Saturday, October 31, 2009

Under 5's Clinic



Teaching health care practices with song and dance in Malawi! I filmed this with my camera at an under 5's clinic I helped out in about one and a half hours outside of Lilongwe.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Update on Zachariah


We were able to go back to the village where Zachariah lives. With the help from the Malawian government we could bring him some food supplements, it’s a food called “plumpy nut” which is like peanut butter, and has the protein and nutritional supplements he will need. We also were able to secure a wheelchair that was donated by the Rotary Club. The best news of all however, is that a chief from a neighboring village has agreed to be responsible to make sure he is fed and taken outside daily. On the bad news side, we found he has developed a bed sore, and for someone in his condition it could prove fatal. I washed and dressed the wound with the few first aid supplies I had, and we left with words of encouragement. I’m not sure how much future he’s going to have, but maybe he can have a few nice days in the sun.

We are feeling more and more "at home" here every day. We found a house that we hope we can rent, and we went to an auction yesterday and bought a few pieces of used furniture. The whole experience was a hoot. It was just one body press of people as we moved from one item to another crowding around the auctioneer. Everyone shouted in Chichewa and pretty much bid everything up sky high. I bid on several things without getting them. After a while I heard the people saying this and that about the azungu (white person), and finally when I was about to give up on another bid, this guy said I'll give you another thousand Kwacha to just bid again, so I did, and I won this old desk, and everyone cheered (although I never did get the promised 1000 Kwacha (about $7). It was exhausting and I got sunburned, but it was fun. I don’t think it was anything like Christies.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Zaccharias

We finally have better internet, email only by day and internet after 5 pm, but it's more consistent. I still can't upload large files (or even medium ones). I was trying to put a video on from the village, but haven't been able to yet. Things are better as we get more adjusted, and actually I like it here quite a lot. Here the purple Jacaranda trees are blooming they are beautiful, it’s getting hotter everyday as we head into full summer. I've been out to some of the villages now a number of times, there are so many needs... and I need prayer to know where to focus my efforts.
I also feel that the spiritual battle here is more obvious. In the US we are sort of lulled to sleep in our comforts, so much so that we don't think we need God. Here there is no question of that. Yesterday I was in a village near the border of Mozambique, and we saw a boy with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis whose disease is so advanced that his many of his joints have become immobilized, His name is Zacharias, and he's 18, but he has not been able to feed himself lately so he's basically starving. His grandmother is elderly and can't lift him to bathe him so 2 other nurses and I bathed him. One of the nurses gave him her lunch and he wanted his picture taken with her. so we took a few, and we’ll bring him some prints when we go back.
It broke my heart, and I don't know what I can do to help him long term.
Anyway, Jerry and I are impatient to start working while I study language... Well God bless you. Thanks for your prayers and support, it means so much.
Love, Elizabeth

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Mudzalephera


I’ve just been thinking of the Kingdom of God, of what Jesus talked about in the Sermon on the Mount. I traveled to a tiny village yesterday, one where a small group of people have been putting forth focused effort and money to transform the health of this community under crushing poverty. As I spoke to the workers, I was told of the multiple problems and a year’s efforts seem to have come to nothing. This is not a picture of the kingdom of God.
This place needs the life, cross and resurrection of Jesus, they need the Good News that comes with hope and power. I met a beautiful lady with her baby, I introduced myself and told her in English how beautiful her baby she smiled and told me his name. Then I asked her name, she told me “Mudzalephera”. I carefully repeated it and smiled at her. Then someone next to me told me her name means “You will fail”. This is why we need the Gospel, Mudzalephera”s life has been saturated with injustice and the heavy fatalism of her environment. The Kingdom of God that Jesus preached is GREAT news, light and fresh air. We all need it, and it makes my heart ache to offer them that hope and life.
Elizabeth

Monday, August 31, 2009

Letter from Malawi - Week 3

We’ve been in Africa 2 weeks. It looks very… African. The soil is orange red, and quite dusty, the roads are busy with pedestrians and bicycles that you have to take care not to hit on the narrow roads. The women wear colorful prints, carry babies on their backs and bundles on their heads. Others wear suits. The weather is nice this time of year, cool at night warm in the daytime. I’ve seen some beautiful birds and flowering Jacaranda trees. The Malawians we have met have all been warm and very willing to practice our greetings in Chichewa. I think we are going to like it here.
The kids started school this week, and seem to be adjusting quite nicely. They have all made a number of friends already. We have also met and been helped about by missionaries that have lived here a while, they have made the transition a lot easier. We had our first meeting with the missionaries of Partners in Hope where we prayed for the work and for each other. I’m so happy to be with a group of people who know they depend on God.
Speaking of transitions…. Please, please pray for ours. We need to find a house, furniture and a better internet connection! Pray for our language learning, and for us to be effective in our work here.
Love,
Elizabeth

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Early Impressions of Malawi: A List from Week 2

A gardener cutting the grass with a manual hedge clipper – the giant scissor kind.

A very functional sprinkler made out of a hose taped to a water bottle with holes poked around the middle of the bottle.

All the houses have razor wire and electric fences around the walls. The electricity is enough to give a zap like a bee sting, but not to kill or even maim. It still feels like a prison at times.

Crows have white bellies so that they look like they’re wearing tuxedos.

Beautiful birds with iridescent red wings, a long skinny crest on their heads, long tails and glowing green bodies.

