May 13-18
Seon Hee is a Korean missionary with two boys, Cion and Habien. Her husband, who works with computers, is in Germany while she is here. She works with the Synod Office in Nkhoma visiting the elderly in the Village and planning programs for them. Many of them have never been away from their Village. Seon Hee planned a field trip into Lilongwe on Friday to sight see.

Lilongwe is the Capitol of Malawi, and Friday was their national holiday celebrating their independence from Great Britain. Thus, it was a good day to go into the city. Seon Hee asked me to go along to help push a wheelchair and to help lead the blind. I went to Seon Hee’s house at 8 am. Friday with the delicious cookies that I had Beria, our cook, to make for our lunch. The bus was to come at 8am for us to pack the lunch we were taking for the group. Five of the group from the Village were so excited about the trip that they arrived at Seon Hee’s at 6:30 a.m. ready to go
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The five were Rezina and Geraldy, husband and wife, who are both blind, and Felina, Chifuniro, and Salome, who each lack speech. In a 22 passenger mini van we packed ten containers of lunch food and materials, 3 wheelchairs, a keyboard, and 33 people. Thank heavens 8 of them were children even though they each took up a seat (a half seat is more like what many got)! The group had 4 in wheelchairs, four blind persons, 5 with extreme walking problems (with their sticks they were amazing to watch walk), and 2 men who walked on their hands and knees. Packed as sardines, we were surprisingly a very pleasant group of travelers!! It was incredible to see how excited they were about going to a town 60 miles away from home, the first time for some of them!

I was the only one with a camera. Thus I became the official photographer for the group. The Lord is sure using me to exercise the talents I lack! Thank heavens I am improving a little in some of them. Jim had always been my photographer, and I didn’t think I needed a camera. It turns out to be a wonderful gift from the PWS folks. I take many pictures and love deleting those that aren’t so good!! I want to make sure those who can see have the opportunity to see themselves at the historic spots when they get home and can recall the happy time that was had by all.

The trip to and from reminded me of the many church youth group trips to camps. There was singing and laughter all the way there. The African singing is beautiful. They really know how to praise the Lord with their voices and, it is inevitable that they enjoy the exercise.

Malawi is developing a huge government complex around a newly construct Parliament House. Adjacent
to the Parliament House is a monument to President Kamuzu, who was president for 31 years. During his term of office Malawi won their independence. A beautiful monument and burial place with lovely landscaping has been erected. Everyone wanted their picture taken there. There was a nice tour guide there to explain everything in both English and Chichewa.

We visited a Korean mission hospital in Lilongwe that is only 2 years old. It is a small hospital built and run by the Koreans. A nurse who has been there for 16 years has had a tremendous vision for a nursing school which has been established and a medical college which is being planned. There is already nursing housing and a few individual staff homes build around the hospital which is located on the top of a low mountain which overlooks the city. The facility is beautiful. In the receiving area they have a stage. The back of the stage is open to a garden area, and just off the back of the stage is a fish pond. The children sat on the edge of the stage and splashed their hands in the water and watched the gold fish swim. The villagers got up on stage to sing and dance. They had a wonderful time entertaining the people who were waiting in the receiving area of the hospital. Many gathered around the stage. The leader of the singing was one of the men who walked on his knees and hands. The keyboard player was in a wheelchair.

On the little mountain top the hospital has a beautiful 360 degree view. We enjoyed our lunch on their grounds, and then traveled to Lake Malawi to a youth camp. Down by the water our minister had a devotional for us as we sat on the grass. We got home after dark and some of the people had to stay in town to wait for the sunrise to begin their walk back to their village. That was confusing, but we finally managed to get everyone settled for the night. It was refreshing to see the excitement of those people over their trip. We have heard from the visitors at the hospital how moved they were to see such handicapped people as happy as could be all on the stage entertaining everyone with their singing praises and dancing. It was a remarkable experience for me. There were some church elders in the hospital and seeing those happy handicaped folks all on stage entertaining others and obviously enjoying it made them say. “We are going home and change our attitude about the handicap folks we have in our area. Those handicapped people helped us to see how happy and entertaining they can be interacting with others.” They were sure their church could do something like that also!!

We had Bible Study tonight and I heard that the PWNC missionaries arrived in Lilongwe this afternoon. That means they will be here in the morning, I am thinking. I thought it would be late afternoon before they arrived in Nkhoma. I am excited that they are here. I must get to bed.