Walk this Way

For Wednesday, our last day at Adziwa, we asked James to place us where he most needed us. We felt that we weren't really contributing in construction as they were only making bricks. With previous teams and the first few days of our team, there were a lot of different chores.  With the brick making, we felt like we slowed the process down. James thought it would be good for all of us to prayer walk. Mighty Richard wanted to go at brick making, so he stayed behind at the site while we forged on to Kauma. Mary we join back up with Richard at 10:00 am so that they could go to Pastor Henry's house for lunch. One thing we have observed with prayer walking is how James walks. He is so elegant and carries himself with so much dignity, yet he walks really fast. For a man of his height, he sure can take long, fast strides. We can hardly keep up with him. Well, we are stopping to shake and high five with the children. We visited with about 6 families while prayer walking. The first lady we visited with was Menus. She was a christian widow raising 3 grandchildren and 2 orphans. She asked us to pray for her son's health who is positive and for her to have long life so that she can care for the children.  The next lady we visited was Teresa who cares for 2 orphans, 5 children and 3 grandchildren. Her prayer request was to have enough food for her children and for their health.
Next, we visited Nila and Kathleena who took care of 5 orphans and 4 children. They asked for prayers to get money for basic necessities such as a bucket for water.
Next, we visited Suzy and Tucker (yes that's what they said there names were but as we learned in Malawi, people change names every day sometimes. We think their names were Tuga and Suz but accents are different). They were sisters helping their mother with orphans, their children and grandchildren. In all there were 5 orphans and 2 children in their care. They asked us to pray for Suzy's store/business. As well that her husband would get a job.
Next, we visited Grace who is a widow taking care of 3 children and 2 orphans. Her prayers were for her roof to be repaired and for her children to behave. Lastly, we visited Banda and Dinah who asked that we pray blessings on their home and on their family. Going into the prayer walk, we noticed that the first day the team walked, 1 person accepted Christ. The second time, 2 people accepted Christ. The third time, 3 people accepted Christ. We laughed that 4 people were going to accept Christ this day, but everyone we visited had already accepted Jesus and declared Him as their Lord and Savior, which is amazing. To God be the glory. 

After we visited with the families, we headed to the market to help get some of their basic needs such as relish, sugar, salt and soap. We even bought Nila and Kathleena enough timber to replace the old timber on their roof.
Also, we bough a huge bag of maize flour for Tucker and Suzy. We loved going to the market and taking some of the burden off their shoulders. We found that most people only ate 2 times a day, so to provide more was nice. We made sure that we explained that God provided for them through us as God laid it on our hearts to come to Malawi in the first place. We are filled to be emptied. That's what we did. We emptied our blessings to bless others. 

After the walk, we headed back to the Adziwa to prepare for the woman's program. Mary was to speak today and we were nervous when we got back, and she wasn't there. No one else had prepared to speak, so we were nervous and about ready to start cramming when we saw a van with azungu pull up, it was Mary and Richard. The women started arriving shortly after 1:00. One thing that we will miss is the praise and worship of the women. They have so much joy when they sing and dance. After praise, Mary told the story of the women at the well and tied it to the women of Malawi as they go to a well everyday to get water and Jesus finds them just as important. Mary used the evange-cube once more, and offered an invitation for women to come forward and pray the prayer to accept Christ.
Three women came up, and right when we were about to start praying another woman came up. That makes the 4 that we joked about earlier. God knew what was going to happen and we couldn't help find joy and happiness in the fact that He knew.
We handed out bibles to the new believers that had received Christ that week. We said good bye to the beautiful women.

Next was the awana program with the children. We were expecting to do a lot with the children: bible story, craft, worship and games, but that wasn't the case. Our time with them was short, and it made us sad. The children sang songs and then Tucker told the story of David and Goliath.
Afterwards, the leaders had us tell the kids good bye one by one and leave them with a word of encouragement. We were fighting back tears. We said our good byes to the kids, hugging necks, shaking hands and just embracing them.
We went to the back office with the committee members so that they could distribute the items that we were leaving behind that were our own items. We were elated to give specific items to James and Joy as they had been our life line at Adziwa.
Then the committee said a prayer over us for safe travels. It was just as hard, if not harder, to say good bye to them. It wasn't good-bye to James as we would see him again.

We made plans to go to Mama Mia's for dinner, a nice quaint italian restaurant. We invited James and his wife to join us.

