It's Official, We're Staying Another Year

Since we returned to Malawi in September, we have been praying about how long we should stay. Logic has a number of reasons to stay through June 2012 and a number of reasons to leave in the summer of 2011. But the Lord says,

Isaiah 55:8-9
8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the LORD.
9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Human logic is nice, but God has a plan for our lives that at times defies human logic, but is always the best plan. So we prayed. We prayed for three months.
As we prayed, it became apparent that God wanted us to stay until June 2012. The logical reasons to stay are that Andrew will graduate high school From African Bible College Christian Academy and we will stay be here while our director spends a year on furlough. Those reasons are nice, but they pale in comparison to the most important reason, God directed us to stay.

We’re excited about staying. The time in Malawi hasn’t been easy, but it has been a time of tremendous growth for each of us individually and as a family. We are a happier, closer family for working through the hard issues that Malawi brought up. If nothing else good happens, we’re grateful to the Lord for bringing us together.
How did the Lord bring us together? Our time in Link Care helped us to talk about what each of us wanted from the family and work on setting goals as a family. That time also taught us that “You are who you are, not what you do.” Try reading the Gospels with that thought in the back of your mind. It seems like that is much of what Jesus is saying.

So, we are here following God’s will, asking for your prayers that we will follow His perfect will joyfully, and that He will give us direction for our next step in June 2012.

Questions the Chinese guys have asked at our Bible Study. How would you answer?

1. Why didn’t God send a prophet to China?
2. When Jesus was staying in Jerusalem, did he stay in a hotel? (from the story of Jesus meeting Andrew and John in John 1)
3. In John 1:38 when Jesus showed John & Andrew where He was staying, did He take them to Heaven or where He was staying? Was it a hotel?
4. Jesus genetic make-up? (Was it 23 chromosomes from Mary & 23 from the Holy Spirit or all 46 from the Spirit or some other way? “You’re a doctor. You should know.”)
5. Was Jesus light or God or a man or words? (Prologue from John 1)
6. Is Muhammad a prophet?
7. Was John the Baptist a son of God?
8. Are trees, plants and animals sons of God?

Please us know how you would answer by clicking on Post a Comment.

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

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.

Economic Meltdown and Teenage Boys

Whenever I turn on the radio or TV, I hear about how bad the economy is and how it’s only going to get worse. The unemployment rate keeps growing. The value of most people’s investments is falling. Most people’s homes are worth less than they were just a year ago. The price of gas for our cars goes up and down faster than the stock market. Trying to decide when to fill up my tank makes me feel like a futures speculator. “The price has been going up for the last two days. Is it going to go up more before I go home or will it go down by morning?” Making the wrong guess can cost me ten dollars per fill-up.

The people we are going to serve in Malawi don’t have to worry about the price of gas. They don’t have cars. However, the price of gas is reflected in things they buy, like school uniforms for their children, shoes, even the little bit of food that they don’t grow themselves.

When you live on less than a dollar a day and prices go up, where do you trim your budget?

Another phenomenon is watching my son Andrew sprouting like good Indiana corn. Every morning his pants ride higher up his ankles. For his after school snack, he eats his way through half the refrigerator, and then asks, “What’s for dinner?” If you are missing a child or small pet, you know where to look.

In places where there isn’t enough food, adolescent boys must always be hungry. In Africa, rice is food for the rich. Meat is a rare treat. How does a teen ager have a growth spurt on a diet of millet and corn mush?

Times are tough in the US and the whole developed world. In Africa, where people are living on the edge of survival, as the cliff starts to crumble there is only one place to go.

Even when we feel like we have nothing to share, Jesus asks us to share anyway. I think He might say, “You really have more than you think. Plus, real giving means giving up a little of what you need so that others can have something. Please share even when times are tough, maybe even more now that times are tough. Don’t worry. I really will take care of you.” (Luke 12:22-31)

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

Hospital Vozandes del Oriente has been here in Shell for 49 years. We do some great work with very little, and have a great reputation. We have patients who come 11 hours to see us. People seem partly to trust us because we are gringos, but mostly because we are Christians. We don't recommend surgery because we want the money but because we think it is best for the patient.

We are reaping the good reputation built up over years by great doctors who came here when there was nothing here. Everett Fuller was the first doctor here, even before the hospital existed. He was a surgeon. His wife Dorothy was a nurse. Dr. Fuller had a operating room and a clinic. Before he had completed the hospital, all the patients that needed to be hospitalized were placed on the first floor of a small hotel down the road. After surgery, the patient would be wheeled down the road on a gurney. One of the people pushing the gurney would hold an umbrella over the patients face to shield them from the sun or the rain. It's either sunny or rainy here in Shell.

