Africa in 2010

Dinner with Dot - This Friday!!!!

2011-01-17T17:41:00.000-08:00

Mom is home!! She actually arrived to the U.S. on December 14, spent some time with her son, Jim, and family and then came to Gastonia on December 21.

The GAP churches, which stands for Gaston Area Presbyterian Churches, have planned a dinner with Dorothy, this friday at First Presbyterian Church, Garrison Blvd, Gastonia.

Want to attend, here are the details:

January 21, 2011 6 pm
$10.00 for dinner
Silent Auction to benefit scholarships for Malawi children to attend Ebenezer Learning Institute.

Please call Southminster Presbyterian Church by Wednesday 704-868-2914 and speak to Melissa if you would like a ticket. See you there.

Scholarship Update

2010-12-12T15:01:00.000-08:00

You may remember this young lady from an earlier blog, THIS IS ELLEN!!!! Ellen has been attending Ebenezer Institute of Learning on scholarship since June of this year. She had difficulty with English, at first, but has adapted quickly. She loves school. The smile on her face says it all. Thanks be to GOD!!!!

Mom is boarding a plane on Dec. 13th to return to the United States. Good news awaits her arrival. We have collected, $8,877 of the $30,000 she wants to collect in her desire to create scholarships for 20 Malawian children, like Ellen, to attend Ebenezer for the next 5 years. This represents schooling for 5.9 children for five years or schooling for all 20 of the children for 1.5 years!!!! Thank you for helping in the effort to reach this GOAL.

Gaston Area Presbyterian (GAP) Churches are planning an event to help in this persuit - Dinner with Dorothy - Jan 21, 2011. An event that will include a meal and raffle/silent auction items to raise funds for the scholarships. More soon....

Thanks to all of you who have gone with mom (via her blog) on her once-in-a-lifetime adventure.

2010-12-06T10:54:00.000-08:00

Nov. 25-Dec.13

This will be my last entry on my blog here in Africa. Jessi’s and my flight will be on Monday, Dec.13 about noon from Lilongwe. There are so many loose ends that I want to try to tie up that I know there will not be time for me to deal with the computer situation and come up with an entry next week. At school we are dealing with hiring a new teacher to begin in January after the Christmas break, and we are still dealing with a replacement for a Principal of Ebenezer. Your prayers for the right person to fill this position are greatly appreciated.

On Wednesday, Decc.8 we are having a Christmas program in the CCAP Church at 11:00am. The teachers have been completely in charge of the program and are doing a good job. The enthusiasm of these new teachers is just wonderful and, of course, the children are adorable.

I have finished the curtains for the library and my office. The, Holland guys have just installed a sink with cabinet space for teachers to make coffee in the office, and we have sent Linken the final plans for making the last of the library shelves. I must get around to taking some pictures of all the improvements since last February. The things that really surprise me most are all the great plants that have just sprung up in this tropical climate. It is amazing how so many flowers blossom profusely during the dry season and without even watering! Our night watchman is able to water the plants just around our building and their growth is fabulous. Little 3-4 inch high shrubs were planted in April and have been in bloom since about May. They are now 3-4 foot beautiful shrubs!! Willeke’s gardener planted these little shrubs from her garden for us and put up the temporary fencing of bamboo poles to keep the children off of them until they had the chance to grow. The fencing can soon be taken down.

This past Friday, Seonhee returned from Germany. She was there to have her two boys adopted by her new husband. She has been gone for over three months. Her commitment to her work here is for two years, and she still has one and half years to serve. She will continue her work here, but it is going to be hard for her without her boys. The boys learned to speak German in just the 3 months that she was there and they are doing good work in German schools. Her Chisomo group has been able to carry on without her here for three monhs, but they are so excited to have her back with them. That elderly and the handicapped group will thrive under her most capable leadership. She has made such a difference in the lives of those people. They walk for several hours from their village to Nkhoma on Monday, Wednesday and Friday each week just to be together and do their thing! They sing and worhip together and they do their art, sewing, tin-smith work, making musical instruments, knitting and more. They have developed a store in the local market and are making a little money there. These are people who had been sitting in the market begging each day for their food. They did not socialize with their village folks. Now they are experiencing wonderful Christian fellowship with so many people.

The retired Rev. Mgauwe had Seonhee and myself for lunch on Saturday. He was welcoming Seonhee back from Germany, and he was saying good-bye to me. He was talking about how he was blessed by God in so many ways. He just had cataracts removed and regained a lot of vision in each eye. He is 80 years old. His wife died this past February. He is a wonderful Christian Malawian.

As we approach the anniversary of Christmas may each of us search anew for the meaning of JOY TO THE WORLD, THE LORD HAS COME. At Ebenezer we are in the process of learning the importance of letters being placed in the correct order to spell a word. As we look at the letters in JOY may we think of them as J – Jesus, O – others and Y – yourself. May we internalize the importance of placing Jesus first, others second and ourselves last in our daily experiences. The fullness of life as promised by Jesus will come to us and JOY will be within us if we place Jesus, others and self in the right order in daily life.

May God bless each of you. May the true JOY of Christmas be yours.

I’m looking forward to celebrating Christmas with those of you in
Gastonia. See you soon. Love, Dorothy

2010-11-28T09:37:00.000-08:00

Nov.15-20

Many thanks to each of you who have responded to my Blog. It makes the USA feel not so far away and it’s great to hear from you. God bless you all.

All of Nkhoma is greatly sadden by the death of Chief Mazengera. He was the patient that Barbara took to intensive care in Lilongwe last Saturday. He was the Chief of Berea’s (Barbara’s cook) tribe. I understand that he did many things to improve the poor farmers’ conditions. People say he will be greatly missed. They expect the President of Malawi to come to the funeral. The Chief was only 41 years old. According to Malawi custom any male on his side of the family may go to his house and take anything and everything he wants. They feel the deceased is still a part of the family and whatever he had belongs to them. The wife can be left penniless so I understand. The family has just built a new home and haven’t had a chance to move into it yet. The missionaries are concerned for the wife and hope and pray that the wife will be taken care of by his family. He was a member of Berea’s family. Berea seems to be such a dedicated Christian. I just hope and pray all the family members are Christians and will respond to the wife with Christian love.

Barbara and Raynier were at the funeral from about 9 am and returned at 12 noon and the Christian funeral had not begun at that time. There were many dignitaries there and certain non Christian customs such as the witch craft dancing done by the traditional heath curers, dressed in very elaborate costumes most of which are very ugly, according to the ones I have seen in some of the villages. We were told that was necessary for the attendance of certain digniteries. That’s an example of the confusion of Christianity trying to become established in a heathen nation

This week we have used the expressions TIA (This is Africa) and AWA (Africa wins again) many times. The best way to describe that is to tell you about an Ebenezer School Committee meeting. For several weeks we have been scouting for a good used truck to be used in construction of the new school building. The committee members who have been active on the committee have all been very involved with all the decisions that have been made thus far. On this past Wednesday we met to give permission to Chapola (good trustworthy auto mechanic from Nkhoma) and the Holland contractors the permission to buy a car in Blantyre. They had done a search in Nkhoma and in Lilongwe and had asked many reliable folks for help here in finding a good buy. The 4 men were in Blantyre, the best place to make such a purchase according to the Malawan and old-time missionaries. After buying the truck, the boys were to take the truck to climb a mountain in Southern Malawi, and Chapola was to come home in his car. We were ready to make the call to them when a committee member who had not been to a meeting since I have been here showed up and said that was not the best buy so he started calling people in Lilongwe and Nkhoma and the whole issue came to a halt with the 4 men having to spend the night in Blantyre and wait for information from the committee after 9 am the next morning. The member making all the demands was a member who had received his 3rd and final letter of warning about being replaced on the committee for lack of attending the meetings.

Just as we were beginning to deal with the cultural customs in our responsibilities of dealing with issues of funeral expenses for family members, the phone rang. It was the Abuso (Minister of CCAP, Nkhoma). He requested to come to our meeting with a church member to discuss an issue. They arrived shortly and told us that we had just begun digging the foundation for the new school block on the church member’s nursery plot. He had been told by the former Abuso that he could use the plot of land to plant seedlings of trees. They were to be planted in Nkhoma to replace trees that the people cut down for firewood. In the past year or more the churh member has not planted on the plot.

The use of land is granted to people by the current Minister. The former Minister is the one who granted the use to the individual, but of course there are no written records and when the new minister took over he probably was never informed about the permission to use the land as a nursery. The Ebenezer Committee cleared the use of the land with the present Abuso; thus we were completely surprised to find out that there was a problem. Thus we had to call the contractors to have them to cancel all work until the issue can be resolved!!! That’s a real headache when we are trying to do the construction in just three month’s time. TIA This is just a little information to let you know why things move so
s-l-o-w-l-y in Malawi!

Barbara and I have been entertaining the Ebenezer staff at a luncheon. We had 3 of Happy’s teachers last Friday and tomorrow we are having the rest of the staff.
Melia and Anna, Barbara’s older girls come home for Christmas on our Thanksgiving Day. We will be celebrating with other Americans on Saturday since Thursday is not a holiday here.

2010-11-15T11:03:00.000-08:00

Oct. 28 – Nov 14.

As my date to return to the States approaches, I begin to think of all the things I still want to say to the staff, and all the things I hope to accomplish before leaving. I went to school at 6:30 this past Thursday and didn’t return home for lunch until 4:30 pm, I just got started working on things in the library and couldn’t stop. This is Saturday and I planned to hem the green curtains for the PreK class. I had been surprised that the un-hemmed curtains had been hung when the rods were put up. I quickly discovered why they were hung when I could not get them down because they were hung with towel rack hardware!! TIA (This is Africa.) I don’t know when the rods will be fixed for curtains so I spent the day sitting on a chair on top of a table basting in the hems. Someone else may hem them one day!

Just as the electricity goes off a few times each week to conserve electrical power, there is a shortage of gasoline in Malawi, and suddenly every once in awhile the gas stations just give out of gas. Maralise, Debby, and I were planning our trip south to get out of the heat when the gas stations gave out of gas. We had a tank of gas so our destination for our outing changed to a place we could go and return on one tank of gas because we didn’t know how many days there would be before we could buy more gas. We ended up going to the closest resort place on Malawi Lake. The facilities were nice and the fish was delicious. We had a nice water front cottage with a shaded grassy area right at the edge of the beach. A wonderful area in which to sit, listen to the breaking waves, read, and meditate on God’s beautiful world. We three agogo (an endearing African name for grandmother) gals enjoyed our girly time together. For a long time I did not know what the word was and I was hearing only gogo: thus I was having lots of trouble applying that term to myself.

The beaches were crowded just as they are at the NC and SC beaches. However we did see DIFFERENT things on the beach, namely a herd of cows! They were chased off the beach by the young people several times as we sat on the peer watching the crowds. In one of our shade trees a hammer head bird had built its nest. It was the biggest nest of trash that you could possibly imagine. It was an ordeal just for the bird to enter its nest for there was not a top entry. The bird made its entry to the nest from one side at the bottom through hanging trash of discarded paper, plastic, etc. Maralise from South Africa told us that the bid’s nest reminded her of the lives of us who live in the wealthy nations of our world. It is just a gathering of material things to clutter up our lives, making it difficult to get to the middle of life and see the important aspects thereof.
I think that’s preachable.

Last night Barbara was called to the hospital to see the chief of the closest Nkhoma tribe. He was critically ill and she had him sent to the hospital in Lilongwe for intensive care. She was so concerned about him that she went with him. She didn’t get home for dinner until about 9:30, and this morning she returned to Lilongwe to check on him. He was doing better today.

We have just returned from a pizza supper with Rebecca Morton. Will end this and go to bed early so I’ll be refreshed to start the new school week in the morning.

2010-11-04T09:13:00.000-07:00

October 19-27

On Sunday we experienced a very inspirational church service on the campus of ABC Seminary and grade school in Lilongwe. A number of missionaries and their families attend that church, and Barbara and Willeke enjoyed seeing many of them. We had a delicious pizza lunch at a new shopping area nearby. Afterwards we returned to the campus to let the children swim. I sat in the shade by the pool and enjoyed a grand breeze while reading my book. I am currently reading Kenneth B. Bailey’s JESUS THROUGH THE MIDDLE EASTERNERS EYES. I think it is most enlightening about how Middle East customs influence the interpretations of many of the stories of Jesus.

This was the last week of the first term of school for 2010-11. The school is enjoying a week’s holiday. Maralise returned from South Africa yesterday and does not return to her nursing job at the hospital until next Monday. The two of us have planned to go to the mountains in the South to get away from the heat. We are in the hottest part of the year. I’m not sure how to describe the seasons for they have two seasons – rainy and dry.
When I arrived the first of February it was raining. We haven’t had rain since April.
The natives are saying that we will have early rains this year. That means it may rain the first of November. If it does, November will be cooler. Our hottest weather will be from the present until the first rain comes.

Debby, a retired nurse from Pennsylvania, arrived this past Thursday. She had dinner with us that night. Maralise had dinner with us last night and told us all about her visit with her family in South Africa. Debby will go with us to the mountains if it can be worked out with her schedule.

Jessi and Rhona were on their way South for 5 days to get away and to enjoy mountain climbing. They had an accident. Luckily no one was killed and their injuries were minimal considering what they went through. Their truck ran off the road, turned over as it went down an embankment, dropped off of a bridge, and dragged Jessi and Rhona through four foot water. The truck was completely demolished. A clinical officer from the hospital and Dr. Barbara Nagy went to Dedza hospital (about 60 miles south of Nkoma) to bring them home. They were fortunate not to have broken anything. They will certainly be sore for sometime. They both walked to our house to take showers tonight because they have only a tub and felt as if they could not handle a tub with their sore bodies. They were both seen by Dr. Nagy and Dr. Ter Haar. They both feel that they are doing well. Rhona’s x-ray was good, nothing to be repaired. We are all thankful they are home safely and are on their way to recovery.

2010-11-04T09:11:00.000-07:00

Oct.13 - 18
Allen a, doctor from New Mexico, has had dinner with us most every night for the past 10 days. He has been here several times before and works very closely with Barbara. They had an extremely critical new born who they were able to keep alive for over three days. They were all so sadden this morning when the baby died just before Allen left the hospital for his return trip home. Barbara was comforted by the fact she felt all the nurses and doctors had tried very hard to keep the baby alive. She was praising them for their efforts. There are many Malawian doctor assistants in the hospital. They are called Clinical Officers. Austin, a Nkhoma native, has just finished some extra training in the field and returned to the hospital this week. We had him for dinner with Allen last night.

Tonight Evie and David Ter Haar had dinner with us. They are looking at a movie now on the computer and will be going to bed immediately after the movie. David, 5 year old, like most children doesn’t like vegetables and wasn’t eating them at dinner. He watched Barbara and I put the Tony Chachere’s original Creole seasoning, which was brought to Jessi and me by the PWNC group in May, on vegetables. David decided he wanted to try it. He ate his spinach readily and asked for the spice three more times. I finally just put some on the edge of his plate and noticed that when he finished eating he licked his finger, gathered up the rest of the spice on his finger and stuck it in his mouth. Perhaps we have discovered what will make the vegetables on down for some children!! A lot of people have really enjoyed that spice on many things. I just hope it can be found here. The group brought such big containers of the spice we have not had to look for it.

At school we are continuing to enjoy getting to know the materials that people have sent us. Today I spent at school putting together a file of flannel board stories so the teachers can use the flannel boards that Linken has made for them. All my files start with materials from Church folks in Gastonia and some come from other churches in the US. Holland also sends us materials regularly. I have also been creating some new flannel board stories. Jack and Henryetta from Canada have brought us more books for the library. We are really developing a fine collection of books.

Tomorrow we, Willeke, Evie, David, Adam, Barbara, Happy and I, are going into Lilongwe to the ABC Bible College and Primary through Grade 10 Campus. We will attend their church and then enjoy swimming in their pool. I think it should be a very interesting service. Willeke has arranged the outing since Raynier and the two oldest girls are in South Africa for a surprise visit to Raynier mother’s 80th birthday party. Raynier had to go to South Africa for a medical meeting, and luckily it was timed just right for the party.

I had a nice talk with Emily Mwale today about being the Prinipal at Ebenezer. Emily is an active member of the Ebenezer School, Governing Committee and has been in education a numbers of years. She doesn’t have preschool and primary ed experience, but she has children and her last one is in our kindergarten. Hopefully it will work out and she can spend a lot of time with us these last months, observing and asking questions.
I have a lot of excellent materials to leave with whoever is to be the next Principal. Keep us in your prayers that things will be ready to progress with the new Malawian staff. I have high hopes for them and am trying to convince them they can make a difference in Malawi as they present opportunities to children to develop in all five areas of their development and to enable children to think how to approach new situations and how to solve their own problems. We pray daily for the ability to help the children to grow in wisdom, in statute and in favor with God and man. Your prayers are greatly appreciated.

