Newsletter

July 2002

Dear friends,

We have just watched the moon rise over Malawi, it is a magnificent sight, it starts off with a reddish colour and it becomes bright gold. In the village were we live, few peolpe have electricity so the nights are almost pitch black, this makes the sight of the moon even more beautiful, we can clearly see the Southern Cross too and the stars are so bright. We sit in amazement looking at creation, there is not a sound, because the villagers are in bed, they go to bed when it gets dark and get up when it gets light, whatever that time may be. A few hours before the moon rises we watched the sunset, the sky was alive with bright red colours, sometimes a bit of cloud in front of it making it look even more exiting, it looks like a drawing, it is framed by the mountains and before we know it, it is gone, and we say wow !!!!!!!!! how amazing, our God has created it all.

All this makes it worth living in an African Village, it is really paradise.
Lewis and Myself moved back to the village on the 1st of April this year and we have not regretted it for a moment.
We are in the dry season at present, this brings with it it's own problems in the village, the rats are getting hungry and go about finding whatever they can without asking further questions. They seem to think that our house is part of their territory. This morning at 4.45am Lewis and myself woke up from a loud noise, I got out of bed to see what was going on but found nothing, went back to sleep only to be woken up a little later again by noise which came from our bathroom and sounded like the splashing of water, I went to investigate and guess what, in the toilet bowl was a big rat, fighting to keep it's head above water, it looked cute and looked at me with begging eyes, please save me !!!!

As I watched this rodent looking so cute, it reminded me of how cute the enemy of our souls looks most of the time. Recently the enemy has tried to attack us and destroy us, this is what a rat does all the time, bit by bit it destroys men's property, until it gets caught either in a trap or toilet bowl and drowns. I closed the lid of the toilet bowl and walked away, without lending a hand, needless to say the rodent died. I hope no one thinks that was cruel, I will call on you next time when the rats play football in our attic.

We have had a busy time harvesting maize and are proud of the fact that we have enough for our Kondanani children to last till the next harvest, I call that being blessed. I am not much of a farmer though but until we get one I have no choice but to be to be involved, of course I do enjoy the results. Soon we will get some goats and chickens just to complete the picture, and of course we will milk the goats, I hope I don't end up having to do that. I think our nursing sister is interested in doing that, her father is a cattle farmer so she has experience in milking, although I suppose they use a machine.

We have now opened our little hospital and have started to admit our little patients below the age of 6 who live in the surrounding villages and our own children when they need hospital care. Sister Chris from Holland the sister in charge has been very busy indeed, apart from the children who have been admitted there is consultation in the morning, it works well. We have employed 2 Malawian nursing sisters, a nanny, washing lady and cleaning lady. The mothers arrive very early in the morning with their little ones, and the vegetables they pay with, often the children are in bad condition and malnourished. You are no doubt aware of the hunger in the country and this is something we are hoping to fight with taking care of the malnourished children and widows. We feed the mothers and children who come for consultation aswell. If you are financially in a position to help us with this please send your gifts to our bank account: click here for details.

Little Samuel came to our hospital on the 12th of June 2002, his mother died immediately after giving birth to him on the 15th of May 2002. He was born 5 weeks prior to due date. The little one spent a little over a month in the state hospital till he came to us. His weight had dropped from 2200 grams to 1900 grams. He was could only drink 20 ml at a time, far to little, he had lost his strength to suck and we had to put him on tube feeding to get sufficient milk. He soon began to have high temperatures and after testing we found him to be HIV positive. He began to suffer badly and we removed the tube so he could go in peace, he looked so bad we could not let him suffer any longer. Chris lay down with him, put him on her chest, told him what a beautiful little boy he was, he looked at her with his dark little eyes, a perfect little baby, little tiny hands and feet, seemingly so perfect. Chris told him that he could close his little eyes, that he did not have to fight any longer and that Jesus was waiting for him on the other side. A peace came over him, Chris, with Samuel on her chest, both went to sleep, but little Samuel did not wake up again, he had gone with the angels to join the Kondanani babies who are in the Heavenly nursery and at peace, for there are no tears or pain. It takes us a little while to get over these things, we have lost a few more babies but we are always pleased that we have been part of their lives, and we know that this kind of pain will always be part of out lives at Kondanani.

