Newsletter

May 2002

DEAR FRIENDS,

My son Paul blessed me with this laptop so I can go anywhere to do my work on the computer, it's a big bonus. Thank you Jesus.
While sitting here typing this letter to you I look out over the beautiful green hills of Malawi.
What an amazing place this country is, it is truly Africa in all it's splendour. Once one becomes part of Africa it will never leave you.
My mind wonders to the people in the Villages though , I wonder if they notice the splendour, the same as I do. A few weeks ago the President of Malawi declared a "State of Disaster", the reason being that there is severe hunger in our land. Does anyone with an empty stomach and hunger pangs notice the beauty of the country side, so specially created for them?

Every day is a special day for us, for at the end of it I can truly say THANK YOU FATHER OUR BABIES HAVE ALL RECEIVED TREE MEALS TODAY, many mothers in the villages have not been able to even give their children one meal. It is painful, but thank God we can do our part.
We hear stories of grandmothers dying of hunger. Their pensions, their children have been swallowed up by death, the cruel HIV virus strikes everywhere, not a family that has not been affected. Grandmothers who have been working hard in the fields all their lives and have brought up an average of 9 children have been reduced to beggars, this is sad and their dignity has to be restored, thank God we can help.

A few weeks ago little Anifa was admitted to Kondanani's " Caring Hands Infant Home". She is a little girl of 16 month and she weighed only 4 kilo grams, can't even sit yet all because of malnutrition, her spleen and pancreas are affected, tomorrow we are taking her for a TB test and I would not be surprised if she tests positive, she is not HIV positive. She is one of the very fortunate ones to come to us and receive all the love and care she needs.

In my last letter I told you about little Peter, it appears though that many people did not receive that letter. He came to us with his little twin sister, they where number 10 & 11 in the family, mother was already 45 years of age, the birth proved to much for her and she bled to death, they were deep into the Villages and there was no help nearby. Imagine the 11 orphans she left behind. The babies who were premature, were put on the back of the uncles who cycled for two days to come to us with these precious little bundles.

They weighed less than one kilo gram and their condition was terrible, I put them in the incubator and went to the hospital for a doctor who came with me and prescribed medication. After having gone to five different places to find the medicines, I went back triumphantly because I believed that this was going to save their little lives, only to find that the little girl's body had already been taken to the mortuary, I was sad but decided to concentrate on little Peter the remaining twin. I did not want to take him to the government hospital, the care is so very bad there, I knew he would surely die, so I decided to take the little man to a private clinic were he was put in an incubator in intensive care. It was great to see him improve and when he was 1400 grams we took him and a huge hospital bill home, back to the incubator. We watched our miracle growing every day, we gave glory to God for this little rock called Peter and we saw him as a special child who had escaped death, but only just. He got to 2 kilo's although still very tiny, he was so very beautiful and his little eyes would follow us everywhere, we loved him so dearly. One day the nursing sisters, who come from the local government clinic, and give our babies their inoculations came, they should have known that such a tiny infant cannot have a BCG until he is bigger and healthier, it is a life vaccination, but they went ahead and did it any way. The little body could not take it, he started vomiting the next morning and two days later little Peter joined the others in the Heavenly Nursery, we cried, all of us, but we know he is rejoicing with Jesus. It is not the way though we want to see our babies go.

We had Carl Mullins from Port Talbot in Wales visiting us for three weeks as a volunteer trades man, he truly blessed us with excellent work and trained the two men who where working with him so well that they are now very capable to lay tiles, do wood panelling of walls etc without supervision, he was a real asset.

In January I went to Washington DC for an HIV conference organized and sponsored by the Samaritan Purse of which Franklin Graham (the son of Billy Graham) is the head.
We were with 916 people from 87 nation and we had an incredible time of learning and fellowship, the hospitality was second to none, we all stayed at the Hilton, a very well organised conference and we all profited a lot, and we will pass it on to many others.

