Make-up

Whenever one my my students misses a school day, or more, he / she needs to make up for it. Not as punishment but to make sure he / she doesn't get behind. One of my students has been sick with malaria for over 10 days now, we miss him terrible in class. I will make sure he doesn't get overloaded as soon as he comes back, Lord willing soon. He is an extremely bright student from a poor home who got a scholarship to get his education at ABCCA. I would not be supprised if he will be Malawi's future president. My, he is bright and mature! Imagine, I am teaching Malawi's next president.....:) He is the one who repeatedly asks for longer Bible lessons.

To come back to the 'make-up' subject. I was just thinking as we are counting down to go on furlough (89 days from now!!!) how sad it is we never get to make-up from bonding with relatives in The Netherland. In the last nine years we have been here at the missionfield, many nieces and nephews have been born, 3 of them we have never met, but are walking around already, 6 siblings have gotten married who's wedding we couldn't attend and we have missed out on countless family meetings, like birthdays (very important for the Dutch) etc etc. I also realise my kids don't bond with grand parents, aunts & uncle's and cousins in those few weeks we spend on furlough (8 weeks in two years), they hardly know them, we practive names before we visit as 'normal' kids would (especially in Holland, such a small country). We will never be able to make-up for those years. Maybe my kids will only get to 'share life' with grandparents when they are too old to do fun stuff with them and live in a nursing home orso. I am not trying to get your sympathy but give perspective. If you are considering taking your family to the missionfield, this in one of the hardest things for me as a mom. And over time it is getting harder.

Let me share what happened to Nyenyezi Ministry this passed week. As we had a National Malawian Holiday I started the day with a good cup of coffee, when my phone rang. Grace called me to report a break-in at Nyenyezi. I immidiately went over and found the Moweta and Muhone family, confused, disappointed and shocked. At midnight, 5 men had come in, broke in our middle classroom to find the builder sleep in the store room. They asked for the laptop...which we don't have for the ministry, took his phone, tied him up and stuffed his mouth. The went to the teachers house (Moweta family), broke in, tied up the husband, wanted to tie up his wife Aida (the teacher) too but she asked them not to because she was feeling sick already. They asked for the laptop again, which we do not have, took two phones, all their money, pulled off the blankets they were sleeping under, also from their three kids who were sleeping, wanted to even pull their mattrass, but left as it was taking too long. We have reported it to the chief, the police and other community members. The chief has decided to put guards in place for us as he said "Nyenyezi is the pride of our community, we have to make sure you are safe!" Wow, that is good to hear. I hope to replace the stolen items as soon as I can.

Womens literacy class in session.

As we were discussing more, Grace shared with me how the Lord is blessing the literacy classes. She and Aida teach about 50 women, every morning, in three different levels; beginners, advanced and english. Women from far villages had come and asked if they could also please join. A good and positive rumour about Nyenyezi is going around! Every day is being opened with a Bible study. Slowly on we see the transformation we are praying for. One morning the group was is an intense discussion about forgiveness....tears were flowing....finally reconsiliation took place. Some women cried out; this is a miracle. Without what we now know about Jesus, this would have never happened. Please, continue to pray for this ministry and for energy and wisdom we need to teach, lead and direct the programs. We are now looking for two additional christian teachers as the work is expanding.

Johosaphat's first time to taste birthday cake

It was my Birthday, the day of the break-in....so after the bitter came the sweet. Sharing cake with my Nyenyezi family (teachers and their kids)

First update 2015

As a result of torrential rains and strong winds at the beginning of 2015, 700.000 Malawians have lost their homes, crops, belongings, relatives and more. Many organisations have started offering help. ABC also took initiative and send some teams down to the disaster area's. You can find more information on how to help. and watch a video made by one of our colleagues.
Thank to God, we are all well here in Lilongwe and feel it as our responsibility to help the flood victims in what ever way we can. Our kids happily donated many bags of good clothes to give away to the kids who lost everything except what they were wearing during the storm. It will take Malawi more then a year at least to recover from the devastation.

Cees taking a tea break with the Masters students....Malawian Mandasi (donut) is a very favorite snack!

 Life is very busy. Cees is fulltime working as the Director of the Masters Program of ABC. It involves a lot of administration as well as lesson preparation and teaching. Especially the accreditation is a humongous job and very time consuming. He gets the National Councel of Higher Education to review our application for accreditation, to visit his program next week and so he is working many extra hours on preparing the Manuals for quality, staff, students etc etc.

