Life Lately
It has been too long since my last post! We have been very busy around here, and I have so much to share about. The Lord is working through this ministry in a great way, and I am so grateful to have a front row seat. The following pictures are a glimpse of life lately at Esther's House.
The kids received new shoes! Things wear out rather quickly in Malawi, and this was one of the things that we have been needing to replace. After a couple of trips to various markets, we successfully found good shoes for all of our residential kids at E.H. You would have thought it was Christmas morning... they were so excited. After our first go at buying the right sizes, Stacy and I took the shoes to E.H. and had the kids each try on their pair. Almost all of them fit! There were 3 or 4 pairs of shoes that were entirely too large, so we told those children that we would bring them a better pair the next morning. We had a few pouty faces that evening, but the next day we kept our promise and they received their shoes as promised. Thank goodness we got it right on the second try! Precious' shoes were definitely a little big, but there was absolutely no way we were prying those new tennis shoes off of his feet. I wish that you all could have seen him run off with his new shoes... running quite funny, but with the biggest grin you've ever seen.
In the picture above is Asau with his new shoes. We also got each child a pair of flip flops to wear around the Esther's House compound.
These children are holding their breakfast porridge, Vitameal, which I have told you about before. Love these faces.
One of the things that is keeping us very busy is our home visitation program. This month we have started a program in which we visit the guardians of all of our children. Honestly, this is so important. While the community children do spend a lot of time with us during the week, ultimately, they still go home to their guardians. It is vital that we are working to be on the same page with them. It is a partnership, and we want to do all we can to assist them in this process. We knew that this would be a good program; however, God has blown us away with the results of our visits. In the short time that we have begun, five of our guardians have accepted Christ for the first time. Just a few days ago, we sat down with a mother to two of our community boys and shared with her the gospel. Not only did she give her life to Christ, but she quit her job to be obedient to the Lord. She owned a business preparing and selling alcohol in her village. She had just prepared several bottles to be sold, and after talking with us she made the decision to dump the bottles and trust the Lord for provision until she could find other work! Are you hearing this? We are so excited. Below is a picture from one of these visitations. We shared Christ to the grandmother/guardian of one of our girls. She had stopped going to church after she lost her husband and daughter. She too, realized she had never truly been saved and accepted Christ during our meeting. A friend of this lady was sitting nearby with her tiny new baby. She was so nice to let me steal him for a little while - only two weeks old! New life all around us; we are so grateful.
Stacy and I try our best to work with the kids each day on english in various ways. Last week I got out the sidewalk chalk and we had lots of fun. We practiced saying colors and numbers and all sorts of things.
And we got a little messy too...
Last Monday we attended the funeral of one of our own widows. Nelly had been in our program for some time and passed away after being in the hospital for over a month. Thankfully, we had decided to check in on her just a couple of days before her death. We were able to sit and pray with her and it was a special time. Pay attention to those times when you can tell the Spirit is leading you. Maybe it is visiting a sick friend, pursuing the healing of a broken relationship, or taking the time to pray for someone who the Lord has specifically put on your heart. We don't know how much time we have! Ephesians 5 comes to mind. This is how The Message translation puts it...
"Wake up from your sleep,
Climb out of your coffins;
Christ will show you the light!
So watch your step. Use your head. Make the most of every chance you get. These are desperate times! Don't live carelessly, unthinkingly. Make sure you understand what the Master wants."
The very next day, as we arrived at Esther's House, we found that our facilities manager, Jailos, was not there. He normally beats us in the mornings and so we called to see what was up. He explained that his wife was in the hospital. By the way he talked it did not seem too serious, so we continued with our work, planning to check in on him later that day. As we were leaving Tuesday afternoon, Getrude (house mom) asked if we had heard about Esther, Jailos' wife. We responded, telling her that we weren't sure what she was sick with. Getrude's next words to us were shocking to say the least. Our jaws dropped when she explained that Esther was not sick, but rather she had had a baby! NO ONE had known she was even pregnant! We were all so surprised. For some reason, Esther did not want anyone to know of her pregnancy. But sure enough, when we arrived at the hospital later that evening we found this precious baby girl. Both Esther and the baby were in great health.
Below is our friend Jailos, and his new baby girl! She was quite the surprise to them as well. Jailos turns 51 this week; they were not planning on having any more children! But the surprises didn't end there. As we were visiting the new mother and baby, Jailos asked Stacy and I to name her! We were up all night thinking of names. I threw out Emily, and we both liked it. We told Jailos and Esther the next day and they agreed - Emily it is :)
States (Stacy, as the Malawians say) and I worked on a new mural for the classroom. We had a great time painting. This isn't quite finished, but you can get the idea.
I feel like this picture below almost all of the time it seems. But these cute kids keep me going. I think I am going to sleep for a week straight when I get home!
Today, Stacy conquered driving the 3-ton Dyna truck! We are learning new things every day.
The German orphanage, which is approximately an hours drive from us, has an awesome wood working shop. A few weeks ago we asked them to build us new book cases for the classroom at E.H. They were ready for pick-up today and we were able to put them in their new spot. As you can see below, the community kids love helping with things like this.
And finally... a picture of my favorites :) They are showing off their yogurt that we brought them. Nobody working and no kids in school on this national holiday in Malawi. Happy Mother's Day!! Ha!
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