Limbani Jeremiah

I want to share with you a really amazing boy, Limbani Jeremiah! He's a part of the Esther's House Orphanage non-residential orphan program.

Limbani is 12 years old and he's currently in grade 6 at Madzanje Primary School. He lost both his mother and father before the age of 7, and is now living with his grandma and his older sister Tracy, who is also in the non-residential program, in the local village of Mkwezalamba. He's a very talented artist (I got to see this first hand when he helped me decorate a poster!) and he loves to play soccer. He told me that when he grows up he wants to be a policeman! He has this smile that just lights up his entire face when you talk to him, and he always has such a gentle demeanor. Bruce says that he's one of the only children at Esther's House that gets along with absolutely everyone.

I'm bringing all of this up because of something that happened last week that has really been weighing on my mind. On Tuesday we began to give the orphans the letters that their sponsors had written them. They were so excited! They were huddled in groups, reading their letters to each other, and the older children were helping the younger ones (who are still learning English) read theirs. Some of the envelopes had pictures of the sponsor's family or little presents like stickers and small notebooks which they loved!

What bothered me was that there were a lot of children that didn't have sponsors. It was really heartbreaking when a few of the kids came up to me asking where theirs was, and I had to tell them that there wasn't anything for them.

Before I came to Malawi, hearing the phrase "sponsoring a child" brought up images of late night infomercials where they would show a picture of an African child sitting in a pile of mud with dozens of flies buzzing around them. I didn't really believe that I, living 9,000 miles away in a completely different world, could do anything that would impact the lives of these kids.

I have been so fortunate to have a family that is supportive and loving, but that isn't the case with these children. It would really sicken you how nonchalantly a family gave us their orphan last week. There were no goodbyes, no hugs--they pretty much put his change of clothes in a plastic bag and shoved him in our car.

Sponsoring a child means that you donate $40 a month for their school fees, supplies, and the meals that are provided to them at Esther's House. What I didn't understand before now was that sponsoring a child means giving them a type of support that has nothing to do with money.

The children that were given pictures of their sponsors show them to everyone and talk about them as though they are their real family. Knowing that there is someone who personally cares about you and is praying for your well-being every night is something that I think a lot of us take for granted, and it's something that these children definitely don't have enough of.

These children, by any standards, have a difficult life. They live in an area where disease, rape, malnutrition, and death are a part of daily life--I've only been here for 4 weeks and sadly I've already witnessed this. You should never underestimate how impactful it is for them to have people that just simply care about their wellbeing and pray for them.

I wanted to introduce you to Limbani because he's one of the un-sponsored children whom I've had the honor of getting to know over the past couple of weeks! These children are really amazing people--I learn so much just by being around them and spending time with them. If sponsoring Limbani or another orphan from Esther's House is something that you might be interested in (individuals, families, and groups can sponsor a child), you can visit puremission.org!

James 1:27

♥ S

It’s been 14 months since Esther’s House ministries has enrolled orphans into its residential program, and today we were able to bring 2 children, Mphatso and Elford, into Esther’s House! It was an exciting day, especially for Cindy and Bruce; they’ve been working tirelessly for over 3 months looking for orphans for the residential program. It was so amazing to be here to see all of the hard work that the Esther’s House team has put in finally come to fruition!

Our first stop was to the village of Khuzi, where Mphatso lives with her ago-go (grandma). Her ago-go had packed all of Mphatso’s belongings in a plastic bag, and had her freshly bathed wearing a clean dress and shoes.

Stanley, the government social worker, explained to her family (and the rest of the village that sat in on the discussion) that they are welcome and encouraged to visit Mphatso once she gets comfortable with living at Esther’s House. Her family members took turns speaking, saying that although it was a difficult decision to let her go they knew that she would be provided for and well taken care of. After answering questions that the family had, it was time to say goodbye.

We had Mphatso take a picture with her family so that we can print it out later and let her keep it in her room. It was pretty obvious that Mphatso was still very scared--she didn’t say a single word until after we arrived at the orphanage much later.

As she sat in the car, her grandma stood by her side and assured her that she would visit her very soon.

The other villagers crowded around the car to say goodbye, and all of the children ran after our truck, and a few even tried to jump on the back. (so incredibly dangerous! They could've easily been ran over)

After picking up Mphatso we headed out to Elford's village of Majuwa. Unlike Mphatso, his family hadn't prepared him at all. He was covered in dirt, and was wearing an adult-sized shirt with no pants. I think after his grandma saw Mphatso, she decided to take Elford to the "tub room" and changed his clothes. The only thing he took with him when he left was that oversized shirt.

We also took a picture of Elford and his family.

Elford is apparently very close with his sister, but she has to stay behind in Majuwa. Bruce held Elford's left hand and his sister held his other hand the entire walk from their home to the car--it was really heartbreaking to watch.

Bruce is helping Elford into the car in this picture. Mphatso was so quiet on the ride over, but Elford became really chatty after a few minutes. He was so excited every time we passed a car or truck!

Arriving at Esther's House!

