Last blog post

***I wrote this blog entry during our last couple of days in Malawi, but was unable to post it as our Internet connection failed to work before we left on Tuesday morning!***

It’s hard to believe that our 12 weeks here has come and gone and that we’ll be heading back to the U.S on Tuesday. It’s both an exciting and sad time.

We attended Madzanje Baptist Church yesterday with all of our residential children and staff—it really was an incredible morning. Our residential kids are ages 5-8, and they have formed a sort of “children’s choir.” My new favorite song that I learned during this trip is “How Wonderful is Your Name.” When Precious, one of our 8-year-old boys, sang the opening line, it was difficult not to cry. When all of the little ones sang the chorus with him, it really was impossible. I’m going to miss them more than I can put into words. My heart aches when I think about the fact that I don’t know when the next time is that I’ll be able to see them. I love them so much.

Even with all of the challenges we had, I woke up every morning unable to feel anything but complete gratitude for all that the Lord has blessed me with. It really is a miracle of God that I even had the chance to come back to Malawi. I don’t know if or when I will be back, but I know that God’s plans are perfect. I’m incredibly grateful for the time He’s given me. If there is one thing I left Malawi knowing for sure, it is that God is always faithful; He truly overwhelmed us with His protection, provision, and love. God is amazing.

It’s a weird feeling, to have your heart be in two completely different worlds. As much as I love my country trying to transition back into a “normal” life in the U.S is difficult. Missing Malawi, missing these sweet children, missing this ministry in Malawi is not something you ever get over.

Please keep our Malawi Mom, Cindy House, in your prayers—she is working as the Director of Operations for Esther’s House. It’s difficult to even explain the kinds of challenges that you are faced with without experiencing life there for yourself, but she has a very big role in Malawi—Esther’s House would not be the same without her. We are sad to be leaving her, but if ever anyone was truly gifted for this work and ministry, it would be Cindy.

"You are a RECKLESS driver!"

It has been so good to have our Malawi mom, Cindy House, back in Malawi! Alyssa and I have been working as the interim Director of Operations for Esther's House, but for the past year and a half Cindy has had that role. Cindy is an incredible blessing to Esther's House--that is a definite fact, but it's something we've all realized even more in her absence! I don't know if there is someone who loves the children, widows, and Malawian people the way Cindy does. As we drove into Esther's House, the children started jumping up and down with excitement when they saw her. =) We've been having amazing evenings of fellowship with Cindy since she's gotten here--I love her and have so much respect for her and for the gifts God has given her to serve in this ministry with!

Driving to Lilongwe to was an adventure--with all the stray farm animals, potholes that take up 1/4 of the road, tons of bicyclists, and illegally slow 5-ton freight trucks, driving is not my favorite thing to do here. There are two radar guns in the entire country of Malawi and somehow I've managed to get two speeding tickets, one being when we went to pick Cindy up at the Lilongwe airport. Once we arrived in Lilongwe our good friend Phynilly helped navigate us through the city to get our errands done; driving to Lilongwe is very different from driving in Lilongwe--I'm very thankful for Phynilly! We had an awesome time listening to Lecrae's music while getting work done =)

I want to share with you the experience I had with the Malawi police while in Lilongwe--it was one of those surreal experiences that was such a good reminder of how great our God is!

On our way out of town after picking Cindy up from the airport, it was decided that I would drive so that Cindy could rest after her long, 2-day trip. There's a major fuel shortage in Malawi, and in Lilongwe there were cues of at least 30 cars at every gas station. There's also a little thing called "police road blocks," where you are supposed to stop and allow a police officer to check your driver's license, insurance, etc if they desire to. As we were leaving Lilongwe a cue of cars outside a BP gas station were blocking the signs for the police road block, and as there weren't actually any officers actually blocking the road (they were socializing under a tree) I unknowingly drove right through it at a very slow speed. Cindy quickly pointed this out, and as I slowed down even further one of the police officers noticed and pointed angrily at me to pull over.