We picked them up at Adziwa. We ordered pizza's, pastas, desserts and cappuccino. We gorged ourselves as it was the most familiar food that we have had the entire time. James said that this was the first time that he and his wife had been out to eat since they were married last October. How we take things for granted. We enjoyed laughter and great food. We dropped James off at his house in Kauma. It was really strange driving through the small, clay roads that we had walked days before. It was really dark and quiet. Some were nervous to take out someone's house with the car. While others were nervous about breaking down or getting stuck and having to walk out of Kauma in the dark seeing we had given James our flashlights. By the grace of God, we made it out. 

We our honored and blessed to have had this experience. Our lives will be forever changed by what we have seen, the people we have met and the memories we have made. God's hand is truly on Malawi. It's apparent by the way the people wake up with a smile on their face and a song in their heart. Thank you to the people of Malawi for allowing us to be a part of your life for these 2 weeks. We hope to see you all again.

Oh and to end on a funny note....one little kid gave Will a special good bye present

Babies Everywhere

On Tuesday things were different. We had planned to visit some various ministries in the area, but we ended up only visiting one, the Crisis Nursery of Ministry of Hope. The nursery was established in 1999 by a family from CCBC. They found that people were abandoning babies shortly after birth. They set up the ministry as a way to take the children in, provide a safe place for the child to grow up and if the relatives are living and want the child, after 18 months they would go back to them. In some cases, the children are put on a list for foster care and some eventually adopted. (Pastor Henry of CCBC found his little girl Deborah here.)  We were all a little nervous as to what to expect. We feared that the children's living conditions may not, well be, up to standard. However, that was not the case. You could tell that the staff loved and cared deeply for the babies in their care. Currently, the nursery has 15 babies. They use to take up to 27 babies, but the people helping fund their organization had to make cut backs. Where they use to get $8000 per month, they only get $6000 a month. If any of the readers have babies, you know that babies are expensive especially formula and factor in the cost of health costs as some of the children may be very sick, such as having HIV. 

The first room we entered, the children were in their cribs, holding out their hands for us. As we continued with the tour, we each picked up a baby. On the final stop of the tour, we were in the play room. The kids are trained to be in their cribs as there aren't enough caretakers for 1 on 1 care, so after having them out for a while, we were nervous to send them back to their cribs. However, we didn't have to be the bad guys, the caretakers took them back. It would have been so easy for us to walk out with a few of them, if only they'd let us.

Later that afternoon, we were to attend the funeral of a sub chief of Kauma Village. He passed away on Saturday from pneumonia and malaria. On Monday, James asked another sub chief (there are 10 total), if we could attend the funeral and he approved. We weren't sure what to expect, but we knew that we would not be able to stay for the entire funeral as it was a traditional African funeral as he was a non believer. Therefore, James and other believers leave early. When we first got there, we sat in a hard, weedy with stickers area in the back. Then, we were moved closer on the porch and front area of a house that had a mat. We were informed that we were going to meet with the chief. That four of us could go and meet with him. Richard, Mary, Kelley and Stephanie went with Moses and James to meet the chief. We were taken into a house and sat on the floor. A guy came in started speaking in chchewa and the only word we understood was Fanta. Moments later the guy came back with 6 fantas. Come to find out, the guy was the head chief. He wasn't wearing the traditional garb like we had expected. He sat with us and Richard expressed his feelings and shared Christ. The chief was gracious and listened. We hope that seeds were planted as he is a non believer as well. We gave the chief money to help with the funeral cost, 3000 kwacha. After he left the house, we drank our fantas and found out that the sub chief that passed away was actually his son. When we came back to the funeral area, we were again moved to another area. We were given seats of honor in chairs in the front row along with the chief. Talk about feeling awkward. We felt as if we were on display. As we were walking to our new seats, every eye was on us. I asked Joy what they people were saying, and she said that they were honored that azungu had come to the funeral and that they were pleased. That eased some of our fears. The area filled in. All you could see where people. If we had to guess, there were at least 2000 people if not more. There were kids climbing the tree to see what they could see. We have never seen so many people packed in so tight. There were a few times when it seemed so chaotic that we feared for the children on mothers' backs as it seemed that they could get pushed over and trampled. Here we are at this funeral with 2000+ Africans, 7 azungu oh and 2 chickens. Somehow 2 chickens got trapped in the open circle surrounded by people. We pray that this was an accident and not done on purpose for some ritual that we missed when we left early. First several men stood up and spoke. While they were speaking, men would come up and give money. We found out that when someone shared memories and met their expectations, they would give money to thank them for sharing. Then, the men in mask  (forgot the chchwa word but it means animals) came out, it was an unusual sight and some were a little nervous. The first set danced with their ponga knives.  Next, men on stilts performed. It was truly a once in a lifetime experience. We were honored that they allowed us to be there and experience it. 

in the trees

the masses

the men in masks

Unfortunately, we did not get to see the children today since the funeral took up most the afternoon. Our hearts would have to wait until Wednesday. 