2010-10-15T00:49:00.001-07:00

October 5 - 12
This past week we have had a number of helpers in our school who were here on a short mission trips. A Canadian group had three ladies who enjoyed being with our children in the classrooms. A man from Canada was here seeing about work to be funded by his Foundation. His wife spent the week in the first grade with our new teacher, Gift. He really benefited from having her in the classroom. We had a group of 12 doctors and nurses here from the US. One of the spouses was not a doctor so she spent the week with us. It is always good to have volunteers in the school. All the children can benefit from their one on one attention, A minister from the Detroit area was here checking up with all the different church activities that his church supports. Barbara invited him to lunch with us last weekend. When I announced I was going to school to paint the repaired cubbies he volunteered to come along to help paint. We finished the job so quickly. We did have a lot of blue oil paint left on our hands, and the best I could offer to remedy the situation was to use the fingernail polish remover that Imre had left with me after my manicure last week. It worked pretty good!

Last Sunday was a fund raising day for the our CCAP Church. The service I started at 7.00am and continued for over 3 hours. Barbara was aware of how fund raising services went and planned to go into Lilongwe to church. I was glad when she asked if I would like to go to church with her and Happy, her 5 year old daughter. The Baptist church service lasted over 2 hours. They stood and sang praise songs for about 45 minutes and then had a lengthy Bible lesson. Barbara attends that church often and got to see several missionaries that she knew.
The most dramatic thing that has happened to me this past week is that I started on my very last can of hair spray. That’s disaster for thin, and fine hair and I am blessed with both. I was thrilled to find one can in the grocery store that had the words hair spray on it. I grabbed it eagerly and was even glad to pay the 795 kawachas ($5.31, I’m use to the $1.00 store brand) for it. The next morning I sprayed my hair and went to school. It looked OK but felt a bit damp. By the time I got home I looked a sight! Bits of greasy strips of hair going in all directions. It was a windy day, and I was glad for it was hot, but I looked a mess. When all else fails READ DIRECTIONS. I did, and it said that the spray was wonderful for styling with curling irons which I don’t have. So last night I sprayed my hair heavily with the spray and then started to put in curlers. Then the LIGHT DAWNED - that spray was really wonderful for the thick, curly hair of the natives. I had to use lots of shampoo two times to get the gunk out of my thin and fine hair. I used no hair spry today and I don’t look much better, but I am not greasy!sss

2010-10-08T23:57:00.000-07:00

Sept.20 – Oct. 4

The internet has had problems for about two weeks. We understand that the probem is in the tower, and they are to work on it this week. Jessi just brought me her computer with 15 responses to e-mails!! I just finished having a nice visit with so many and loved every moment of it. Lynne all your efforts to make my request of a 5 year commitment of $6,000 to Ebenezer School for scholarships sounds great. I hope you have cleared it with Lisa at Presbytery to have people send the money there for an Ebenezer Scholarship fund. That is the best approach because exchange money can be saved by our requesting large amounts from Presbytery at one time. When Jessi brought the computer this morning she said that she was able to receive responses, but not capable of sending any so it may take awhile before you get this. I think it has already been a little while since we have been able to send e-mail. Lots of peope are concerned about the problem.

Imre and Andre were wonderful folks to entertain. They simply went with the flow of activities whatever was happening. On the 20th Imre came into the living room with all materials for a manicure and a pedicure and stated that she wished to give me both! I was overwhelmed and probably would have said, “That would be fantastic, but you do not need to do that!” The devotion that I read the day before from MOMENTS OF PEACE FOR A WOMAN”S HEART flashed through my mind. I Thessalonians 5:15 “Always try to do good to each other.” The statement that stood out was that when you say no in your effort not to inconvenience the other person, “you block the blessing such kindness can bring for both of you,” I surprised myself by responding that would be wonderful. Later I told her that it was more than wonderful for the 20th was my 58th wedding anniversary and her kindness certainly made the day very special for me.

Rebecca and David returned on Thursday, September 30, and I moved that day back t o Barbra Nagy’s house. It felt a little like coming home, for I had lived here for 6 months. However this time I got a double bed in my room which makes mosquito netting easier to handle. Everyone one was so glad to see Barbara and the girls return. Barbara’s girls enjoyed being with their friends here for about a month, before they had to leave to go to school in Kenya. They seem to enjoy being at school which is a great relief to Barbara.

I spent a lot of time over the weekend painting our enlarged cubbies in our two new classrooms. The first grade teacher arrived eager and ready to go to work this morning. Willeke was ready for his arrival. We were fortunate to have her the first month while we waited for Gift to arrive. Willeke did an excellent job of getting that class off to a good start.

Linken is still making furniture for us. We are now looking for more shelves for the library and paint easels for two classrooms. When we get those things, I believe we will be a good shape for awhile. I still need curtain rods to be hung. I understand that 3 young men are coming from Holland to be here for about 6 months, and we are hoping they will be the ones who will help us with our needs at the school,

2010-09-23T12:49:00.000-07:00

Sept.13-19

Monday Tamar made me a big pot of greens. She makes them with delicious tomato and onion sauce like Berea (Barabara’s cook) does. She used spinach out of the Morton’s garden. She made a second pot of greens later in the week out of China cabbage which also comes from the garden. I really enjoy the fresh vegestables.

I just asked Tamara to make a new pot of greens for lunch today for Imre and Andre
Vos and myself. They are staying with me at the Morton’s house from the 19th to the 22nd of September. Andre, a doctor from Canada, and Imre, a lawyer, are both originally from South Africa and have spent youth mission time in Nkhoma. In Canada they are in an area that has many South Africans, many of whom are interested in setting up a fund to help with the needs of the hospital. They suggested the Nkhoma Hospital to the Canadians because they remember the hospital from their previous stay in Nkhoma. That’s just another example of God being the great chess player! (Putting people in the right place at the right time, providing opportunities for people to do things to make a difference!)

In Africa plans change constantly as you attempt to set up an event. In the beginning the Ter Haars were coming here to dinner on Sunday, the first night with Andre and Imre. Then they decided that since Sunday was Willeke’s birthday, they wanted to go to the lake. Then I asked Barbara and Happy to have dinner with us. Jessie and Rhona offered to make a cake for us, so I asked them to have dinner also. Then the Ter Haars were still around because The Ter Haar’s relatively new van broke down on Friday and Willeke was stranded at the ABC campus in Lilongwi all day Friday. They couldn’t get the van fixed for the lake trip and were stuck in Nkhoma all weekend. I didn’t feel that I could have all 8 of the Ter Haars on top of the others. But a quick surprise birthday party was set in place for her by the mssionaries. So after church Sunday we all had a surprise birthday party for Willeke. Maralise has a visiting missionary from South Africa in her home who is going to stay there for a month while she visits her family in South Africa. We had talked about a common meal, but she thought the group would be too many. Later Sunday Jessie called to say that Isabel, who now lives with Jessie and Rhona, was on her way home and would be home before dinner. So she got invited. Then Barbara went to see Maralise, and Barabara asked her if she was coming to dinner. So Maralise called to ask if they were to come, and so I told them we had plenty so to come. We all managed and the group enjoyed each other. Imre and Andre are wonderful guest just joining in as if they part of the group. They are most helpful also.

I spent a lot of time in the Kindergarten room this week. It is difficult for those, who haven’t worked in learning centers to guide children in the opportunities to discover how things work, because they are so use to telling children, “This is the way it is done.” After working 25 years with very young children, I have learned from children that there are more ways than one to do most things. Of course, some ways are better than others and some are simply not acceptable! The thrill of seeing the excitement a child receives in DISCOVERY is well worth the agony of watching the child learn by trial and error.
When something is DISCOVERED on one’s own, it most likely will never be forgotten.
And every once in awhile a child comes up with an outstanding approach or answer that you have never tried!!! Even the two year olds at PWW taught me things.

2010-09-14T19:02:00.001-07:00

Sept.7-12

Barbara and Happy invited me to have lunch with them after church on the 12th. They have a good garden and many tomatoes. We had lots of sliced tomatoes on toast and smothered them in a delicious cheese sauce. It was a great lunch.

School started on Monday. They do not register before the first day of school. They just expect all the children from last year to come on the first day of school. We had many coming from last year, but we do have some we must check on that did not come. When they drop out it is usually because of finances. Hopefully scholarships will be found for all of those children. Each day all week a few new students appeared. We have 3 new teachers, and they are all so very enthusiastic and good with the children. We are really looking forward to a good and happy year.

The first school building was built 3 years ago. It was wired for
electricity, but the electricity was never installed in the building. We have requested the hook-up many times and have been denied each time. This year the problem seems to be that they do not have meters. So we have instructed the electrician to buy our meter and have it registered with the company so that we can be connected. Now it seems, we need a letter to authorize the electrician to buy the meter. An electrician did do some work at our building on Friday. Our rods for curtains also appeared in the administrative office. Maybe some things are going to be done. Our printer has been placed in 3 different homes. We are very excited about the prospects that it my soon be in our building. All the wonderful books sent over this summer by First Pres., Gastonia have been put in the computer by Jessi and we have set up the library for use. We are thrilled with all the books which have been sent by the USA, Holland, and many friends.

This week was terrible busy with unexpected happenings, like having to change classrooms two days after school started. The first day of school the night watchman was taking down the tire swing which was put up on the top of the swing frame for the summer. The tire slipped, hitting him in the mouth, knocking out one of his front teeth. So I sent him to the hospital. The next day he returned to the hospital for pain medicine, but he seems better now. The first week of school is often rather hectic, and this year seems to follow right along the same path. I had Barbara and Happy for dinner last night, and I invited Adam (5 yr. old) and David (6 yr. old) Ter Haar to have dinner with us. It was a treat for the young children to have a dinner party without the older children and parents. Those three children really do enjoy each other. The two oldest Nagy children and the oldest Ter Haar are enjoying school together in Kenya, The children seem to be having a ball, and the parents are doing pretty well.

Maralise and I went to Dedza today to shop at the huge market they have there and to have lunch at Paragon Ceramics, the pottery place. We had a delicious meal of goat, potatoes and vegestables. Of course, we bought some of the pottery even tho’ we said that we weren’t going to buy.

A child wants to help make a difference....

2010-09-11T11:54:00.000-07:00

I spoke of Mariella Provost from Black Mountain before, the Korean missionary who along with her husband started a school similar to Ebenezer in Korea. Mr. Kim, a scholarship student to the Korean school, is the man who went to help with the dedication of Ebenezer this past June. Mariella's granddaughter, Grace, has taken on the task of helping the children of Nkhoma by starting a penny drive to help Memory, a child at Ebenezer. I wanted to share her plan to help Memory in hopes that it might provide the creative thinking for someone else to find a way to help. Thanks, I plan to provide updates on MOM's REQUEST for SCHOLARSHIPS. In his name, Lynne

Pennies for Memory

Memory is a little girl who is attending Ebenezer school in Nkhoma, Malawi. These pennies will help her go to school. She entered kindergarten in September.
Grace Drummond, age 13, from Newton, NC read “Three Cups of Tea” this summer with Grandma Mariella Provost in Black Mountain. After hearing of the need in Malawi where a school building has been built in memory of her grandfather, Raymond Provost, she decided to start collecting pennies for Memory. Memory was adopted from the Crisis Nursery in Lilongwe by one of the drivers at the Nkhoma Hospital.
Grace has also been adopted from an orphanage in Russia and is excited to see the pennies coming in to help Memory go to school. 12,000 pennies seems like a lot but it is surprising how a few pennies here and there start mounting up. Friends are helping!!!
Maybe some child, Sunday School Class or even adult can make a jar to collect change for a child at Ebenezer.

Help Dorothy & Make a Difference in Nkhoma

2010-09-08T17:54:00.000-07:00

Mom sent me an email to forward on to see if she can get help raising funds to make a lasting difference in Nkhoma. As I pondered her request, I decided to post part of it for you to ponder as well. I would love to help her make this desire a reality before she returns home. Please read:

I am asking for assistance in making a 5 year commitment of $6,000.00 annually for scholarships. Ellen is the only one I have signed up to support at this point. The $6,000.00 would provide scholarships for 20 children, one whole class. Except for the doctors’ and nurses’ there is no one in Malawi that makes enough salary to send a child to school. They are all poor farmers. About 1/5 of our students are on 100% scholarship, and I would like to see us get even more village children. I think it would be fabulous for our money to be for village children at the 3 year old level, so they could start with English at that age and be able to keep up with the more educated and English speaking Malawians. Barbara Nagi has said that she thinks our school will have an impact on Nkhoma in the way they think. We are introducing a whole new way of thinking and solving problems for our Malawian children in our educational process.

Mom has made incredible strides in the education process in Nkhoma, not on her own, but, with the help of lots of you. All kinds of supplies have been sent to Ebenezer Institute of Learning because of her decision to make a difference. I have witnessed miracles occuring because of the bonds of those relationships. Which has lead me to post this post. If you feel lead to help mom make this a reality--any amount will help-- please make your tax deductable contribution to:

Presbytery of Western North Carolina
for: Ebenezer Scholarships

and mail to:

Presbytery of Western North Carolina
114 Silver Creek Road
Morganton, NC 28655

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers sent on behalf of my mother. Lynne

2010-09-08T08:20:00.000-07:00

Aug,31-Sept. 7

For the past week my life has been at Ebenezer trying to set up a library, equip 2 new classrooms for teachers, create new teaching materials.and more. .I also moved one load of things to Barbara’s hose, but before I could do the next load, I was called and asked to live for a month in Dr. David and Rebecca Morton’s house while they spent a month in Seattle, Washington attending Rebecca’s sister funeral and making plans to carry for elderly parents who had been cared for by the sister who died. I am more conveniently located to the school than ever before, and I like that. I’m learning lots about a lot of houses in Nkhoma.

Let me give you more information about our trip to Lake Malawi since nothing in particular has happened this week except for the beginning of school. Maralise and I had a lovely waterfront cottage at Nkhotakota Lodge which has a nice restaurant. The lodge owns a second place next to them that features a walk safari. We did not do the safari because the lodge was completely booked by a two year old community church for a retreat to honor new ministers in the surrounding villages. We met one of the couples attending the retret at breakfast in our lodge restaurant. We talked with them after taking a picture of the two of them, and later when we were walking to the safari lodge, we ran into them again. We were attracted to them because she was from England and had come to see her in-laws in Nkhoma. She had been in Nkhoam a few years ago and had started the work with the elderly and the handicapped folks who now are Seonhee’s Chisoma group. Maralise and I have been involved with them also.

Joyce, the English lady, was one of the leaders of the retreat. She invited us to join them for awhile. We got there just as an elder of the church fron Milwaukee spoke on the Parable of the Soils. He, a Milwaukee farmer, talked about outstanding characteristics of the different soils from a farmer’s prospective and related it all to us as ministers to the unchurched. He did an excellent job. They gave 22 Chichewa bibles to twenty- two new ministers. It has been enlightening to hear about and actually participate in so many different types of ministries that are taking place in spreading the Kingdom of God in Malawi.

Yesterday, September 6, was our first day of school for 2010-11. That day was as horrible as they get! It started with having to send our night watchman to the hospital because as he lowered the tire swing from the swing frame, it dropped and hit him in the mouth, knocking out his lower front tooth. He was instructed to take two days of rest. So we will see him gain tomorrow night. New students showed up. It’s amazing how many very young children come to school alone. It’s nice this seems to be a safe community. The new teachers needed more attention than I had thought they would need All the same old problems of every first day of school were encountered The children had a good time, but Jessie and I were exhausted by the end of the day. There were just so many new things for all of us new folks to deal with and no old timers to rely on! Today Willeke joined us.in teaching. The day was a 90% improvement over yesterday, and we are looking for a good day tomorrow. s

2010-09-01T12:30:00.000-07:00

Aug.21-30

Thanks, Dan for assuming that there were scheduling problems with the computer. It certainly is less convenient to use the computer since I no longer live with Jessie. Jessie is wonderful to bring the computer to me. With school starting next week I will be seeing her every school day and hopefully that should help me to keep up with my blog. Another problem is that the internet is often down. Not knowing when the system will decide to cooperate, it is difficult to schedule when one can get on the internet. It seems that between 5 and 6 am is the best time to be successful. You just go to the computer lab and hope for the best. We keep telling ourselves TIA (This is Africa). I think Barbara is glad that I am going to be living with her because she can’t leave Happy in the house alone to go to the computer lab that early since the older girls have both gone to school in Kenya. We all have computer problems!