Kids who appear well-fed, begging, sticking their hands out when I walk by. Even two-year-olds are begging when they see my white skin. I understand it, but I don’t have to like it.

God comes through exactly on time. We got the support we needed just two days before we left the US and a little more has come in since we arrived. Thank you, God.

No hummingbirds. They’re Western Hemisphere birds.

The internet is often too busy to log on, especially in the evening.

Everything is imported, so everything except corn flower is very expensive. Gas $4.50/gal, Jelly beans $4 for a tiny bag, which would be less than $1 at Walgreen’s.

I wish I weren’t allergic to cats. The Jonats (the family we are house sitting for) have a very friendly cat, but I can’t pet it without feeling raw in my eyes and nose.

The weather is really pleasant in late winter, which means summer is going to be really hot. Here there are really three seasons: hot, cold, wet (which should be called hot & wet.) Since we're in the Southern Hemisphere, the seasons are reversed, so winter is just ending.

I’ll have to relearn how to drive a manual transmission, not hard, but now left handed while driving on the left. Yikes.

I am beginning to have some culture shock as different annoyances catch up w/ me; we’re house sitting so we can’t unpack all our stuff, and we are learning how to function in a new environment. All this will pass and God will get us through, but after ten days, I have frustrations.

As I was writing this blog the first time, the electricity went out, which means that the 1 hour internet access card I bought was running, although nothing else was. Bye, bye 1 hour internet access.


I know that we will adjust, and the adjustment is painful, which hopefully means God is scrubbing off some rough edges and stretching us. As time passes we will adjust our rhythm to the rhythm of life here. Right now I feel like an opera singer trying to rap.

People are tickled pink when when we try to say even a few words in Chichewa.

We can see God working in many ways, even the most minute details. As hard as things are here, we know we are in God's gentle hands.

Please pray for us. We need the prayers and everyone could use more practice.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Stepping Out in Faith or Running Ahead?

Things are moving very quickly here. Just as winter ended and I thought, "Great, we can enjoy spring and summer in the mid west." Then, we realized we are now 3 months from leaving, if we leave in August. August makes sense because the doctor I'm replacing leaves in July, school starts August 26th and we want to be over jet lag before the kids start. If we don't leave then, the next option is December, when it would be very hard to find someone to rent or buy our house.

We are in that area where we wonder if we are stepping out in faith or stepping out in front of God's perfect timing. Whenever we pray, God seems to be saying, "August" or is that just me? Logically, there are too many things to do before then:
Sell 2 cars
Lease or sell our house
pack a family of 5
raise 40% more support
start buying & shipping stuff we will need there
and that's just the big stuff.

Oh, did I mention I have my Board re-certification in July?

Just for fun, our kids are adolescents. They are not enjoying monster public schools after Nate Saint Memorial School. The whole school, K - 8, is the same size as most of their classes in the monster public schools.

So please pray we will receive wisdom, and most importantly, that we will be in step with God, not in front or behind. God is still on the throne, I just am not sure which way he is pointing, August or December.

P.S. Since I wrote the letter to a friend, the Lord has increased our support. It sure looks more like August.

Thank you, Lord.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Malawi Isn't in the News Much


Malawi isn’t in the news very much. It doesn’t have a war going on like Iraq or Sudan. It isn’t having atrocities like Congo or Kosovo. It isn’t even having piracy like Somalia or a cholera epidemic like Zimbabwe. What is happening in Malawi is too slow to get the attention of the news. Even the African press doesn’t see much newsworthy about Malawi. What is happening is that people are dying; not by thousands a day, and not in a way that looks gruesome in photos or videos. People are dying of AIDS, slowly, but a lot of them. Not enough to catch world attention, just enough to lose all that attention.

So what to do? Mother Theresa said, “We can’t do great things, just small things with great love.” We give AIDS medicines with great love.

We tested a child who was sick for a couple of months to see if he had AIDS like his mother. When she was told that her son was HIV negative, I saw one of the biggest smiles in my life. The people of Partners in Hope rejoiced with her, loved the woman and her son, and then made an appointment to see her the next month, so that she could keep getting the medicines and the love.

“A man with leprosy came to [Jesus] and begged Him on his knees, ‘If you are willing, you can make me clean.
Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out His hand and touched the man. ‘I am willing,’ he said. ‘Be clean.’ ” - Mark 1:40 – 41 (emphasis added)


How do you show love to a person with AIDS? The same way you show it to any other person: a handshake, a look in the eye, a smile, sharing the Word of God.

We look forward to touching the hearts of those with AIDS, and with your help, your prayers, your financial support, you can touch them as well.

"Behold, I will do something new..."

Lorraine, our 12 year old, had her hand up in the air and was tentatively saying “I have one”. We were in a Bible study group talking about God’s answers to our prayer. She went on to say that she had asked God to help her with the stress she felt about saving enough money to go to summer camp; she said “He answered my prayers by having the camp cancelled, so now I don’t have to worry about it!” I was amazed; I knew how much she had wanted to go to camp and how hard she and Alison had worked to save up the part they needed to pay. It reminded me about how God sometimes answers prayers in ways we don’t expect, and sometimes don’t like. The verse in Isaiah 43:19 came to mind..

“Behold I will do something new, now it will spring forth, will you not be aware of it, I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, rivers in the desert”

-Isaiah 43:19

God is often doing new things in our life. Even when it seems to be all wilderness, there is a path we need to find and walk, by His grace.