We shared our last dinner at Kuka Lodge. Wednesday night, we would go out to eat. It's been great staying here and we hope that other teams will stay here going forward. We have fallen in love with the staff: Felix, Hartley and Enock. 

Monday, Monday

It has been a long weekend, and we are anxious to see what Monday held in store for us. We have missed the children so much and cannot wait to see their smiling faces. 

Arriving on site was special. Richard, one of the awana leaders, was blowing up balloons and hanging them all over the multi purpose building along with signs declaring Happy Birthday Mary!!! Mary officially made this the best birthday ever.

We divided up into 2 teams today as we are short 2 men. One team, Suzy, Kelley, Tucker and Will stayed on site to work construction. While, Mary, Richard and Stephanie went into the village to prayer walk. James, our guide, translator and Eddie Murphy look a like, informed us that many of the families had inquired as to why we have not been by their house to meet with them. He told them that we were a small team and have not made it too far into the village. He told them that there was no way that we could visit everyone but there would be other teams in the future. On the prayer walk, we met with the Gomad family. The Grandfather and Grandmother were christians and knew Christ. We asked their grandson, Lex, and he did not have Jesus in his heart, but wanted Him there. Richard explained sin and how Jesus washes it away as He died for us, to take our place. He used the evanga-cube for illustration. It was awesome to see Lex, a 17 year old young man, to pronounce Jesus as Lord and Savior. Their prayer request was to see all of the children in their care to live so they could see them grow. They have lost 6 children of their own and only have 2 still alive.

Another visit was with Rose and her neighbor Loveness. Initially, we were just speaking with Rose and Loveness came over and sat down. Both of them asked Jesus in their heart. God is good. Mary used the cube once again, to make sure they understood what it meant and how Jesus fits into it all....well how He is the ALL. Their prayer request was for the children to obey and some of them have been giving them trouble. Another family we met with, the caregiver's name was Maria. She had 1 child and 6 orphans in her care. While visiting with them, we were able to see how cakes were made in Malawi. The people of Malawi are really resourceful. We asked to take pictures and she said yes. We showed her the picture and like all Malawians, she smiled and laughed after seeing it. She wasn't expecting it to come out so quick.

here Maria is dipping batter into tin cans. Her son in the background puts them into an oven

We talked to them and their relationship with Christ. The older son requested a bible in English, and Maria, one in chchewa. Her prayer request was for wisdom on more small businesses for income for the family. After leaving the families, we headed to the market to fulfill some needs for the people we visited. There we picked up fish, tomato and onion to make relish for the maize.

buying the fish

As well, we purchased sugar, soap, lotion, shampoo and bread. For Lex, he requested some shoes and school supplies so we picked them up as well. On the way back to the houses, we asked James if other teams had purchased things like our team has (this was a daily thing for us to by the people we visited some groceries as it was Scott's idea from day 1). He said no the others haven't. We asked if it set a bad example. He assured us that it didn't as if we have the means to help those in need then it was a good thing. We pray that the teams that come after us follow suit if they have the means as we believe that it's an encouragement for the people in Kauma and to Adziwa and us being in the village. As always, the recipients of the items and groceries were grateful.

Samson (James' pastor  at his church, whom we met on the walk)

Back on site, the construction team was not having such a good day. They were exhausted mentally and physically. It seems that things were not business as usual at the site and many of the men whom we have worked beside in previous days were working on other things. As a result, in opened a door that was really awkward and made things really uncomfortable. On top of that, Will was making a brick and the bar snapped back suddenly and hit him in the face. By the grace of God, other than making him dizzy and the pain, he was okay. It really could have caused damage if it had hit him in the mouth. By the time the prayer walking team had got back to site, the construction team had hit their wall physically and emotionally. 

After our lunch break, the children arrived for their awana program. We are still amazed by the energy of the children and the leaders of the program. WIthout these leaders, we would not be able to do the program. They are so passionate about the program and you can see that in their eyes and their smiles. They find it pure joy to be there. 