The "warm heart of Africa" was not in this man, that's for sure! I rolled my window down, greeted him in a friendly manner and gave him the biggest smile I could. I asked if there was a problem, and he started yelling in my face, spit flying from his mouth: "YES. YES there is a problem. You are a RECKLESS driver!! You must follow me and pay the fine!" Malawians are typically the most friendly people--I have never been yelled at by one and was really flustered by it, so Cindy got out of the car with me and we followed the officer into the police hut next to the road. If you know me at all, you know that I'm not the most confrontational person! I tried to explain that the cue of cars from the gas station was obstructing the road block, that it was an honest mistake and I would have definitely stopped if I had seen it. It's kind of embarrassing how easy it is to make me cry, but he just refused to listen to anything I had to say and was so harsh that that was about all I could get out. The officer just kept saying over and over, "What do you do when you see a road block? YOU STOP! You are RECKLESS! We will drive to the police station and you will pay! Are we together?!" Cindy asked him repeatedly to show us kindness and mercy and to let us go with a warning, and although he looked like he was close to changing his mind a couple of times, he refused.

The first funny thing that happened was that he could not write out the traffic violation receipt because there was not a single pen in the police hut. He asked if I had a pen he could borrow... yes, of course I will definitely lend you my pen so you can write me a ticket! Cindy tried to convince him that this was a sign from God that he should show us kindness and let us go with a warning, but he refused. He said that he would write it out when we got to the police station. The thing about the Malawian police is that they don't have police cars. So in order to get to the police station, we had to give him a ride in OUR vehicle! Cindy and I were both pretty upset by this point.

Alyssa, Jailosi, and I were riding silently in the backseat when all of a sudden Cindy says, "So...how long have you been working as a police officer?" She went on to ask him about his family, where he was from, and finally if he had a relationship with the Lord. His answers were short and abrupt, and when she asked him about the Lord all he could manage to say was "No comment." That didn't stop Cindy from telling this man about how the best relationship you can ever have is with the Lord, and about how He's changed her life. She continued to tell him about how He is the ultimate comforter and the best friend you can ever have until we reached the police station. The officer tells us to follow him into the station, but as we get to lobby we find that most of the employees have gone home for the day as it is almost 5 p.m. We follow him in circles around the police station as he tries to find a cashier that was still working, but as he tried to open door after door, they were all locked. At this point he is getting increasingly frustrated, and Cindy and I are trying very hard to keep a somber look on our faces and not laugh. After a few minutes of failed attempts to find a cashier, he returns to us and says "You see?!??" Cindy tells him again that this is another sign from God that he needs to show us kindness and let us go with a warning! Unwilling to give up, he drags us around the station looking for someone who can help him.

He finally finds two older police officers standing outside the station and explains the situation to them. He comes up with the idea that we should pay him the fine, exchange phone numbers with him, and in the morning we can pick up the official receipt. Cindy explained to him that we live 3 hours away and couldn't pick it up in the morning; she told him that we would comply with whatever decision they came to, but brought up the dealings we've had with dishonest policemen in Balaka. The older police officers spoke to each other in Chichewa for a minute, laughed, and then said "Just go without paying the fine and take this as a warning. Remember to stop at police road blocks in the future." You could tell by the look on our police officer's face that he was embarrassed by their decision. We thanked them and headed back to our car where Alyssa and Jailosi had been waiting for a long time.

