Farewell

Our time has come to end here in Malawi. It has been a very good trip. Each trip God seems to remind us that relationships with people are more important that what you do, what you own, and what is on your schedule. It is a good lesson to learn. Our last evening here, our friends, Abusa (pastor) and Amayi (Mrs) Dimba came to visit. As we said our farewells, Amayi Dimba presented Michelle with a 4meter piece of cloth called a chitengi. You cut it into two pieces and use it wrapped around your skirt. As Amayi Dimba showed Michelle how to wear it, she told Michelle, “Remember you are now an African Woman and I love you.” Such an honor! Here are photos of the two of them, each wearing half of the cloth.

Thank you to everyone for all your support, your prayers, your blog comments and emails. We have been so encouraged the entire trip. We are blessed to have such loving family and friends. We are sad to say good-bye to the many friends we have made here, but we are excited to return home to all of you. God bless you all.
<><>

Fabulous Faces

Here are some photos from the Orphan Care Program in Chidyamaani today. The kids asked for prayer and asked us to greet Larry and Mandy, and the crew that came from Kewanee in August.

Ngumbi

On the road to Zomba there are many people selling this Malawian delicacy. It is called Ngumbi (pronounced: goombe). In English it is called flying white ants.The ants are harvested and fried in oil. Monday we were on our way to Zomba and Mike decided to buy some from this young girl.



We pulled over and bought a small container full. Mike really wanted to try them, but after we drove away he smelled them and couldn't do it.

.

Crisis Nursery

Michelle loves visiting the Crisis Nursery! She knows many of the children by name now, and has fallen in love with them all. There are 5 full time nannies and several other workers and volunteers to help care for the 27 children. Michelle took the photo above of the ones she was watching this morning, and she was holding an infant while taking the picture!

Babies are brought to the nursery for different reasons: the parents have died, parents or relatives unable to care for them, or they have been abandoned. Right now, the age range is from 2 weeks to 26 months. The children are separated by age into 4 different bedrooms. Each child has his own bed, except the set of twins share a crib. The twins shown here are named Moses and Miriam.

The nursery wants to keep Malawian tradition as much as possible; therefore after the children are ready for more than formula, they are fed porridge for breakfast and nsima for lunch and dinner. They are fed on the floor with volunteer hands (rather than utensils) until they learn to feed themselves. They are routinely fed, changed, played with and laid down for naps. In these photos, Mrs. Lucy feeds three of little ones nsima (boiled corn flour). You can see that Sharon, below, is enjoying it!


There is a nurse on staff that makes sure every child gets their vitamins, any medication needed, and their appropriate immunizations. On Michelle’s first visit, Nurse Alice and a few of the others took 12 of the infants by van to get their shots. Quite an undertaking!

In addition to loving on the little ones, it has been a blessing to be a part of the 8am worship and prayer time. It is a joy to start off the day praising the same God, even in a different language.

The remaining photos are Fiuni on the drum, Thereza with the block, and Bekaru on the pink pillow.

Orphan Care Program

On Thursday, we were in the village of Chidyamaani for the Orphan Care Program and the meeting with the chiefs. At the meeting, Mike spoke to the chiefs. He encouraged them to continue in their leadership in providing for the orphans. Several of the chiefs spoke and mentioned the struggle that it is for them to provide for the program and asked for prayerAfter the meeting the children started to arrive. Over 200 orphans come to the program each Thursday for a lesson, a meal and some fun. Pastor Dimba has been challenging the older children to memorize bible passages. This week many of them recited James 1: 2-8. In two weeks they were challenged to have memorized Mathew 6:25-34. Michelle greeted the children introducing herself and thanking them for their hospitality. Many of the children remembered Michelle from her previous visits. Several of the children spoke and the young girl you see pictured in the red shirt thanked us for coming and asked us to come back again and bring our tall son. Many of the kids remembered Steven from the time he came to Malawi in 05/06.The pictures are from the orphan care program.
Next time we will try to write more and post pictures from the crisis nursery which so far has been the highlight of Michelle’s time here.

Blantyre/ Zomba trip

The electricity at the house went out yesterday and has not come back on yet, so we are posting this again from the internet café. We were in Blantyre, and Zomba early in the week visiting University of Malawi and private cooperator corn and cotton demonstration plots. We also visited one of the Millennium Village clusters at Zomba to learn about the efforts of the United Nations Development Program in agriculture and community development. Here are a few pictures from the trip. The children you see are a few friends Michelle made along the way.

Quick update

Sorry it has been so long since the last post. We have not had internet access for sometime. We are at an internet cafe now. As soon as we can, we will post pictures, hopefully tomorrow. The meetings with the village headmen went well, thank you for praying. The village headman and children ask you to continue to pray for them. Pray that they can maintain the orphan care program. Michelle has had long days but is enjoying taking care of the the infants at the crisis nursery. She had 10 infants at once this morning! More on that later. Better go for now.

Sunday Update

Sunday here, just returned from church. It was wonderful to be able to participate with others in worship today.

Mike left on Thusday and returned Saturday from an excursion to the northern region of Malawi. They planted a trial and demonstration plot of improved corn varieties.

The difficult issues of improving productivity aren't just technical, but also social. To be effective and long lasting, community development must be done in the local social context.

As Malawian pastors plant and water seeds of faith in spiritual development, we are desiring to assist their ministies working in community development. So many families struggle to feed themselves and meet basic human needs.

When we visit the orphan care program on Thursday the village headmen(chiefs) and area village headman(chief of chiefs) will be present. Mike has been asked to address them. Please pray for Mike as he speaks. The chiefs have been taking more responsibility for the program and Mike will thank them and encourage them to continue.

The primary battle here and elsewhere, is a spirtual one; against the forces of evil that breakdown the family and other relationships. The challenges are great and the goal may not be reached in this short trip, but we must engage in the effort. Please continue to pray for the people in Malawi, and Pray for the Harvest.

The Sifting

Mike purchased a bag of flour for 800 Kwacha, which is about $5.50. The flour was full of pests. Too expensive to throw away, and with no guarantee that any other bag would be any better, we decided we needed to remove the bugs.

The first step in the process was to freeze the flour to kill the bugs. Straining them just proved that the pests fit right through the holes! A few trial and error methods later, the tea strainer seemed to work most effectively.