The program started as usual with songs of praise. As well, the children sang Happy Birthday to Mary. (I think she cried again)

Mary (Joy's mother) gave our Mary a gift for her birthday

After worship, Kelley read a bible story to the children about Joseph. This session was a little different as at the end of the bible story, if the children answered the questions correctly, they got a goody bag of stuff. Surprisingly, the children were not upset if they didn't get it right or if they weren't called on. That's on thing that's different here than in the US. Our children feel entitled to things sometimes or we as teachers, say oh nice try, if they get it wrong. Here they say, no and move on to the next kid. They keep it real here and it works. After bible story, the children broke up into 3 groups: singing, craft and games. For craft, they made hand puppets out of paper plates. A nice simple craft that wouldn't take as long as face painting. The kids enjoyed them. At the end, we tried to hand out pictures of the kids that we had taken last week. This did not go so well as the kids were shoving and crowding to get to the pictures trying to see it or help identify the kid in the picture. This was truly chaotic. Finally, the awana leaders had to make the children go home, and they will try and hand out the rest later. 

We are truly blessed to be here and are sad to think about Wednesday when we say good-bye to the children. We count it an honor to serve with the awana leaders and it a pleasure to love on the children.

Filled with His Goodness, Lost in His Love

On Sunday, we attended church at Capital City Baptist Church (CCBC). 

We had a time of worship and praise where the 3 songs were in English. Pastor Henry spoke on 1 Peter 2:9. His main theme to the service was that everyone was to be a priest. Also, he talked about 4 changes that would occur if we rediscover God Holy Spirit. 

- Life ministry would shift from simple life ethical standards to an experience of an in dwelling Christ.

- The church would shift from an institution of passing on historical facts to becoming the body of Christ 

- Worship would shift from a performance to people's hearts being encouraged giving honor and reverence to His name. 

- We will stop giving the devil glory by talking and spreading the word what he has done. Which was really eye opening, because I have never really thought about it that way, gossip as the devil's glory. It really puts things in a new perspective. 

To tie it all in, he used a visual prop. He talked about how we as christians have the right tools as God gives it to us. All week long, Satan tries to break our backs. Then on Sunday, we come to church smiling. As soon as we leave, the devil is beating us again. Even though we have the tools to defend ourselves against him, we can't because we aren't plug into the power source, God. He demonstrated this by using a power saw. 

After church, we said good bye to Scott and Brandon, as they were leaving for the airport. They were sad to leave and I am sure they left a piece of them, here in Malawi. The rest of the team went to Pastor Henry and Deborah's house for lunch. While lunch was being prepared, Will, Stephanie and Mary attempted to put together the play house that was donated for their 5 year old daughter.

The lady whom made it wanted to donate it to Adziwa, but after being there and seeing how things works and how many kids there were, we knew that wouldn't be possible. As a team, we decided she would be the best candidate for it. Now, we weren't sure what we were doing as Scott had watched it put together in Franklin, and he just left for the airport. We tried following the numbers but that didn't work. After about 45 minutes, we tried to use logical. We made it further than before, but it was still not quite right. We broke for lunch. We enjoyed fellowship and the americanized meal of spaghetti, salad and bread. For dessert, Deborah made carrot cake. After lunch, we returned to our play house construction. We made it happen as best as we could. She loved it and that's all that matter.

Later in the day, T.K., came to our lodge to pick us up. We would follow him to his house for coffee and appetizers before going out to dinner. We got to meet his wife, Florence, and their children. I cannot spell their names, but their names mean, Jesus Reigns, Jesus is King, Jesus is Good and Jesus is enough (the last one may not be exactly right). WIll and Tucker thoroughly enjoyed this time, as they devoured the bowl of fritos.

While there, we experienced another blackout. If I haven't mentioned earlier, they frequently have blackouts for 2-3 hours at a time to help conserve electricity. It's broken out in sectors and the sectors at least experience this 2 times a week (except the area we stay in as a lot of diplomats live in this sector). After our appetizers, we drove to dinner, T.K. and his wife, Florence, joined us. We ate at a quaint italian restaurant, Al Fresco, managed by a friend.  We dined on pizza and had great conversation. Of course, we ended the night with some cards. 

We are sad that this is our last week and that we have only 3 more days. We pray that God makes this time memorable and that we can witness all His wonderful glory. 

and on the 6th day we rested

Even though Saturday was technically a free day, we got up early to start a day as our travels would take us a few hours away from our lodge. After breakfast, Tom, our driver, was here to pick us up. Coming along, with our team on the trip, was Jimmy and his wife Wezzie.

