Newsletter

August 2004

Hello everyone,

All things bright and beautiful all creatures great and small, the Lord God made them all.
At Kondanani we don't only have babies, I mean human babies, but baby piggies too. Mother pig gave birth to 8 little ones although only 5 survived the ordeal, mother and left over babies are well. It was quite a giggle because Chris being our nursing sister felt obliged to give us instructions during the birth. Fiona and myself where sitting in the pigsty, if the piglets where small Chris told us to make them drink immediately, we had to make sure the cord was not around the neck, and mother pig was not lying on her babies, what a business before, we where so filthy and Chris was still clean because she did not do any of the work. Sorry to say that 3 little ones did not make it, but there is now a Kondanani piggy heaven too. we did not attend the funeral.

You can well imagine the excitement of the children, the whole lot wanted to play with the piglets but they are to small. The dogs are not amused because they don't get enough attention it all goes to the pigs.

This morning we found a large black mamba (Afrikaanse gifslang) only ten meters away from the pigsty, thank God for his protection over those little ones because it is our food. The other pig is pregnant too, we won't be short of pork.

Most of you know about the armed robbery we had, all of us are fine and sleeping well. We have no intention of being robbed of our peace, each one of the staff has shown a lot of maturity in a very difficult situation. The Lord is our refuge and our hiding place, in him we trust.
Some of the goods we lost have been replaced by gifts from friends of Kondanani, that really touched our hearts.

At present we have 100 children. The sad thing is that we are full. Sister Chris went to the hospital yesterday and fetched two babies, replacing the two we lost.
One of the babies was found wrapped in a plastic bag in the maize field. He is such a beautiful child, he has been called David, he is quite a regal little boy and made us think of king David. He has been tested hiv positive, but let us hope he does not have the virus. He is three weeks old, of course we may be a few days out but he is new born baby we can see that.
In the Rory Alec Clinic are quite a few hiv babies, it amazes us sometimes how tough some of the little ones are. Merria is month 17 month old, she developed aids quite a while ago and lost a lot of weight. At times she is so ill we think that we will loose her any moment but somehow she gets on top of things and plays and smiles again. although she can sit she is not developing.

We have admitted in total 200 babies, 100 have gone to the heavenly nursery mainly due to the aids pandemic in Africa and rapidly spreading to other parts of the world. we will never get used to death it is always painful.

We have started 2 of our children on anti retroviral drugs, they are responding well to the treatment and up to now there are no side effects. We get the drugs for free through "doctors without borders". We only can have the drug when the children have developed aids and are over 10 kilo grams in weight.

The sad thing is that there are more little ones in the hospital without a place to go to. we would love to take them, but we can't build quick enough because of the lack of builders. We sent an S O S to various organisations for a building team but up to now nothing has materialised and yet this is so important. These children have little chance in the hospital, the welfare worker said that they have no formula for the babies.
There is a mother who has a set of triplets, she is so poor that there is no money for a piece of soap. she does not have enough milk for the babies and the hospital has no formula. If we had more space we would take care of these babies for a few months, although they are not orphans, these are desperate situations and if we know about it we have to do something. There is a premature baby, who according to sister Chris does not look bad but the child is an orphan, they don't have formula, the child has not even been placed in the incubator, you can just imagine what will happened, no doubt they are just letting this baby die.
To tell you the truth I am weeping and totally frustrated crying out to god for some help with building this is costing lives, precious little lives.
When I see our little ones and the joy they give us day by day, the fun they have, the big smile on their faces, I am so grateful to god that they have been entrusted to us.

I do at times get a little overwhelmed, all of them want and need love, not so difficult while they are small. The kids are growing up and a few of them are 6b already and the little characters are beginning to manifest and however much we love them the negative side is beginning to raise it's ugly head at times. We are glad that we have very little problems and that the children are very healthy. We would like you to pray for Zoë, he is the child who was thrown in to the pit latrine (a hole dug in the ground used as a toilet in the villages) by his mum and left to die. Zoë is very difficult to handle, his teacher Julia needs lots of prayer support to deal with him in class, she is fortunately very patient and he has improved, but it is hard. I feel that the devil wants to destroy this child so that his testimony won't changed the lives of people when he grows up, it will be a very powerful story. We will persevere and see the victory.

Fiona, our school principal has been to south Africa for training to prepare for big school next year. We are now doing grade 0 and next year they will move to the primary school. The system we use is called accelerated Christian education, this is an American system and each child will work at their own pace. If they very bright they can finish high school at 15 or 16 and go to college.
We have not finished the nursery school yet and we have to start on the primary school already.
There is an exiting building though and this will be renovated, the funds have been provided by God TV who ones again have been of tremendous support to Kondanani.
The nursery school is coming on though. Three class rooms are being used already, I wish you could see it, really it is so beautiful. The next building is roofed, still some work to be done, it has the toilets, staff broom and store room. I enjoy every minute of the building, it is so creative.

I have spent some weeks in the UK. What a great time it was. The people from North Wales collected a lot of money for a four wheel drive. Many of the schools took part and I was amazed how motivated everyone was. I love going to churches to speak, but this time we had fund raising at strawberry parties, body shop parties, coffee mornings, the mountain club raised funds climbing the mountain in the worst possible weather including a boy of 11 years old and he did not give up either, he stuck it out till the end. It was all just so much fun.

You have received the e mails regarding the new property we have acquired, it was a big miracle, one thing we know god provides our every need even if it happens quite often at the last moment.
We will soon start phase one of "Madalo children's village". The building for the primary school which has to be renovated is there. The funds are there.
The banana plantation is already bearing fruit for our children and we have sold some of it already it will be a good income generating project.
We are still looking for cows, anyone who has a decent cow does not want to sell, we are going to persevere, we want our own milk.

Our project with the widows is giving us great joy. Many of these ladies have enormous hardship because of the orphans they have to look after. The ones who do sewing classes at Kondanani get an opportunity to make clothing for their grand children. We provide the cloth. Through world vision we have been able to feed many of them.

The prison ministry is great. The only problem is that when these men have finished their sentence we don't know what happens to them. There is no rehabilitation.
We would love to help with that but do not have the staff, hopefully some one may feel the calling, but we know it is all in Gods timing.

Bvumbwe transformation is a blessing, I think it is such a blessing because of the opposition we experience. Pastor's are coming every morning for prayer. We get into the villages with the Jesus film and there is a tremendous desire to see a change. Peoples lives must change, poverty is a curse.
There is a lot of pain, sorrow and poverty around us, what a blessing that we have the answer.

Some prayer requests:
Chris will go on furlough next year during, April, May and June, we need someone to replace her for these three month, please if you know of someone who would offer their services for that period let us know.
Julia is also going on furlough next year in July and August, we will need a nursery school teacher for that period of time.
Pray for my precious husband, he suffers from high blood pressure and has a bleeding nose so often. He is 76 now, but I need him for a lot longer.

All the Kondananians send their love,
Lewis and Annie Chikhwaza.