Birthday Party In the Nursury

This week we had two birthdays to celebrate. Bridget turned 2 on the 27^th and Mphatso turned 1 on the 28^th. Mphatso was our first baby and Bridget was the second baby in our nursery. We invited all the nannies and had a wonderful time. The ladies had practiced some hymns and traditional songs to sing for us. Our friend, Joshua Clark, from our home church was here to celebrate with us which made it an extra special day. As I looked at these babies I was so blessed to think that my family and my nannies all had a part in saving these two children. Both would not have survived if the nursery wasn’t here in Mzuzu. We are so thankful that we obeyed God’s call to come in spite of all the difficulties that we have experienced here and we are very thankful for all the prayers that have gone up on our behalf. We may be here doing the physical part but without the prayers of those of you that follow our work we would not have the strength to carry on. So on behalf of the babies and my family here in Malawi we thank you.
Lisa

The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
James 5:16

Our Newest Addition

We received another baby this week and it’s a GIRL! Her name is Yamikani (Yawmee Kawnee) and she is 2 months old. She isYamikani
the smallest baby we have ever had in the nursery as she only weights 1.8 kg which is slightly less than 4 lbs. We don’t have the specifics on her family yet but her mother died recently. It appears from her size that she hasn’t had much nourishment for a long time. We are so thankful for this new little one. Please pray that she will grow and stay healthy.

Prayer Request

The new executive director of Ministry of Hope is a man with a vision and action.  He visited our nursery last month and was very happy with what he saw.  He now wants us to begin building a stand alone nursery here in Mzuzu and wants to start construction by June.  The nursery would have the capacity for 20 babies and have better facilities for providing for their needs.  We are incredibly thrilled about this but we have one problem—we have to purchase land before we can build.  Now that may sound like a simple thing to most of you but here in Malawi it is not. 

The first step in purchasing land is to go to the Lands Department and ask if they have land to be purchased.  In our first meeting with them we were told to fill out an application, pay 1000 Kwacha ($8 US) and they would put us on a waiting list.  Andy went back yesterday and was told that there is no land to buy in our area and the only land is way out of town.  That creates a problem because all my nannies currently live relatively close to our home and walk to work.  If the nursery were built out of town we would have to pay transport fees to get them to work and that would be as much as their salary.  It would literally double the amount we currently pay for our workers.

The next step is to try and find land and then locate the owners to see if they would sell it to you.  We have found a few lots that look good but how to find the owners is next to impossible.  There is no office that you can go to and tell them the location and then they look it up on a computer and tell you who bought it.  Their files are huge books that they write everything on and somewhere it will say who owns what land but it’s not in a format that is easily available. 

Please pray that we will find the owners of the land that we are interested in and that they will be willing to sell it to us.  Pray also for wisdom for Andy as he oversees this building project.

“With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.” Mark 10:27

 

            Lisa

 

Medicine in Malawi or lack of

This week Monica, one of my nannies, called in sick for work.  We were leaving that day for Lilongwe so after calling in another nanny to cover for her we commenced our trip.  About an hour out of town we received a call from her neighbor that we needed to come and take Monica to the hospital as she had malaria.  In Malawi, “go to the hospital” usually means they need to go and get medicine and I assumed she just wanted me to pay for the medicine because we always do.  I explained that we were out of town and to stop by the nursery and pick up money so they could buy malaria medicine.  What I didn’t know was that they needed someone to literally take her to the hospital because she was so sick she couldn’t walk and had no way to get there. 

When I returned home two days later, I asked how she was doing and another nanny said that she had been admitted to the hospital (they had to hire a car to take her) but that they had no malaria drugs to give her so she went home the next day.  This astounds me because of the huge number of people that get malaria and die every year here.  I don’t know the statistics but it is a huge problem.  You see brand new Land Cruisers with UNICEF, WorldAid, FeedTheChildren and many others names, with each costing between $40,000 - $100,000 driving around but the hospitals have no medicine for the people.  It is possible to buy the medicine at the pharmacy but it costs more. 

