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.

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