Our new Kindergarten Teacher, Esther, moved into a house in the village last Monday and has been at the school doing all kinds of jobs every days since then. She is so enthusiastic and such a big help. I really look forward to working with her this year. Rebecca, our new teacher for the three year olds arrived Friday. She will come this week to get her room set up for September 6th, our first day of school. Gift, our teacher for the 1st and 2nd grade combination class. will begin teaching on October 1st. Willeke, a primary school teacher from Holland, will begin teaching that class with an assistant teacher. We hope the assistant will be a volunteer from NC. Grace Boyer is checking on that for us.

Last Monday Linken, the carpenter spent the entire day with me at the school. He fixed classroom doors that were sagging and hard to open. He also fixed four cabinet doors, He converted 3 wall hangings for me into 6 trays with molding on all four sides to hold sifted sand for the children to practice writing the alphabet or short words. With a slight shake after finger writing in the sand, the surface is clean for more letters. It’s as good, if not better than, chalk and chalkboard! Linken built shelves for the library and started making cabinets and tables for the two new classrooms. Hopefully. we will get rods up this week for the curtains.

Jessie is going to be an assistant Principal helping to set up the library, and to teach the teachers and the children how to use all the modern equipment that has been so graciously bestowed on us. The I pods have been a great addition to our music time. We love the hundreds of songs that have been made available for us to use in our classes. Jessie will help the children to learn to use the pointers that read the books to the children and will help the teachers to become aware of the many songs, how to use them effectively in the classes, and how to care for the equipment. The two of us were so busy this past year teaching in the classes that we had little time to help the teachers to use the materials themselves. Hopefully the next 4 months we will be concentrating on helping the teachers with teaching techniques and how to use the new equipment. Also I want to see if we can set up some training sessions for village teachers working in the orphan programs to be held at Ebenezer when our children are out on holiday.

Thursday Maralise and I went to Nkhotakota on Lake Malawi. We stayed in a lovely lodge connected to a very popular pottery. It was interesting to see the process of making pottery while just relaxing in a lovely environment on the coast of beautiful lake Malawi. Both nights we saw a full moon rise over the lake and on Saturday morning I sat on the porch and watched the sunrise over the lake while I read passages from the beautiful inspirational book, MOMENTS OF PEACE FOR A WOMAN’S HEART. We left early Saturday to explore several other popular lake front resort areas on the way home. We had a nice lunch at the Wheelhouse at one of the resorts, and we stopped at a number of roadside stands to take pictures of rice fields and to buy huge bags of rice for ourselves and friends. The area is known for its fruits; thus, we bought lots of good fruit also.

One of Willeke’s neighbors was given a wedding shower this afternoon. I sat with the children while Maralise and Willeke attended the shower. The invitation stated the time at 1:30 pm. I believe I have already told you that the being on time is any time after the stated time. Today’s shower portrays that. Willeke and Maralise knew not to be too early so they went about quarter of two. The people at the house of the party were busy as bees putting up decorations. They were told to leave and return about one hour later. Then Maralise was called on her phone and told that she was to go by the bride’s house and pick her up to bring to the shower. Upon arrival at the party they were presented a Programme, attractively done by computer which informed everyone about what was to take place.

BRIDAL SHOWER FOR
JOICE KAGWDA
BETTING MARRIED TO
MAXWELL CHILIMA

ORDER OF PROGRAMME

Master of Ceremony” Mrs. Matuta
Opening Payer Mrs/ Rev. Zeze
Aim of Shower Mrs. Matuta
Christianity in the home Mrs. Chitsenga
Home & Time Management with Family Mrs. Chitwere
Grooming Etiquette and Socialization G. Jumbe
Arrival of Groom Maxwell Chilitna
Managing Finances in the home Mrs.Chimkondenji
Communication with each other in Marriage Mrs. Toiani
Health, Nutrition and HIV/AIDS Mrs. Msosa

PRESENTATION OF GIFTS

Vote of Thanks by Mrs. Mchepa
Closing Prayer by Mrs. Rev. Zeze

Thank you for your participation! May God bless you!

At the close of the program drinks were served and each guest received a bag of goodies which one could eat there or take with them. We are continually learning about the African culture.

Thus ends another busy week and a happy weekend. Barbara and Reynier will return tomorrow. We have one more week to get ready for the children to start school. I will probably return to Barbara’a house this week sometime.

2010-08-22T06:05:00.000-07:00

Aug. 9-20

I found a great coloring book on the one story of the Bible. It is so helpful in introducing the youngest children to the Bible stories because each large colorful picture tells the story as well as the one or two English sentences under each picture. The Malawian teacher, Patience, reads the few sentences in Chichewa and then reads them again in the English. Our children are beginning to respond to English, even those children who do not have English speaking parents are speaking a little English. They understand a lot more English than they speak. I have been spending all my spare moments in coloring pages. Now that the Ter Haar and Nagy children are back, they have helped to color some; thus I have been able to finish the Old Testament. We have 3 different children’s Bibles that are great. We are using the large pictures and few words with the youngest children because of the language barrier. The young children are responding to the pictures and that’s encouraging.

The oldest Nagy and Terr Haar children will be leaving for Kenya on Wednesday. Dr. Ter Haar and Dr. Nagy will be going with them to get them settled into their dorms and to attend parent orientation. Willeke and I will keep the other children. Happy will be up here at the Ter Haar’s with us. All the children get along beautifully. They really enjoy playing together.

There has been a lot of turnover in the volunteer missionary helpers recently. The McAuleys left yesterday and the guesthouse group of over 60 camping out on their grounds have returned to California. Their organization, WHY MALAWI, comes every year with a large group. Jane, a nurse from England, just arrived for three months, She and Maralise came to see the school yesterday. I was glad to see them, for I had collected a number of things that Mraslise could use at her Orphan School.

We finally moved the first grade into the new building for the last week of school. So I have been busy moving an administration office into the room that the first grade was using last year. I have made three attempts to get Linken to the school to make shelves for a library to house all the wonderful books people have so graciously contributed. As I go through the books received I get bogged down because I feel I must read a lot of them. We really have some great books. Thanks to so many of you.

2010-08-22T06:02:00.000-07:00

Aug. 2-8

This has been one busy week with my moving out of Barbara’s house and into the guest quarters at the Ter Haar’s. We have been blessed with the visit of David, Christine and Allie, Mariella Provost’s son and family, who came to see the school building that was dedicated in June to his father. They brought us many gifts for the school. We now have a wonderful Library and many grand items for the school. We will not need pencils, crayons or colored pencils for a lllllllong time!! They brought a number of soccer balls and large beach balls. The boys and the girls have had a wonderful time with the balls on the playground. Amy and Jim McAuley, both pediatricians from Chicago are here working in the children’s ward at the hospital for 5 weeks. The McAuleys brought their 4 children, 14-20 year olds, with them. All four worked for over 2 weeks in our school. They helped us finish-up the school year. Ruth, a college ager, helped to teach the first grade during the 2 weeks Miriam took off for her mother’s funeral. Miriam, the oldest McAuley child, read stories to all three classes, and both McAuley boys played ball on the playground with all the classes. The McAuley young people appreciated having something to do while the parents worked, and the Ebenezer teachers and children enjoyed the help.

The McAuleys are staying in the guest houses at the Ter Haars, so we share the kitchen area. We share many meals together. The day that the Provosts arrived I had Victor to make us a stew for lunch for the Provosts, Barbara, Jessie and the McAuleys. Barbara took the Provosts on a tour of the hospital which they enjoyed seeing. Barbara took David to one of the outlying village clinics that the hospital supports while Christine and Allie stayed and helped us at the school and got to know some of our students.

We were expecting the Ter Haars to return on Friday, but about 8 pm Thursday I received a call that they would be home late Thursday night. I rushed over to clean out their refrigerator so they could start house keeping again after 7 weeks. I’m thrilled to have them back. They have done so much for me. They are like adopted family, and it’s good to have Willeke to help to start the new school year.

There have been 2 big missionary birthday parties since Barbara and the Ter Haars have returned. Maralise had a lovely party to celebrate 74 years and 4 of the Nagy and Ter Haar children celebrated a joint birthday party at the Ter Haar’s to celebrate their missed birthday parties while they were away.

Saturday evening was a very special evening as 70-80 Malawians and missionaries gathered at the home of Eric and Naomi, two doctors from Holland, who are leaving to take a position in Portugal. Naomi is expecting their second baby girl in September. They have been here for 3 ½ years. The music and food were great. Eric and Naomi are both musical, and they said the Malawian music was one of the things they would miss the most. Both of the doctors were given a wonderful send-off by everyone. They both have made tremendous contributions to the work of the hospital. They have been extremely activity in the church here and everyone has loved having them in Nkhoma. We will all greatly miss them. Naomi and two year old daughter, Fenni, will be with Naomi’s mother in Holland until after the birth of the baby. Eric will start to work in Portugal and get settled there for the family to come.

MOM??? Where Are You????

2010-08-20T18:55:00.000-07:00

I feel the need to post a comment on mom's lack of posts. Barbara Nagy returned home to Nkhoma with her three girls the first of August, the place Barbara graciously allowed mom and Jessi to live. Therefore, Jessi moved to the Guest House, while mom moved into Willeke Ter Haar's guest quarters AND the computer belonging to Jessi....well, I think you must be realizing what I am, that the convience of having the computer right there every night made it so much easier to keep her blog updated. I am amazed at the incredible response you all have shown by keeping up with her blog and I know I speak for mom and my brothers when I say thank you for all the thoughts and prayers you have sent her way. Hopefully, mom will find a way to keep all of us updated and involved in her incredible experience. In his love, Lynne, Jim, and Dan

2010-08-01T09:08:00.000-07:00

July 30-Aug.1

I have been sewing green curtains and have finished most of the machine sewing on them. I don’t know when the curtain rods will be installed so that I can measure for the hems. It will be done in African time..

There always seems to be something to redo! The swing sets on our playground are only 3 months old and already the “soft” steel metal has worn thin in the hooks that hold up the chains for the seats. I brought it to the attention of the overseer of construction and repairs and he said that its just African quality. He’s studying for a solution.

Barbara and children arrived at about 5:15 Thursday. I helped Rebecca Morton to carry them a soup dinner that she made. Barbara knew exactly where my pictures of Lily and family were and gave them to me immediately. So I have seen my beautiful great granddaughter. Everyone looks so proud and happy. I wish I could hold her. She will be a big baby before I get to do that. I was at Barbara’s getting my last load of things when Barbara arrived. So I got to welcome her home. I’m glad she didn’t come to an empty house.

I have moved to a beautiful spot on the side of the mountain with the view of a huge rock at the top of the mountain. This is the mountain that the PWNC mission group climbed when they were here. At one time this kitchen was a Tea House where folks were served tea and biscuits either inside or outside of the house. Now 2 guest houses grace the property and the Tea House serves as a kitchen, a sitting area and a dining area for the guests. It is a lovely area to relax and read or to write on your blog!. I will be here until Barbara’s girls go to school the first of September. Then I am suppose to return to Barbara’s house with Barbara and Happy. While the Ter Haars are away in Holland , their cook is spending much time at the Tea House cooking special things at the request of the people. He attended a Chef’s School in Lilongwe and now is making wonderful very thin crust pizzas for folks in Nkhoma. He’s gone to the market for me to buy the supplies to make bread for me.

After church today I went to check on some booklets I want to send home with the children who have been in the 3 year old class. Church was over this morning by 9:15 so I plenty of time before lunch. I had Jessi and Rhona to come for a lunch of cabbage, lamb and rice. I had visited two Norway girls who live across the road from my new home, and they were cooking cabbage and lamb. Barara Morton had offered to take me to town yesterday and I bought cabbage.I tried fixing their recipe and it turned out good. .

Last week Jessi and Rhona brought me 9 PACKAGES of books! I had received one package 2 days ago and had no idea that there was more to come. When they went to the post office to get the packages, the workers all told them they could not take them without a car! A nice healthy student offered to carry them. With his help they managed to get them here. The student wouldn’t take any money for helping them, which was a pleasant surprise because most of the time the students are asking for money.

What a neat idea to have people donate books to our library. I am so moved by the fact they were all given in honor of me. I feel like a little of each of you are a part of what I have been able to do here in Malawi at Ebenezer School. I think I learned all the things I know through my relationship with PWS, and I feel that the school here is an extension of PWS. The Malawian children are keeping in touch with the PWS children, and the children there have sent us a wonderful letter and a most attractive poster made to show a relationship between our schools. Lyndi Williams has been great in helping me to bring some wonderful ideas and materials to Ebenezer. She keeps the relationship going in many ways. I have had wonderful support from so many of the church members. Please know that you are an instrumental part of getting the much needed Ebenezer School established. I praise God for all the wonderful support from 1st Pres. Gastonia, and I thank God that I can be your representative in this particularly needy area at this time.

2010-07-29T12:13:00.000-07:00

July 19 – 26

For me the past 10 days have been marked primarily by my having to teach in the 1st grade. According to the culture Miriam can be out as long as 2 weeks after the funeral of her mother. We have been blessed with short term mission groups with folks who like to help in schools! That’s another example of God as the awesome chest player! I have learned a lot about teaching in the first grade, and I believe I know now just about enough to be dangerous. We only have 2 weeks left in this school year so I really hope and pray that Miriam will be back in the morning. I have not heard from her which is also cultural custom.

The past two mission groups have been very generous to the school in supplying us with more wonderful books. We are developing a very nice library of books. I have discovered excellent books for each of our classes in the selections given to us. The children are enjoying them tremendously. It has been great to find a number of books that relate to exactly what the classes are studying at the moment. I always get excited to find a fresh approach to a new concept that is being taught to the children.

I was given a lovely pottery bowl full of fresh vegetables and 2 pumpkins. Today I experimented in making Peanut and Pumpkin Soup and Cream of Pumpkin Soup. It’s my first experience with pumpkin soup, so I don’t know what it should taste like. Both soups turned out pretty good. It made a lot of soup. We will have Maralisa and Seon Hee over on Tuesday for a soup and salad supper. Seon Hee will be returning from South Africa that day. The Peanut and Pumpkin idea originated because we have a 50 lb. bag of peanuts. That is one of the main crops for these people and the harvest season has just closed.
Berea, our cook, taught me to make her delicious sugar coated peanuts. We are eating lots of them!

The harvest was celebrated at church on July 18th during the Chichewa service. It was so interesting to see
all the harvest being brought to the church and placed on the front steps to be carried down the isle at a particular point in the service. There were many women carrying their offering on their heads. You don’t see many men carrying anything on their heads. There are plenty of women on the roads at most any time of the day carrying very heavy loads on their heads. More and more of the men are carrying great loads on their bikes. Ten years age they tell me only the missionaries and few others had cars, motorcycles, or bikes. Now there are a great number of them. Africa is making great changes, just like the rest of the world. Some of them are good and some, not so good. Just like the rest of the world.

Rhona and Jessi are settling into their house. I have enjoyed having Kate and Lisa with me since the other two left. We were told that Barbara has e-mailed us that she will be leaving on the 27th and arriving on the 29th, Thursday. I have 2 more days to make more curtains before having to move. I believe I will be in better shape to move then. Folks have been nice to offer to help make the move.

2010-07-25T02:17:00.000-07:00

July 10-18

Last Sunday 3 visitors from North Carolina stood up to introduce themselves in church. After church Rebecca and David Morton from Seattle invited Kate from West Virginia,myself, and the North Carolinian guest to their house for coffee and banana bread. We had a enjoyable visit with them. The doctor and the business man were visiting the hospital gathering information, and Rainy asked if she could come to our school to help with the students. I was so glad because Miriam our 1 grade teacher did not come to school. It turned out she was at the hospital with her mother who later died on Tuesday afternoon.
I learned a lot about Malawian culture on Wednesday when Grace, teacher of 4 year olds didn’t show up, and Lawrence, our maintenance man, didn’t appear either. I went to see Cathy Msosa, one of the school committee members, after being told that Grace and Lawrence were instructed to go with the family members back to Zambia for the funeral.The committee members had to arrange for the transportation of the body and for people to escort the family to their home. They had to obtain the death certificate from the hospital, and purchase a casket to be delivered to the village. On top of that Miriam did not have a work permit and our ambulance could not go across the border and had to be met by an ambulance from near the family’s village in Zambia. Thank goodness for the good committee. It took four
of them 5 hours Tuesday night to make all those arrangements and then they had to pay for it all. I am thankful that I did not find out about all that until Wednesday.
On my birthday, Tuesday, 42 of the mission workers were here at our house celebrating my birthday with a table loaded with cakes and cookies. Birthday celebration is the time all the missionaries to socialize. Jessi and Rhona saw that it was done up royally. What a surprise it was to open up a box of 115 Birthday cards!!! I felt so unworthy and yet I felt absolutely great reading all those wonderful verses and messages from so many people. I didn’t know I knew
that many people who would send me a card for my birthday!!! You certainly have made a wonderful memorable birthday for me that I’ll cherish forever. You couldn’t have made me feel better than the high you gave me with all those thoughtful and loving messages. Thank you for making me feel so special on my 80th Birthday.

