NAOC: Caring For Malawi's Children

10/11/2008 Our Indian friends called me to come to town and pick up some food items. The food gift was donated to celebrate a wedding in India, and the NAOC party will be on the very same day.

I brought home large amounts of: cabbage, tomatoes, beans, rice, sugar, cooking oil, salt, Kamba (corn curls), and cookies!

We told all the children to make sure to come back, and not miss out on the food and fun.

10/13/2008 We had a very wonderful time yesterday celebrating the wedding. First, we had much food...more than we could eat! Then, the children had great fun with 150 water balloons donated by a friend from the States. Many of the children had never seen any such thing.

They laughed, screamed and ran around throwing them at each other until the balloons were all gone and the kids were totally drenched!

Here's today's exciting events from Pastor Nancy:

Hi Everyone!

Well, what a day it was! The children were here in good time, and so-o-o happy and excited! I took many photos, and videotaped everything, and am attaching three. I will later take individual photos and send them along.

After dressing they went to the back veranda for breakfast, then to the sitting room for devotions, prayer, and instructions - then out the door. Bro. Chanunkha came to escort them. Elufe was so very helpful getting them ready and then took their lunches to them.

About the time for school to be over it started to rain hard, so she went with umbrellas. They came in all excited and each showed me their work of the day and were so proud. They ate supper and left, and Elufe washed all the uniforms for tomorrow - hope they dry tonight!!

Well - that's about it - but it was a very wonderful day - Praise Him!!

A shelf was put up in the kitchen for neatly storing the kid's shoes and bookbags.

Additional explanation per Pastor's email:

Below the school bags are containers for water, as the water is off every day. It sometimes comes on in the night and the watchmen fill these, larger ones, and a drum during the night."

Greetings Everyone!

These photos are of our littlest ones - the beginning of our pre-school
program. They just come for food now and hopefully, prayerfully, we will
soon have a teacher for them.

As I said before, this Grandmother brought these children last year - I remember her. They are... her late children's children. Her husband also died in the past year. Oh my.

Mwachonde, 5 years old, and his 6 year old sister, Pulisila, were brought by
their grandmother last week. She said that I told her a year ago to bring
them back later when they were older because we didn't have a program for
the pre-school children. I remember her. Pulisila is in Standard One at
Namatete School.

The day they came to apply, we fed them all. The little ones have come
every day since.

Mwachonde is a sad little boy - I have never seen him smile. However, we
wrapped him in the blanket and he was very contented to sit there in the
chair. Pastor Chisale said he was the Group Village Headman! Ha!

Thank-you so much for your sharing and caring.

** Our pre-school enrollment now includes four sets of twins!! **

Per Pastor Nancy:

Yes, our kids are growing up - but God is bringing in some little ones! A couple of months ago, guardians/mothers/grandmothers of little ones (between three and five years old) began coming with their children for help. We agreed to let them come for the meals twice a day, and then decided we also should help to educate them. By the way, we also are feeding two mothers of two of these families and their nursing toddlers because of their great need.

So, at my request, the City Assembly people came, inspected, approved, and certified us to begin a pre-school program, and also suggested that I take classes in pre-school teaching to be certified, through the District Social Welfare Department. I did that and also have my certificate.

We have 15 now, four of whom are above the age five limit for pre-school, but since they have never been to school we are allowing them to also come. We will send them on to their Standard 1 class in January. Right now we just spend a little time with them in the morning after breakfast, they come back for lunch, play awhile and go home when the afternoon primary classes begin. We plan to begin our full program in January - with classes from 9:00 a.m. until 12:00 noon.

The mortality rate of children between birth and five years in Malawi is one of the highest in the world, and the government here is vitally interested in pre-school programs. It is a blessing to be able to give them food and see them progress.

Per Pastor Nancy's email:

We had a most wonderful time yesterday, with the majority of our children here - and very, very happy. Twenty-three were absent...others had gone to their villages for the holiday. We will give everyone their t-shirts when they return. The group photo also includes 4 teachers. The children really loved them.

As you can see, our some of our celebration took place in our 'village church' in the yard and it worked very, very well. We certainly could not have fit everyone in the house! We first had our wonderful lunch of rice and chicken (Malawian's very favorite food)! Then watched the Genesis Project (account of the Nativity from the Book of Luke), then the performance, then giving of t-shirts, playing games, and having snacks. They also enjoyed watching themselves on the video, which Lameck just recorded. They loved it - everything. I don't think I have ever seen the kids so happy!!

Per Pastor Nancy:

Sending along the photos of the children from our time at The Beit CURE International Hospital. There were only a few patients because they had just re-opened after being closed for the holidays.

The children did well, and we had a great time. About halfway through, the guardians AND staff members got up and joined in with the performance ... as did Jeho! All of the songs but three are Gospel, and the hospital is Christian, so everyone knows the songs. They want us to return, which we hope to do quarterly. The kids are eating chocolate bars which the Pastor there gave them on our way out.

Although Christmas came a bit late to the children at Noah's Ark Orphan Care in Metaketa (due to the rainy season); they were blessed to receive NAOC T-shirts and new shoes. I think they would been smiling a lot more if the sun wasn't in their eyes!

Per Pastor Nancy:

Pastor Chisale came yesterday (January 31st) and brought photos of the children with their Christmas gifts. He said they are very happy.

Busy mornings at NAOC as RGS students come for breakfast and uniforms, and head off to classes.