Re-Presenting

Being laid up             or     laid low             or     laid off             or     “laid”             (against one’s will), Will lay bare     one’s soul. Will expose our power             less             ness. Will threaten to ravage body, mind, & spirit. Save for the open arms                         of one             who will still embrace. Save for the silent presence                         of one who will still affirm. Save For the healing love                         of one             who will humbly re—present our Savior.               by Paul Heller

Revolving Door

There is a brand-spanking-new bank in town.  It has a revolving door—the first of its kind in Mzuzu.  So locals are understandably a bit intimidated upon their initial entrance and exit through this contraption.

I imagine the Crisis Nursery is like that revolving door.  It must seem a bit intimidating for the babies who make their initial entrance and exit through this, their temporary home.   Of course, when they first arrive, our little ones are barely aware of their surroundings.  Nevertheless, my guess is that they know they are being held, and fed, and talked to, and played with in a way they have not experienced before.  (Not to mention the strange sight of those 2 ghost-like people with no color in their skin.) 

When it is time for a baby to leave the Nursery, they sense that something is up.  Most become very contemplative.  Are they wondering what their life will be like on the other side of that revolving door?

Today we are actually having two babies in the door at the same time—one on the way in and one on the way out.  Smart, (pictured here), is our oldest-19 months, and has a quiet smile that would melt the coldest heart.  He is on his way to Rafiki Village and we are thrilled.  Growing up at Rafiki is a bit like winning the lottery for orphans.  It is a well built, well run, well funded American orphanage that cares for their children up to and including a college education at the Malawi University of their choice.  It is certainly not the answer for the huge number of Malawi orphans but it is a piece of the puzzle of quality orphan care.

13 month old Sibongile arrived at our door in the same Rafiki vehicle that took Smart away.  She is scheduled to be admitted to Rafiki but they are not equipped to care for babies under 18 months old.  At her age, coming through our revolving door was definitely intimidating.  (She has not stopped crying since her arrival over two hours ago.)  I suspect that 5 months from now her exit will be far less traumatic for her, if not for us.

Help is Here

Good news!  Our friends, Scott and Gayle Barton are visiting form the US.  Paul and Scott were pastors together in the Presbytery of Northern NY for years.  The Bartons have brought the replacement computer and All in One that lightening destroyed last month. The Presbytery has provided these things  and Gayle (a computer expert) is in the process of installing them as we speak.


When they arrived  in Mzuzu there was no power.  Yesterday there was thunder and lightning so we had to shut the computer down.  Today the same.  We have gone to a place with a satellite connection to try and download necessary software and anti virus since doing so at the nursery would have taken 9 hours -and that's just for the antivirus software.  Progress is painfully slow, as is all progress in Malawi.  But we are getting there.  Hoo Ray!!

At the nursery two babies have malaria.  We are one over census as we had to take in a 2-year old who was abandoned in the mud behind the police station.We will keep him a week or two until social welfare decides what to do with him. One of the twins we admitted 4 days ago went directly from the village to the hospital because he was having breathing problems. His brother is one of the ones here with malaria.  And so it goes.  But this is how life is here, and we take one day at a time.

Hopefully we will be able to post blogs more frequently and do all the necessary printing and copying we need to do at the nursery. Things go so much more smoothly when we don't have to hand write every single thing we do.  We're getting there.  More updates soon to come, we hope.