NEW VOLUNTEERS

The team is growing. Alan, from Oxford United Kingdom, arrived in Jan 2002, he will be very involved with the admin side of things with Rene.
Chris our nursing sister from Holland is here for our little hospital and arrived at the end of Dec 2001.
Julia from Atlanta USA is running our nursery school at Caring Hands she arrived in Jan 2002.
Each one is a blessing and will stay for at least 1 year with us.

CARING HANDS INFANT HOME

The renovations have been finished, it has taken a full year but our babies are living in a beautiful home, God's provision, He never fails or forsakes us. There are 57 babies at the moment. We have lost quite a few this year already, but continue to find it a special privileged to have had them to love, till their departure.

We have started our play school for the two year olds and I tell you the bundles are getting very cleaver. We make a special effort to teach them the Word of God and it is so wonderful to hear them sing to His Glory. I believe they will all be men and women of God one day and will know Him as their Lord and Saviour and not be conformed to this world.
We all celebrated Christmas together in the lovely gardens of our baby home, I was so thankful to The Father that there was enough money to give all the staff a double salary. Thank you to our supporters who helped us.
Two of our staff were elected as staff members of the year and received a reward.

THE RORY ALEC CLINIC

We have opened our little hospital. We are able to admit 20 children below the age of five. I thought it best to start slowly because we are learning. Till the end of this month we have half day consultation, next month full day consultation, month three short term admissions and consultations and the fourth month we should have learned enough to be fully operational. I don't know yet when we will know everything, that may never happen but the clinic is very soon going to be to small, that is already obvious to us. I am a little envious of Chris, she walks around in "her" hospital and is having a ball, she loves the calling God has placed on her life, and sometimes I wish I could spent more time there, it is so special.
The blessings are showered upon us, we have received the most beautiful bedding for the cots with mosquito nets to match, what a joy. My favourite song remains,
"GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS OH GOD MY SAVIOUR, MORNING BY MORNING GREAT MERCIES I SEE, ALL WE HAVE NEEDED YOUR HAND HAS PROVIDED".

KONDANANI CHILDREN'S VILLAGE for 3-6 year old children

There is so much progress. House number one is ready with ten children, a nanny and house mother. It looks great and what a lot of space to run around for the little ones.
House no 2 has been roofed it should not be long before it is ready and house no 3 is close to roof height. The kitchen complex is near to finishing, it is taking quite some time but we need it very much. We plan to have nursery school in the dinningroom until the school is ready. We hope to have a nursery school teacher very soon from oversees. You may or may not know that onces we have enough space for school, we will also take in more orphans from the surrounding villages who are in need of help, we will give them two meals, education, food ,clothing and love and send them back to their families for the night.
We can have 100 children living in, that means we will end up with 200 during the day
Lewis and myself are moving to the Village too, most of our furniture has been moved already and by the end of the month this house will be empty. I look very much forward to it besides that I am still so much involved with the building that it will be a blessing to be right there.

THE GOLDEN AGE CLUB

This project was conceived in my spirit 8 years ago and the time has come to start.
We will have meals for old widows who have no means to look after themselves, they can play granny to the children, we will do some income generating projects with them and playing games, make them feel loved, wanted and of value. I get exited just thinking about their glowing faces after having had a wonderful meal. Someone came the other day and gave us a huge piece of meat , we have kept it in the deepfridge for the oldies to enjoy. It looks as if we getting lady from Kenya and a Korean missionary involved here. Kondanani is definitely the united nations.

We would love to hear from you. Yes God provides, but He uses people to do so. We ask you to continue to support the work at Kondanani, because, that is the reason we can keep going the way we do.
Just one more thing, many people say what are you going to do with the children when they are 6 years old, well we will build another Village. The earth is the Lords and all the fullness thereof, won't be short of land, one thing at the time.

We sent you our love as we rejoice in His Service,
Lewis and Annie Chikhwaza