Some of my 5th graders posing with the rock I brought in my class to teach them on how the Lord is our rock; strong, reliable, unchanging, firm, giving protection and security.

I enjoy teaching my 5th graders but at the end of each day I don't have much energy left. I have to remind myself that this is what God wants me to do right now and pray He uses me in the lives of these precious students. The kids love the Bible teaching and ask me repeatedly if we can do Bible the whole day (and take all the other work home). Well, I wish we could, but we need to know how to multiply decimal numbers, how to find the adjectives in a sentence, how Germany got divided in two after WWII, how to spell alphanumerical etc etc etc....I taught them  Psalm 18:2-3 as a song this week and they couldn't stop singing!

Our little boys are growing up too fast! Both are in a 'swim-team' and do very well. Obed is going after his big brother who won so much gold in the Nationals last year. They also enjoy building with Lego and having friends over to play. Rhoda misses her older brother as much as we all do and is counting the weeks for him to come back for his 4 weeks Easter break. We receive great reports from RVA in Kenya. Joas is doing well and thankful for a great room mate.

Womens class. In one of our classrooms. I am praying and looking for sponsors to enable us to buy paint and brighten up these classrooms, so if you have any ideas, please let me know!!!!!!

My mom and I, singing along in church (Cees preaches regularly in the church plant in Chinsapo where we have our Nyenyezi Ministry.

Nyenyezi Ministry continues to be a blessing in the community. Little Grace, whose mom was a literacy student but died, is being taken care of by my friend Neema Grace and we are praying for her future. We really think it would be best for her to have a family to belong to. We are using our new building all the time. In the mornings for literacy programs, afternoons for outreach and for occasional meetings as well. The weekly Children Bible Club is being attended by 700 kids, split up in 4 groups now. Some ABC students come along and help teaching, they do a fantastic job!!!!
My parents visited over the Christmas break and we had such a great time. We hope to go on Furlough in June after a term of two years in the field. Our Furlough will only be 8 weeks, so we are already arranging things like doctors appointments etc etc. It has been 10 years that I was diagnosed Celiac but over the last year discomfort and pain has increased so I want my health to be re-diagnosed.
Our 16th anniversary was last Tuesday. Thanks for the good wishes. We will go out for dinner tomorrow while dear Barb will babysit our kids.

Moses LOVES to invite friends over.

Thank you for your prayers. We feel privileged to have brothers and sisters in Christ who faithfully pray for our family and the work we do on behalf of the Church in obedience to Christ.

Campus of African Bible College inMalawi

Hi, I am Moses, your tour guide at ABC Campus today. My brother Obed helps me as always. To my right you see the gate from which you enter or though which you leave us. Notice the beautiful trees.

Here we stand in front of the College dining hall, this is where college students eat every day. Notice the African Eagle in the sky...?

Lets have a chat with Gideon, one of the maintenance guys / drivers. He is cleaning up the maintenance vehicle. The bus is used for both College and Academy; field trips, outreach, sport events etc. In the back is the Gym, used by many!

The soccer field for the college!

One of the staff houses. 4 single female teachers live here. If you  come over some day to help teach at our school you might get to live here. Its a great place!

For shorter stays you can stay in the ABC huts. Aren't they cute?! Not for free though....

The clinic serves both private and community patients. A great facility!

The Academy's Pavilion. We use this for our weekly chapels, special events and here we eat our snacks and lunches at the picnic tables.

Some College classrooms.

When you reach ABC, the most friendly guard Lucas will open the gate for you. Welcome to the beautiful campus of ABC.

Directly on your right you see the chapel. This is used for many purposes! The daily chapel for the College (daddy also takes turns speaking for the chapel. Also the International Bible Fellowship meets here every Sunday. We love going there. Special programs are being held here as well, like weddings etc.

Opposite of the chapel and main road is our home. Its a bit hidden behind the trees. This campus is great for tree climbing by the way!

With my brother Obed I bike across the soccer pitch of the ABC Academy. The two story building is the highschool, all other classrooms are behind and to the right. There are many more facilities on campus (like a pool!!) but here stops my tour for now. Don't you think you should come and visit us here once? Or.....come and serve here with us? Plenty of opportunities. Just visit the ABC website for more information. Bye Bye!!!!

