Life at the Nursury

Here’s a few pictures from a day in our nursery.




Here are the boys getting a suntan on the patio. L to R – Blessings, Mphatso, Loti, Jacob and Samson








This is babysitting Malawi style. Mama Sophret is one of our best nannies and does her best to keep them happy.









Bridget and Mphatso clowning for the camera

Visitors

This week has been quite a busy week for us here in Mzuzu.  Besides the usual day to day caring for our own family and the babies, home schooling, training nannies and fixing all the things that don’t work we have had visitors from the United States.  On Friday we had a van with 8 people that are here doing short term medical work stop by to see us.  The nursery was jam packed with people as they came right at shift change and my day nannies were not about to leave and miss all the action.  So our 2 bedrooms and hallway were full of 4 nannies, 7 babies, 8 visitors and my family.  In spite of the crowd it was wonderful to share our ministry with them.  They ladies in the group fell in love with the babies and my nannies weren’t quite sure about sharing them.  They brought a trunk from my dear sister and brother in law (thanks Debby and Jay) and they also brought a trunk full of baby things—diapers, clothes, baby oil, powder and a money contribution from their church.  It was quite a blessing to say the least.  Most of the group are from Atlanta which is where the Dimmock’s are on furlough (Nancy Dimmock started the first crisis nursery in her home in Lilongwe in 2002) and Nancy told them what to bring us. 

Tonight (Sunday) we had a group of 4 stop by—a couple that were missionaries here in Malawi many years ago and left in 1988 and their son and daughter in law.  They brought their son and his wife as they had never been to Malawi and the older couple wanted to see how Malawi had changed in 25 years.  They also knew Nancy so they too brought baby things based on her recommendation.  Our cup truly runneth over!

If anyone else wants to know more about our ministry first hand we would love to welcome you to Malawi—we truly enjoy having visitors.  We even have a guest house if you need a place to stay! 

 

Lisa

 

 

 

Blessings is a "blessing"

Here are some pictures of Blessings. He has become a delightful little boy which is a huge change from when he came. He has become all boy and getting underfoot and into everything. We bought him a walker with a gift that was given to us and it has been such a huge help. He also loves music and will just sit in front of the tape player in his walker and bounce to the music. We have a drum that he especially likes to beat on and he just smiles from ear to ear.











































Take a look at our post when we first got him so you
can see the change in his appearance. He has taken a special place in our hearts.

Lisa

Praise the Lord for His Goodness

It has been a very eventful week in the area of supplying needs.  A while back we made it known that because we had grown rather quickly, we had a need for more supplies for the children (blankets, clothes, diapers, etc.).  This week the Lord met that need through many of you.  We received 3 trunks of items collected by family and friends that were brought from the U.S. by missionaries coming to Malawi, one box sent by friends near White Salmon, and three parcels from friends in Nova  Scotia.  Many of the items were quite timely and all were greatly appreciated, both by us and the little children.  THANKS VERY MUCH and may the Lord bless each one of you who played a part in supplying the needs of the orphans!

Andy

Family Picture

Here is a picture of all of us holding 5 of our babies outside the nursery wing.














From left to right—Matthew, Andrew holding Blessings, Andy, Sarah holding Mphatso, Lisa holding Jacob, Alina, Kris holding Leah and Jared holding Samson.

Nanny Blues

Just when I think things are coming together with my nannies I have ones that don’t show for work.  Last Saturday, before I had arranged the schedule to have 2 night caregivers, my night nanny sent friends to tell us that her brother died and she wouldn’t be to work for 3 days because of the funeral.  Why 3 days you all say.  Well here in Malawi funerals are a big deal and a huge part of the culture.  I don’t know enough to explain it but when a family member dies you are obligated to go to the funeral.  It is a huge issue for the Christians here as they are reminded A LOT of the verse in Luke 9, “And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.  Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God. And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house.  And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” They will miss church and other commitments to attend funerals.  They also borrow money from their white friends and employers to buy coffins and pay for the funeral expenses.  We were warned to prepare for this but it still catches you off guard especially when you have babies that need cared for.

