to consider taking part next year for Oasis Village; if you don’t fancy running there are walks also, something to suit everyone! Please get in touch if you are willing to take part.
Cookery Demonstration and info night on Oasis
This will take place in Finaghy Methodist on Thursday 1st December from 7:30 p.m.; we would be delighted to see you there. You don’t need a ticket; there will be an opportunity to give a small donation towards the work on the night.
Bag pack
This will take place at M & S Sprucefield on Thursday 22nd December and I would love it if you can spare a few hours to help out; please get in touch ASAP if you are available as I am starting to plan my rota!
Lambeg Players Pantomime
The official night for Oasis is Thursday 5th January at Lisburn Island Centre. (I can also get some tickets for the Saturday 7th matinee show for anyone with children.)The pantomime is always fantastic and a great night out, especially to chase away those January blues! The pantomime has a western theme this year and tickets cost £10 for Adults and £8 for concession. Please get in touch ASAP if you want me to reserve tickets for you. Through the Lambeg Players' pantomimes we have raised thousands over the years; we are very thankful to them for supporting the work so consistently. If you can come to the pantomime and also spread the word with friends and family that would be brilliant!
Thank you all for your continued support. It is greatly appreciated.
God Bless
Annalisa
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Latest News - Issue 9
17.09.2010
Summer holiday?
This summer has proved to be the busiest yet and certainly no holiday! The Moyos have had visitors and teams staying with them from the middle of April to the 6th September; they definitely deserve a rest, especially with Nicki being 16 weeks pregnant and Ziso doing his usual - working round the clock.
Summer teamwork
Lynsey Agnew arrived first and stayed for about 7 weeks. She helped Nicki out with everything, especially the cooking, which was such a blessing when the first team arrived, as the thought of food left Nicki feeling very queasy! Lynsey's main role in ministry was helping the worship team in church; she taught them lots of new songs and joined them in leading the worship on a Sunday morning.
The first team came from the Ulster Temple, namely Pastor Stephen Thompson with 
Johnny Thompson and Ronnie Murphy. They were involved in lots of activity, including conducting a crusade, building a kiln at the site and constructing a chicken coop as well as painting the outside of the Moyos' house!
The second team, from Hillsborough Presbyterian, was involved in a twofold ministry in 
local schools and villages. Teaching craft to 250 children was an experience they will never forget! They also built a kiln at the site and helped with the ongoing construction of the perimeter wall.
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he third team was led by Phil and Claire Stanley. They participated in three areas of ministry - ladies, youth and children. Their primary focus, however, was to build a jungle gym at the site for when the first orphaned children move in. A long delay in London on the way over meant that they arrived in Ndola two days late (albeit they were put up in a 5 star hotel in Nairobi!). They couldn’t wait to get on with the construction of the jungle gym, and they worked non stop to catch up for the days lost. They got up a few times at 3 a.m. in order to arrive at the site for daybreak - a lie in for this team was 5 a.m.! Even on their last night, after having been out for a farewell meal, they arrived back at the Moyos' around 10 p.m. and then headed out around 3 a.m. to put the final touches to the jungle gym before being picked up from the site and taken to catch their flight home!
The Sakania children were brought up to the site towards the end of the team’s visit to play on the jungle gym, which was absolutely fantastic. As the children were being driven towards the site, singing at the tops of their voices, the team was still attaching the slides and swings!
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Matt finish
What can I say about my son Matthew? He arrived in Zambia on 6 June and came home with the last team on 6 September. He was Ziso’s right hand man, a very hard worker involved in absolutely everything. He got stuck into the various tasks when teams arrived and also helped out with cooking, cleaning, babysitting, painting, fixing computers… the list is endless!
A HUGE thankyou to everyone who ventured out to Zambia to work at Oasis Village over the summer, your help and commitment is greatly appreciated.
Check out the latest photos of the year by clicking here or by going to the photo gallery and clicking on teams 2010 album!
Peru take 2!
Fred Wray's off to Peru at the end of September on a charity trek in aid of Oasis Village. It was meant to happen back in April, but the Icelandic ash put paid to that! The 5 day trek follows the Inca trail and ends up in the ancient site of Machu Picchu. Next News should feature a brief report with some pics of the adventure.
Belfast Marathon 2010 - 'Simply staggering!'
In May, I told you that we had reached a fantastic total of £12,500 from the marathon - that total is now over £14,000! And still rising. This has definitely been our most successful fundraiser to date and I want to URGE anyone reading this to think about running for Oasis Village on 2 May 2011. Last year 88 people ran, so let’s make it over 100 people this year!