Jimmy and Wezzie

Some of us were dreading the drive ahead, but the time went by fast as we played games. The first stop of the day was the market to do a little souvenir shopping. This in itself was almost like a game. We were told by others that if you come to the market and purchase an item at the first cost quoted to you, then you are ruining it for everyone else. The objective is to "do business" and barter with them. You have to be willing to walk away and do business with someone else as they basically have all the same merchandise maybe with slight differences. Some people like it, some people didn't do so well under these conditions. Especially considering that we were under a time crunch. Originally, we were given 30 minutes to do our shopping, but the group consisted of four women, so you know that wasn't happening. We ended up extending our time to 45 minutes. We all managed to make out with a few souvenirs for ourselves and loved ones or so we thought. 

The market

After that, we continued on in our journey to Lake Malawi. It wasn't too far away. Once at the hotel, we went to the restaurant for lunch. The hotel had a buffet. There on it was fish, chicken and goat along with nice cooked vegetables and potatoes.  On another side, there were salads, fried bananas and dessert, but we didn't need any dessert. We had our own special dessert as it was Mary's birthday. The staff came out singing happy birthday with a chocolate birthday cake. Richard said the sweetest things to Mary, and of course, she cried. He gave to her a book about Africa to remind her of this birthday. 

Lake Malawi was beautiful. It was nothing like a lake, it was like a beach and an ocean. We ventured down the shore line to where the rocks stopped us. Some of us ventured further and climbed a brick wall to see the "really cool" things that Will told us about. (Don't tell him but it was a bunch of big rocks and a tree that you could see from the other side of the brick wall.) 

Beyond the brick wall (the wall was about 10 feet)

Before going through the gates of the hotel, we noticed a little market a.k.a souvenir shop. Will thought of some other people for whom he needed to buy somethings for. He found some things, but we soon discovered that this market was expensive. Where we would have paid 500 kwacha for something, it was 1500 kwacha here. Collectively, we decided it wasn't worth it, checked our watches, and decided we had some time that if we left the lake early, we could hit up the other market again. Thus, we loaded up.  

We got to the market in time, as they said they were closing in 30 minutes. There were a few of us who wanted some more things, so we got out of the van, picked 1 of 35 shops and started doing business. We each picked up 2 or 3 things, since we were all buying from the same store, we really needed to get a good deal. He started at 1000 kwacha for each item. WHAT!!! That is way too much, we countered with 500. 

-No, no 900. 

-500. 

-No, no 700. 

-No 500 is fair for you and us look at all this stuff we are buying from you

- 600 is the best I can do

- 500 is fair

-700

-wait you just said 600

-ok 600

-can we both agree on 550 thats an extra 500 for all these items, that's a lot of money

-okay 550

That my friend is how you do business in Malawi :)

Along the ride home we saw many interesting things farmers markets, Heaven Bound Funeral home, mice on a stick being sold on the side of the road and real tribal men in leave skirts and masks. It was quite a journey.

For dinner, we stopped at Kumbali VIllage where our youth group who came before us stayed. It's truly roughing it. Open showers where you get your own water and huts to sleep in. Dinner was served in the dining area under the stairs. For dinner we ate chicken, beef, fries and nsima (prounced see-ma which is the local staple) with relish. 

It was a long day and we looked forward to our beds, but not before we play some take'em.

Faithful Friday

The teams that have worked on construction up until this point has complained of fatigue and sore muscles, so this team (Suzy, Stephanie, Mary and Richard) was prepared for a day of hard labor. The first few pulls on the brick machine were tough but manageable. Then as the day progressed, it took more and more people to pull the lever to make the brick or pop the brick out. Again, we were throughly impressed with the efficiency of the team. This team won over the "brick chicks". Before this team, the brick chicks have been reserved, but we were so impressed with their skills of carrying water and the bricks on their head. We took video of the bricks chicks dancing with the bricks on their heads and showed them, and they loved it. However, we don't doubt that they laughed at us and our lack of skills at making bricks. What can we do, we tried.

George the machine working hard

On prayer walking (Kelley, Will and Tucker) had some pretty amazing and unique experiences. One of the families they prayed with, the care giver and the sister, accepted Christ and WIll got to pray over them. The team went into the market and purchased some fabric for Dorothy who had accepted Christ with the you team, as she is trying to find alternative income so that she can quit her job at the bar as she knows that it's not right for her to be there. Also, while at the market, the team bought some basic grocery staples for families who were dyer need such as the family who's dad lost his job that week. Once again, the prayer walking team had their little groupies following them through the village until James told them to scatter. The team also got to stop by Jame's wife's bakery.

