Newsletter

September 2006

Dear friends of Kondanani,

It's been nearly 8 years since we got our firsts baby, Deborah has long since gone to the Kondanani Nursery in Heaven. I often think of her, a beautiful little girl, very regal. That is why I called her "My little queen". HIV/AIDS took it's toll on her, it had already wiped out most of her family.
Nothing has changed in Malawi since than, people are dying every day from that dreaded disease called AIDS, children are left orphaned, many without any hope for the future as poverty takes it's toll .
Some babies are fortunate as their mothers in their desperation dump the babies, often in a plastic bag, somewhere, hoping that they will live long enough to be found by someone who will take them to a place of refuge.

We are such a place and for them to come here and become our children they will probably be better of than they would ever be in the Villages, but who can take the place of a father or a mother. We love our children dearly, but we are not mummy or daddy.

Not so long ago little Micah was found at the gate of the local hospital, a very beautiful and healthy baby. I wonder what was in the mind of the mother, the despair and pain of having no choice but to leave that precious little parcel behind.
We lost Micah because of negligence of the hospital, without examining the baby the doctor decided that he had pneumonia, the autopsy conducted stated that the lungs were clear and that the baby had acute meningitis. It is under investigation at present I reported the matter to the medical council.

Lately I have been reflecting on the time when I started Kondanani and where we are now. I marvel at Gods provision and faithfulness, I am stunned at times how faithfully He has provided over the years. This morning at 6 o'clock in our morning prayers I shared ones more with the other missionaries, there are 10 now, that, we live a life of miracles, that it is not the books we reading are about missionaries who believed God for their needs to be met, but that we are right in the middle of it our selves.
We are not a church were they have an offering every Sunday or were the faithful tithe, we have nothing to sell apart from a few pigs and chickens. No we have no choice but to believe God to move on the hearts of people to give into this ministry.

YOU who are reading this, thank you for giving, thank you for working so hard, for being part of a daily life of miracles which we will never take for granted lest we would loose it's powerful testimony.

I did not realise 8 years ago, in fact I often wonder what I thought, that I would be building buildings for the next twenty years to come, children are growing and more are coming, their needs change, school time comes and a school is needed, high school will come and university. Clothing gets to small and new ones are needed, new teeth are crooked sometimes and the orthodontist is needed. They get also bigger and want more food.
How does ones bring up 125 children and more to come. Not just bring them up but see them become men and women who are stable in every way, love God and are well educated ?

I have seen 110 babies dying some of them in great agony because of the life style of their parents, that hurts, a innocent child suffering of AIDS.

Do I ever wonder what the future will bring? I am not fooled there are going to be trying years ahead, in about 5 years time the teenagers will emerge, and not all of them are going to be those lovely little babies I took in my arms some years ago, I never even thought about them becoming teenager at the time.

The BIG question is, what about the children who receive Anti Retroviral Drugs. What will I say to such a child? You have a disease, you can never have a normal life, you can never have children because you will most likely pass on the disease you have to the child, if you happened to marry a person who does not have the disease, you will most definitely not have a child because you will pass on the disease to your husband or wife? These are the issues no one wants to talk about, but for us the day will come that we will have to talk to our children about this very thing. How are they going to respond? What emotion are going to come to the fore, what pain is that going to cause in their lives, I can cry about it already.

Salomon asked for Wisdom and we certainly need that more and more every day as our children become little people with a mind of their own. Are we going to have that Wisdom, yes Gods promises are true, if we ask for it we will receive it, it is of up to us to use it the right way.

We take it a day at the time, no I am not morbid, but I am realistic. I am so glad that the children get a solid foundation, the Word of God gets implanted into their lives, but the day comes for them to make their own decisions. I believe they will make the right ones.

I will be going to South Africa on the 14th of October, by car, we need educational materials and other items .At the same time I will be looking at an orphanage who has, what is called a "Door of Hope". This is a door through which a desperate mother who has given birth and can't look after the baby can place the child in a basket.
I have wanted to do this for a long time but we never had enough space, but now our clinic is big enough, at least for a while.
The reason for doing this in Malawi is that many young girls give birth and drown the child in a pit latrine as soon as the baby is born. This is a big hole in the ground which serves most people as a toilet. This will scar them for life, living a lie for ever and never be a free person because of the murder they have on their concience.
As soon as I have seen how it is done and come back from RSA we will start doing the same . We will get the media, TV and radio involved to make sure it becomes known.

We are multiplying, in one week 28 new born piglets, they are so beautiful, sorry to have to tell you that in 4 months time they will have to face the slaughter and anyone who wants a good leg of pork can come and visit.
The chickens are an other one of life stock who are doing well, at 6 weeks we have them at 2 kg, there are enough people who want to buy so we are really getting very serious about doing more business with chickens.
We had a new born calf, it is a boy, a bull, not what we want but I am sure the poor bull had no choice so we will fatten him up and the children will enjoy the meat. Another 4 cows are with calf.
The children just love the animals, the turkeys and guinea fowls are running around very were.

Ones again thank you for being a blessing to the children of Kondanani

His servant, Annie Chikhwaza .