Family Newsletter August 2014

Our last newsletter went out the door about four months ago, time to send you an update. Heartfelt thanks go out to all of you for your interest, support and prayers! We really need that. In contrast to other years, we didn’t on furlough this year. Apparently my inventory from last summers purchases I made in the Netherlands fell far short. The ‘hagelslag’ and ‘droppies’ are long gone, as a matter of fact the underwear and shoes are too. As a result of the poor quality of local products, we have become faithful customers of the local stores. Shoes hardly last one month. At least we support the local economy!

Moses recovered from malaria, thank you for your prayers. He has a very playful imagination, so much that he has a little notebook to jot down all his yet undeveloped ideas, so he can realize them another day. Obed is much more interested in what other (bigger) kids do and in sports. He bikes to the basketball park every day with a ball in a bag hanging from the bike handle, where he will score as many points as he can without stopping. They are such precious boys. They also come with me regularly to ‘help’ in their own way. They will carry bags of bread, pass out coloring pictures, or… make bricks! At the moment we have 50.000 baked bricks to be used for Nyenyezi Ministry building. For more info: http://molenaarsinmalawi.blogspot.com/2014/08/nyenyezi-ministry.html We thank the Lord and the New Jersey HRC for a special donation towards this ministry, last month!

Building the clay brick tunnel kiln

In Juli our family went on a week long holiday through northern Malawi. We visited several Dutch mission families and enjoyed the refreshing and unique dutch ‘gezelligheid’. We went on many jungle treks, climbed up rocky slopes to find waterfalls, saw plateaus and visited historical mission sites. It also happened to be the coolest week of the year… so we enjoyed amazing campfires in the evenings to stay warm. Now the temperatures are warming up with an average of 30 degrees Celsius. More info on our trip: http://molenaarsinmalawi.blogspot.com/2014/07/rhodas-journal.html

In the meantime, we are reasonably settled in our new digs. Living right on the campus of ABC is especially nice for the children. They felt very locked up inside the walls of our previous compound. The ‘ABC village’ presently consists of about 8 Malawi families, 4 American, 2 South African, one Australian and of course now also one Dutch family. There are also about 150 boarding College students. Last May, 66 college students graduated as well as 17 students earning their Masters degrees. Cees has already been able to accept a large number of new students, after an interview with each one of them. The Masters Program started their new school year on July 30. Cees is teaching the usual required courses as well as a class in Dogmatics. He is also responsible for organizing the teaching faculty and the finances.

The training at Logos continues steadily. The students are a pleasure to teach. We admire the church leaders who work so willingly in very poor circumstances. Their ‘flock’ are consumed with the need to survive. For example, the congregation of pastor Emmanuel consists of 70% widows. He visits them on a weekly basis in their rickety huts and every Tuesday he leads a Bible study. His salary consists of a small bag of corn kernels, and it makes him happy. For him this is not work to be rewarded, but purely out of love for the King whom he serves! More on Logos: http://molenaarsinmalawi.blogspot.com/2014/05/towards-christ.html

Our work revolves around investing in the local people. One example is Faithful, a sixteen year old girl that I have mentored. Last month she completed her exams and her desire is to become a doctor. Graduation has already taken place, even though the results of her exams will not be returned until January, which means that she cannot carry on with her studies in the meantime, so I am trying to find a suitable task to keep her occupied for the next six months, hoping that she will then be accepted at university.

I have just finished my first week being the 5^th grade teacher of the ABC Christian Academy. Every teacher may choose and develop a theme for their class. I have chosen “Globetrotters” as our theme. That will give plenty of opportunity for expanding the horizons with a variety of activities for the children. I enjoy the interaction with the students as we go through our curriculum. I appreciate your prayers as fulltime teaching at the academy is a big commitment in addition to the responsibilities I had already.  

Joas is preparing himself for departure to the Rift Valley Academy in Kenya, on August 28. In the meantime he is attempting to complete as many challenges as possible, such as climbing mountains and camping in a little tent at the top, catching and taming snakes or building airplanes from wood.

Last but not least: we are very happy to have Barb VanVught from HRC NewJersey here to help teaching at the academy! It was special to have 'uncle' John with us for a week as well!

 We hope this newsletter has given a satisfactory update of our work and life here in Malawi. We often think of many of you also. We know we all need the same thing, to be a salt and a light in the world around us, wherever that may be. Let us keep on praying for one another!