Brandon and Scott went to the school and were able to sit in on some life skills education with the standard 5 and 6 classes. Steve, the school head master, educated the kids on preventing malaria by keeping grass around the house low, emptying pots that may have water and using nets to sleep. Then they proceeded to educate the children about STD's. After school, Brandon and Scott met up with Felix (our server from the Kuka Lodge, who teaches in Kauma). Felix took the guys back to his house, met his fiance and gave Felix marriage advice at his request. As well, they presented to Felix a collection of money that the team put together as a wedding gift as he is to be married on August 8th. He was very appreciative.

After lunch, we had a full schedule of activities for the kids. Well maybe not a full schedule, but it took up the entire time. After a few songs of worship, Scott led bible study and he told about Joshua, including the back story of Moses and the Israelites, and he became the leader over them to carry them into the promise land. He did a amazing job of tying it all back to trusting God and taking down walls of trust and sin. He was a natural.

After bible story, awana leaders led the kids in more worship while we painted their faces. We started off by giving the kids 6 different things to choose from. Then, as we noticed it was taking forever, Steve insisted that we only do a cross or a heart. Then we realized that the kids were rubbing off the paintings and coming back for another. In all there was probably 100 kids, but we probably painted 160 kids. Oh well, it was totally worth it. We wouldn't change a thing, okay maybe we would, less choices :)

After the program we went to the soccer...ahem I mean football field to let Scott and Brandon say good-bye to the kids as they would be leaving on Sunday and would not be back to Adziwa. The children said good bye with a song and promised to watch over Kelley for Brandon.

Once the kids were sent home, we went back to the adziwa offices to sort through the donations and bag them so that they could be distributed to the community. It was amazing to see how many families were going to benefit from the donations of our family and friends.

At night, we have taken up a nasty habit. After dinner, we sit around and play what we refer to as "Take' em" I am sure you have probably heard of this game know as something else. Basically you try and get rid of your cards by saying, I have 2 fours and laying them down face down. If someone thinks they are lying, they say take'em. If they are lying they have to pick up the whole stack. If they aren't lying, then the person who called them out, picks up the cards. We have great laughs over Tucker's inability to lie and how people get called out.

Writings of Love

From Thursday....

Sorry we are so behind on the blog, but we have been enjoying each other's company. As a result, today's writing will be condensed as I am running low on battery.

The day started out with a contract on a new house. All parties involved: the contractor, the Kauma committee, Adziwa, and The People's Church were there to sign off on papers. A new house will cost roughly around $11k with the cost of steel and cement being very expensive to import because of gas prices and the fact that the World Cup will be in South Africa next year. Therefore, they are using lot of the cement they usually export themselves. 

 Richard representing The People's Church 

committee signing off on the contracts

Steve Bowler and James after the signing

Teaching, were Mary and Richard, they spent the morning helping out in the classrooms grading papers and leading songs with the kids.

On construction, Tucker, Kelley and Brandon were left to make bricks. Apparently, the brick chicks (the girls who carry the bricks) liked Brandon and were impressed by his brick making skills. It is hard labor. We are so impressed with the guys and girls who work as they work 7 days a week from 7am to 5pm. Imagine doing this in 105 degrees for an entire summer for years and years. They make 450 bricks a day. WOW!

Brandon and Tucker stirring the mixture with Felix

Scott, Will, Suzy and Stephanie prayer walked. They visited several homes and even 2 special guests.  The first lady they visited accepted Christ and Stephanie got to pray over her.  James, our guide, took them by his parents house but didn't tell them right away until everyone settled in.  Then lastly, James took them by his house to meet his lovely bride.  It's amazing how kind and humble everyone is in Kauma as they give you their chairs or their mat while they sit on the floor. As you pray for them, they bow at your feet to show respect. 

The kids that followed us on our prayer walk

James with his Mom and Dad

James and his lovely bride

After lunch, we did the Awana children's program were Will lead the bible story about Paul and his life. How he became a christian after murdering christians and about the letters he wrote to the church. For craft, we let the kids make pencil pouches and supplied them with pencils. While craft was going on, other areas were doing worship, playing games and coloring sheets. Also, we took pictures of all the kids and are working to put them on a foam frame to give to the kids as we come back and print them off. 

As always it was sad to leave the children.