Targets on site:-
- Finish the exterior wall
- Put grill doors on all the chalets
The Moyos in N.Ireland
The Moyos will be returning to N Ireland at Christmas for the birth of baby Moyo No. 3 at the end of January! They will stay until May and hope to use this time as an opportunity to share their vision regarding Oasis Village Trust. If you would like them to come and speak then please get in touch with their secretary (me!) via HYPERLINK "mailto:oasisvillagendola@yahoo.co.uk" oasisvillagendola@yahoo.co.uk
God Bless
Annalisa
| Thanks to Chris Scott, Debbie Gowing and Rachael Campbell for the photos. |
Latest News - Issue 8
02.06.2010
Progress on site
It’s been over five months since the last news on Oasis Village and it’s very exciting to see the progress that has been made. The perimeter wall has been completed on three sides, including a fence ( insert picture of fence). The remaining side should be finished within the next month or two and gates will be added. Internal work has started in the eight chalets, with pipes and wiring in preparation for the electricity supply. Trenches have been dug and pipes will be purchased to draw out the sewage when the water supply is accessed.
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Next BIG project…
The borehole! Please pray for expertise for the workers to know the best place to drill for water, and that the water source won’t be too far underground - the further they dig, the more expensive the outcome! We have money to start this project but still need money to complete it. The borehole is VITAL as the first children can start to move in only when we have running water and electricity.
Summer teams
Three teams are heading out to Zambia over the Summer to work on the site; it's very exciting to see teams go out as so much can be accomplished in a short period of time.
The first team consists of three men from the Ulster Temple including one of the pastors, Stephen Thompson. Their main aim is to provide support for the Moyo family and help out wherever they can. Then a team of twenty people, led by Colin McKibben, is heading out from Hillsborough Presbyterian Church in July. They will be involved in plastering and finishing off chalet one and also in children’s ministry at Sakania Village. The third team is a group of young people who will be led by Phil and Claire Stanley; they arrive this August and their main aims are to build a jungle gym for the children, to run children’s programmes at Sakania and to provide ministry for women. My son Matthew is spending three months in Zambia and will be involved with all three teams - he is ready to roll his sleeves up and get stuck in!
If you are participating in any of these teams I just want to take this opportunity to thank you. I trust and pray that you will have a wonderful experience and make a huge impact for Oasis Village.
Belfast Marathon 2010 - 'Staggering success!'
I finished off the last news by encouraging people to sign up for the Belfast Marathon on 3 May 2010 and am still amazed at the response. EIGHTY-EIGHT people took part for Oasis Village and it was a fantastic day. Currently we have raised a staggering £12,500 and money still has to come in from over 50 people so I am very excited to find out what our final total will be! It is definitely our most successful fundraiser to date and I would love everyone who took part to consider running for Oasis again next year. Every penny raised this year will go towards the children and their needs as they move into the Village. Your thoughtfulness and support will transform their lives in a mighty way and they will never forget it. A MASSIVE thank you to Adair and Milliken who sponsored our beautiful Oasis Village t-
shirts that everyone wore on the day. And a special word of thanks to our top fundraiser Chris Ritchie from H Ritchie and Sons EW who ran the 26 miles and raised a staggering £4500, this includes a cheque for £1000 given by Eddie Haughey from J Haughey & Sons.
Targets:-
- Completion of borehole
- Electricity supply
- FIRST CHILDREN MOVE IN!
The next update will be in September when all the summer teams have returned, so I can give you a complete progress report. Please keep the Moyo family and Oasis Village Trust in your thoughts and prayers over the next few months.
Thanks again for your support and commitment to the project. It is truly amazing to see what has been achieved over the last few years and it will be very exciting to see what God will do in the coming months.
God Bless
Annalisa
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The last few months have been very busy at Oasis Village; I am just back from a month in Zambia and am very excited about the progress that has been made! The site was transformed compared to last year and it’s fascinating to see each stage and to think about the wonderful potential within Oasis Village. I got to spend time at the site; quality family time with Moyo’s and went to Sakania Village every week. I had the opportunity to take 48 children from Sakania on a day trip due to the wonderful generosity of my P4 class. We had a barbeque and the children played football, volleyball, went in a rowing boat, got their faces painted, played in the park and had great fun on the bouncy castle! On the way home we stopped to buy them all a tub of ice cream and some of them put it into their goody bags to bring home. They had never had ice cream before and didn’t realise it would melt! (A very humbling and moving experience). It was a fantastic trip and I would encourage anyone to go and see it for themselves.