Heartfelt greetings from Cees, Mirjam, Joas, Rhode, Obed and Moses

Nyenyezi Ministry

Focus Group: Children and women in the rural community

 We organize activities for children and women in the community. Most of the children that attend our programs are orphans or half orphans. Many of these children live with grandparents or other extended family. Most of the children do not attend school because they cannot afford it. They need money for a uniform, shoes, notebooks and pencils and for the minimum school fees. Our programs are for children between 3 and 16 years of age, and we have reading programs for the women.

Area: Chinsapo, Lilongwe District 46

The area where we serve is officially a district of Lilongwe. The living standard is very low, most people live in huts, and some have metal roofs. At this time there is no electricity (yet). Water is in a central location, and the women can go there to get there water, but they have to pay 6 Kwacha per bucket. For some even this is too much so these women get their green/brown water from the river. The area is widespread but is very densely populated.

Purpose: To instill HOPE for today and the future

This is accomplished by means of our Evangelism programs such as the Children’s Bible Clubs, as well as Christian reading lessons, hygiene and health lessons, games and occasional distribution of clothing, snacks, booklets, etc. We hope to establish a Christian preschool for the children between the ages of 4 to 7 to give them a solid educational foundation before they go to the “big school”. (We have seen many children drop out of school because the lesson material was way beyond their level of comprehension).

Community Support:

We are blessed to have a good relationship with the local Chief. We regularly discuss our plans with him. He is very thankful for our programs. He believes there is much less gossip and boredom because we keep the women and children occupied. Currently we have our programs under the canopy of a large tree where all the public functions are held. Last May (2014) we were able to obtain a large portion of land, which was partially donated by the Chief. At this time the bricks are being made there by members of the community. The women haul the water from the river, the men make the bricks and another team is building the brick kiln.  An acquaintance has designed the building plans for what we have imagined. It will have two large rooms, a storage area and living quarters for a teacher.

What we do: Children’s and Women’s Programs

Four times a week we offer reading classes for the women in the community. In the cold season the attendance is high, in the hot season it is very low. People are out preparing their fields before the rainy season begins. Each lesson begins with a topic from the Bible and we end with an opportunity for questions. Those questions can be about anything you can imagine! Sometimes we enjoy fellowship with a cup of tea. Occasionally we offer a small reward such as a bar of soap. We introduce health issues, and we plant Moringa and Papaya trees.

One day a week we offer two children’s programs. We tell Bible stories, teach many songs, let the children make up and sing their own songs, sometimes we teach a lesson with drama, teach HIV-Aids prevention, colour pictures, play games, and offer treats or surprises. For these children this is the highlight of their week. The children earn points for memory, which they can use to exchange for school supplies. Several of the older children who have been attending the Bible club are now attending school for the first time.

We also help people who have extreme needs. For example, there is a 14 year old handicapped girl who has a 2 year old baby. She had been raped. She lives with her Grandmother who has 7 other children in her care. She is spastic and cannot speak, and they were both very malnourished, so we give them cereal and milk for breakfast every day.

Vision: Nyenyezi Community Building for Pre-school, literacy and child evangelism

The new building will become multifunctional, in the mornings it will be used for Preschool, in the afternoon it will be used for the Bible Club and for the reading programs and eventually it will be used on Saturdays for other gatherings such as a mobile clinic, health and agriculture programs, etc.

Current needs:

We have been able to continue running our programs the past year with financial support and have also been able to begin our building project. We are extremely grateful for that. The land was paid for with a special gift we received from a Women’s ministry group in Canada. This was the confirmation we needed to continue with ‘our’ plans. To continue our mission we would like to appeal to everyone who has the means to bless those who are less fortunate. This could be individual donations, or groups such as your club, society, or school. Do you feel inclined? Listed below are the costs that need to be covered:

-     Firewood (and the means of transport) to bake the bricks

-     Building and plastering the brick kiln

-     Digging a water cistern

-     Building outhouses

-     Digging and transporting building sand

-     Cement

-     Building the foundation

-     Construction (salaries for brick layers)

-     Wood for the trusses

-     Metal roofing material

-     Carpenters for roof construction

If you are willing to support our building project, or you know of a group who would like to fundraise for it, we would greatly appreciate it! Send us an email and we will give you details on money transfer.

