All things working together...

Yesterday one of the mission's sponsored students (who attends the Chitundo school) showed up here with an elderly woman who carried a tiny, little baby. She was the baby's grandmother, and had recently lost her son and daughter-in-law. She is a widow herself, and is now left with this baby who is now 3 months old, plus two other children. She had been feeding the baby a mixture of ground peanuts, ground field corn and water. The baby looked very bright and alert, but at 3 months of age only weighed 2.2kg. She knew she needed help, and when Pindurai, one of our school kids, heard about her plight, he took her under his wing and brought her to the mission to seek help. I had just set aside some baby clothes a few days earlier, and we had infant formula at the health post. I was glad also to be able to send her home with some veggies which are regularly donated to the mission's feeding program by a nearby commercial venture (actually, the entity that bought out the farm the mission used to be based on). Since it was late afternoon and the granny still had to get back home 15 km away, I decided to take them plus the food for the 23 sponsored kids at the same time. When I dropped her off, she was SO thankful for the help. She attends a local church and had been praying she would be able to find help for these orphaned grandchildren. Pindurai then helped her carry her goods home. I was very proud of him!

Below: Bags of green beans donated by Vanduzi Lda. Beneficiaries, besides the school children the mission feeds, include orphan homes and those with special physical needs.

Another cool thing happened this week. Last year, we were donated some solar powered MP3-type players that have the entire Bible recorded on them. They're wonderful here because you just set them in the sun and turn them on. We’ve supplied them to people and places where we felt they would get the most use. One of those places was the community health post we run, since there are usually people on the veranda waiting to be seen. Apparently, a few weeks ago, a drunk guy camestaggering past the health post and heard the "radio". He was quitecaptivated by the thing and slowly came closer and closer and finally came right up onto the veranda and sat down and listened for aboutan hour or so. Then got up and left. The next day, the same man returned,sober, and asked if he could listen to some more. As he sat listening,tears started rolling down his cheeks. Ernesto, our health care worker, asked him if he could help him. The man said, "These words are going straight into my heart, are they true? I’m not doing what’s right. My drinking hurts me and my family. I want to stop. Can this God really help me?” Ernesto answered his questions then called a pastor in the area to talk to the man. When Ernesto told me this story the following week, he summed it up by saying, “God got into that man’s heart.” (Ernesto holding the small unit--taken on the health post veranda.)

Other wonderful things worked together for good this week: the pouring of the preschool floor and progress on our house (below). Tomorrow we welcome a team of nursing students from Prairie College (Alberta, Canada) who will spend 3 weeks fulfilling practicum requirements here. Apparently camp life last year didn't dissuade them from returning! We all look forward to having them again.


Last but least...there's one thing that, since yesterday, doesn't look like it's "working together" at all anymore. In my rushing around getting many things done, I made the mistake of absent-mindedly leaving our small house generator hooked up when I flipped the main switch to the big generator. I won't go into detail of how things are wired, but, this is a definite no-no! My dad walked past the small generator about 10 minutes later and figured something was wrong when he heard humming and saw smoke rising from it. :( After it cooled, he pulled it apart somewhat to see the extent of the damage. Apparently, lots. Hopefully it can be repaired, or parts can be replaced. Then it can work together for good again too.