At present little Iris ( the Greek word for covenant) is in the incubator, her mom died a week after her birth from AIDS related disease, she was only 1600 grams when we got her, a tiny little mite and so precious, she was this morning 2180 grams in just two weeks, we are rejoicing and believe God that, although she is positive, that she will not contract the full virus. The problem is that we get so attached to the little blessings and have a hard time accepting the negative when it presents itself.

At "Caring Hands Infant home" the house is full, the nursery is over flowing because the babies come in as twins and triplets, 40% of birth in this country are twins. We got a set of twins a few days ago, mother died at birth, they are fat little bundles, I think they are going to do well and as I type this letter there is an other set of twins on the way, we don't know their condition yet.

Little Martha came a few weeks ago, she was found on the side of the road, what a place to leave a baby, but her future was planned by her Father in Heaven, she is with us now and we just love her to bit. We never have a dull moment, and find plenty of time to serve in His vineyard and believe me we enjoy every moment. God does not call His children to be martyrs, he calls us to rejoice in His service.
Kondanani Children's Village has had a great time, the children are still not living there but go on a regular basis to their new home and play there. At the time we wanted them to move them we found that we could not flush the toilets because the septic tank had been built in the wrong place, we have had to build an other one at great cost. I am told it will be ready in about a weeks time, I keep on hoping that the time given is real. One thing I will never get used to is the speed here in Africa, slower then slow.

Ten days ago we launched our "Golden Age Club", this is for widows over the age of 60. Cherie from Australia is in charge of this project. We had a fantastic day, it was done in conjunction with the National Bank of Malawi who are celebrating their 100th birthday and came with 50 of their staff. We had that day lots of oldies, 340 of them, I am sure many were not widows or 60 years of age, but it was not the timing for selecting the right from the wrong. Many chiefs and the TV, Radio and Press where there, the bank came with lots of food to give to the widows. Our 3 year olds where very bold and sang to all the people in our newly completed hall. They where a joy to behold and I was ever so proud. A week prior to the launch I had a lunch for the chiefs, the purpose was to inform them what was going on at Kondanani Children's Village, they are the leaders of their people and it is always good to let them know. It went very well and all of them went home with a VERY FULL tummy and happy.
The widows come at this stage once a week, it is not enough because many are hungry because no one takes care of them, but there are so many that we have to build it slowly, and it costs a lot of money. You wonder why we don't give them parcels with food, we know from experience that that is not an effective way of feeding people anywhere, although this is the method mostly used. It gets often sold or stolen, I rather feed 200 people and know we are effective than give parcels to a 1000 and it ending up in the wrong hands in most cases. Yes it takes more energy, it is quite a job to cook for all of them.

We have now selected the oldies who are really widows and over 60, we had a 112 last Thursday. We have bible classes, sewing, knitting and literacy. They are so precious, some all bent over and walking with a sick, one is 100 years old she wants bible classes she says because she wants to know more about God, that is so precious. I did the knitting classes, it took about the whole morning to show them how to put the stitches on the needle, but never mind soon they will be knitting beautiful jerseys to show their family, I can't wait for that.

My trip to the States was great, The FCF conference, the organisation I am ordained with was very special and there was a lot of love flowing, so important, I really was part of a family while at the conference.
I visited various States. I would share about the things God is doing in Malawi and the response often was, how fortunate they are to have everything they need. When you have everything you need, there is no need to rely on either Father God or anybody for that matter. I think we who do not have "everything " are perhaps more fortunate, we have to rely on our Father God to supply our every need and He does of course do that through people who have "everything", we give Him Glory for supplying our every need, will you give Him Glory for being able to be part of that. We really appreciate you for being partners with us in this ministry. Thank you for sending birthday presents to your adopted child it gives them so much pleasure and makes them feel wanted.
We have some needs, please let it be known, I am desperate for a builder, we are also looking for a nursery school teacher, a nursing sister and a lady who can help Rene in the office, each one needs to find sponsors as all our staff from other countries do. There must be some people who have a calling on their life for the mission field. Please contact me if you can help.

All the Kondananians sent their love

Yours in His service Annie Chikhwaza