Getting Started from Paul & Darlene

The trip to Africa is a long one. New York City to Johannesburg is 17 hours 50 minutes. From Johannesburg to Lilongwe is another 2½ hour flight. Lines for boarding passes, security checks, luggage weighing, baggage claim, and customs all add to the length of the journey. Once on the ground in Malawi, with our cases loaded on the roof of the Land Cruiser, it is a 5 hour ride to Mzuzu, our final destination.

The road is paved, but narrow, with dogs, goats, ox carts, bicycles and pedestrians scattered along the route. We wind through the enchanting African countryside for hours. There is one stop between Lilongwe and Mzuzu where we get Cokes and yogurt. We brought apples along with us so we call it lunch. There are some “fast food” vendors along the side of the road offering “mick-on-a-stick” (mouse kabobs) but we demure.

Augustine (our driver and the Crisis Nursery Administrative Assistant) suddenly pulls over, saying the brakes feel soft. He adds about a quart of brake fluid, and notices on his way back to the trunk that the tire is soft. He says it had been pulling to the left. Paul & I use this opportunity to get out of the vehicle and go into the bush to “kill a lion.” We start out again, black diesel smoke belching out the back. I ask if we will make it. “Oh, we’ll make it”, he says. I hope he is right.

In another hour we are groaning up the hill to our new house, trunks perched on top and luggage stuffed inside. I can smell hot brake fluid as we struggle the last few feet up the driveway and lumber past the gate of our typically walled Malawi compound.

Luggage is unloaded and trunks are handed down. I feel relieved and grateful. We really did make it! Just then, as the last piece is handed down from the roof, the truck starts to roll backwards down a step embankment. Screams go up and everyone stands back. Charles (our boss who accompanied us) vaults off the roof, and lunges onto the front seat, as the vehicle picks up momentum. Before he is able to apply the brakes, the truck crashes into the brick wall at the side of the driveway. It is drama in slow motion as bricks and mortar fall and the wall collapses. The truck’s tailgate is smashed, hot brake fluid leaks out underneath, the soft tire looks more deflated, and a 5 liter water jug lies squashed to death on the driveway. As the dust settles, the wall looks as if it has been hit by a mortar.

We assess for damage. No one is hurt, no luggage is lost, the brick wall is repairable. The truck struggles out of the rubble and will make it into the repair shop where the “beaters” will mend the tailgate and the mechanics will repair the brakes and tire.

Yes, we really did make it. With God’s grace we have safely arrived at our new place of service. This much we can say already—the orphaned and abandoned babies in northern Malawi are being well cared for by a competent and compassionate Malawian Staff.

But they (we) can’t do it alone. There is a great need for volunteers (both local and international) to hold, feed, change, and play with the babies. We need a continuous supply of plastic pants, cloth and disposable diapers, baby wipes, and plastic gloves. What’s more, within the year we must build our own Nursery facility on land we have already purchased. Our landlord will not sell the house we are renting, and Social Services insists that we cannot continue to rent because the possibility of eviction puts the program at risk.

So as you go about God’s business in your daily life, we thank you for remembering us here in Malawi, Africa as we go about God’s business of caring for His most vulnerable ones. We treasure your prayers. We treasure your concern. And we treasure your support.

Grace & Peace,
Darlene & Paul

P.S. Our desired capacity is 15 infants but we are now stretched to the max with 18. We need your prayers on a daily basis for the ministry here.
Every child deserves a family!

New Directors Have Arrived

It has been a long time since I posted an update but we finally have some news from the nursery in Mzuzu. Paul & Darlene Heller have arrived in Mzuzu to begin their 3 year commitment as directors of the nursery. We received an email from them shortly after they arrived with this message, “We arrived in Mzuzu yesterday. We were introduced at the nursery this morning and were very impressed. There are 18 babies and things are running quite well. What an amazing gift you and Lisa have given to these little ones.”
We were thrilled to hear that the nursery is doing well and also that the nursery will have committed directors to oversee the current operation and the building of a new nursery. Andy has said that the fact that the nursery continued to flourish despite our leaving just reinforces that this was God’s ministry and not ours. We were His tools used for His purposes. No one believed that our staff could run the nursery (not even our staff) without us but we knew that HE had chosen the people we hired and HE would see it through. “And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.” Mark 10:27.
We will post updates from the Hellers about the nursery or if possible they will be posting updates from Malawi. We had no success in posting updates so had to have friends in the states post our updates but we will talk to them about how they want us to proceed. We will no longer use this blog as a vehicle for the Langdon family as its purpose is to communicate the status and needs of the Mzuzu nursery. I hope that you will continue to pray for the Hellers and the babies as they still desperately need to be covered by the prayers of the saints.

As a sidenote—we don’t know when or if we will be returning to Malawi. We are still on hold for Bridget’s I-600 and have received no feedback on the status even when we’ve asked except that it is still being worked on. We will not return unless the paperwork is completed. God worked miraculously when we were in Malawi in getting all her adoption and necessary paperwork in order to come to the states but has allowed this paperwork to be at a standstill. We believe that God is sovereign and do not want to push this through until HE allows it. We will return when the way is clear to do so OR we will wait out the 2 years from Bridget’s adoption date and submit different paperwork for her citizenship from the states. We have many things to keep us busy here with our own family—God has shown us that raising your family for God’s glory is a ministry too.