As we're about to leave the station, Cindy rolls down her window and asks the officer if he needs a ride back to where he was stationed. He says that he is done working for the day and is going home, and Cindy offered to give him a ride. As we start driving across Lilongwe, Cindy begins to tell him about the grace and love that God has for all of us, and tells him that she just wanted to share all of this with him because having a relationship with Christ is the most important thing you can have in your life. Alyssa and I are trying to remain serious in the back seat because it's pretty obvious that he is not too happy, but then Cindy pulls out a box of cordial chocolate covered cherries from her suitcase and passes the box around the car and we couldn't help but smile. Sitting in that car with the police officer, eating cordial cherries, listening to the Beatles and to Cindy share the gospel was a very surreal moment. I think the cordial cherries softened the officer up, because he started responding to Cindy and telling us about his 2 children. He was expecting to be dropped off on the road next to his neighborhood, which was about 1/2 a mile from his home, and very surprised when Cindy offered to drop him off right in front of his house. His children were waiting for him on the front steps, and he was so excited to point them out to us. We got to meet his wife before he thanked us and wished us a good trip home.

Getting pulled over after a long, tiring day in Lilongwe was not what we had in mind, but spending an hour in our car talking about the importance of having a relationship with the Lord is exactly what God had in mind for this man. It was a very real reminder of how different our plans can be from God's plans. I admire Cindy so much for being able to look past the frustration of the situation and to share with this man how amazing it is to have a relationship with God. After the infuriating confrontation we had with this man at the road block, it would not have been an easy thing to turn around and show him the kindness and grace that she did without God's help. As we drove away from the officer's house Jailosi said, "If we were to return in a couple of months, I think we would see a change in that man." God works in strange, but very awesome ways.

Update!

Things have been staying really busy this week--we've been without an internet connection most of the week so I haven't been able to blog, but I wanted to post some pictures of things we've been doing lately!

We took the kids to the dentist this week for a dental check-up. We have to take a few of them back next week to have a cleaning, but for the most part they all were in good shape!

Last week we used the projector to stencil Bible verses on the walls--I forgot how difficult it can be to paint on bumpy cement walls, but was able to finish the verses that are above the entrances to the boy and girl dorms. The verse above is in the boy's dorm, and the verse below is in the girl's. I'm hoping to finish the verses in the chapel and classroom next week! Big thanks to Brent Ellis for all of his help in putting the Bible verses together! Another project I've been working on is sewing curtains for all of the dorm rooms and the administrator's office--28 windows! Hoping to get that finished by next week!

                                       
                                        (painting above chapel door: Psalm 150:6)

                                     
                                        (painting in classroom: Proverbs 22:6)

We had our last perfect attendance rewards day on Saturday. It's been such a great program--the attendance of all the kids has improved so much! We had triple the number of kids with 100% attendance for the month of October!!

For their rewards day, we played the water balloon toss--with how hot it's been lately it ended up being the perfect game! I love this series of pictures of Zenus' water balloon breaking!

Salome catching her balloon

Chiyerekezo and Emmanuel won the water balloon toss!

Alyssa and I brought Kool-aid and made homemade powdered sugar doughnuts as a snack for the kids! They were a big hit! We'll have to make more when Cindy gets here next week. =)

Patuma with her doughnut

Peter enjoying his Kool-aid and doughnuts

Praise is a big fan of sweets, so he was really excited about the sugar doughnuts. When I handed one to his dad, Joshua, he stuffed the rest of his doughnut in his mouth and made a grab for the second one. When Joshua explained to him that he already had one, Praise was a little unhappy lol. Kids are the same, no matter where you are in the world. He did end up getting a second doughnut! In the picture you can see the first doughnut that's still in his mouth =)

Finally, we watched Finding Nemo in the classroom. They loved it!! It was incredibly fun day =)

Concerning the scabies outbreak with our residential children at Esther's House, the kids are doing much better--Alyssa and I spent an entire day wrapping 12 mattresses and pillows in plastic and duct tape, had all of clothing of all 12 residential children washed at once, and we administered the medicine that Dr. Martin advised us to give. I don't want to speak too soon, but it seems like Alyssa and I have lucked out and not caught scabies from the children--that's an incredible blessing and we're really relieved and thankful! We spend so much time around the children that I really was expecting to catch it. The children who were treated for tropical sores last week are also doing much better.