Dorothy Fuller was Everett's scrub nurse in the Operating Room. In most hospitals, the custodians or the nurses are responsible for cleaning the Operating Room, but not in the early days of Hospital Vozandes del Oriente. Dr. Fuller loves telling the story that when his wife was his "assistant" and he had a particularly bloody surgery, Mrs. Fuller would hand Dr. Fuller a mop and say, "You put the blood on the floor. You need to clean it up!" Dr. Fuller is sure that he is the only surgeon who ever had to mop his own Operating Room floor.

We are living the words of Jesus from the Gospel of John, "Thus the saying 'One sows and another reaps' is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor." (John 4:37 & 38)

Jerry

Premature Baby

Friday night we admitted a baby from the jungle. She was born at 7 months, 2 months early. She was the color purple, like a nasty bruise, from the waist down. Her skin was almost glassy smooth, not normal for a full 9 month baby. She weighed a little over 4 pounds.

It is a horrible situation. Her odds of survival here are really poor. Even in Quito, her odds of survival are really poor. Mom is 16 and Dad is 20. How do you explain to two children that their first child will probably die? We told them we will do everything we can, which we will, but that the odds of her leaving the hospital alive are less than 10%. Mom cried.

It's a scene we work through often. A baby with no prenatal care is born early. We work our tails off, they looks good for about 3 to 5 days, then they start spiraling down and die in a couple of days later. The whole process usually takes a week.

I find it heart breaking. One of my first questions to God, at least from this side of Heaven, would be, "Why do innocent little babies suffer and die?" I don't know the answer. I don't have any clue.

Someone smarter than me said it is because people are sinners and the wages of sin is death. He assured me that the baby didn't sin, but that because she is human, and humans sin, she suffers unfairly. It is like the students at Virginia Tech who never hurt the crazy kid who shot them, they were just the caught in the crossfire of his sin or mental illness. This baby is an innocent victim of the crossfire of human sin.

So today the little baby from the jungle with a child for a mother is OK. If she survives even a month it will be a miracle, but we have to work as if the miracle is coming, but not get our hopes up too high, so that when the worst happens, we aren't too broken hearted. The thing is, no matter how pessimistic I am, it still kills me when these babies die.

Children dying is the part of missionary medicine that I absolutely hate.

God be with you,
Jerry and Elizabeth
Koleski

Clemencia Puwanchin

Clemencia Puwanchin left the hospital today. She was a 32 year old woman I met on a malaria caravan to the jungle over two months ago. She had been sick for one year and four months; bed bound for the last eight months. She was totally blind - she could see light and dark, but not shapes or human forms in front of the light.

We brought her in with the team that went to the jungle. she had to be helped to walk to the airstrip in the middle of town. Her belly was huge, like a woman pregnant for a year and a half might look. Her community had given her up for dead, but not her husband.

We had no idea what was wrong with Clemencia until we got her to the hospital in Shell. It turned out she had diabetes. For the lack of $1 per day in medicine, she lost her sight and almost died.

We treated Clemencia's diabetes, and she started gaining weight and getting energy, but she still was blind. Our ophthalmologist came from Quito, and he operated on one cataract, and a two days later, she could see. We had to keep Clemencia and her husband at our hospital for two more weeks because her diabetes put her at risk fo infection to the eye, which would have cost her newly gained sight.

Clemencia and Jose went home for two weeks, so she could see the faces of her children, which she hadn't seen in over a year. She just came back, had surgery on her other eye, and now she has the binocular vision we almost all take for granted. She has gained weight, is doing the things she used to do, and is about the happiest patient I have seen for years.

In the Bible, the book of John, chapter 9, God tells a great story:
1As he [Jesus] went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"

3"Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. ..."

6Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man's eyes. 7"Go," he told him, "wash in the Pool of Siloam". So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

The miracle that Jesus did more than any other in the Bible was to give eyesight to the blind. It's a metaphor for how we are blind to the things that really matter in life, like God, as we chase the brass rings of physical beauty, new cars, new clothes, and all the other idols we think we can't live without. Clemencia saw all that the modern world has to offer; TV, SUVs and the latest fashions, but none of that compared to seeing her own children's faces.

It's really a privilege to have a bit role in a miracle. Here in Shell we get that privilege often. Have you thought how great it is to have two eyes? Have you thanked God for that gift? We thank God for you.

Blessings,
Jerry