A very busy week

Wow! I am overwhelmed with the number of important events of the last 4 days! Monday, the target day for numerous government offices. We had a very favorable response from the Office of Social Welfare - I think they were kind of steamrolled by the letter that was written. The District Manager was in the office, he received the letter and promised a quick response. We went to the Water Board, the Electrical supply company, the tax revenue board, the land title office, the traffic bureau to register the truck, the insurance office to purchase insurance on the truck, then back to the Social Welfare department to drop off phone numbers for them to reach us. We picked up medications from a local pharmacy needed for some visits that were made, visited a copy store, laminated the registration and insurance documents, and then sent Frank to join the men getting bricks. At the end of the day, we went to the property and met with the contractors to discuss some proposals they had given us. It was an amazing day, during which time we also had opportunity to speak to the previous truck owner about his spiritual need. We are thinking that perhaps he is set aside for salvation, as much as the Lord has given us contact with him...

By Tuesday morning, the only thing that hadn't been dealt with was the water board issue. We paid 8 months ago for water to be brought to the property, and still hadn't had any effort made to install the lines. We dedicated the morning to solving the issue, waited fro 2.5 hours for the representative to show up. He came to the property, told us that, if we found the main line and dug the trench, that he could have water for us the same day, as long as we gave him 2500 Kwacha (about $15) to buy a few needed supplies. We gave him the money, dug the dirch, and had water by the end of the day!! This official came cheaper than most. We went to Nkolokoti (proper spelling - previous reports were misspelled) to make medical visits on Wednesday, and were, once again, mobbed by needy folks, to the point of having to cut off and leave. We were able to minister to about 50 people there before the crowd pressed too tightly for comfort, and I was coming down with a respiratory infection by then, so it made the whole situation worse. We were dog-tired after the long climb and the intense medical needs. We visited the homes of several of the church members, WAY UP on the mountain, and were able to pray with them. Food has now been provided for 10 of the familes and 10 other orphans in Nkolokoti as well as the medicines. We rode 6-in-the-car to this event, the traffic police stopped our car and were very hostile to our driver for overloading his vehicle (not to mention that minibuses carry 23-24 persons down the same road every day). Evidently they were waiting for us to leave so that they could ask the driver for a bribe, and were irritated that I was staying there trying to help him get off the hook! 1000 Kwacha from Adam apparently made them able to forget the traffic violation. I didn't know anything about this at the time, but Adam told me later about it. We bought 2 officials in the same day! It is a way of life here.

We had an excellent conference this morning with the pastors and their wives. They had a time of very sincere praise and fun singing and dancing, followed by teachings on the need for rebuilding foundations of ethics, family, proper treatment of women, and Christian relationships. My voice, shaky at the beginning, was nearly completely gone by the end of the 2-hour teaching, and I was totally drained, but, praise to the Lord, I made it through, and I believe that the foundation work was very profitable and well-received. There will be a lot of interesting conversations between the spouses over the next few days. Perhaps the most powerful moment was this: There is a custom in Malawi that, if the husband dies, the husband's family has a right to come in and take whatever they want, leaving the wife with nothing. Using the oneness in marriage teaching of John Fichtner from Matthew 19 and Genesis 1-3, I showed the couples how evil and divisive this custom is, how it devalues women, how God considers them one, and that God made man and woman equal in the Garden of Eden, that the image of God is reflected in both together - so that it is not just imposing American ideas of womanhood on another culture, but trying to bring them back to God's ideal in the Garden. I charged each of the men to let their entire family know that they were not to take any of their wives property if they were to die, and charged each of the couples to rise in defense of the widows, move into their houses for a time to protect them from this great evil. The custom itself is just a symptom of how women are treated here. The men understood well, and the interaction with the couples after the session was amazing. The women felt so honored and liberated, it was great to be there. We will be taking all of the pastors and their families on a day trip to Majete Game Reserve tomorrow, all loaded on the back of the new truck. They are all very excited. The women in particular love the attention.