We are so excited to be picking our Malawi mom, Cindy House, up from the airport this Thursday!!! The kids have been asking about her a lot lately and are really excited to see her again! Please pray that she has a safe trip back to Malawi! I'm going to be driving to Lilongwe, so please also pray that Alyssa and I make it there in one piece =)

EH Happenings

Things have been staying really busy here.

It’s almost funny how different and varied the tasks are that we do from week to week! Last week we were focused on construction projects and CBCC visits, and this week we’ve been focusing on the health of our kids and starting some art projects.

We were finally able to finish the bunk bed project last weekend! We had some of the older boys in our community program learn from the carpenter. They were so excited to learn! We’re really happy with how they turned out and are excited to start preparing for possible new residential children at Esther’s House. =)

Two of four finished bunk beds

John learning how to use a saw

This week we started putting some Bible verses on the walls around Esther’s House campus. It really is amazing to see the difference that a little art can make. We used a projector (hooked up to a generator) to put the scriptures up on the wall and penciled them in that way. I started painting them in today—I had forgotten how difficult it is to paint straight lines on bumpy cement walls, but I’m excited about what the finished product will look like! I’ll post pictures once everything’s done.

Patuma playing with my paint; I think she'll be an artist someday ;)

Our kids have had a variety of different illnesses lately. It’s been an incredible experience to see them up close and to be able to help the children. I’ve been communicating with Dr. Allan Martin in the U.S concerning how I should go about treating things like scabies, bilharzia, tropical sores, abscesses, and fungal infections (just to name a few) . I’ve actually been using the camera on my iPhone to take pictures of all the different rashes and sores I see and have been sending them to Dr. Martin. I think I have more pictures of sores on my phone than I do of children ;)

Wisdom is a 7-year-old in our community-based program. He came to Esther’s House last week and we found that his entire face, neck, shoulder, chest, and arm areas were covered in a bumpy, itchy, rash! Leave it to a kid to not bring this to our attention until he’s unbearably uncomfortable! After speaking with Dr. Martin, we found out that it’s scabies (might want to google that if you don’t know what that is…it definitely made Alyssa and I paranoid about having it ourselves for a few days!). After speaking with Dr. Martin and getting Wisdom the proper treatment his skin cleared up in about a week. We went to his home in Madzanje to speak with his guardian and to bring her laundry detergent so that she could wash the bedding and clothes of Wisdom and everyone who lives in their home. Dr. Martin is a great teacher, and his instruction helped me explain to the guardian how to prevent scabies from returning to their home.

Wisdom's scabies rash

Today we treated 10 children who have tropical sores on their legs and feet. It’s usually caused by standing in stagnant water. At the risk of scaring people away from this blog, I won’t post any of the dozens of pictures I have on my iPhone of them. I’m incredibly glad that we have the means to help these children, and I hope opportunities to do so come up during my time here.

It's been a little hot lately--a whole bag of crayons melted the other day

We’ve been having a lot of power outages lately. Last month it was once or twice a week for a few hours; lately it’s been once or twice a day for 6 to 24 hours. It hasn’t really been a problem—just kind of annoying. The only minor inconvenience is not having a fan. I can go without Facebook and the Internet, but not a fan! It has been incredibly hot here, and it’s difficult to sleep without one. Not to sound too much like a girl, but I don’t really enjoy being sweaty, dirty and smelly! Unfortunately, those are probably the 3 words that describe me the best right now. It doesn’t help that we don’t have running water at the house right now, so there isn’t really a good way to clean off the dirt at the end of the day. I had a full day today at Esther’s House, and by the end of it I was sitting on the classroom porch, taking a break before heading back to town. Patuma sat down next to me and put her head on my shoulder. She looked up at me and just smiled. We sat there in silence together for awhile. Moments like that make the inconveniences more than worth it.