So on Saturday, all my children pitched in and we took shifts during the night.  I was very pleased at how they all wanted to help, even Matthew and Andrew my two youngest boys.  I took the shift from 8 until 1 am; Sarah and Matthew were with me for most of that time (even though Sarah slept through it all); Kris stayed from 1 to 3 am; Jared stayed from 3 to 5 am.  When I got up at 5 to check on them Matthew and Andrew were also in there helping out.  I was so proud of them all.

Back to the nannies—thankfully the next day I was able to get a hold of another nanny (you can’t call most of them because they don’t have phones) and she showed up and worked for my missing nanny.  Eventually the nanny that was at the funeral came back on shift after 3 nights of being gone.  Two days later a different nanny was sick but was diligent enough to contact one of my nannies to work for her.  Then today, the sick nanny didn’t show up and didn’t contact anyone about working for her.  My dayshift ladies were very concerned and one volunteered to stay the night even though she had just worked 12 hours and she has an 11 yr. old daughter at home.  I asked who would care for her daughter and she said that there were other people that live at her home.  “But won’t they be concerned when you don’t show?” I asked.  She didn’t seem to think so.  This is definitely a different culture.

I hope I haven’t rambled too much but I definitely am being stretched in patience.  I would love to just do it all myself but that limits how many children we can reach and I know that God is using this to refine ME.

 

Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. James 1:3-4

 

A Picture of Leah

Here’s a picture of little Leah who came to the nursery yesterday. She is a little over 2 weeks old and her mother died at delivery. Her aunt was caring for her at the hospital, but she has 5 children at home to care for as well as her late sister’s other 4, so adding a new baby that requires formula is out of the question. Continue to pray for these little ones, that God’s hand would guide their lives as He is their only hope with such a dark future.

Lisa

I Know I Said We Were Full But...

I guess it all depends on your definition of full—right?  We picked up baby #7 today from the hospital.  She is a precious little girl named Leah and she is 2 weeks old.  Her mother died at childbirth and left behind 4 other children.  Her aunt has been caring for her but she has 5 of her own and now she has to care for her dead sister’s 4 children too.  Life is definitely not easy here; so much death, poverty and hopelessness. 

We agreed to take her because I am working my nannies extra days and have 2 more nannies that will I will train this week and start next week.  My nannies are very happy to work the extra days because we pay them time and ½.  They will make 500 kwacha a day compared to 300 kwacha.  FYI, 500 kwacha is equal to $3.50.  It doesn’t sound like much but most of my nannies who worked as nannies elsewhere only made 3000k a month and we are paying 5000k a month.  They think they have struck it rich by working here.

Back to the baby…everyone, my children and my nannies were thrilled that we got another girl.  We were starting to think that we were a boy’s orphanage as we had 5 boys and 1 girl. She looks a lot like Bridget but just smaller.  She weighs 3 kg (6.6 lbs.) and is adorable.  I will try and post a picture tomorrow.

Now I can put all the pink baby clothes on her instead of the boys.  Here in Malawi they wear whatever clothes are available so they don’t understand our custom of putting pink on girls and blue on boys.  Generally the boys end up looking like girls and at their age it’s hard to tell what sex they are anyway.  In addition, they call the boys “she” as they don’t have a word in their language for “he” and “she.”  So all my boys are called “she” and are dressed in pink! 

 

 

More Pictures of the Babies

Fatty Mphatso

Lunch Time African Style

School Time

Double Standards & other Musings

Well, our work here in Malawi must be almost done…  Madonna is finally here with her plane-load of money.  This must mean that everything will soon be better. The newspaper story we read said she plans to adopt a baby while here and take it home.  Quite interesting, since there is no simple international adoption process in Malawi.  Other people who have been here doing mission work and have adopted children have found that the process takes well over a year, and you need to be in the country while it is going on.  I guess Madonna will be around for a while.  Actually, this points out one of the problems here, graft and corruption are woven into the infrastructure of all that goes on.  This means that the $3 million dollars Madonna is allegedly bringing will most likely go to buy new Landcruisers and houses for people in government, not to help the needs of the orphans.  The discussion in the article talked of a feeding center for orphans, which is a resource that has been provided hundreds of times over in Malawi (Ministry of Hope has 6 of them).  The cost is on the order of $20,000-$50,000, at least from the experience I have seen.  I don’t think most of the “big money” people realize that feeding orphans only food so they can grow up and live the same lifestyle that promotes AIDS and STDs as their parents won’t fix the problem.  The population needs to be fed spiritually as well, so they change from the lifestyle that brings this heartache to the country.  God has clearly told man how to behave, and following His guidance will stop the spread of AIDS.