The Ulster Temple team consisted of 4 men who cleaned the interior of external houses, helped put on the roof of the 8th house and made a start on digging the foundations for the fence by hiring a huge digger! They were also involved in a few very successful crusades. Another highlight was when Matthew and two African workers got arrested for sitting on the back of the truck on top of supplies, they were taken to the local police station where Ziso had to pay a total of £30 to bail them all out!
Reiss and Simon from Bath in England also joined the working party for a few weeks. When they arrived Ziso needed to get a lot of firewood for the kiln to burn the bricks, so they had a lot of 5am starts!! They worked at the site and got involved in everything before heading off to Victoria Falls for a well deserved break.
There are about twenty men who work on site on a regular basis but the expertise of the teams over the summer months made a huge difference. When I arrived at the site in July 2008 this was the view from the mountain.
The truck was then given a make over and sprayed silver and the Moyo’s brought it to Sakania Village to see what the kids thought of it!! (It will be used to bring them on trips in the future. I just can’t believe how many children can fit into it!!!)
Some very exciting news for Oasis Village is that a recycling boutique called Wee Cycle has opened up at 159 Upper Lisburn Road Finaghy. It is a beautiful boutique where you bring washed and ironed children’s designer/very good quality clothes to the shop. An account is set up and when your items are sold you can either receive 40% back in cash or 50% can be spent in the shop or if you want to donate what you make to charity, the charity supported by the shop is Oasis Village Trust! Please support this shop and spread to word to friends and family! The boutique is very classy, I even spied a little pair of baby ugg boots in the window and there are beautiful prams for sale too!!!
Just wanted to keep you updated on progress at the site. There are actually 8 chalets making progress at the minute, in between the rain storms! Each house has a different set of brick layers working at different speeds, that’s why some houses are further on than others. The plan is to slow down the work until the truck arrives to stop continued spending on hiring. Here’s a run down on the progress.
House no.2 has a roof, burglar bars and the window fittings are partially complete. House no.3 is still at ring beam awaiting a roof. House no. 4 is nearly at window level. House no. 5 is still at foundation . House no. 6 is at window level nearing ring beam. House no. 7 is at ring beam level. House no. 8 the foundations are nearly complete.
A big thank you goes out to Wendy Lemon who ran the Great North Run on 4th October 2008 and raised a staggering £900! Your training and hard work really paid off and the money is greatly appreciated. Three cheers for Wendy!
Our faithful friends The Lambeg Players have provided us again with the opportunity to sell 250 tickets for their Christmas Pantomime called Sinbad, on Tuesday 6 January 2009 in Lisburn Island Centre. For anyone who has ever seen the players in action, I am sure you will agree that they are superb and definitely give the Opera House a run for their money. We always raise over £1000 from ticket sales and have a fantastic night in the process. Anyone wishing to go should get in touch with me asap as tickets always sell out very quickly. You won’t be disappointed. (email 
I had the greatest pleasure of spending 5 weeks in Zambia over July and August 2008. My main purpose of the trip was to spend quality family time with Nicki, Ziso, Zach and Zoe and I also had the opportunity to visit and catch up on the progress at the building site. There will be a video coming soon which shows the progress at the site. I will email you when it is ready for viewing!
I also had the wonderful opportunity of visiting Sakania Village 3 times to help with children’s programmes and we took 30 of Sakania youth out for the day for a bbq, games and craft. I love working with these children as they are always so happy and friendly even though they have so little. It’s great that Oasis Village can provide some support for the children of Sakania Village.
When I arrived at the site the first thing I noticed was that 10,000 bricks had been made, this will be used to build the next 4 chalets. The 1st chalet just needs a front door, the 2nd chalet needs iron sheets for the roof, windows and a door. (See picture) The African workers have started laying bricks on the 3rd chalet and digging has begun for the foundations of the 4th house.
Ellen, Hattie and Jenny arrived from England to help at the site during July and August. Ellen and Hattie are civil engineers and Jenny is a teacher. They did a full survey of the site – they levelled the mountain so that they could figure out the direction that the water travels during the rainy season so that the water can be captured and stored to use in the dry season. They also helped with the building of the 2nd chalet. Let’s hear it for the girls!!!!
It's hard to believe that a month has passed since we have returned to Zambia! Most of the day is spent at the building site. The second house is very near completion, it's at ream beam level. We are busy making bricks that will be used to complete the third house. We are also preparing to dig the foundation for the fourth house.