Break my heart for what breaks Yours

Today's been a trying day. Alyssa and I decided to "divide and conquer," with Alyssa and Joshua going out to the homes of our community children, and Bruce and I driving out to a CBCC in the village of Malawela with some members of the Gongonya village CBCC. Although Alyssa and I had different experiences, when talking tonight we discovered that we had come to similar conclusion about our days.

Bruce and I drove past village after village and down miles of dirt roads before we reached the secluded village of Malawela--almost an hour's drive out of town. This CBCC is running out of the Malawela Primary School. I'm pretty sure I was the first white person many of those kids have ever seen! As we walked up to the school the majority of the kids were really excited, but of course there were a select few who were so terrified to even be in the same room as me. You would've thought I had sprouted a second head and a pair of fangs.

We brought the members from Gongonya to observe the Malawela CBCC program so that they can improve the quality of their care for the children—we are thankful for all of the volunteers who give their time at the 12 different CBCCs in our area, and we want them to all be running at a high quality level. The CBCCs who have been doing well have been coming along side the CBCCs who are not doing so well.

After the morning class was over, the members were waiting for sugar to be brought from a different village so that they could begin serving the Vitameal porridge. I waited in the classroom alone with the kids, and as much as I tried to talk to them—in Chichewa, in English, in Chichenglish—they were so bashful that they would run away giggling any time I opened my mouth. I resigned myself to just smiling, and I sat in that room just smiling with about 70 giggly 4-year-olds. As I sat there looking at all of those happy faces, I couldn’t help but notice a few things. Like the 3-year-old whose teeth were rotting out. Or the countless kids with umbilical hernias. I couldn’t count the number of children whose hair was brown from malnutrition.

I heard someone say once that trying to make a difference in the world can feel like you're trying to empty the ocean with an eyedropper. There is so much need in the world, and I am only one person. I can feed a hungry child today, but tomorrow morning she and a million other children will wake up hungry again. But it does make a difference to that one child. I have to keep reminding myself of that, because at times it can be overwhelming.

There’s a popular song out by Hillsong called “Hosanna,” and one of the verses says:

“Open up my eyes to the things unseen,
Show me how to love like You have loved me;
Break my heart for what breaks Yours,
Everything I am for Your Kingdom’s cause”

Those thoughts have frequently been in my prayers lately. As I sat in that classroom today, unable to speak, I asked the Lord to open my eyes to what He wanted me to see. He's been revealing to me that although I can't do everything, I can't let that stop me from doing something. The past couple months have not been perfect, but they have been some of the most amazing of my life. It's incredible to see what God can do through someone who just has a willing heart to serve Him. All that Alyssa and I have been able to accomplish is because of Him, not because of any talent or gift we possess. On the contrary, we've been accomplishing things that neither of us are gifted at, but I think that says so much about the amazing God we serve.

I won’t go into the details of Alyssa’s day, but if you click here you can read about it on her blog.

Dog, dog, goats!

Over the past month the game of "duck, duck, goose" that we frequently play with our kids at Esther's House has slowly morphed into "dog, dog, goats"--I guess since dogs and goats are more relevant animals to them than ducks and geese are, it makes sense! I couldn't help but laugh though when I heard those words when we played a game of it last night. =)

Alyssa and I spent the night at Esther's House yesterday! Unfortunately we didn't really think ahead and prepare something fun to do with the kids. I think we were so curious to see what goes on after we leave in the evening that we didn't really think about the fact that 5-year-olds go to bed at 7:30. So long story short, we ended up in bed by 8:00, trying really hard to be quiet because we were sleeping in the girl's dorm. We couldn't help but laugh! The kids have been asking us for a couple of weeks now to stay the night at Esther's. When we leave in the evenings to go back to town, we always get hugs from everyone and we tell them we'll "tionana mawa," see you tomorrow. Their response lately has been "nooooo, you sleep (mimicking sleeping) HERE!" They were so excited all day when we told them we weren't going back into town, but everyone ended up going straight to bed after dinner. It gets completely dark by 6:00, so I'm not exactly sure what we expected little kids to do in pitch black darkness. We'll plan our next sleep over a little better =)