Today at church I understood more of the service and sermon than most Sundays. I was most thankful because after the sermon Abuso (the preacher) called on me to have the prayer. I was SURPRISED and looked around to see if there was possibly someone else that he might be speaking to. Grace was sitting beside me, and whispered it’s you. So I stood up and prayed (praying for help as I stood up!). After church I told Abuso, “ you surprised me when you called on me to pray.” He said, “We must always be ready.” I agreed that indeed we must always be ready for we never know when the good Lord will call us.
A couple from Chicago and their 4our children 2 boys and 2 girls came Friday. I met them at church this morning. They asked if the children could help in the school. I doubt that Miriam will be there so I think that Ruth (18 yr. old) will be good help in the 1st grade. The husband and wife are both doctors and they are here for three weeks to do surgery. I hope the 2 boys about 14 and 16 will play socker with the boys. The boys in our 4 year old class were given socker T-shirts. One day they all came to school wearing their socker shirts. They said that they had to play socker while wearing their T-shrts. They kicked the ball around and then they huddled like in football. We heard them praying “Thank you God for this day and for this food. Bless mommie and daddy. In Jesus name, Amen.” I called one of the payers over and told him that when they got in a huddle they should pray that they would play a fair game and that they could win. In the next huddle we heard, “ Thank you God for this day and for this -----’’! The 4 year olds keep life interesting!

2010-07-10T07:40:00.000-07:00

July 2-9 The Korean bikers stayed for 10 days to help Seon Hee distribute the mosquito nets to the village folks. The boys hung the nets for the village people and taught them how to use and to care for them. I had the Korean bikers and Seon Hee and boys for dinner one night while they were here in Nkhoma. One boy is a Christian. He’s the one who started looking for a worthy need to support. When I asked what church they attended, the non-Christian said he wasn’t a Christian, and the Christian boy immediately replied he’s not yet. The non-Christian is looking for a serene place that’s back to nature. It would be interesting to know how they end up after their excursion across and up the African Continent.

We have been busy at the school trying to get the 1st grade into the new building. The doors are the big problem. All three doors were ordered by the same measurements and the concrete floors are not all equal. I got really excited when I saw one classroom with the door hung on it. The contractor came by that day and I asked him if we could move into the room. The answer was no because the lock had not been put on the door. I begged him to put the lock on and let us move into just that one room. I have the feeling a lock will not be placed on any door until all the locks can be put in place. It doesn’t seem to bother the builder that the first grade class has lumber and other building equipment stacked all over their present classroom which is suppose to be the administration office. It will all come together some day! Hopefully it will be soon.
The people working here continue to come and go. We had Bible Study here last Tuesday night, and we had a little going away party for Carolyn. Carolyn, and Scott Van Dyke and their three boys are returning to their home in Canada. For the past 2 years Scott has been connected with the Orphan Project and has done a lot of wonderful things for the people here in this area. He is so gifted. He made the wonderful playground equipment that has been installed on our playground recently. Our children are really enjoying all the things he made for us.

Yesterday was a great experience. I rode bike taxi for a 20 mile round trip visit to a village. We went to see the home that was being built for a blind 70 year old man. He was found in the village sleeping in a building that was a mud circular storage house that was not large enough for him lie down. Seon Hee talked to the village people about giving him land to build on and bringing the sticks and wood pieces to make the roof. Volunteers in the village have provided the labor to build the house, and it is now ready for the plaster and the roof. The village people are helping to provide those things, Seon Hee is really encouraging the people to help each other and things are really happening that are so very encouraging. There are so many blind and disabled people there in the village. They have become excited about being able to do things together that they could not accomplish alone. Not only are they working together, but they are worshiping together informally and developing closer human relationships by singing and enjoying being with each other.

I was surprised again on July 2nd to receive two packages and a bunch of letters. There were Easter Greetings and goodies and a number of condolence cards. I do appreciate all the thoughts and prayers. Thanks to all of you for remembering me in such nice ways. Hearing from you makes me feel closer to you and to home.

Jessi, Chris , Kate and I all attended the 4th of July celebration that was given by Ambassador and Mrs. Bodde on Saturday, July 3rd. It was held in their beautiful home near Capitol Hill. It was a typical cookout and everyone seemed to have a great time. Perry and Brenda Janson, who head up the Malawian Peace Corp, sang the National Anthem beautifully. It put us all in the mood to celebrate America. Ambassador Bodde welcomed us and gave a short talk thanking each of us, missionaries and peace corp people primarily, for all the things we do in Africa. He said there were about 400 Americans in Malawi each day doing great things with Africans. The setting was in lovely gardens with a swimming pool. The food was good, and we enjoyed meeting many of the Americans who came to the party. I enjoyed talking with Ambassador and Mrs. Bodde. They felt that they had been on holiday for the past 2 years in Malawi. Next week they are headed for Bagdad, which will require a much heavier work load.

June 27-July

2010-07-03T03:54:00.000-07:00

June 27-July 1
At the dedication luncheon the retired Rev. Mgawe invited Seon Hee Lee and boys, Mr. Kim, the present senior minister (CCAP, Church of Central Africa Presbyterian) the Rev. and Mrs. Chapota and me to dinner that night. He sent his driver for us. Mrs. Mgawe died just before I came to Nkhoma. Rev. Mgawe was playing his harmonica when we arrived, and we all enjoyed singing some familiar hymns. After a few hymns, the cook announced dinner was ready. The Rev. invited us to go next door as he ushered us into the next room. At the foot of the table was a small table with basin, and the cook was standing across the table ready with pitcher to pour warm water for each of us to wash our hands. No towel was provided. That explained to me why the children at school do not use a towel. The cook removed the table cover to present us a big meal of at least 9 different dishes, including nsima (pronounced seema). It is eaten with the fingers at almost every, if not every meal. (Nsima reminds me of mush, a very fine grain of corn meal that I remember eating as a child with pork sausage and eggs. Their nsima is much drier and is picked up with thumb, index and middle fingers and then used to scoop up other items on your plate. Some people eat the entire meal that way while others do use forks and spoons. I always take a very small helping of nsima.

With each experience I seem to learn a little more about African culture. I went to Rev. Chapota’s home to go to Rev. Mgwe’s. I told Abusa (the preacher) I would be at his home at 7:15pm to go to the 7:30 dinner. I arrived at 7:17 and both Rev. and Mrs, Chapota were sitting in their living room talking. They invited me to sit down so I did, and we continued talking. A minute or two later he told her they were invited to dinner at Mgawe’s. It was obvious this was the first she knew about the invitation. Well we talked for about 10 more minutes and then she left to tell “the kitchen” they were going out to dinner.
About 7:45 Rev. Mgawe called and asked where we were and said he would send his driver for us. We started walking and the driver picked us up not far from the Chapota’s home. TIA (This is Africa).

During the conversation that evening the Rev. Mgawe repeated a number of times the statement “God is the great chess player.” I had never heard that expression, but I have certainly seen it in action a number of times here. I’ll share a couple of examples. When I asked the contractor to come for lunch after the celebration,he express great concern about the lack of funds to pay the builders at the school their monthly salaries. I asked him how much he needed immediately. He answered 259,500 Kwachas, which is $1500.00. At the celebration the next day Mr. Kim surprised us by presenting the school a check which allowed us to pay the salaries! Another example of God placing the right person, at the right time. at the right place is about Seon Hee’s experience when taking Mr. Kim to the airport. On the way Seon Hee decided she had about 10 minutes to take Mr. Kim to meet her Korean friend who had recently built the Korean Hospital in Lilongwe and was running it. For over 2 months Seon Hee had been praying for mosquito netting for the elderly and disabled folk in our village. In a less than 10 minute stop-over at the hospital they met 2 Korean bikers traveling from South Africa north looking for a needy cause to support. Seon Hee told them about the mosquito nets needed. They were thrilled with the project and met with her after she and Hussein, the school committee chairperson, delivered Mr. Kim to the airport. They spent 2 hours in Lilongwe checking for a good buy on the nets and buying 250 of them. The Korean doctor loaned the bikers the hospital truck and driver to transport the bikers, the nets, and the bikes to Nkhoma the next day. You may read about their stay in Nkhoma in my next log.

The Americans in Nkhoma have been invited by the Ambassador to Malawi to a 4th of July celebration in Lilongwe. The party is being held in an area near Capital Hill. Four of us, Chris and Kate from the Guesthouse and Jessi and I are all looking forward to the experience which is being held on Saturday, the 3rd of July. It sounds like it will be a traditional cook-out. It’s nice that you can have cook-outs here in the middle of winter!

Yesterday was wonderful. When I got home from school, I found Rhona had brought me 4 packages and 9 cards from the hospital mailroom. They were dated from March 23 to June 6 and yet I just got each of them. We believe the hospital may be just saving mail until they feel like they have enough to deliver. Thursday at school Douglas from the hospital came with another employee to the school to tell me that I had a package that needed to be picked up. I told him I was very surprised because I had just received yesterday 4 packages and 9 letters. He responded that that must be the mail he was talking about. (TIA) Thanks for the mail. It is wonderful to hear from North Carolina and the goodies enclosed are great.

Dedication of Ebenezer's New Addition

2010-07-02T05:31:00.000-07:00

I have had the privilege to talk with Mariella Provost, 87, from Black Mountain. She and her husband were missionaries in Korea and started a school there, some 50 years ago, Moon Wha School. Mr. Kim, from Korea, who attended Moon Wha School just visited Ebenezer School in Malawi. Due to the efforts of the Korean people the addition to Ebenezer School was built. The following is information I received from Mariella about the recent dedication. Hands around the world, must be incredible for the Provost family to see how their vision has grown and reached out to others. To God be the Glory, great works have been done!!!! Thanks Mariella.
July 1, 2010
Mr. Hyung Sup Kim visited Ebenezer
From Moon Wha School in Korea
On June 21st, Mr. Kim, Hyung Sup, Chairman of Moon Wha Board in Gyeongju went to Nkhoma, Malawi. A dedication service was held for the Raymond Provost Hall. This two-classroom building was built with funds raised by the alumni, faculty and friends of Moon Wha Jr.& Sr. High School in Gyeongju, Korea. Raymond Provost was the first principal of Moon Wha School which was started 50 years ago!! Mr. Kim presented a plaque that will be mounted on the building.
At the dedication service there were people from the Synod Office, teachers, students and friends—people from Asia, Europe, U.S.A. and Africa. What an international gathering that was!!
Since Mr. Kim does not speak English, they were very fortunate to have a Korean missionary, Ms. Seon-Hee Lee, working at the Synod Office who interpreted for him.
You as friends in the States have helped to fill the inside of the building with furniture, a copy machine, text books and supplies. In addition we are also gathering scholarships for the children. What a joy to see what God is doing to build this Christian School in Nkhoma. In September the school will start its 4th year. Then there will be a Preschool (4 year old class), Kindergarten, 1st Grade and a new 2nd grade. The first two-classroom building was made possible by a church in Gastonia, North Carolina and some playground equipment was given by friends overseas in Holland. Now I am thrilled that friends in Korea are helping.
Your friend in Christ,

Mariella Provost

Please note, the young girl in the front row with the blue jacket over her head is Ellen. :)

2010-06-28T11:25:00.000-07:00

June 21-26
The date for the dedication finally arrived. We had made so many references to it for such a long time. It was kind of like waiting for a wedding to take place. Speaking of weddings Jessie, Rhonda and I have been invited by one of the hospital nurses to attend her wedding early in December. She plans to go with us to the market to choose our material and have the tailor to measure us for our outfits for the wedding. The wedding should be most interesting. The ceremony will be at 9am and the celebration will begin at 1pm. It will take place in Lilongwe.
Back to the dedication, Mr. Kim arrived on Sunday evening and came to my house for dinner with Seon Hee Lee (our Korean missionary who works with the elderly and disabled) and her two sons. I had asked Seon Hee who was going into Lilongwe to buy me some chicken breast. She didn’t get to Lilongwe and asked another person to get the chicken breast. Something happened there, and I ended up with a local chicken. I had had two meals of local chicken. The chickens roam freely around Nkhoma and are very undernourished. The chickens I had eaten was so tough one could not chew them. You either swallowed it whole or you made it disappear by other means. I boiled the pitiful chicken until it fell off the bones. Then I was surprised to find it was tough to cut with a sharp knife! Never-the-less, I cut that chicken up in such fine pieces it was almost the consistency of meal. It was absorbed completely in the making of the chicken dish with rice made with chicken broth. With a mushroom sauce, spices, crumbs and cheese on top of the casserole it was acceptable or at least you could chew and swallow.
At dinner we had a delightful time learning about Raymond and Mariella Provost. They were the missionaries in Korea who started Moon Wha School. Mariella got in contact with some of the alumni of Moon Wha and told them that Moon Wha School had made their education possible now it was time for them to give Malawian children the same opportunity to attend a Christian School.
Mariella (now living in Black Mountain, NC) is in her 80’s and knits every day balls and dolls to send to missionaries. In our classroom I have had to make skirt length pieces of material for the girls to carry around Mariella’s dolls on their backs like their mothers carry their babies. Our class uses the balls to toss at an African basket on the floor, kind of like ringing a basketball net. Mariella told the committee of fund raisers that she makes about $1000.00 a year with her knitting and if they didn’t help her raise the money she would have to knit for another 20 years to raise the funds. Mr. Kim said that convinced the alumni committee to raise the money, and each gave $1000.00 to start the fund. They contacted the alumni and were most successful in raising the funds.
Mr. Kim arrived at school the next morning with 5 gifts each for the students and gifts for the teachers. I was so pleased with his response to our school. We had a nice program. Hussein Latif, our committee chair, told a little about our 2 year history. Mr. Kim told how important the Moon Wha School was in helping him to become a successful business person and how pleased the Moon Wha alumni were to be able to help Malawian children with the same opportunity. H presented the school a lovely plaque in memory of Raymond Provost which we will mount on the front of the Raymond Provost Memorial Hall.
I introduced the children and staff and told how pleased we were to be a part of helping to establish the much needed school. Our children offered a prayer of thanksgiving and sang the Malawian national anthem. Then I presented to Mr. Kim a banner which we had made with all the children’s hand prints and their names. He was touched by the banner and will hang it in the Moon Wha School. Our audience consisted of people from Europe, Asia, Africa and the USA plus the dignitaries from the Malawian Synod office. I told how miraculous I thought it was that the worldwide family of God was represented here in this place at this time working together through love to educate young children in Christians school. By the enthusiasm you could tell some good international relationships developed through the interchange with each other at the program and during the luncheon which followed.
The next morning Mr. Kim returned to our school still bearing gifts for children and teachers as he bid us goodbyes. He was a most gracious visitor and a great benefactor in leaving us with large donation for scholarships for needy children.

Ellen

2010-06-25T14:58:00.000-07:00

Meet Ellen.
Ellen is a young seven year old young lady living in one of the villages off from Nkhoma. Ellen was born a healthy baby girl. However, born in a poverty stricken area, soon after Ellen's birth, she lost both of her feet to malnutrition. She survived and flourished through the love of a grandmother, who carried Ellen on her back until just recently. Through the efforts of Maralise, a missionary nurse, who in her sixties, felt compelled to help the people of Nkhoma, Ellen's plight was addressed, prosthesis made, and as of May 2010, Ellen's inability to walk became a thing of the past. Her first request --to attend school. As of June 7th she is enrolled at the Ebenezer Institute of Learning and has started learning English in mom's class.

