DOWAGIAC — Surrounded by unlit candles and the quiet bubbling of a fountain behind her, Dowagiac resident Claudia Zebell takes a deep breath as she wipes a few stray tears from her eyes.

“There is so much need in the world,” she said. “I just want to be able to help ease that need. … I have been so fortunate in my life. I want to use my blessings to help others.”

Currently, Zebell is sitting inside her storefront Rosy Tomorrows on Front Street in Dowagiac. Soon she will be overseas helping those in need in the country of Zambia.

Zebell and her family will be travelling to Zambia in June to build a school and well for those in need.

Zebell and her family first went to Zambia for a mission trip in 2011, when she helped to build a well and school outside of Zambia’s capital city, Lusaka. Zebell, along with other travelers, will complete a similar task for the upcoming trip, where she is going to the village of Lundazi, which she said is small and in a remote location.

“We are excited to take on a new assignment,” Zebell said.

Zebell said she has high hopes for the area she will be working in next month, because in the years since her last trip to Zambia in 2011, she has seen that school grow and be successful. While that school originally started with little more than 100 students, Zebell said that the school has grown to more than 400 students and that those students outperform other schools in terms of test scores.

“The desire for learning [in Zambia] is so great,” Zebell said.

The primary reason for Zebell to return to Zambia, she said, is that her daughter was extremely affected by the first trip and wanted to go again. However, Zebell said she has her own reasons and experiences that make her want to go back to serve the people of Zambia, many of them stemming from the legacy of her late father.

“He had a real heart for the African people,” Zebell said of her father. “He spent a lot of time overseas.”

When planning the first trip to Zambia in 2011, she and her family were about $20,000 short of their fundraising goal to build the new school. However, one day, she opened her mailbox to find a check for $20,000, which turned out to be money from her father’s inheritance, which she took as a sign that she was meant to go to Zambia and help those who lived there.

“It was the exact amount we were praying for, and I had no idea it was coming,” she recalled, blinking to keep tears from her eyes. “I knew that’s how he would have wanted us to spend that. … And now, we are going back again.”

Though Zebell will be thousands of miles away in Zambia, she said that people locally can have a part in helping the people of there. Zebell is asking that citizens bring in lightly used T-shirts and plastic bags to Rosy Tomorrows prior to her trip. The materials collected will be brought to Zambia to teach local women how to weave the materials into usable objects like rugs, shoes or baskets. The store is open and able to accept donations, including monetary ones, from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

“A couple months ago, I went into a store down the street and saw a rug made out of crocheted plastic bags,” Zebell said. “And it just hit me, this is what we can do, teach them how to crochet. I thought if we could ask our community to donate old T-shirts and plastic bags, it wouldn’t cost them a thing.”

Zebell said she is excited to go back to Zambia to serve and hopes that she is able to make as big a difference in the lives of those who live there as they have had an effect on her life.

“The people there are so amazing and grateful and good spirited,” she said. “I was so moved by them, and I’m ready to go back.”