We've been having a lot of electrical black-outs in town lately, one being while we were at Dear Mama's restaurant waiting for our take-away food. We decided to wait on the porch, which ended up being an amazing opportunity to look at the stars. One of my favorite things to do at home is to lay outside looking at the stars, but it seems like there are at least 10xs more here--it's crazy beautiful! I never realized how much light is given off from surrounding cities, but when there's a black-out in Ntcheu it is completely pitch black for miles and miles around. Malawi is so incredibly beautiful--that thought is constantly on my mind. I fall more in love with the people we meet, our children at Esther's House, and the beautiful landscape, sunsets, and night skies every single day.

The days are becoming increasingly exhausting as the weather becomes hotter, and Alyssa and I work to accomplish more than what's probably possible. We return home every day covered in a layer of dirt, completely exhausted, and completely happy. Alyssa, Joshua and I spent this morning out in village of Madzanje visiting the homes of our community children. It's been an eye-opening experience to see some of the challenges these young children have to face--you would hope that loosing a parent would be the most difficult situation they have, but for some it's only one of many challenges they have to face. I know there are many people who have asked how they can help, and honestly sponsoring a child is one of the best ways. Last year I wrote a blog post about what child sponsorship really means (you can read it by clicking here)--it's still completely relevant. I would encourage you to read it before taking a look at the children who are still unsponsored on the Pure Mission website.

These children are incredible people and are genuine--they've truly stolen my heart! I work at Pure Mission as the Director of Orphan Sponsorship, and it has been a blessing to be able to spend time getting to put faces and personalities to the names that I see on paper every day. Thank you so much to all who have been so supportive while Alyssa and I have been here--I can't tell you how much it means to us! We are planning on wrapping up a few projects this coming week--I'll be sure to write an update about it all!

Makwangwala Baptist Church

The church I attend in Arkansas, Cross Church, has begun partnering with local churches in Malawi. Among many things, this program will help promote healthy church growth and will assist the participating churches with some of the needs that they may have.

The first church to benefit from this program is Makwangwala Baptist Church! The village of Makwangwala is about a 20 minute drive away from Esther's House Orphanage. Last year the members of this church came together and bought bricks and cement and began putting up the walls of their church. When the rainy season started though, parts of the building collapsed. The rainy season is about to begin again soon, and in order for their building to remain standing they need to have a roof put up. The church members have provided the wooden beams and a portion of the metal sheets for the roof, and Pure Mission and Cross Church will be providing the other portion of metal sheets.

Yesterday Alyssa and I went do Makwangwala to do a simple "site survey" of their church and to confirm that they had gotten their portion of the metal sheets. We thought this would be a simple, 10-20 minute visit before we headed over to Esther's House.

As we drove up to the house of the pastor, we noticed a crowd of people waiting for us. As we got out of the car we were greeted by about 50 excited members of the church who were singing, dancing, and eager to shake our hand. They led us from the pastors house to their church, singing and clapping their hands the entire way. They were so proud to show us the work that they had completed on their church.

The church members leading us to their church

Some of the church members in front of their church!

Another aspect of the church partnership is providing the church with ten Bibles and ten hymnal books. With how easily accessible Bibles are in the U.S, it never really occurred to me until coming to Malawi how much of a blessing it is to have one. They were incredibly excited!

Pastor Kuzalo presenting the Bibles to their pastor

After doing our site visit to their church, we returned to the pastor's house to confirm that they had obtained their portion of the metal sheets. We were led into the room that was housing the metal sheets to find a table set up for a meal--some members of the church surprised us by preparing nsima, eggs, and greens! Food is valuable and is often given as a gift of appreciation.

The hospitality and warmth of the people that you will find in Malawian villages is overwhelming. I know that the support that we're providing them is a blessing to them, but the time that we spent with the church members yesterday was an immeasurable blessing to me.