2010-06-23T10:49:00.000-07:00

June 13-20
As I become acquainted with more people life does become fuller. I have had to take care of school business which has involved making connections with people in specific areas since Willeke has gone for 7 weeks to Holland. She has already been gone for 10 days, and I have made a number of contacts with new people solving problems like finding housing for the new teacher who will take over the 4 year old class that I have been teaching for over a month and like contacting the accountant who manages our check writing. I have had to contact and invite about 20 people to a luncheon at my house after the dedication of the new school building on June 21. I have meet with new people in planning the dedication service and have had to solve some financial problems in making the last payments on the new building. I’ve begged for a letter from the Synod stating that the Synod is authorizing Ebnezer to build the teachers’ houses on their land.. Last Saturday we interviewed for two more teachers to begin teaching in September. We were an hour and a half late in starting the interviews, for one interviewer didn’t show up and another person had to go back home (walking of course) to make copies of the forms needed to interview. All these activities are done on Malawian time, and that reminds me of books on Africa which often use expressions like “TIA” (This is Africa) and “AWA” (Africa wins again). The missionaries often use these expressions. Some of you may recall that I was saying that I would probably live in one of the new teacher houses when Barbara Nagy returned to Malawi in July. Well, the money for the houses could not be requested for by the school until a letter had been received from the Synod stating that Ebenerzer was given authority o build on the Synod land. Today I learned that the letter had been actually received. Now with the pusher (Willeke) behind the project in Holland who knows when the building will start. Another big problem is that the contractor being used has been a missionary from Holland who has done the contracting as a gift of love. The contractors in Lilongwe are extremely expensive. We are praying for another missionary with a contracting background. ,
I am excited about the children in the 4 year old class beginning to respond beautifully to the alphabet, shapes, colors, numbers, and the names of the days of the week through play. They have taught me a neat song, “There Are Seven Days in the Week,” and we sing it daily as we talk about what days it is in the week. Today we introduced a whole toy box full of dress-up clothes. Linkin was at school last week bringing us the clothes trees he made for the 4 yr. old class and the kindergarten class. We hung up some dress-up clothes on tree in our class and that got the children extremely excited, boys and girls alike. We had boys in Elvis Pressley clothes with a crazy lady’s hat on one boy , a doggie outfit with a lady’s hat on another boy, and a red choir robe with a lady’s hat on yet another. Boys had on all kinds of jewelry and girls had on fancy dress-up clothes that they wanted to take home with them. Lots of socialization and lots of practice in getting dressed took place. It was a hilarious morning. Teacher Grace and I laughed until we had tears. Not much reading, writing and arithmetic was done in that hour, but ghe socialization was great

2010-06-17T11:29:00.000-07:00

June 1-12
Time really passes fast when you are busy. We were very busy around here while the PWNC mission team was here May 19-31. When they left I had plenty to do to put our classrooms back into shape for school after all the painting. Everything is so clean and pretty, and everyone is enjoying the new look.
Stan made a bed for the dolls while he was here, and I have just finished making the mattress, bedspread and pillows for the dolls the mission group brought from Gastonia. It’s like Christmas when they come bearing all their gifts. Then there is a lot of storage space to be found.!
The first day back to school for the last school year block was this past Monday. We took into our class a new student that day. Her name is Ellen, and she had just been fitted with prosthesis for both of her feet which were amputated when she was 3 years old because of extreme mal-nutrition. I was taken by Maralise to see her in her village 2 days after she had regained feet. She was walking very well with them. I was told that her first words after putting on the feet were, “Now I can go to school.” I asked how she was going to be taken to school and the reply was that there was a bike in her village that could be used to take her to school when it was not already scheduled. Fearing that she might not get there on many days we managed to get a bike and had seat mounted on the back with hand bars and feet bars. I’m sure the bike will be used many useful ways by that family who seems to be so appreciative. Ellen is 7 years old, but had spoken no English words before coming to school. Only minutes after arriving she was responding to the roll call by raising her hand and saying, “Present”. We will keep her in our 4 years old class until she picks up the routine and some key words. She can handle scissors quite well and has caught on to working puzzles very quickly. Since her feet have been amputated, she has lived with her grandmother in a small one room village house. Her parents and two little brothers live next door. Her grandmother has carried her on her back until she got the prosthesis 2 weeks ago. I believe the grandmother must have taught Ellen
many things for she seems to catch on quickly. We have recently taken in 2 village children who are on 100% scholarships. It feels so good to be able to offer these children educational opportunities. They have both come to school in great need of clothing. I was given 3 sweaters for each of them. They were so pleased to get the warm sweaters.
The next 7 weeks are going to be a challenge for me for the TerHaar’s have just left for a 7 week holiday in Holland. This is their first trip home in three years. That family does so much for this mission compound.
We will all miss them, but we wish for them a wonderful relaxing time. I am already seeking other help because this coming Monday we will be dedicating the second school building which was financed by Korean Christians. A Mr. Kim is coming from Korea to present the school a memorial plaque for building. I am busy planning for his 2 day visit with us and planning for the school’s dedication of the building. Our children will offer a prayer and will sing the National Anthem at the program. I was busy at school today making a banner with the children’s handprints on it for the children to present to Mr. Kim. He will take it to the Korean Christian School from which Mr. Kim and the other donors graduated.
As I think of all the graduations and school closing in NC, it’s strange to be still in school until August 8.
Winter is just settling in here. It continues to be like spring or fall weather for us North Carolinians, cool in the morning and evening and warm during the day. The school calendar is changing this year to be more like the States and Europe. School will end on August 8 for this year and will start next year on September15.
Jessi and I spent Saturday in Lilongwe primarily to obtain our 6 months visa. I had just gotten a 30 day extension and then was told that I should start at least 3 weeks before the end of that time to getting my 6 months visa. Actually it wasn’t so bad an experience. Lots of paper work and 30,000 kwacha (actually only about $175.00 - sounds as almost nothing after all those thousands)) and it’s all done. We are glad that’s the end of the visa story for now.

2010-06-08T12:27:00.000-07:00

May 30-31
Early Saturday morning a Guide came in a van to take us to Liwonde to the Mvuu Safari Lodge, which is south of Nkhoma on the coast of Lake Malawi. We had to travel by boat for about an hour to reach the Lodge. The dock for boarding was connected to a beautiful restaurant with indoor and outdoor eating areas created with most attractive tiles and incredible landscaping. Lovely water front cottages extended out on each side of the restaurant. We enjoyed refreshments and the beautiful surroundings while we waited for our boat to take us to the Mvuu Lodge. The waterfront approach to the Lodge was most attractive, their service was top notch and the food was delicious. The whole safari experience was very special for all of us. I had been looking forward to the experience every since I arrived in February. Often a long time of looking forward to an experience produces some disappointments - but not this one. Every safari ride by boat or land was captivating and thrilling and all the accommodations were just great and the gourmet meals were graciously served.
After getting settled in our individual cottages, we enjoyed lunch at the Lodge. The Mvuu Safari is famous for its elephants and hippos, which are abundant in the area. The monkey, baboon, impala, deer, rabbit, crocodile, alligatory and many types of birds were among the many, many animals we came in contact with besides the elephants and hippos. We were told that the lions and giraffes are in the more northern parts of Africa. After lunch we were taken on a land cruse and came in very close contact with the elephants and the hippos as well as with many of the smaller animals. All the elephants were busy eating the branches and leaves. At night the elephants came into our lodge area and awaken us with their loud chewing and breaking of branches and twigs off the trees that were right up against our cabin. We stared out the opened windows in awe of them. There was a family with a huge daddy, large mommie, middle-sized and baby elephants eating all around our cabin.
We had an afternoon land cruse to see the animals and birds. We were fascinated at how close the guide would drive up to the animals. We took another land cruise from 4-7pm to see the animals in the sunset and to hunt for nocturnal animals in the dark, twilight is about 5:30pm. One guide was the driver and another guide would sit in a chair mounted to the left front of the vehicle to point out animals and birds and at dark he flashed a big red spot light back and forth to pick up shining eyes of animals. They have just recently discovered that the red light doesn’t bother the animals like the regular bright spotlights did. The animals just kept on doing their thing when the light picked up their shining eyes. Just as the sun was setting over Lake Malawi we stopped at a special area for water and picture taking. The view of the Lake, the mountains and the plains was awesome. Hope we got some good pictures.
The next morning we took a 3 hour boat trip and saw the same kind of animals, but this time we got close to the hippos as they swam and spouted water. We were just off shore when 2 big hippos came rushing out of the brush and ran into the Lake just in front of our boat. That was thrilling as was watching an elephant swim across the big Lake. We taxied along beside the elephant watching him swim.
Well, PWNC experienced some of those black-out nights as we continue sharing our electrical power with our neighbors. The group came to Barbara’s house at least 2 nights due to the electricity outage. It was easier to prepare the food here than it was at the Guesthouse on those nights. It was just great to be so close together and to share so much with the group, especially since Lynne and Stan(daughter and son-in-law were in the group). They left many items of clothing for the Malawians with Seon Hee. She has started three days a week classes where the handicap (mainly blind and/or lame) are teaching each other the skills they have themselves. Sewing classes (Monday), Tin-smith (Tuesday), Art and Music (Friday). Many are taking advantage of the opportunities to learn a trade or just another skill. The participation has been great. The group has come together to have a store in the market to sell their goods or used clothing. The clothes from PWNC group were laid out in front of the 40 member class and the handicapped were told that each person could pick one item that he/she wanted most. Those both lame and blind were the first group to choose items. Then the next severely handicapped chose until everyone had gotten an item. The group was ecstatic over their gifts. I think some of the items may end up in their store at the market. They believe they will make some money to relieve some of the poverty needs of their group as well as maybe being able to help others. It is thrilling to see God at work among this group. They are being led by a beautiful Christian disciple, Seon Hee, who I am sure would love to know you are praying for her as she spreads God’s love among these people. All the missionaries here truly appreciate your prayers. May God bless each of you.

Welcome from Malawi

2010-06-03T07:04:00.001-07:00

Here is a map of Africa. The small country in red is Malawi. We flew from Charlotte to Washington to Johannesburg, South Africa to Lilongwe, Malawi. (23 hours in flight) Took a 15 passenger bus to Nkhoma and on wednesday after leaving Gastonia on Sunday we finally arrived at the village where mom is living.

Mom is standing on the porch of Barbara Nagy's home where she is staying and the other is a picture of her in her room.
Stan and I posed with mom, her assistant, Grace, and some of the children in her class. I will include more pictures in another post, having just returned home, unfortunately I have 101 things to catch up on right now. Mom sends her love and blessings to each and everyone of you reading her blog.

2010-05-31T04:40:00.000-07:00

May 19 – 30
The Presbytery of Western North Carolina mission group finally arrived around 3pm on Wednesday. I had looked at my classroom door all morning thinking they would come walking in at any moment. I checked with the guesthouse folks and asked them to call me when the crowd arrived. Lynne, Stan and the whole group met me on the hill about half way between theirs house and mine about 3pm. It was sooooo good to see folks from home! They came down to my house for a cup of tea and one of Berea’s delicious muffins. Later I accompanied them to the guesthouse where they made dinner. Stan is a good cook, and we all enjoyed his spaghetti.
The next morning, the group all came to the school and enjoyed observing in all classes. After lunch we all went through the hospital and took many pictures of the waiting area where the pregnant women come about 2 weeks before delivery. They come with all their little children and camp out until they deliver their babies. I had not been in that part of the hospital so I found it extremely interesting as did the other NC folks.
Friday most of the group came back to school to take pictures of all the children. They posed each one on our new playground equipment and took their pictures. The children loved seeing their picture. The group brought 4 air packs full of materials for the school. In the afternoon I emptied the packs. Then on Saturday I met Linken, the carpenter, at school where he did some work for the school. I don’t know what we could do without Linken. He’s now making me to racks for hanging dress-up clothes in the homemaking centers.
Saturday afternoon most of the group and I climbed the mountain in Nkhoma up to the point that it went almost straight up. At that point the old folks, Doris and me, knew we had been far enough. We had seen some very scenic views by that time and were ready to go back down. The others went a little further and then decided it was going to be too dark to go all the way to the top, so they returned home also. Sunday afternoon that group went all the way to the top after the 8am worship service. I sought out projects for the folks to do in the school and came up with a long wish list. I think they addressed all my wishes leaving only a few to be completed. I will be making curtains for the classrooms for awhile, and I am thankful for the cutting out of many of the panels and the completion of curtains for one classroom.
Tom painted the name of our school on the building and painted the alphabet and numbers on a classroom wall and painted “A child is not something to be molded. A child is a unique being to be unfolded.” on my office wall. It will be wonderful to have that office. I am expecting for us to move the first grade out of that temporary space into the new building in two weeks!!
On Monday we interviewed for teachers for next year and also interviewed for a Reception Class teacher to replace me as so as possible. I will spend a lot a time in that class with the new teacher and continue to train the assistant teacher. Tuesday through Friday a group stayed busy helping in the school and a group went daily on a 2 hour trip each way to one of the 10 outlying clinics run by he hospital. They were repairing a house that was in need of great repair for a nurse who is to run the clinic. It had been a number of years since the house had been occupied and the maintenance folks here weren’t sure it could be repaired. I understand the PWNC group did a wonderful job of completing the project in just 8 days. It helped so much to have a few who had been here before and knew who to get things done. All the folks worked hard and accomplished so much for the hospital and the school. We were certainly blessed with their talents at work. Spiritually, it was an enriching time for each of us for everyone felt so deeply about the fact that they were lead by God to come to Malawi to participate in the work of His kingdom in this place at this time. We shared devotions together daily and talked a lot about how we saw God at work in our daily activities as we worked with the Malawians and the missionaries here.
Early Saturday morning we took a three and half hour trip to Liwonde to go on a safari. That was an incredible trip and was a very special experience for each of us. That will have to be an entry to my blog at another time.

2010-05-19T11:19:00.001-07:00

May 13-18
Seon Hee is a Korean missionary with two boys, Cion and Habien. Her husband, who works with computers, is in Germany while she is here. She works with the Synod Office in Nkhoma visiting the elderly in the Village and planning programs for them. Many of them have never been away from their Village. Seon Hee planned a field trip into Lilongwe on Friday to sight see.

Lilongwe is the Capitol of Malawi, and Friday was their national holiday celebrating their independence from Great Britain. Thus, it was a good day to go into the city. Seon Hee asked me to go along to help push a wheelchair and to help lead the blind. I went to Seon Hee’s house at 8 am. Friday with the delicious cookies that I had Beria, our cook, to make for our lunch. The bus was to come at 8am for us to pack the lunch we were taking for the group. Five of the group from the Village were so excited about the trip that they arrived at Seon Hee’s at 6:30 a.m. ready to go
.
The five were Rezina and Geraldy, husband and wife, who are both blind, and Felina, Chifuniro, and Salome, who each lack speech. In a 22 passenger mini van we packed ten containers of lunch food and materials, 3 wheelchairs, a keyboard, and 33 people. Thank heavens 8 of them were children even though they each took up a seat (a half seat is more like what many got)! The group had 4 in wheelchairs, four blind persons, 5 with extreme walking problems (with their sticks they were amazing to watch walk), and 2 men who walked on their hands and knees. Packed as sardines, we were surprisingly a very pleasant group of travelers!! It was incredible to see how excited they were about going to a town 60 miles away from home, the first time for some of them!

I was the only one with a camera. Thus I became the official photographer for the group. The Lord is sure using me to exercise the talents I lack! Thank heavens I am improving a little in some of them. Jim had always been my photographer, and I didn’t think I needed a camera. It turns out to be a wonderful gift from the PWS folks. I take many pictures and love deleting those that aren’t so good!! I want to make sure those who can see have the opportunity to see themselves at the historic spots when they get home and can recall the happy time that was had by all.

The trip to and from reminded me of the many church youth group trips to camps. There was singing and laughter all the way there. The African singing is beautiful. They really know how to praise the Lord with their voices and, it is inevitable that they enjoy the exercise.

Malawi is developing a huge government complex around a newly construct Parliament House. Adjacent
to the Parliament House is a monument to President Kamuzu, who was president for 31 years. During his term of office Malawi won their independence. A beautiful monument and burial place with lovely landscaping has been erected. Everyone wanted their picture taken there. There was a nice tour guide there to explain everything in both English and Chichewa.

We visited a Korean mission hospital in Lilongwe that is only 2 years old. It is a small hospital built and run by the Koreans. A nurse who has been there for 16 years has had a tremendous vision for a nursing school which has been established and a medical college which is being planned. There is already nursing housing and a few individual staff homes build around the hospital which is located on the top of a low mountain which overlooks the city. The facility is beautiful. In the receiving area they have a stage. The back of the stage is open to a garden area, and just off the back of the stage is a fish pond. The children sat on the edge of the stage and splashed their hands in the water and watched the gold fish swim. The villagers got up on stage to sing and dance. They had a wonderful time entertaining the people who were waiting in the receiving area of the hospital. Many gathered around the stage. The leader of the singing was one of the men who walked on his knees and hands. The keyboard player was in a wheelchair.

