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.