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.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Scholarship Update
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.
Monday, December 6, 2010
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
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
Sunday, November 28, 2010
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.
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.
Monday, November 15, 2010
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.
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.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
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.
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.
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.
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.
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