On behalf of hundreds of children and many women, we already thank you SO much! We would like to say wholeheartedly: MULUNGU AKUKUDALITSENI! (May God Bless You!!!!)

Neema Grace Muhone and Mirjam Molenaar, founders and project leaders

Rhoda's Journal

This is the first year we could not go on furlough due to the financial situation of our mission board. We used to have 8 weeks of furlough each year, as of now every other year. With our recent move Cees and I are very busy preparing for our new assignments (Cees Masters director / professor and I 5th grade teacher). However, we took a one week break with our children and visited a few places. Rhoda wrote a journal which I share with her permission. It saved me a lot of work. Thanks Rhoda!

                                                                                                                           By: Rhoda Molenaar

The Seven Days of Fun

One Saturday morning, it was very bright and sunny outside . We, the Molenaar family, were going on a trip. We just moved to a house closer to the school. We left our German Shephard Lassie, in the previous compound for the week we were gone on a trip. Our new house doesn’t have a fence around it because we live in campus. My dad is the new director for ABC Masters program and my mom is the teachers for 5^th grade at the academy.

Well our car, which is a land rover, was packed! Literally, the roof was all loaded, and of course the back of the car was full. The seats of the car were full too. We are a family of six so it was three in front and three in the middle. There was my dad, mom, my older brother Joas who is fourteen, and two little brothers, Obed who is five (almost 6), and Moses who is 4. My name is Rhoda and I’m twelve! To keep ourselves busy we had some things at our feet, but Joas only needed his phone, earphones, and a book, so he didn’t have anything at his feet, that’s why we put Lassie at his feet just to drop her off. She loved the wind and put her face out of the window. Everyone laughed.

     After that we started driving to a missionpost called Ekwendene. It was about five hours to get there. We started at about eleven o’clock. After 4andhalf hours of non stop driving Obed and Moses were  losing their patience. Ekwendene has two Dutch Missionary families. Today, 5^th of July 2014 we’re probably going to be more sitting than standing, and going to be more inside than outside. Joas is just listening to music and reading his book the entire four hours. He’ll probably do it for the last hour toJ. Outside the window you see mountains, Eucalyptus trees, and grass. Creation is so beautiful. The sky is blue and has white and fluffy clouds. We’ll so far so good, and so far its being very exciting.

We now arrived safely in Ekwendene. The first Dutch family (Visser) invited us for a dinner with them. So we ate dinner and went to the CCAP guest house in which we will stay for two nights Joas and I slept in one room, and next to us where my mom and dad. There was a bathroom which connected to Obed and Moses’ room.

The next morning Joas and I had breakfast in bed which was wonderful, but  got the news we  had to get out!! That was because we had to go to church which started at eight o’clock in the morning.

      After the church service it was very terrific. The entire rest of the day was yummyJ. First we went to the other Dutch family (VandeBoogaart) for coffee and there was delicious cake. We all had about two pieces. After that we ate lunch with the other family (which was great as well). My mom brought chocolate cake so we ate a piece of that too. Well, I know that its very confusing but after that we went back to the second Dutch family we visited and ate dinner which included Chips & Chicken with some veggie’s. Now this is the last switch. We did praise and worship at the other families house. After that we went to the guest house and slept all night.

     The next morning we had breakfast and the first family showed us their children’s school and dad’s office. Then we stepped in the car and started on the next part of the journey.

Now we are on our way to a place at Livingstonia called Lukwe. That’s a location on the mountains. The trip was beautiful. There are lots of ridges and everlasting mountains. We drove through two actually. We saw monkeys, and lots and lots of Banana trees (that’s probably why the monkeys where there). The road that we where driving on was right past the river, there were 21 sharp hairpin bends to take. Well, we arrived at Lukwe. Joas and I slept in a cute grass hut, overlooking the mountains . We could hear the waterfalls from our hut. My parents, Obed and Moses slept together in a big tent. Their tent was under a grass roof. We had to do self-catering. We couldn’t sit still so we went on a hike. My mom washed the boys dirty clothes. Lukwe is eco...that means cooking on woodfires, pumping the water by hand and flushing the "toilet" with sand and ash...:)

     First we tried to walk to two waterfalls. The road was not really a road or trail. It became so bad (dangerous) that mom said we should turn back. Fortunately there was an other trail leading to those waterfalls.

     It was awesome because there was a cave where the slaves used to hide. That happened centuries ago though. The cave in which we were sitting in was right below the waterfall, which dropped about 100 meters. We then kept on walking (crawling through jungle) until we finally saw the first waterfall.