We keep malaria medicine at the house for our employees and ourselves so when I returned I rushed to her home but her daughter had gone to the pharmacy that morning and purchased quinine.  The problem with quinine is that it feels like it will kill you and not the malaria.  Thankfully she is doing better each day and hoping to return to work next week.

 

Prayers for Blessings

Six weeks ago we delivered the first of the babies we have had back to extended family.  Little Blessings (14 months) went to live with his aunt and her husband, several of his cousins, and a brother (aged 5).  We felt the need to visit and help them with more food and clothing items and returned a few days later.  He was clothed with what we had left, had on shoes and diaper and seemed to be doing fine.  Today I returned with 3 of the caregivers who didn’t go the first time with some other staples that the family could use.  The circumstances seemed to have changed.  He met us crying, with soiled clothes, dirty face, no diaper, no shoes.  He had a runny nose, open sores and a distant look in his eyes.  He has completely adapted to the life in the village, like it or not.  He still remembers us as Sarah went along and she was the only one he wanted to go to.  We gave him some crackers and a new change of clothes and left him with a prayer.  It is heartbreaking to think of the life that lies before him, but he is in God’s hands.  Please pray that he will be cared for and somehow grow up to make a difference in the hopelessness that abounds here.

 

Andy

 

My Nannies

Currently, we have 9 nannies working in the nursery—two per shift with 1 used primarily for shopping and filling in.  Even though training has sometimes been a challenge I have come to love and cherish them.  Seven of the nine are widows with all of them having children.  Our goal was to only hire widows as we wanted to help orphans and widows according to James 1:27,  “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction.”  The two women that are married we already knew and trusted. 

I have been to the houses of three of them and I just wanted to cry. Even though they are living in what we would consider “slums” they were so excited about me visiting their homes.  Unlike a lot of us, and I’m pointing the finger at myself, who don’t want guests unless everything is perfect, these women showed me the true meaning of hospitality—it’s in your heart.  Most of their houses have no electricity, no indoor plumbing and broken down furniture that is in worse shape that what you see at our dumps in the states yet they are so excited for me to see their home and always invite me in.

We have developed a special bond during the past few months.  These women never ask me for things like some of our other help does.  I give them our used up oil jugs, peanut butter containers, plastic bags and they are so thankful.  These are things that we would just have to burn up so it helps our garbage situation as we have no garbage pickup and it helps them. What we consider trash they can use.  Monica has rats in her house due to storing dried corn under the beds as she can’t afford anything to store it in.  She asked for boxes to store her and her children’s clothes as the rats are chewing holes in them so whenever I get a box I give it to her. 

One day the ladies were discussing something and I could tell it was a heated discussion.  I asked about it and they were discussing what “faith” was.  They then turned to me and asked me to explain it to them.  After our “brief” discussion they asked if I would teach them more about the things of God.  I had been considering asking them if they wanted to do a bible study but to be honest I was nervous as I didn’t really know what I would teach.  I guess the Lord decided it was time I quit procrastinating and do it.  So now we have a weekly bible study on the Gospel of John and almost all the women come to it.  We are having a wonderful time studying God’s word together.

I am so grateful for the opportunity to help these ladies as they witness God’s faithfulness in our ministry.  In Malawi the culture is so strong that you rarely see someone taking a stand against it even if it means compromising their faith. My prayer is that their faith in God can be strengthened so they can do what God calls them to do not what their culture says they must do.  Please pray for my nannies as life here in Malawi is hard.  They are very fortunate to have jobs but their money doesn’t go far and yet they are happy and wonderful women.  Their names are Monica, Miriam, Evelyn, Prisca, Veronica, Catherine, Alice, Sophret and Felistar. 

 

Lisa

Old Posts that didn't "post" about Blessings

2/22 - One of the things I am learning while here in Malawi is that nothing is ever a “done deal” and I need to not be so impulsive about assuming the outcome.  Simply put, I need to keep my mouth shut!  Today Andy was planning to go to Blessing’s village and talk to the family about his being adopted as his mother had given her permission for him to be adopted.  When he arrived at DSWO, the mother and aunt were there and they had decided against adoption as they didn’t previously understand that adoption meant forever.  Once they realized that he was no longer theirs with no ties to them they decided against it.  This is the same aunt that last week said she couldn’t care for him because she had no money to feed him.  She was now saying that she would take him.