On the little mountain top the hospital has a beautiful 360 degree view. We enjoyed our lunch on their grounds, and then traveled to Lake Malawi to a youth camp. Down by the water our minister had a devotional for us as we sat on the grass. We got home after dark and some of the people had to stay in town to wait for the sunrise to begin their walk back to their village. That was confusing, but we finally managed to get everyone settled for the night. It was refreshing to see the excitement of those people over their trip. We have heard from the visitors at the hospital how moved they were to see such handicapped people as happy as could be all on the stage entertaining everyone with their singing praises and dancing. It was a remarkable experience for me. There were some church elders in the hospital and seeing those happy handicaped folks all on stage entertaining others and obviously enjoying it made them say. “We are going home and change our attitude about the handicap folks we have in our area. Those handicapped people helped us to see how happy and entertaining they can be interacting with others.” They were sure their church could do something like that also!!

We had Bible Study tonight and I heard that the PWNC missionaries arrived in Lilongwe this afternoon. That means they will be here in the morning, I am thinking. I thought it would be late afternoon before they arrived in Nkhoma. I am excited that they are here. I must get to bed.

2010-05-13T08:47:00.000-07:00

May 5 - 12 I received 2 packages of books this week that makes five packages of very expensive books in the library here. The children are excited about the books and the teachers are using the resource books,
so hopefully all is well, even though the cost of mailing heavy books is horrendous. The messages and the goodies packaged in with the books have been very special treats. I can’t thank you enough. I shall always be indebted to you. Thanks to all of you who keep me in touch with home. Modern technology is wonderful, but it remains a love hate relationship with me at my age. It’s the only thing that really makes me dislike my age! I remain constantly thankful that I have been placed to live these past few months with my “adopted granddaughters, Jessi and Rhona”, who are busy helping me with the I- pods, the internet, the camera and my cell phone which I use mostly for texting!!

This is Saturday and I have spent the day at school. puting children’s work on the bulletin boards and washing with a brush the rug (one of those foam rubber alphabet puzzle things) in the book center. The rug was filthy because of the rainy season which has just ended. I was at school to meet with Linken, the carpenter who I depend on to make and repair many things. This is the third Saturday I have tried to meet with him. Maybe it will really happen next Saturday. While I was waiting on Linken I cut open the dirty covering of a bean bag seat which was in the book center. I removed the stuffing to make 3 pillows to use in the center. The large bag was just a place for some active children to pile up on and wrestle, and one little girl always wants to take all the books off the shelf and sit on them on the bean bag seat. She just doesn’t like the idea of taking one book and looking at it and then returning it and choosing another. She really wants to be in charge! There are times in preschool when you just have to work with not only the child but also with the environment! Jessie is buying me a large piece of skirt material that hangs on a line at the local market and will have the seamstress to cut out six pillow linings. I will stuff the pillows and have the seamstress to make pillow covers with zippers so we can wash them.

Talking about the rainy season, you cannot imagine what our children’s shoes looked like every time they entered our classroom during those days. There was up to ½ inch black mud on the bottoms of the shoes. No one could scrape it off on the edge of a 90 degree angle of concrete!!! You needed something like a screw driver to stab into the mud and straw like mixture to pry it off the shoes. And I used to think like most preschool teachers that it was a tuff job just to keep all the shoestrings tied!

Since some of you have asked about how you could support the school here, I would like to share with you that all the students are given a 50% scholarship and some are given up to 100%. The tuition is
$120.00 for a half year scholarship and $240.00 for a year scholarship. It would be wonderful if you or your church group would like to make a donation. You could send a check to the Ebenezer School Fund at Presbytery of Western North Carolina, 114 Silver Creek Road, Morganton, NC 28655. A few scholarsips are still needed for this year. If peope want to sponsor particular children those scholarship funds are to be paid by August 1st so that Willeke Ter Haar can assign each sponsor a child with information about the child.

Nkhoma is not a city, it is a mission station with a village. The Synod office here runs the public schools. They set the school calendar and Ebenezer goes by it. We have holiday May 13, Ascension Day and May 14, National Holiday, similar to 4th of July. So I am out of school until Monday, May 17. On the 14th I am going on a field trip with Seon Hee (Korean missionary here) to take some elderly village people who have never been far outside their village to visit the Capital City, Lilongue (60 miles north of here). Hopefully they will enjoy the festivities of the day. I will be going to help push wheel chairs and to give aid wherever needed. I look forward to being a part of that experience.

2010-05-05T09:36:00.000-07:00

April 29-May 4 The Ter Haar’s took Laura, Jena and myself with them and their 6 children to the Missionary Partner Personnel Conference on Thursday. We arrived there in time for the opening dinner, spaghetti and salad. In respecting our grey hair, they placed Maralisa and myself in the choice rooms with private bathrooms and close to all activities. The Africans have great respect for the elderly.
That evening we had devotions and a fellowship time to meet the 60 attendants and the 20 children. Laura and Jena, medical students from the Nkhoma hospital, were in charge of the children’s program.

The following is a summary of the Friday and Saturday Reconciliation Lectures:
Reconciliation is not only between God and man. It has 3 realms – God and man, man and man,
cosmos.
Reconciliation has already been achieved by God.
We are recipients of the gift of reconciliation.
We are the ministers/agents of reconciliation.
Reconciliation is a process as much as an event and a praxis. It has stages which everybody goes
through at their own pace.
Reconciliation involves speaking the truth, healing memories, repentance, justice, forgiveness
and love.
Reconciliation requires a spirituality of humanity and self-emptying, cross-bearing, community
and dialogue.
The following is a summary of the Malawian context.
African traditional Religion adds a fourth realm, God and man, man and man, living and
living dead, and cosmos.
Reconciliation with the living dead is achieved through sacrifice.
Reconciliation among the living is often achieved through mediation, rituals of excuse and
restoration, including paying fines.
Missionaries have acted as reconcilers between tribes.
Telling stories of the past can help us to convey the need of reconciliation (the benefits) and
best practices of reconciliation.
Lessons:
Reconciliation is costly and risky.
Reconciliation is an action, a process and a praxis. Let’s be ware it needs time.
Reconciliation has agents. Jesus Christ is the Great Agent.

We had small group times with questions to answer after the lectures. We also had a tour of the conference grounds which had a great number of herbal plants. The tour guide did an excellent job of telling us what
plants were used for different ailments and gave us an attractive poster of the plants. We had many tea times with cookies and fellowship. Missionaries were from four surrounding nations. Everyone seemed to
enjoy the conference.

I went home on Sunday with Patria Theron, a teacher in the Theological Seminary at Vila Uunlongque in Mozambique. The trip was to get me out of the country, so I could pass over the border to have my Passport stamped for another 30 day visit in Nkhoma. I really enjoyed visiting the city. Patria lives in the
compound of the Seminary, which is landscaped very beautifully. The compound includes 5 staff homes, student houses and a preschool for student’s children, I enjoyed visiting the school which is doing a good job working with the 3-5 year olds. There is also a church there and a number of buildings for the
Seminary. Tuesday morning Patria returned me to the border and helped me pass through customs which usually takes over an hour. One of her students from the Seminary was on the desk on Sunday when we arrived and was there again on Tuesday when I left. He zipped us through is less than 10 minutes each time! We were most lucky to have a jolly fellow at the Malawi border who said Nkhoma was his hometown. He asked me if I was going to visit the hospital there and I said yes and he too just stamped us through immediately. Others had had great delays at the borders, so we were most thankful for our experiences.

Willeke and I had coffee and talked about the hiring process that we will be going through starting this week. We need a Reception Class teacher immediately and a second grade teacher for September.
Tonight I went to our Bible Study on Proverbs. We had a good crowd and a good discussion.

2010-04-30T09:18:00.000-07:00

April 22-29 I am looking forward to going to the Missionary Partner Personnel Conference, April 29 – May 2. to be held at Katengeza Namoni Church Lay Center, Congoni, Malawi. The theme of the conference will be exploring reconciliation as a model for mission in the Malawian context. Speakers will be Dr. Andre Bartlett of the Aasvoelkop Church in Johannesburg and the Rev. Willy Zeze of Josaphat Mwale
Theological Institute, Nkhoma.
I had a delightful time last Sunday morning after church (9:30 am!) having coffee with the Ter Haars, Maralisa, and her Minister’s wife. Can’t remember names but they are from the Methodist Church in Johannesburg, and they support Maralisa’s orphan school that she started. He was preaching at the second service that morning, while we enjoyed coffee.
This week has been just an ordinary week. I am trying to end this so I can pack to leave today at 5:00pm to attend the conference.

2010-04-21T11:19:00.000-07:00

April 17-21 I spent Saturday at school going through a large cabinet and a desk. I found some good learning center things to use in the reception and kindergarten rooms. Before I left, I set up the room for Monday. Sunday afternoon the night watchman came to our house to say that water was running out of that room!! The plumbers are connecting up the equipment to the sinks in the classrooms so that we might have water. I got Dr. Ter Haar to ride his motor bike to the school to see if he could find the turnoff valve.
He did. Monday morning my room was a mess, but it didn’t take too long to set up again.
Sunday we were invited to Reynet and James Vitches (South African missionaries with 4 boys) for lunch.
They had a South African meal much like the Stitts had last week. We enjoyed eating
lunch outside in their eating area which is very shady with the trees and is surrounded by African gardens. There were large pots everywhere, a real African trademark. Every home here has many of them. The Vitches had made three round tables from tree trunks and concrete in the area. The meal was delicious and the afternoon was delightful. The Vitches’ house sits on the top of a small mountain peak and the view across the valley to the mountain tops in the distance is lovely. Those mountains peaks are climbed by most of the short term young missionaries. Think I will leave that adventure to Lynne and Stan when they come in May!
I was saddened to get Jim McKenzie’s call telling me of Barbara McKenzie Buenger’s death. Barbara was the daughter of Jim’s oldest brother, Locke. The funeral will be on this coming Saturday. I deeply regret that once again I will not be able to be with the family at this time. I will, however, be there with them in spirit.
I had received only about 6 responses on my blog. Lynne realized by my not responding that I probably
had not received the responses. She copied all the responses and sent me a long list last week. I felt like I had a wonderful visit with so many people after spending the afternoon reading the responses. Thanks to all who have made responses. They make me feel that home is not so far away.

2010-04-19T12:28:00.000-07:00

April 12-16
Last Sunday the sermon at our church was delivered by Dr. David Morton, Assistant Director of the Nkhoma Hospital. He delivered a very thought provoking message on the Walk to Emmaus. David and Rebecca Morton, who were missionaries in Uganda before coming here, have 2 grown sons living in Seattle. After church we were invited to Trudy and Jon Van Tilborgh’s home for tea and coffee. We had refreshments on their lovely veranda overlooking a beautifully landscaped yard. Many of the missionaries have gardeners who do good jobs. On Tuesday we were back at Trudy and Jon’s home for a grand birthday party for Jon - lots of cake, cookies and pie. They had a Dutch couple visiting them. They are on a short missionary trip doing medical work in the Lilongwe hospital. That hospital deliveries 30,000 babies a year!!
Wednesday night 8 of the Guesthouse folks and Rhona, Jessie, and I were invited to Hennie and Elsabet
Smit’s home for a South African meal. We started with pumpkin soup and thin homemade spicy herb bread and guava juice. The main dish was like stew, chicken and many vegetables, cooked over coals outside. Just before serving a creamy sauce was stirred into the stew. Dessert tasted a little like banana pudding, but it was actually a pie. It was a delicious meal and the fellowship was great. The Smits are missionaries from South Africa. They have been here for 22 years. The missionaries are such wonderful caring folks. Example: Today I had a surprise visit from Rebecca Morton. She was on her way home from doing volunteer work in the Children’s Ward. A team of 8 doctors from the US were visiting in the hospital yesterday and left the hospital some sample medicines. Rebecca gave the medicines to Dr. David Morton. When he saw Avelox, he gave some to his wife, Rebecca, telling her that Dorothy is taking this, give it to her. I didn’t even know he knew that I had been to the doctor. ‘Twas like a gift from heaven. God continuously works in mysterious ways because getting a prescription is a difficult process. The fellowship with missionaries is so neat.
Barbara Nagy’s cook, Berea. prepares us a hot lunch Monday-Friday. It’s wonderful to walk into the kitchen with its mouth watering aroma after being with the preschoolers from 7-12 noon. A delicious tomato sauce with oil, onion and sweet basil is cooked with a green vegetable (eggplant, green beans, squash, okra or something we have found at the local market and don’t even know what it is). Sometimes Berea adds whole hard-boiled eggs. Most of the time the sauce is served over rice and occasionally over potato wedges or pasta. All our loaf bread is homemade by Berea and it is delicious.
I learned more about the water filtering system. The long process that I described sometime ago is done in the rainy season which is January – March or early April. Now we simply draw water from the spigot, and boil it before we put it in the filtering system that sits on the kitchen counter. The rainy season system was in use when I came so I haven’t seen how water comes out of the spigot at that time, but I have seen a picture of a tub of dark brown water! I’m most thankful for the filtering systems!
Last week the teacher of the 3 year old class left. I am now teaching that class as I train a teacher aide. We hope to have a lead teacher soon. The completion of the second phase of the school building is quickly approaching. We are in hopes that some expected funds arrive soon so the building doesn’t have to stop before the work is finished. We are planning the dedication of the new building for June when a Korean is coming with a memorial plaque for the building. This second phase of Ebenezer was built by Korean alumni of a Korean school built by the efforts of Raymond Provost, missionary in Korea. He became the Director of the school, and is now deceased. His wife, Mary Ella, member of Black Mountain First Presbyterian has been the force behind getting this phase built. She was a big helper also in getting the first phase of the school furnished.

2010-04-11T06:54:00.000-07:00

April 7-11
I spent Thursday and Friday doing school work, getting ready to start teacher training with a new teacher aide this week.
On Friday I received a call from my son, Jim, that my brother Dan had a stroke and was in the hospital in Gastonia. Saturday morning I got the messge about 6:45 that Dan had died about 11:45 Friday night. Without thinking about what time it was in Gastonia, I dialed and talked with my sister-in-law, Martha. She said that her family was there and that Dan died peacefully. I was horrified when I realized after hanging up that it was about 3:45 am in Gastonia. I hope Martha was able to sleep after that.
Our Christian faith gives us the joy of knowing Dan is now healed and living in the glory of eternal life with our Lord. For that I am most thankful. Our family and friends have lost a grand Dan (the grandkids’ name for him was most appropriately Granddan).
I have been comforted by the many outpouring expressions of symphony and love that the Christian community here has shown to me. It makes me realize how miraculously the Christian faith draws people of all cultures, races and religions together into community. Thanks be to God for our faith, hope and love.
I tried to change my airplane ticket to be able to attend the funeral. The earliest seat on the plane would be on Wednesday. Dan’s funeral is to be tomorrow, Monday, April 12, Dan and Martha’s 58th wedding anniversary. The beautiful story is that their whole family was together on Easter, last weekend, and they were able to get a family picture with the first great grandchild (1 month old). Dan loved being able to hold her. I really miss being able to be with the family to share in all the wonderful memories that Dan has engraved on each of our hearts.

2010-04-06T12:53:00.000-07:00

April 1-6 Easter Holiday started on Thursday. I went with Willeke and Reynier Ter Haars to Nkhwazi, a beautiful spot on the northwest shore of Lake Malawi which covers up about one third of the entire area of Malawi. It appears more like the ocean rather than a lake. The children rode the waves just like being at Myrtle Beach. There was a large rock formation within a short swimming distance that the children loved climbing and jumping off into the lake. It made a very high diving board. Trees were very close to the sandy shore line, and I enjoyed sitting in my chair in the nice breeze reading my book and watching occasionally as the children called my attention to special actions they were performing from the rocks, their rubber canoe, sand castles, etc. Our camping reminded me of the many camping experiences our family enjoyed on the west coast for so many years. This time though, I choose a room in the lodge and felt like the African Queen in the most attractive African décor with oil paintings in attractive natural-wood frames, furniture (sofa, chairs, and coffee table) made of logs with colorful covered pillows and cushions. The bed had its mosquito netting bordered with matching material of the bedspread and pillows and was tied back at each bed post with matching ties. I felt like the African Queen until I realized that I couldn’t call for my attendants to take care of the huge spiders I kept seeing creeping around. I did, however, enjoy watching the wild life around the camp - monkeys jumping in the trees, birds singing, dogs wondering around, otter, butterflies - and then there were, of course, the gnats, very small flies, a snake, ants, the same critters you see almost anywhere you camp. We were not bothered by mosquitoes.

