An Unexpected Blessing

One Sunday in April we visited the litte church in Mphanda Village. The service was sort of solemn and lifeless. The singing was not lively as it has been in the past, but when Larry preached they were all attentive and laughed when he joked with them and even clapped a few times. During his sermon, some visitors walked in and sat down. After the preaching we expected to partake of the Lord's Supper and there was no communion prepared. The church leader asked for the choir to stand up and sing. There was no choir. After asking a few more times, the women began rustling and talking amongst themselves seeing who would get up and sing. Then the visitors went outside and got some instruments and brought them to the front and began playing and singing. It was so beautiful....reminded us of a hillbilly band with home-made instruments. The guitars were made with metal gas cans for the box part and a carved stick for the neck. Two of them had 3 strings and one had 4. The bass was a large stringed instrument with 2 strings and the box part doubled as a bass drum. We were so blessed. These men visit other churches and bless them with their music. Their music was a blessing and we were amazed at the quality.

Please keep this congregation in your prayers. One of the church leaders lost a child a few weeks ago. That along with some other issues is really weighing heavy on their hearts. Larry will begin next week to go out and spend time with the leaders, hearing their needs and teaching them. As always, we also need prayer when we go out because we are really "piercing the darkness" in our work in that village.

The harvest begins...

Although the maize (the staple food) isn't ready for harvesting yet, Malawians are beginning to enjoy the first fruits of their labor. March 24th was our last famine relief delivery. One very generous lady was so grateful for the maize she received for her family during the famine that she gave a thank-you gift and inspired the entire group to also give a gift. The group has invited us to return on Tuesday, March 31 to receive the gift of gratitude.

.....receiving more gifts!

We received over 20 pumpkins from the villagers as their thank you gift for the maize they received during the famine. These ladies loaded the pumpkins in the back seat of our car. Pumpkins in Africa are more like squash than the orange pumpkins grown in the USA. We enjoy them just the same as the orange ones - with butter, brown sugar and cinnamon or in pie, muffins, cakes, and pancakes. What a yummy gift!

What a sweetheart!

This one is really special! HIV positive and growing strong and more beautiful each day. She is three years old now.

One of the things we love....

One of the highlights of any visit to the village is the beautiful reception we receive from the children. This little girl wouldn't leave Mandy alone until she picked her up for a hug. Even while she was speaking, Mandy was distracted by this little one tugging at her skirt. What a joy to have a hug and a smile from Gilberta.

Preparing 160 Bags of Maize

All the maize we received had to be put into 50 kg bags. Most of the bags it came in were holey and maize spilled out onto the concrete in our driveway. Mandy started sewing up (by hand) each of the finished bags together at the top so the bags would hold all the maize.

God's Beautiful Provision

One of our most frustrating issues has been in our dealings with maize suppliers. Many of them have proven to be dishonest and don't like dealing with foreigners. Finally the Lord put us in touch with a good supplier who sold us over 10 tons of maize and delivered it and unloaded it all for a good price. We were overwhelmed by the amount of work that had to be completed before we could deliver it within two days. As we dove in and tried to get it done, the Lord also provided eight more workers (via a good friend of ours) who helped us complete putting the maize into 160 bags of 50 kg. It was amazing to see how it was all accomplished by the Lord's mighty hand. The people were so grateful that they could feed their families for another month.

God is so good!

Doctor's Appointment in Jo'burg

God has a sense of humor and His blessings come hidden in tragedy. We sometimes have to see a broken heart (heart problems) as a way of drawing closer to Him and when we do, we find there are blessings waiting.

Three months ago, Mandy experienced severe chest pains after a hard, hot day in the village. After being flown to Johannesburg South Africa by air ambulance, a cardiologist found that she had an artery that was 99% clogged and inserted two stents.

She's had a long recovery, and we flew back to Jo'burg for a follow up appointment on February 3. The doctor did a stress test and an ultrasound and said her heart is fine, but the only problem seems to be that her blood clots and the clots get caught in her heart. As long as she stays on the medicine (not found in Malawi) she should be fine. We stocked up on the meds and we're praying that there will be no problems with getting the insurance company to pay for them.

We decided to spend a few days resting and shopping (and visiting friends in Mozambique) for about 10 days and then flew back to Malawi on February 13. The break was the most needed break we've ever taken and we have seen the blessings in the tragedy.

Preaching in Mozambique

Time with special friends

We took a side trip after Mandy's doctor appointment and rode about 8 hours by Greyhound bus to Maputo Mozambique and visited friends, Don and Aleta and Zac Hulsey. It was a good time of sharing and encouraging each other. Larry enjoyed preaching at Don's church and his sermon was translated into Portuguese and Shangaan.

Larry tried to speak Chichewa to the nationals, but none of them understood. Northern Mozambique is close enough to Malawi that the nationals there speak Chichewa, but these southerners speak Portuguese and Shangaan. But we also visited another friend in Maputo. Jamene Sangulakula, formerly from Malawi, works for World relief. He understood Larry's Chichewa and we also enjoyed our time with Jamene.

In the picture, Jamene is cooking a favorite Malawian breakfast, maize porriage. It was really yummy.