 

So I guess the bottom line is, if any of you back home want to adopt a Malawian orphan, all you need is a few million to contribute to the “orphan problem” and you’re home free.

 

The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender. Proverbs 22:7

Double Standards & other Musings

Well, our work here in Malawi must be almost done…  Madonna is finally here with her plane-load of money.  This must mean that everything will soon be better. The newspaper story we read said she plans to adopt a baby while here and take it home.  Quite interesting, since there is no simple international adoption process in Malawi.  Other people who have been here doing mission work and have adopted children have found that the process takes well over a year, and you need to be in the country while it is going on.  I guess Madonna will be around for a while.  Actually, this points out one of the problems here, graft and corruption are woven into the infrastructure of all that goes on.  This means that the $3 million dollars Madonna is allegedly bringing will most likely go to buy new Landcruisers and houses for people in government, not to help the needs of the orphans.  The discussion in the article talked of a feeding center for orphans, which is a resource that has been provided hundreds of times over in Malawi (Ministry of Hope has 6 of them).  The cost is on the order of $20,000-$50,000, at least from the experience I have seen.  I don’t think most of the “big money” people realize that feeding orphans only food so they can grow up and live the same lifestyle that promotes AIDS and STDs as their parents won’t fix the problem.  The population needs to be fed spiritually as well, so they change from the lifestyle that brings this heartache to the country.  God has clearly told man how to behave, and following His guidance will stop the spread of AIDS.

 

So I guess the bottom line is, if any of you back home want to adopt a Malawian orphan, all you need is a few million to contribute to the “orphan problem” and you’re home free.

 

The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender. Proverbs 22:7

Baby Number 6!

I know we said that our nursery was full and couldn’t take anymore babies but…we now have baby number 6 and this time we mean it—WE ARE FULL!! 

Yesterday, little Loti came to join us.  He is 2 months old and his mother died when he was a month old.  He has been cared for by his aunt since then.  We were told about him 3 weeks ago but since his family lives in another town nothing was done.  Yesterday the social officer from that area brought the father, aunt and baby to Mzuzu so we could take him.  At the social welfare office I noticed that he had a charm around his neck so when we got home we prayed over him and cut it off.  He also had marks on his stomach that looked like a rope burn but my nannies said it was black medicine and that they (the African doctor) had cut him with a razor to cure the sickness in his stomach.  It just broke our heart but made us so thankful that we had taken him. 

 

Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:  Colossians 1:12-14

 

We now have 2 nannies on shift during the day but we need to hire 2 more nannies to cover the night shift and until we do we honestly can’t take another baby.  My night nanny is great but 5 babies are more than enough!  Please pray that we can find 2 more nannies that speak English.  All my nannies can read and write English but a few don’t speak it too well.  I need at least one nanny a shift that speaks English well so somebody can understand me.

 

How They Change

I wanted everyone to see the difference in Blessings since we brought him to the nursery. The first picture was taken shortly after he came to live with us and the second was taken yesterday. In less than 2 weeks he has become a very happy little guy. As you know from our other posts, he was very sick last week but the last 2 days he has been eating well and crawling all over the nursery. It is so exciting to see them change that I love sharing these pictures with those of you who are following our ministry.

Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think…Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus

Ephesians 3:20-21

Laundry and Babies

We are learning how to do things the African way. Here is a picture of me (Lisa), Blessings and Alina hanging up laundry. We don’t have bouncy seats or any other of the gadgets that we use in the US to keep our babies out of the way instead we just put them on our back and wrap a chitenje around them. It works amazingly well. The baby likes being close to its mother and the mother can get something done. Blessings (the baby on my back), has gone from being terrified of me to wanting to be with me all the time. He is way too big to carry in my arms all the time so the chitenje is a great solution.