So much to tell!

This week as all weeks has been full of trials however remembering the trials of Job this is just another week in Malawi.
More churches have been visited and we are learning alot. Last week we heard Chuck, Henry and Rackson had visited 20 churches on Thursday and 16 on Friday. Chuck feels this week is full of adventures. Monday and Tuesday they visited 16 churches each day. Wednesday they were resting for evening services and there was a funeral Henry needed to attend. Thursday they were able to visit 13 churches and had to stop because a Pastor had died before they were able to visit his church.
Monday they traveled some very rough roads and the exhaust system was torn off and Tuesday it was just the timing belt. It is rainy season and the rain comes in sheets. The roads are very difficult to maneuver so the wear and tear on the truck is to be expected.
Chuck has been trying to send pictures however with the rain the electricity goes out more often and the computer just does not want to cooperate. He is trying but it looks like more pictures will be on the blog when Chuck returns home.
Chrissie Burness has been very busy and we are Thankful for all of you that have watched the Heart4malawi blog and now keeping up with the news on the Victory World Outreach blog. Thank you Chrissie for all your hard work and the interest you have brought to the ministry.
As we write this, Sharon Goodman is on her way to live in Malawi. Sharon has been working with Children's homes and was a big help with her son and daughter n law (missionaries) in Mexico. We look forward to hearing her stories while she is working with the children at the school at the orphanage.

News for February 19th

The Mike's Bakery at the Orphanage

Brother Fullford is working on the electricity to the Bakery. This will mean fresh bread from their kitchen. Hopefully next week will be the test. We have found out to wait for the escom to put up a power pole to run separate power could be just around the corner but since we have waited for two years now it was decided to make something happen. The ovens will be baking at a different time than the large cooking pots. Thats okay it is a team effort!

The three Cookers for the children's meals of Nsima

We have Pictures!

Here is the new bus! Pastor Mike (the painter) will paint Good Samaritan on the side of the bus this week. The bus cost 2.4 million kwatcha or 20,000 u.s.. This includes the new tires, the legal papers and the painting of the name.

This is the garden out the back gate of the Children's Home! They are so excited about all the corn! Soon it will be vegetables!

News!

The Saturday soul winning happened and 140 came to know the Lord. Two groups went out in different directions and look what can be done! Praise the Lord!

Rufina is feeling ill! Rufina is one of two(Ida has gone back to her village) children with the HIV virus and has been on medication showing no signs. She is not feeling well these days and we are asking for prayers. This precious child of Jesus wants to go off the medicine but the doctors and staff will not allow it to happen.

Gertrude is doing better on the medication and all the children are feeling better with the new diet. Two fruits a day , eggs at breakfast and nsima with relish at lunch and protein with dinner/supper.

February 14th

We remember our love on this day but we must not forget the Love, Unconditional Love we have from our Lord and Saviour and what his Love for us did being on the Cross and three days later rising again. We celebrate a Loving Saviour that is ALIVE!
The Fullfords' are trying to introduce more fruit and protein into the diets of the children. Today they have bananas and pineapple and one meal is with a protein such as beans. We hope this will help with the sickness the children are experiencing. Another new for the children.
The garden is so full of corn! The corn aka maize will be harvested for nsima (main staple) and seed for next years crop. Perhaps in the future it will be sold to help off-set the costs of other needs. The vegetable garden will be planted as soon as the maize harvest is finished.
Today is Saturday and there was a group out soul winning. They went even in the rain. I will be posting more information as it comes in.
Please pray for the children, some of the children are getting older and needing a trade. We have watched them grow from little ones to young adults and soon going out on their own. The future holds a trade school or trade teaching for them in the future.

We have a BUS!