The project is on track, we have made our first purchase of cement at the much lower price, and, although we were thwarted on sevaral fronts by red tape, we succeeded in getting 240 bags delivered to the property yesterday. The men are fatigued from the constant work schedule, and I believe that they are looking forward greatly to the break tomorrow. 2 cement mixers are being rented, and the foundation should be poured by Monday. Brickwork for the substructure will be next. The snake attorney for the land purchase has given us a bill for services, greatly inflated (as you might expect, the "azungu factor"). We are still discussing how to handle this, as he has a document that is very important to us.

Last night, we paid a visit to the YWAM base in Cigumula, about 30 km from Blantyre, and met a number of very interesting characters. It was as if the Lord had orchestrated the whole thing (imagine that!!), with people responsible for 2 different orphanages just dropping in at the base leaders' house unannounced, with no knowledge of our being there. What a contrast - one of the orphanages is 2.5 hours away by car, with huge medical needs and no hospitals nearby, begging for help with medical care at the facility. The other was the "best orphanage in Malawi", the one visited by Madonna when she was adopting. They have excellent facilities anmd a swimming pool to boot. The ladies who came from this orphanage had been given an opportunity for 1 hour to present the gospel message to Madonna and her entourage, and they seized the opportunity. The contrast between the well-funded orphanage there in Cigumula and the baby home tended by the other missionary couple was stunning - again a reflection of the incredible inequities, even in the country itself.

More than that, the base leadres were also amazing, discussing a whole new approach they have been taking, based on the New Tribes experience in Papua/New Guinea - utilizing volunteer pastor/elders in home churches, one-on-one discipleship for extended periods of time to enable restructuring the missing foundations in the culture, and story-telling. I was struck by the similarities between this approach and that advocated for the post-modern generation. I really can see how the emphasis on Jesus, and particularly on the Holy Spirit as a power-generator, without the foundation of the character of the Father as displayed in the Old Testament, is harmful, and leaves open the door to syncretism, where the believers will just add Christ to their own religions - generally witchcraft or a witchcraft-Moslem mix in this culture. We heard incredible stories of demonic activity fueled by the witchcraft rituals and herbal remedies used throughout Malawi. I understood better about some troubling dreams I have had since I was here, and even Shawn had reported a similar occurrence during our January trip. We have no fear, because "He that is in us is greater than he that is in the world", but our spiritual senses are being honed while here. We have a great deal of information to process, but that will occur mostly on our return to the States.

Finances are holding up real well here, most of the projects are coming in at- or under-budget, but there is much to be done, and some of the later stages are more material-intensive, which will be more expensive and less predictable than what we have run into thus far. The need is here, we have been encouraged by those who are running these other orphanages to just go ahead and build, get the orphanage running, even if the official government channels are behind on their part. The biggest piece of advice given thus far is to GO SLOW, gradually increasing the number oorphans, paying close attention to careful staff selection and training, since the staff can bring disaster so easily to a project, either by abuse issues or by bringing witchcraft syncretism and inappropriate practices into the orphanage. They all were uniformly agreed that the staff would be the hardest and the most dangerous to provide in good quality, and that trying to provide staff rapidly for a rapidly expanding project would be deadly to the project.

On a different note, we have been informed that the need for orphanages in Zomba, a nearby city, FAR EXCEEDS the need in Ndirende. Blantyre is the second largest city in Malawi, and gets a disproportionate amount of attention. Outlying areas like Zomba get little or no attention. We have been asked by several different people if we are considering going to Zomba to help there. Who knows what the Lord is up to?

I knnow well that I have left out many important details, it is hard to get the time to report in a timely fashion when so much is going on. My chest cold has forced me to take the afternoon off, which is why I can respond today. I am feei\ling a bit better now, particularly since I don't have to talk (aka squeak) while typing. Pardon my grammar and spelling, I am so full of things that I can't go back and correct.

We love you all.

Rick & Wanda