Dearest friends of Kondanani,

Mummy why do people have grass roofs and live in mud huts? This was a question I was faced with the other day. My answer was, they are very poor. But mummy what is poor? Well how does one answer that question, because what is poor to one is rich to an other. I remember being in the States, there was an appeal on TV for money to help the poor. On TV we were taken to the homes of the poor in the USA and I saw, TV's, fridges, stoves and much more, and I thought, let me take you to Africa and you will know what it means to be poor, even the poor in the USA will feel rich if they come to Malawi.
My answer to the little one was, the people who are poor in Malawi can eat only one meal a day, and sometimes even that is difficult, the roofs of their houses are leaking, but they have no money to buy some plastic to stop it, they have perhaps only one outfit to wear and that may be torn because, even buying a needle and cotton to fix it, there is no money for it.
The child's face looked puzzled and she did not quite understand. What blessed me though was that, our children don't know what poverty is, feel rich, their needs are supplied and there is always more than enough.
If it was not for you who have been faithful in giving, our children would either not be alive anymore or in the same situation as many of the children who live in the villages surrounding us, who live in dire poverty. Yes it grieves us, but we have to focus on the calling placed on our lives and that is the orphans and widows, we cannot meet every need, we would love to do a lot more though.

We had the primary school annual award ceremony last Friday. There were a lot of visitors, remember that there are no parents to attend, we were so happy to see so many people responding to our call to attend. I welcomed the visitors, I had to make it clear that they were not at a ceremonies for under privileged children, but in fact very privileged ones. Having no father or mother is very sad and in no way can be replaced by visitors, but the children are happy and full of joy. They get an excellent education, good food and good housing and lots of love.
I have made a quality decision, while I call God my Father, we will never plead poverty or call our children underprivileged.
I want to thank you, together with all our missionaries and our children, that I can say all of this, because YOU who support us have made it possible over the last year.

It has been an amazing week, lots of celebrations.
We have a pastors fellowship and they had their Christmas lunch last Tuesday. We encouraged them in their work and the difficulties they face because of the cultures and traditions of their people. Many of these practices cause untold misery and is the root of the HIV Virus.
God is bigger than all the problems they face though. I encouraged them to be "Standard Bearers" and let their lives speak the message of the Gospel.

Wednesday was the turn of the Golden Oldies, the widows of over 60. We had been given an enormous lot of goodies to give to them, what a blessings it was for us to bless them in such a special way. There was even a pair of shoes for each one of them.
They had great fun and the meal was delicious. They fought over the left over meat, that was a bit frightening though, we did not quite expect that.
Everyone of them went home with a large parcel and a big smile on their face, many of them toothless.

Thursday, grade 0 graduated from nursery school, ready for big school.
How proud the little blessings were of their certificates, I could see, they felt really big. We presented them also with their new uniform for big school and of course new school shoes to go with it. It was my time to have a good cry, my babies are growing big, they came all like tiny little bundles and now look at them. I am so grateful to Father God.

Friday morning was a special time. Father Christmas came. All the children were gathered in the hall when he arrived, he had to come by car because the sledge was broken, so we had to give him a lift.
A company called KMPG and other sponsors gave us the opportunity to get quality presents for the children, a big thank you to each one of you.
They had lots of goodies to eat, in fact they stuffed them selves and some did not quite make it out of the hall before the food hit the floor.
They are getting older and they are not so sure if father Christmas is true. One of our house mothers has the honour to be father Christmas every year. One of the children who was very observant, said to me, mummy father Christmas was wearing a bra, I told her that father Christmas is very fat and he needs one, but I could see that it did not make sense to the child.
With all these parties which are such fun, the most important message was, that,our joy is for one reason only and that is that we celebrate because the birth of our Saviour and that the focus point is Jesus.

We have a great year behind us, our new primary school has been roofed and in another two months the children will move in.

We build a little house for one of our widows who's house had crumbled and she had no place to stay.

The police house has been roofed and it will take one more month and the police men will move in. It will help with the security.
Since we had our last armed robbery in May there have been 3 attempts. We are not afraid, we go to sleep in peace because He Who watches over us neither sleeps nor slumbers.

We have had a lots of guests in the last few months, many from Holland. The Dutch TV was here too and they did a documentary about my life for the Dutch TV. It will be shown in February and I believe that it will be to the benefit of the children.

The building of our new "Caring Hands Infant Home" will start early in the new year. Things are a bit slow here in Malawi, it does happened though in the end.

Four of our children need operations on their ears. We had been to the local government hospitals with them, but it just was pathetic the way they deal with our children. The value which is placed on an orphan reminds me of movies one sees from 100 years back. I decided there was only one way to get it fixed and that was to go to a private hospital and a specialist.
He was shocked and this coming Friday the first child will have an operation because it is urgent and the next 3 all in January next year. We pray that God will guide the Hands of the specialists.

We have a new missionary joining us from South Africa, she will head up the nursery school and is well qualified to do so.
There are two ladies coming for three months, one from Switzerland and one from Denmark.

Several people have complained about the website not being up to date, what we are planning for next year is to go on Face Book, it will be easy for us to update and the details can go straight through to the person who maintains the website.
There is so much going on here all the time.

We wish everyone to have a wonderful blessed Christmas and a happy new 2008. May it bring you the joy and peace you long for.

I am going to RSA and have Christmas with my children, the first time in 9 years.

Love from the missions team and the children at Kondanani.
Annie Chikhwaza.