It is Monday and I know you have wondered how the bus purchase went. First Chuck had to exchange the us dollars into the kwatcha. He was a nervous cat! He had a couple of shoes boxes of money and was so concerned not to go any where but the bus place FIRST! No stopping, no delays!!!! Every time they stopped at a light or a stop sign Chuck wanted to move. They went to the bus place at 1pm to pick up the bus and everything was done! He said it looked beautiful! Beautiful in that it was fully repaired, you could drive it and the man did just as he said, even the paperwork to transfer was completed. Navigator headed to the orphanage with the bus and Chuck and Rackson headed to the Government office to have the transfer recorded. Tomorrow the children will be riding in their new bus. Thank You Bro. Cochran and your church!

February 6

President Bingu was in Blantyre today to register for the election of President. The town was busy with lots of traffic and lots of excited people. You guessed it, there were no yellow tracts being handed out today. The people are excited to have a Christian President.

Bro. Chuck Miller and Chris Gome drove to pick up the bus today. The man selling it is working on all the issues Chris expressed needed to be fixed. The bus will be ready Monday with everything fixed and no additional charges. The children are so excited.

This is a typical termite mound!!

Bro. McDonald house is needing repair. Bro. McDonald was a Pastor and tailor but died 2 years ago; within six months his wife died also. The oldest boy is raising the children and working at the Children's Home as the tailor(aka sew anything and everything the children have ripped or lost buttons). The house the children are living in is having serious repair needs. The roof appeared to be falling down but with further examination it is the timbers. The timbers are eaten by termites and the roof will fall if the repairs are not done. It will cost $120-140.00 us dollars for the timbers, bug poison, nails and labor for the carpenter to complete the necessary work.
Bro. Chuck Miller, Henry Chatada and Andrew Nyengia will be visiting the Good Samaritan Churches in the coming weeks.

Bus news!

The search for the new bus to transport the children from the orphanage to the school is on. Thank you to Bro. Cochran and his church for raising the money for the purchase. Chris Gome, John Fullford and Chuck Miller have been on the hunt and possibly have found the one. Job Security (yes, that is his name) is going to go and pull off the tires and look under the hood and check the transmission and everything else that needs to be done to see if this is the one bus that is the answer to the needs for the children. We are praying for the right one at the right price! The latest word is the bus needs tires but everything else looks good.
This week Henry Chatada, Andrew Nyengia and Chuck Miller will be traveling to the Good Samaritan Churches in Malawi and seeing the people. Please pray for their traveling mercies and the kwatcha (money) holds out for the fuel it will take to get to the outreaches. The goal is to have the churches learn to tithe and to take care of their own. This is a difficult task to teach the Malawi people to lean on the will of God, they had been under British Government (that was years ago)for so long and look to others for help. They are learning and need more encouragement.

News from Malawi

Thandie (Director of the The Children's Home), Staff, Bro. John Fullford and Chuck Miller had a meeting and walk through of the home to see why the children have been sick. Thandie had concluded in the last couple of weeks there are maintenance needs in the children's rooms. The funds have been very low and the budget needs to be re-assessed. The care of the children needs to include the care of them nutritionally as well as physically. The rooms need work and the staff is attempting to make changes as well as thoroughly clean (we just did it) each room with disinfectant. This is rainy season and the mold is collecting from the walls sweating. We are freezing here in the states and the children are having summer like weather.

Update on the results of the court today: Five of the staff and four of the teens were arrested a month ago for handing out tracts (yellow paper) at a Soccer game. The Futbol /soccer game was attended by the President Bingu (Christian man, political colors blue) so there was alot of security. The people were excited in the stadium when the President spoke and started waving their yellow tracts. We now know the yellow was a respresentation of the past president political color. You know where this is going, Therefore the security was sure the yellow paper was causing a political uprising and arrested all that were handing out the yellow papers.
The nine arrested were held in jail for 9 hours (which they took as an opportunity to witness to the other 40 plus) and were released for another date to be heard by the Magistrate/Judge. The third time before the Judge/Majistrate and it was decided they needed to pay a hefty fine. No more jail and a warning not to use YELLOW paper.

We hope to have pictures soon of the wonderful and lush garden. Thank you God for giving us people to send the money for Fertilizer, seed and the pumps.