Then we went back home had dinner, and turned in. The next day after breakfast we went to a mountain called Combe platue. It took about one hour to climb to the top.

Then after lunch we went to the town Livingstonia (Missionpost). Then after that we visited an old church which was a hundred and twenty years old!!!

We climbed its tower all the way to the top. Then there was a museum which used to be Dr. Robert Laws’ house but then they changed it partly into a museum. Its called the Stone house. We went back to Lukwe, had a campfire, and went to sleep. Then the next day we went to Sangilo, a place in the cove at the lake shore.

There were rocks everywhere in the lake. We  enjoyed the food, beach and our time. Now we are on our way to Luwawa Forest Cottage. It was about four hours there. The road was so bumpy! When we were driving through the valley’s it seemed like we were in Germany; the pines, the rolling hills, the mountain lake.

     When we arrived, we first looked at the cottage. The place looked beautiful. There were lots of pretty flowers and many different kinds of birds. There were two dogs, and five rabbits. They looked so cute. Our cottage was called Avocado Cottage. It was huge; two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, living room with a fire place, and a dining room. That afternoon we took a hike that was about fifty minutes. We went over a bridge, crossing a huge swamp. Well we went back to our cottage. Obed and Moses loved the playground which was right in front of our cottage. We lit the fire because it was freezing cold. An other reason we didn’t feel like we were in Africa!

     After dinner I tried to take a shower but it was freezing. After that I watched a movie and went to bed. Next we looked at the program and saw lots of activities. One of them was archery, so Joas and I went to go do that. My dad and little brothers tried as well. Joas, my dad, and I went mountain biking, and we all got a perfect and splendid ride and view. In the afternoon we took another trail.

But when we got back I went to go bath and that time it was warm, and my mom went for a walk with the owners wife, and the rest went canoeing. That where so many activities for one day!! We ate at the fire, had hot chocolate, and turned in.

     The next morning was hilarious, because my brother and I had a very good and funny fight. First my brother fell of his bed, and I tried to stuff a very dirty, stinky, and sweaty sock in his face. At last I succeeded and did it. Then my father told us to pack our bags and put them in the car. After that my mom, Joas, and I went for a wonderful walk for about twenty five minutes. While we were doing that my dad packed the rest or the stuff. Obed and Moses played in the playground. Then we were finally ready to go. Then we were driving for home. And when I say home I mean Malawi, Lilongwe, Area forty seven, Sector one, ABC campus, the house with the canoe in front of the garden. How wonderful this week was! Then we arrived home!!!

The End

Towards Christ

"Thus is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His Name to all nations..." These are Christ's words recorded in the gospel of Luke. The Word touched me when I was sitting in the devotions at Logos Pastors training, glancing over the serious looks of the pastors. It's this Word that connects us missionaries with the people we work with. Serving towards one and the same purpose: winning people for Christ. When Cees was getting his copies from the office I had a chat with one of the pastors. Justin told me how privileged he feels, being part of this training program. "I did secondary school and started serving in the church voluntarily. I am so grateful for the ministry of Logos. I could never afford going to a college or seminary. Here, God is equipping me for free. Amazing grace." When I asked him what the best part was so far, he said: "I love the way Reverend Cees is helping us to be able to interpret the Old Testament towards Christ. It is a real eye opener!"

From there I drove to Chinsapo where the kids come running down the dirt road as soon as they hear the sound of our vehicle. They eagerly help me carry all teaching materials and of course the bread, accross the bridge and up, into the village! A couple hundred kids are gathering in the shade of the big tree and started singing the song 'Lolani ana' (let the children come). This day all my abc assistants are absent, my friend Grace is still in Tanzania. My other faithful Korean friend is with me. She is such a gem! She is a real servant! Eventhough she hardly speak english nor Chichewa I understand her and she is great in helping with logistics. Teaching 500 children in one group by myself is only doable in rural Africa!!! After the whole program I walk over to the mothers who have been listening too. They always appreciate a little 'kucheza' with me. I pray that as we lead these children to Christ, through them we might also lead the mothers!

The newest addition to our program: Towela, the 2 days old baby of one of our unmarried teenagers, a very common problem here. We believe this 'unwanted' baby is also welcome in the Kingdom of God. The need for leading children to Christ is always there!