I had my meals with Willeke and Reynier and their 6 six children (Geerton, Wianna, Jo-ine, Eva, David and Adam) and the Van Dykens (Canadian missionary couple, Carolyn and Scott and 3 sons, Nathan, Darrick, and Aaron). The children were great campers helping with all the work. The adults cooked and the children did the dishes without arguing.

Our Easter service was beside the lake. It reminded me of the many times Jesus taught the disciples and the multitudes around the sea of Galilee. We read the Easter story, sang and had prayers. The children offered many precious prayers for the service as well as for regular meals and for our travel time before and after trips. Our singing was good because the Ter Haar family is a little like the Von Trapp family. The family sings together in church at times. We all had a great time relaxing and enjoying the beautiful spot on the Lake.

We broke camp just before it rained. As we were traveling the very bumpy dirt road to the main highway we got stuck because it had rained during the night. We got out to push the van. We had an easy time with the pushing, but suddenly the heavens opened, and it poured down. Willeke was driving and afraid of getting stuck again so she just kept on driving leaving all of us in the rain until she came to a safe place to stop. We were all totally drenched, but no one melted!! We arrived home at 5:00pm on Monday after 4 days of great adventures.

The building of the second phase of the school which is being paid for by the Koreans is coming along very well, and the playground equipment provided for by people of Holland will be placed on the playground this month. The teachers’ housing is on hold. The contractor who did the first buildings of the school did it for almost nothing, but now his work load prevents him from doing the teachers’ houses. When a contractor in Lilongwe was asked about doing it, his price was more than the cost of materials. There is a good builder who is willing to build at a reasonable price, and they are looking for one to purchase materials. Hopefully that will come soon.

2010-04-03T06:43:00.002-07:00

March 28-31
Today is Palm Sunday. Last Sunday it was announced in church that the service would begin today at 7am since we were going to have Communion in the English Worship Service for the first time. The service was from 7-9:30 am. There were a number of small children with their parents. Relatively speaking, the children did well!! The communion table was all set up and covered with netting. There was a chair at each end of the table with an elder sitting in each chair throughout the 21/2 hours. The main section of the church was filled with worshippers until after the sermon. Then things were said in Chichewa and about half of the congregation left. Then the elders passed out cards for you to turn in to receive communion. The two elders at the table removed and folded the netting and communion was served by the elders. We sang all stanzas of 3 hymns 3 times each. Four people were asked to stay after the service and Maralisa ( one of those asked to stay) said that the ministers and elders wanted their opinion about the service. Hopefully, they suggested it be a little shorter next time. However, the worshippers felt like it was a historical event for the Malawians.
Monday was back to school. Wianna Ter Haar(13 years old) came to help in our school (older Ter Haar children all go to Lilongwe to ABC School and are on holiday for the next 2 weeks). Wianna enjoyed helping the children in their learning centers in the Reception Class(3-4 year olds). She did a real good job. Her sister Joine came to help today and sister, Eva will come tomorrow. The 3-4 year olds respond beautifully to the older children.
Last night I had dinner at the Guesthouse with the young folks. It was the last night for Ruth before she began her 30 hour flight to Canaan today. A couple from Atlanta arrived this afternoon, and I had a delightful chat with them before they left to attend a dinner elsewhere. Thad is a lawyer and Suzanne is a dentist. They are here for only 4 days. They are collecting information to start a Dental Clinic at the Hospital. They are very much interested in our school and know of mission teams who have held teacher training sessions in a number of countries.
I have got to go pack and be ready to leave tomorrow at 12 noon.

2010-04-03T06:43:00.001-07:00

March 24-27
My first mail was received on March 25th (mailed on Feb.17). It was eagerly opened. It contained one of my resource books I didn’t have room to pack. I took the book to school and one of the teachers took it to study a little on a subject we had been discussing. (Thanks for the book). I was thrilled to get all the wonderful messages from the deacons and thanks for many individual packages of tea and fruit drinks. We are really enjoying them. Jessie’s mom arrived on Thursday and tolhat my daughter, Lynne, had called her to tell her to tell me “hello.” That and the mail sent by Leeann and the deacons made me feel a lot closer to home. Thanks for all the responses you make on my blog, the e-mails and especially the prayers. All those responses make things seem well.
Jessie and Rhona are due to leaving the country for a day to re-enter it the next day to have passport stamped for additional 30 days to be followed by buying more days etc.,etc.,etc. Grace, Jessie’s mom, Jessie, Rhona, and Gerwin (Dutch student nurse, doing missionary maintenance work for 6 months) left this morning to go to the great waterfall up north in the David Livingstone area. It’s a 2 day trip on unreliable buses travelling bumpy roads. (Can be made in an all day trip, if you’re real hardy.) I’ll be eager to hear their stories on return next week.
I had a committee meeting with the school’s board this morning. I stayed after the meeting to have coffee with the Ter Haars. During Easter break next week they are going to Lake Malawi, which is suppose to be a beautiful area. It’s the largest lake in Africa and appears to look more like the ocean. It’s a seven hour trip. They invited me to go with them. We’ll leave on Thursday and return on Monday. I am excited about going with them and their 6 children, ages 4 to 14 years, four of the children are their natural born children and 2 (Adam and David) are adopted Malawians. Both are at Ebenezer school in kindergarten and 1st grade. Ter Haars are a loving family. Dr. Rainier Ter Haar(South African) is head of the hospital and wife, Willeke (Dutch) is the one who has run the Ebenezer School from it’s inception. She taught in Holland before marriage. The school where she taught in Holland supports the Ebenezer School with scholarships for the children, and they gave them a big grant for playground equipment which will be in place on our playground sometime after Easter break. It’s going to be great to have things to play on outside.

2010-04-03T06:42:00.001-07:00

March 18-23 Clean water is obtained in Dr. Barbara’s house by a ceramic candle type filtering system. There are 3 large plastic buckets which sit in the refrigerator area just outside of the kitchen. There are two filters on the bottom of the first bucket that filter the water from the first bucket to the second bucket, and the second bucket is emptied into the third bucket and the water there is used to boil for drinking. We dip a pitcher into that bucket to fill with water to pour into a neat regular size electric coffee looking pot. We flip a switch to get hot water quickly for tea and other hot drinks and pour the remaining into another filtering system sitting on the end of the kitchen cabinet. The top half of that system has 5 candle type filters, sitting on the bottom of the top container, filtering the water into the lower container from which we draw the water to drink. Our faithful loving maid Berea cleans out the system each Friday and keeps the operation running.
I went with Maralisa to the Orphan Village School again on Friday to distribute jersey shirts to each child. Maralisa buys a large plastic bag of second hand shirts from the markets each year to give one to each of the 140 children in the school. I took lots of pictures at the center of the children. I went to the school to see how we could work up some inexpensive learning centers to be used in their open-air classrooms. We are working on establishing an abacus on the playground equipment. If it turns out as effective as we hope, we will make 4 of them, one on each side of the sliding board platform. The abacus will have 10 bright colored pinch type clothes pins on 10 horizontal lines of string. The children will pinch the clothes pins to put on the lines each day (good finger muscle building activity to hold pencil). The pins will easily slide across the string for demonstrating adding and subtracting so they can practice an activity to learn math at recess time.
The children were ready to have their lunch before we left, so I got to taste their meal which was a mush made from maize (corn). They serve it with sugar, but what I tasted had no sugar on it and actually it was quite pleasing. So I’m sure the children really enjoy the meal especially with the sugar on it.
Linken (I just found out that’s the way he spells Lincoln) lives very close to the village school and is actually on the board of directors. We stopped at his compound to talk about the sign for Ebenezer School which we will put on our school building before the dedication of the second section of the school in June when Koreans are coming with their sign to be placed on their building for the 1st and 2nd grades. Linken is making our sign which will have NC USA and NKHOMA (each are hand carved letters on a board) and placed on either side of the symbol of the Celtic cross with a circle at the crossbeams. The Celtic cross is on the Synod building and on the church gate in the brick wall around the church. Each frame will be linked to the symbol at the end of the crossbeam with a chain link representing North Carolina, United States of America is linked by Christ to Nkhoma. They asked me what to put on the sign??? That’s what I came up with, I hope it turns out well.

2010-03-19T22:26:00.001-07:00

March 12-17
Over the weekend was the first time I felt a little homesick ( it hit me while being in church). We get home about 10am and that leaves a long Sunday, and I had nothing special to do. Maralise, a retired nurse from South Africa who came here 5 years ago after her husband died to do mission work, called me and asked if I would like to go to Dedza with her to sightsee and have lunch. I was thrilled to be asked. Dedza is an interesting town in the mountains (elevation 2198m-high) about 60 miles in the opposite direction of Lilongwe which is in the plains. Dedza is a relaxing place with charming African Art and Craft Shops which we enjoyed browsing through. We had lunch at a really nice restaurant at The Dedza Pottery. The goat meat , carrots and potatoes were very good. On the way home we stopped on the side of the road at one of the many market type settings and bought a bucket of sweet potatoes to divide and wonderful mango fruit. They harvest a lot of other potatoes in this area. In the open air markets all over the area they have their outdoor grills frying French-fried potatoes. They are fried on a large round metal sheet in lots of oil. They scoop up a spatula full of fries and put them in a plastic bag and pour a tablespoon of the hot oil on top of them in the bag – very greasy, kids love them. The day turned out to be one of my best days so far.
Maralisa invited me to go into Lilongwe with her on Wednesday. We stopped on the way there to visit the orphan school complex which she started when she came here. Her Methodist Church in South Africa supports her by paying the salaries of the 3 teachers. The Orphan Project in Nkhoma supports 30 schools for orphans. They provide 2 hours schools daily with a meal at the end of the day. This financially helps the relatives who have taken the children into their homes as well as instills a thirst for education in the children and in the parents. They are doing such a wonderful work with the children on such a limited budget that I was moved to ask the carpenter, Lincoln, to build them the same great sea-saws, balancing beams, and ramps that he has made for Ebenezer and also to make them the same beautiful wooden blocks and flannel boards that the Ebenezer children are enjoying. Lincoln is a wonderful carpenter and a dedicated Christian. He built all the furniture in the school and is helping now to make it fit in effectively with the learning center concept. I am so thrilled with his work. Maralisa has fashioned her school after the orphan schools. Her facility is used by the village for all their public meetings and for church services as well as for school. She is hoping that the Ophan Project will take the school under its support.
Last night Rhona, Jessie, and I went to the Guesthouse to help cook dinner for Ewva (Polish)) who left today to return to her home in Germany. Ewva has been a volunteer nurse for 3 months on the children’s ward. She becomes so attached to those little children. Her plans are to sell her house in Germany and move to where her 3 children live back in Poland. She plans to return to Nkhoma in November for another 3 months.
Ebenezer School has its ups and downs. The main concern is that the 1st grade is moving slowly. At first it appeared to be the class who needed less help, but that has changed partially because the other 2 classes have eagerly made some very conwtructive changes. More time will be spent with the first grade.
Saturday is the big local market day of the week with lots of things to sell. I’m looking for things to use in centers like clothes pins for the pinching exercise to prepare for holding a pencil, dust pan and brush to sweep up the cuttings from cutting exercises and the mud tracked in from outside. They are preparing to lay concrete for ride toys and chalk coloring. The soil is jet black. They have dug up so much grass leaving much black soil to be tracked inside. The playground equipment is about ready to be placed in the ground. Installation has been delayed because of heavy rains – have had trouble with getting the paint to dry. Our playground is covered with water, the trenches are full of water and the workers have been emptying the footings for the wall with buckets. This rainy season is a very wet one so they say.

2010-03-14T08:07:00.000-07:00

March 9-12

At Dr Barbara Nagy’s house one doesn’t need a radio. In the late afternoon you can tune in to the most beautiful sounds of music by just sitting on her front porch and listening to the wonderful sounds coming from the Nkhoma Hospital, a church and a school as choirs in each are having their rehearsals. There must be a number of choirs in each facility.
The Secretary General’s office is the building just across from the church. Grace Boyer form WNC Presbytery wrote me a letter of introduction to give to the Secretary General of the Synod. I walked down there shortly after coming and had a nice short visit with him as he welcomed me to Ebenezer School and to Nkhoma.
Since then I have received an invitation from the General Secretary inviting me to the 2100 Missionary Partner Personnel Conference, April29-May 2. The conference brings together missionary staff who work with the CCPA (Church of Central Africa Presbytery)and affiliated churches in Zimbabwe, Zambe, Malawi, an Mozambiue.. The purpose of the conference is to meet for fellowship, worship, and mutual encouragement and learning. I’m trying to decide if this is something I should do.
The church we attend is about a couple of city blocks away from us. The Order of Service is printed in the back of the hymnal and is used as the bulletin each Sunday.

VOTUM: Let us worship God. Our help is in the Name of the Lord who made heaven and earth, who keeps every promis, and does not forsake the work of His hands
GREETING: Dearly Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ,
Grace, mercy and peace to you, from God our Father,
and Jesus Christ our Lord, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Amen
HYMN; Look upon us, blessed Lord,
Take our wandering thoughts and guide us;
We have come to hear Thy world
With Thy teaching now provide us,
That, from earth’s distractions turning,
We Thy message may be learning.
THE LORDS PRAYER
HYMN OF PRAISE
ADULT BABTISM must be administered after this hymn.
THE LAW
The Lord God gave His Law to order our lives according to His will; and since through the Law also comes the knowledge of our sins, let us respectfully, and searching our hearts listen to the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20.
THE SUMMARY OF THE COMMANDMENTS, AS GIVEN BY OUR LORD JESUS IN Mark 12:29-31; Rom. 13:8-10
REPENTANCE
HYMN: Sinful thoughts and words unloving,
Rise against us one by one,
Acts unworthy, deeds unthinking,
Good that we have left undone.

Lord, Thy mercy now entreating,
Low before Thy throne we fall,
Our misdeeds to thee confessing,
On Thy name we humbly call. Amen
THE CREED: We now call upon all communicant members to stand and make profession of the universal Christian faith. (The 12 points of the Apostle’s Creed)
Hymn: Lord, strengthen Thou our faith, we ray;
Increase it always, this our shield;
And comfort Thou with true belief
Our hearts in all adversity. Amen
HYMN: (Praising Christ, of love and gratitude, or of joy and peace)
INFANT BAPTISM, Confirmation, Induction of Elders and Deacons, and other ceremonies must be afficiated after this hymn.
PRAYER: Adoration and Praise, Thanksgiving, Confession, Pray for opening of Scripture:
SCRIPTURE READING;
HYMN: OPTIONAL
SERMON;
PRAYER: Surrender and dedication, Supplication, Intercession
CHOIR: (While the offerings are taken) (there has been at least 5 choirs every Sunday)
OFFERINGS: When the deacons have taken the offerings, they stand before the preacher, who says a prayer of dedication.
HYMN: (relating to the sermon, or of encouragement, or a closing hymn)
BENEDICTION: (ordained Ministers only)
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
And the love of God
And he fellowship of the Holy Spirit
Be with you all. AMEN
A hymn or Choir may be sung while the people leave the church.

The four church services that I have attended have been from 11/2-2 hours long. The wonderful music takes up a lot of the time.

2010-03-12T12:05:00.000-08:00

March 4-8

It’s not true that you will received a sheet when you arrive at the airport that will allow you to stay in Malawi up to 2 years. They merely stamp you passport as of the date you enter Malawi. After 30 days of being in the country you have to go to immigration to purchase 60 more days, then after that time you must file for an extension which becomes quite confusing and complicated or you can just leave the country for one night and reenter the next day to receive another 30 days, etc., etc., etc. It just keeps on repeating itself. The later choice seems to be the popular way to accomplish the task. Last Thursday I went to immigration office in Lilongwe to purchase 60 days. That was an experience! You approach the building with lots of people standing at the door. Thinking that’s the line you fall into place. Sometime later you discover that’s just people standing around talking. So you push ahead to get inside of the building and there you find 2 men behind desks. Both men are reading the newspaper with 8-10 people waiting to see one of them. We waited and when we got to the chair at one of their desks, the man took my passport and gave me a sheet to fill out. Then he told me to go the the next building to pay for the 60 days and come back and he would return my passport. At the next building, I had same confusing process getting to the window to pay, and when I did finally get there the guy charged me 10,000 kwachas and sent me back to the first man without any receipt. After another wait, I was thankful to get my passport returned marked with 60 additional days to remain in Malawi. On May 3rd we are considering going to the closest town across the border to spend one night and then return to start the process all over again for my next extension.
The Malawian 5 minutes is anytime after the announced time. The people are just not in a hurry to go anywhere or to do anything. They feel it’s fine to go or not go according to how you feel at the moment. That includes workers in hospital and teachers in schools. Today was first day back to school after a 2 week holiday. One teacher just decided not to come to school today. The 3 year old class had 2 new students starting their first day of school today and no teacher! I had a busy morning teaching the class with the help of the maintenance man who translated English into Chichewi so the children could understand some instructions. I had stuffed the bean bags that Covenant Village ladies made for us and I took them to the school this morning. The class had a grand time singing about the beans bags, throwing and catching them, marching around the room with them on their heads, putting them on their different body parts as we sang about it all. It was a most rewarding experience for a weary teacher. Beverly, tell the ladies how successful the bean bags are!
We continue to loose electricity about three times a week usually around dinner time. We are fortunate to have gas back up burners. Ruth from the Guesthouse had dinner with us tonight. There are only 4 guests there at present and the three boys were off to dinner elsewhere. We had corn beef(canned) and cabbage, squash, fresh green beans from the local market and cucumber, tomatoes, and onion salad. We also had homemade loaf bread dipped in olive oil with spices. Good meal! Well, that’s a lot about daily living here in Malawi, so I’ll sign off and go to bed.