Instead of going to visit the family, Andy rushed home so we could take Blessings for a visit with his mother and aunt.  As you can imagine Blessings wouldn’t go to them and would scream whenever we tried to give him to his aunt.  His mother didn’t even try to hold him and was very detached from him.  The aunt then expressed her concern over having to come into town for weekly visits as she is busy with gardening and also the expense of transport and she wanted to take him home right then.  After further discussion we decided that he would scream no matter what day we handed him over so with much anguish we agreed to let them take him.  We returned home to gather clothes and a blanket and Andy dashed back to transport the whole family back to their home.  One of our nannies went with them so she would know the location of the home as we intend to make follow up visits.

Our nannies are very concerned as apparently the nanny that went along says they have no maize for the family and no porridge for Blessings.  Because of this we will be returning, Lord willing, on Wednesday to bring some maize (corn flour) for the family and porridge for Blessings and the aunt’s baby.  We are hoping that if we provide food for the whole family they will feed Blessings also.  We have put our trust in Him who knows all things and we know that we can trust God for Blessing’s future. 

 

            2/24 – On Thursday we (Andy, I, 3 nannies and a translator) returned to Blessing’s village with porridge, maize, sugar and soap.  It was quite a drive down very bumpy roads that would be treacherous if it had rained.  We got to where the car could go no further and proceeded to walk about a mile or so through corn fields, a gulley and then up a hill to his aunt’s home.  When we came to the gulley we met the aunt and she had Blessings on her back.  He looked very confused and then only wanted me then wanted Andy.  Andy carried him the rest of the way to the “house.”  Even though the family is very poor we were very encouraged by our visit as the aunt seems to be very caring and also the husband.  My nannies were very happy to see how well he had been taken care of and so were we.  He appeared dazed but fell asleep on my lap where he stayed for most of the visit. 

We will continue to monitor his situation by returning with supplies that the family needs.  We want to encourage families to care for these orphans as it is difficult to feed another mouth as most are already overloaded.  We feel that this is another direction that the Lord is taking us.  Instead of always taking older babies into the nursery we can provide assistance to the families so they can care for the children at home.  One of the reasons we feel this is important is because once they are in our care a lot of the families don’t want to take them back due to the strain of caring for another child.  By doing this we can make sure that the nursery has the babies that truly need our care and yet ensure that other babies survive within their family structure.

 

            Lisa

A note about the Email List

Hello Everyone,

Just a quick note about the Langdon's email list.
I have been getting emails returned as undeliverable lately. I don't have any way to find out what your new email address is when it is changed, so, if you wish to keep receiving the email please send me your new email address. In order to do this I have set up a dedicated email address just for this and for anyone who has found the blog and wants to sign up email updates. This address is langdons.email.list[at]gmail(d*t]com. I don't want to post the email addresses of those who have dropped off my list to preserve your privacy but I just sent out the Ministry of Hope newsletter featuring the Langdons Saturday night. If you didn't receive it, please send an email to the above address so I can get you back on the list.

Resting in Him,
Stephen

God's Blessings

We haven’t been able to post for a while, as the Blog site we use switched to a new setup.  Bugs, just like in the rice over here (see Jared’s blog on the kids site for more).  There hasn’t been a lot of excitement, but we did have one very notable event in the past week.  A large shipment of donated items was sent from the UK (Raven’s Trust in Scotland) for distribution to various places, including us and the nursery in Lilongwe.  Since all the nursery items came here, we get the pleasure of going through it all and taking some for what we need and sending the rest on to Lilongwe.  So far Lisa has been through 3 Landcruiser loads of boxes and there are at least 2 more before we are done.  We have gotten lots of warm knitted sweaters and blankets among other useful items.  God is truly the provider of all of us. 

 

Andy