Grace Church Bolton have had a relationship with Joseph and Lily, and The Streetlife project for around 20 years now. As a church we have annually sent over a couple, or sometimes 2 couples to spend some time with Dayspring Church, The Streetlife project and more recently Dayspring Academy(The primary school).

For the first time this year we went out with 3 families, a total of 9 people, that included John James and Kathryn McGregor, (the only guys on the team that had been out previously) - They are our primary contacts for our relationship between Grace Church Bolton and Joseph and Lily. Dave and Amy Kruczek, with their 2 girls, Isobel age 14, and Olivia age 12 and lastly Raj and June Edirisinghe with their son Jonathon, age 13.

Our aim for our time in Kitwe was to help support the activities in the church, the Streetlife project and the school, and to encourage those who are working in and volunteering in those places. As a team we all have quite different skill sets which enabled us to really provide good examples of working as a team, but utilising each person's gifts and skills where appropriate, and allowing one another to lead at different times and in different scenarios.

Our children adapted really well, and threw themselves into everything that we did. We saw their confidence grow and friendships made regardless of their backgrounds being so different from one another, which is a great example of how church should be.

We spent a total of 10 days in Kitwe and in that time it felt like we did so much including:
* Speaking at their Sunday services and Easter conference, which included outreach into town on Friday and Saturday afternoons to invite people along on Easter Sunday.
* Health checks on all the resident children in both the boys and girls centres
* First aid training for school staff and Streetlife staff
* Senior leadership team and staff training within the school
* Launching the IT/programming pathway pilot
* Feeding programs in villages/compounds
* Breakfast club before school
* Visiting Streetlife centres and spending time with the boys and girls that live there - this included doing crafts and games with the children
* Visit to a rural village
* Aqua park day - a day trip for all the children, around 250 that are sponsored by people back here in the UK.

After our time in Kitwe we were able to fly to Livingstone in the southern province of Zambia for some R&R. Whilst there we were able to visit Victoria Falls and go on a Safari in Botswana. We were also able to meet up with a couple of young men that had grown up in the Streetlife centre, but were now making a life for themselves down in Livingstone.