Family

2010-03-07T18:59:00.000-08:00

Mom

Sounds like you are having a great time. Teresa and I have had a challenge trying to post comments, but maybe we have figured this out. Reading your blogs has been great way to keep up with you.

Everything here is going well. I am working to many hours as normal. Girls are looking forward to Spring break 13 - 21 March. Courtney will be working and Kara and her roomate will be going to Nashville to look at a school. Jim just got his license, so it is probably good that you are off the roads right now!!

Take care and keep blogging. Love you Jim

2010-03-05T08:06:00.001-08:00

Feb.24-Mar.3
How time flies! It’s hard to believe I haven’t written in my blog since. Feb.23. I have spent the time during my holiday break between quarters in the classrooms cleaning out old stuff, rearranging the areas for learning centers and putting some pictures including children’s drawings on the walls. They have been learning letters and numbers, a little phonics, and reading. My slogan is quickly becoming Practicing Learning Activities – Yes. Play is practicing learning activities and hopefully, we will begin doing more of it in the classrooms so the children can have fun learning and developing a greater understanding about the wonderful world God has given to us to work, to till and to subdue. We have been talking about God’s gifts of our bodies and how they work. We talk about nature and what beautiful things God has created for us to take care of and to enjoy. Lots of lights dawn on children as they explore, experiment, and discover our wonderful world, including reading writing and arithmetic.
I have been entertained some during our break. I enjoy eating with the Guesthouse crowd and having tea with friends. I have also been in Lilongwe two times shopping for groceries and school supplies mainly. It feels good as I begin to recognize places and things. Going to the local market is an experience in itself. We take a short cut through the hospital to get to the market here in Nkhoma.. Many things are learned just during those trips. It’s overwhelming to see how the families camps out at the hospital to care for their sick. We hear lots of stories from the hospital since we have Rhona, the UK doctor, living with us. Today is birthday of Trina, a young doctor from Australia. A crowd of us took got two cars and took her to lunch in Lilongwe. Getting transportation is tricky business. It’s finding someone who is going, or someone’s car that we can borrow or rent, etc. You don’t find car rentals on jungle paths. On the way to lunch today I got a neat picture of children on a merry- go-round similar to the one we use to have at PWS. As the children rode round and round they were pumping water into the reservoir high above their heads. Lots of children were having fun!
We have been without electricity since Friday, Feb.26. The electrician came to help this morning. Electricity is wonderful.

2010-02-26T21:07:00.000-08:00

Feb.22-23 First day of Holiday – Went to School to check on materials and to see what could be done to make the administrative office more accommodating for the 1st Grade which is using it until they finish the 1st and 2nd Grade building around late April or early May. The class is half over for the year and it is packed full of building materals, administrative materials etc., etc--. We will move out building equipment. I stacked all the adm. materials in 1/3 cabinet space to allow Miriam room to empty some of her stacked up boxes. She will have more space to develop learning centers for the children.
The builder is to replace the 3 classroom doors. I couldn’t get them unlocked or locked again yesterday. Dry wood is difficult to find much of the year and doors are hard to fit properly anytime. It took 4 of the builders from the school to get them opened and then locked again! A carpenter has done a fabulous job of making building blocks for us. Spent Tuesday afternoon making drawings for balance beams, seesaws, and ramps for physical exercise. Ordered mats for the Kindergarten and hope the other classes will want them also for group times. Doors still not fixed!
Willeke has her gardeners planting pretty blue flowering shrubs all across the length of the building. NICE
Bathrooms are not quite finished. Coming in near future hopefully, so I can have 2 cups of tea or coffee in the mornings instead of just a scant one!s
I love getting the comments to my blog. Please keep them coming they really mean a lot to me.

2010-02-21T06:38:00.000-08:00

Feb.18-21 Thursday was a good day working in centers. Group time had a few good moments. The children are learning slowly to come together and share. Friday was the last day of the 2nd quarter. The parents came early to get papers that the children had completed during the term. At the end of the next quarter we plan to have the parents to visit in the classrooms the last hour of the day and see how the children are using the learning centers. After school Miriam and I planned to make learning centers in her classroom during our vacation time between quarters. The teachers helped go through some equipment that needed to be sorted for the school. We ended our day by holding hands in prayer thanking God for Ebenezer School and asking for His blessings on the children and us as we work with them. We also asked for His blessing to be upon all the families and us during our 2 week vacation. Saturday we had Lawrence, assistant at Ebenezer School to knock on our door. We invited him in for tea. He shared some of his life with us and asked for an advance in salary until Tuesday. (That’s an issue dealt with often, sadly). Naomi and Fenne came for tea and brownies. Then 4 young workers from the Guesthouse came for tea and brownies. In the afternoon 7 of us in truck went to Lilongwe to the grocery store and to the bank. We had pizza in a nice restaurant before returning home. Picked up 2 men walking to Nkhoma. We saved them a very long walk in the dark. Electricity was out when we got home. Sunday we walked to church in pouring down rain. Had a good crowd for rainy day. We borrowed a computer to look at a movie this afternoon.

2010-02-17T07:21:00.000-08:00

Feb.11-12 Things are beginning to settle down. I observed all three classes this week. On Thursday, Jessie Stitt and I stayed after school and arranged a classroom full of learning centers for her class. The maintenance man is also an assistant director of the school and luckily he does speak English. So I had him to come in on Friday, to interpret my instructions to the children as to how the room was to be used. That helped a lot for many of them know so few English words. I am really beginning to feel I am in Africa because yesterday there were 3 over 2 feet tall monkeys in our yard. One was swinging in a tree and two were running in the yard. At four o’clock on Friday, Jessie and I were invited to a birthday party for James, 11 years old, at his home. Many mission working families came. There was an abundance of pastries, puddings, cakes, coffee, tea and juice. They say that’s normal. Tomorrow, Saturday, there will be a morning meeting of the Ebenezer School Committee. I was asked to come.

Feb.13-17 Saturday at 8 am I met with the Board of Directors of the Ebenezer Institute of Learning. They requested that I become the Principal of the School. My response was that I would, if I could have a lot of guidance and help not only from God, but also the Board. Language is a bit of a problem for in depth conversation and instructions. Later in the day we had missionary workers to drop in for tea and entertained a missionary nurse for dinner, after which we went to a Doctor’s home for dessert to say goodbye to a wonderful surgeon, Dr. Warren DeCray, who returned to Iowa on Sunday.
Sunday 8 to 9:40am we attended the English service. The Chichewa service followed immediately. Their African Choir sang an amazingly beautiful song for our service.
Elspeth and Henni, a South African missionary couple, invited Rhona and me for tea. Jessie spent the weekend at the lake with all the young mission workers. Sunday night we helped the Guesthouse crowd cook dinner. We enjoyed their fellowship. The people of the Guesthouse are always coming and going. So we constantly meet new mission workers, doctors, nurses, teachers, maintenance people, students etc.
Monday morning we’re back to Ebenezer School in the Reception Class. Jessie and I greatly lacking in ability to give much needed detail instructions, are constantly trying more effective ways of communicating. We’re determined we’ll get there SOMEDAY. New learning centers help because they speak to the children. The i-pod music that the deacons sent helps and the many items from PWS are often LIFE SAVERS. Tuesday was our first rainy day that caused us to miss our outdoor play time.
Being with 4 and 5 years old for 41/2 hours in a classroom with teachers who lack communication skills CAN BE A PROBLEM. Thanks for all the self-communicating materials you have sent!! A Malawian carpenter has made a set of 20 wooden blocks like the wooden blocks in PWS. He has done a lovely job. He is making 3 sets for each of our 3 classes. Thanks for the money sent for supplies. Tues. night is ladies Bible Study night. We meet in the homes. We are studying the book of Proverbs and are getting to know people through Bible study.
Wednesday was a good day until the rain started at play time and the 1st grade teacher left due to illness. I was there to finish the day working with manipulatives and puzzles and reading to the first graders books in English. We got through the day with the help of Lawrence our assistant and his guitar.

feb 10

2010-02-11T07:53:00.001-08:00

Feb. 10 I observed the 3-4 year old class today. Pauline is an excellent teacher of the old school. She seems to be eager to add learning centers to her room so I am excited about working with her. I will put the $600.00 gifts of money in the Ebenezer School Budget and begin collecting items for centers. Willeke is enthusiastic about the process and will help with the actual picking out the items. I took drawn examples of the wooden blocks that I want to have made to Willeke, who will get a carpenter to make them out of 2 x 4s. Came home and created a lunch from olive oil, onions, tomato and home-made brown bread. I took a walk to the Guest House to meet Jessie. Got lost on the paths. Malawians are helpful in leading me to my destinations. Hope I improve in my jungle travels. The electricity goes off about three times a week. The first time it happened to me was when I had just started cooking dinner. We have a gas back-up stove.

We can communicate!!!!!

2010-02-10T07:33:00.001-08:00

Mom, YOU ARE AWESOME...Thanks so much for giving the blog a try. We will all enjoy being able to communicate with you!!!

When you are reading your blog, not posting, which means you went in under the dotinafrica.blogspot.com way to just read your blog, make sure you check the comments after each post. If it indicates a comment was made (which means a number is in front of the word comments--located at the end of each blog entry), click on comments and it will let you read what people have written to you. Love you lots. Keep Blogging!!!! Lynne

2010-02-09T19:37:00.000-08:00

Hey mom!!

Glad you arrived and are doing well!! We are all proud of you and your willingness to follow your heart. It sounds like you have been welcomed to Africa by many people. What should I expect from a woman like you. We were excited to see that you have blogged. Who knew that my mom who has trouble with e-mail can get into and post a blog. A lot of people keep asking about you and your trip. Keep posting the blogs. It is a good, fun way to keep everyone in touch. You are an amazing woman and an inspiration to all and I am proud of you.

Love your son
Dan

week 1

2010-02-09T11:57:00.000-08:00

Feb. 3 Lynne had 2 nervous houseguests, her daughter, Kristen, who started her first day of Public School teaching and her mother, Dorothy, who began a new teaching/directing adventure as she departed for Malawi, Africa. All workers at airport were friendly and helpful. On flight to Johnnesburg I met 3 different groups of people going to do mission work in South Africa.

Feb.4 Lost 6 hours going east – made for a short night. Landed in Dakar early morning on Thurs. to refill and spray cabin. Landed in Johnnesburg at 6pm. Had to exchange $5.00 just to get a coin to make a call to Emerald Guest House for shuttle.
Lodging was adequate and breakfast in the inner courtyard was good.

Feb.5 Lodging was adequate and breakfast was delicious in the inner courtyard. Shuttle
returned guests to the airport. I had over twice the amount of carry-on luggage allowed on the African Airline, with some begging they allowed me to check another piece of luggage. I landed in Lilongwe at 12 noon. Was nice to be met by smiling Willeke. All luggage arrived in good condition. We piled all luggage into van and picked up a man and 10 school children to return home to Nkhoma – a LOADED van.

Ter Haar Home - I was served tea. Then Willeke settled me into Barbara’s house. My housemates were on weekend trip visiting a missionary doctor in another village. At 6 pm Wianna, one of Willeke’s 6 children , came to walk me by path to their home for dinner. Raynier Ter Haar (he’s a doctor and director of the hospital), walked me back to my house at the end of the evening. They are a lovely family.

Feb. 6 I found home-made banana bread in frig for breakfast. Not being too steady I was very careful about what I ate and drank from Wednesday until Sunday when I began to feel more normal. Wianna came to walk me back through the jungle to her home to spend a delightful day. Neighboring mission workers came for tea (Carolyn, Scott, Jim, Sandra and husband and Ruth). Dr. Ter Haar was at home for the day. He played a lot with his children and took them and me to the village to get chips (deep fried hashbrown potatoes) and cokes for lunch – a special Saturday treat for the family.
Mid-afternoon, I walked home getting lost only once. Sorted through the supplies I brought and took a little rest. Then I walked back to the Ter Haar’s for dinner.
Carolyn and Scott had the Ter Haar’s and me for a game night, lots of fun.

Feb. 7 Got an early start, church was at 8am and lasted until 9:45. When we got out there were a lot of villagers on the grounds waiting for us to finish so they could have a service in their native tongue. A little further out was a group under the trees practicing their songs for the service. They sounded fantastic. Willeke invited Sandra and husband and 4 of the male students (short time mission workers) from the Guest House to come for coffee or tea and cake at her tea house in the back of their property, a place of natural beauty. After dinner I returned to Barbara’s for rest. 5:50pm Jessie Stitt from Black Mtn. and Rhona from UK returned. Jessie is teaching the 5 year olds and Rhona is a doctor working in the hospital for 1 year. Jessie, Rhona and I went to the Guest House
for dinner. Met a missionary doctor from Wisconsin who was with Dr. Roberchek(?) in
Charlotte during the 70-80’s.

Feb.8 Went with Willeke to take children to school in Lilongwe. We spent the school day shopping -house building materials, shoes, groceries from large stores as well as the local fresh air markets and exchanging my money into kwachas. I cooked vegestables I bought at Lilongwe and Jessie, Rhona and I had dinner here last night.

Feb. 9 spent morning with Willeke learning the history of school and visiting the classes with the students and children. Learned what paths to take to find the school. Second phase of school will be finished soon.

She arrived!!!!!

2010-02-08T14:08:00.000-08:00

Received email from mom of her arrival. Her email "Trip was good. I arrived 10 minutes early after a 3 day trip!!! It was great to be welcomed by smiling Willeke who took me to Barbara's house ( the missionary who is in the States until Aug. 1, 2010) and got me settled in for my stay. I am now (Saturday - Feb. 6th) at Willeke's home having tea." Dot

Dancing With God

2010-02-06T04:28:00.000-08:00

Well, like you I am waiting to hear from my mom that she arrived safely in Africa ---until then, I found this passage that I felt mom would use to describe what has been happening in her life the past few months...

Dancing with God

When I meditated on the word Guidance, I kept seeing "dance" at the end of the word. I remember reading that doing God's will is a lot like dancing.

When two people try to lead, nothing feels right. The movement doesn't flow with the music, and everything is quite uncomfortable and jerky.

When one person realizes that, and lets the other lead, both bodies begin to flow with the music. One gives gentle cues, perhaps with a nudge to the back or by pressing lightly in one direction or another.

It's as if two become one body, moving beautifully. The dance takes surrender, willingness, and attentiveness from one person and gentle guidance and skill from the other. My eyes drew back to the word guidance.

When I saw "G"; I thought God, followed by "u" and "I".
"God, "u" and "I" dance.

God, you, and I dance.

As I lowered my head, I became willing to trust that I would get guidance about my life. Once again, I became willing to let God lead.

My prayer for you today is that God's blessings and mercies are upon you on this day and everyday. May you abide in God, as God abides in you. Dance together with God, trusting God to lead and to guide you through each season of your life.

Thank you for all your prayers!!!! Lynne

Life is full of 1st....

2010-02-03T14:18:00.000-08:00

Well, off for what seems like the first day of my first job. Kristen is experiencing the same butterflies as she also starts her first teaching job today. We are both excited and ready for the adventure....stay tuned.

2010-02-02T19:09:00.001-08:00

Preparing for Africa

2010-02-02T18:43:00.000-08:00

Lunch with friends and family at Covenant Village, dinner with Lynne, labeling 50 lb. air packs, craming duffle bag (my pocketbook)containing a little of everything. Borrowing Kristen's waterproof boots for the rainy season in Malawi. Well wishes, hugs, prayers, goodbyes. Leaving for airport at 11:30 am Feb. 3. Charlotte to Dulles - Dulles to Johannesburg Arrival Feb. 4 at 6:20 pm.