Getrude, Bruce's wife, and Jiles were waiting to greet Mphatso and Elford at the front gate. Mphatso is already very attached to Getrude!

We arrived at Esther's House a little later than expected, but all of the non-residential children stayed behind so that they could meet and welcome the new children.

Getrude with a nervous Mphatso. :)

Issac and Precious, the only 2 orphans that were residing at Esther's House up until now, were very excited to meet their new brother and sister!

Ruthann had the idea of getting them stuffed animals as a welcoming present. Elford didn't understand at first that this was a gift for him to keep! So they both have their new animals in tow, along with their new house parents, Bruce and Getrude.

Elford is suffering from severe malnutrition, if that isn't apparent from the pictures of him. We were so happy to hear that at dinner tonight, he ate more than anyone, even the adults!

We're so excited to have these new children to take care of at Esther's House, but what's even more exciting is that this is only the beginning! Tomorrow we're meeting having our second meeting with this little boy, Peter.

He is 4 years old and is being raised by his aunt. He lives in the "suburb" of the Ntcheu boma, area Edwards. We're praying that Elford will have him as a roommate by this weekend!

♥ S

We started the process of orphan searching today; Esther's House currently has enough space to house 100 orphans but right now 2 twin boys, Issac and Precious, are the only ones residing there. There's an incredible number of hoops that have to be jumped through in order to legally obtain orphans, but we're praying that by Saturday we'll be able to bring 2 more into the residential program!

Today we went to the village of Khuzi; because it was a fairly large village it had 5 village heads, and getting them all together took quite a bit of time. While we were waiting the entire village crowded around us and just watched us. For many of the kids it was their first time seeing an "azungu" !

There was a nearby hut where the men were playing a game called "bao," so Ruthann, Cindy, and I watched and tried to figure out the rules of the game (still not sure what they are!), and Ruthann even tried to play a little.

Once the village heads arrived Bruce, one of the house parents at Esther's House and a translator, explained to the village heads why we were there and what Esther's House is. They then took us to the houses that had orphans; Bruce and Cindy then interviewed the families.

This little girl is a 5-year-old double orphan (a child who has lost both parents) who lives with her ago-go (grandma). Her name is Mphatso, which means "Gift."

As Bruce was explaining the orphan program to her grandma, Mphatso became very worried. I can only imagine how scary it must be for her to realize that she'll be leaving her home and her grandma and starting a new life alone in a foreign place. Bruce said that when Issac and Precious first entered the residential program they were very scared for the first few days, but they became much more comfortable after getting to know the house parents and making friends with the non-residential orphans.

Hopefully in the next few days we'll be able to bring Mphatso to Esther's House!

♥ S

As most of my friends and family already know, I left for Malawi, Africa on August 22 for a 6-month period to work at Esther's House Orphanage, an institution that was created by First Baptist Church in Springdale, Arkansas. I've decided that I'm going to try to regularly write in this blog to share my experiences of Malawi and to update everyone on the progress that's happening at Esther's House!

On September 2 our team of 13 people made the 3 hour drive from Ntcheu to Lilongwe to drop the team off at the airport (minus Ruth Ann, Dr. Martin, and myself). I was so sad to see them go--the 12 day mission trip went by so fast! We accomplished so much in that short period of time: we held a 2-day medical clinic at Esther's House that went really well--we were able to see 342 patients! We held Bible school for the residential and non-residential orphans, and we also went out into the local village and had a Bible school session there as well. A pastor's conference was held, and 3 of the men on the team were able to teach 25 local pastors more about God's word. On Sunday we held a church service at the orphanage for about 150 people, and I had the opportunity to share my personal testimony with them. There was a day of building and repair for both the orphanage and the mission house, and we ended the week by going on an amazing 2-hour boat safari trip at Liwonde Game Park. I'm so grateful to have met all the great people that were on the missions team, and they'll definitely be missed here!

After dropping the team off at the airport, Cindy (the amazing lady who is the director of Esther's House--she'll be living here for 2 years!) and I had quite an adventure trying to get some much needed errands done. I've discovered that Malawians are not too concerned with getting things done on time...or getting things done right the first time around. What should've been a simple car repair ended up taking all day and costing twice as much. As a result of that we ended up having to stay 2 nights in Lilongwe.

I've also learned what "load sharing" is! Apparently Lilongwe does not have enough electricity to power the entire city at once, so they shut the power off in different areas of the city. After having a really difficult day, Cindy and I sat down at a restaurant to have dinner. We had barely looked at the menu for more than a minute when all of the power suddenly shut off, leaving us in dark until the server got around to bringing candles. It was a fitting ending to the kind of day we had! The restaurant was really good though!! We finally made our way back to Ntcheu this afternoon and had dinner at Dear Mama's, an amazing chicken restaurant down the street from our house!

I'm still getting used to being seen as an "azungu" (white person!). I was especially aware of it in Lilongwe, but Malawians are always staring! Cindy told me that she doesn't even notice it anymore, but I'm not quite at that stage yet!

This is the cute guest hut that Cindy and I stayed at while in Lilongwe, on the African Bible College (ABC) campus.

1 Cor. 9:24-26

♥ S