Churchville House is open!

We made it, on December 10th we moved 6 boys and thier new mom into Churchville House! Praise God for his love for these children. Out of the whole world God choose Faith Chapel to help these 6 children in Mzuzu. And we aren't done. We have room for 6 more in this house. Churchville House is half way to a full house.

Walking the boys in for the 1st time to Churchville House!

Beds! we have beds......... Yeah!

Welcome to my new Home- Churchville House!

This is what it's all about!

This is what Steve and Dianna have been waiting for, we brought 5 orphans home last night. The tiny one I'm holding is a 4 year old girl, she wieghed 25lbs. The little one that is being held by his brother is a 3 year old boy, we didn't know he was a boy and put a dress on him last night. He had pink girls pants on when we got him so no one knew. Funny, he was in the backyard this morning and pulled up his dress to go to the bathroom.  Guess we need to add that detail to the forms, boy or girl?

House Makeover

Wow! I have to stop going away. The last time I was here in Malawi Kelly and Bill painted my Livingroom and Den and Laundry room. This time they have torn down about 5 walls and put in heavyduty insulation. My bedroom has lost 2 pine paneled walls and now has drywall and some unknown color paint. Kelly won't show me what it looks like, she is waiting for the big reveal. I like what Brandon said about his room makeover. They painted his moldings a brown color, but he said I don't think I like that color mom, "it looks like poop".

Kelly sent me a picture of my dog Eddie's haircut. Moses our orphan looked at the picture and said "Lion?" Funny, he has never seen a dog that looked like this before. Almost all their dogs here are muts and look pretty much the same.

We are down to the last week to get our orphange ready for children. There is a ton of stuff happening there now. Floors being finished, doors going in and windows be made. I've been shopping the past 2 days for household things: cooking pots, dishes, cups, silverware, you get the idea. Also did some shopping at second hand Mall for clothes and bedding. Thank you America! There are tons of clothes here you have given away when you needed more room in your closet. Every where I look around town I see people with American t-shirts. Tim Hortons, football teams and Little princess. Color and design doesn't matter to them, just does it fit and can I afford it. I bought a Columbia winter jacket to wear home for $5.00, awesome.

 

Here is something for you all to think about: How do you hang a shower curtain without a shower curtain rod? And not just straight, it has to be an "L" shape.

Sometimes you just want to hide in a box.

Praise God! After 2 months I finally have internet that works well enough to listen to K-Love. I’m counting this as miracle #3. Our hauling truck had to be worked on today so we were pretty much grounded for the day. We have been hauling sand for 2 days to mix with concrete for the 2^nd floor deck we are ready to pour. Today was supposed to be the last day of hauling sand. 

I was feeling really down today. When we went to Bible Study Pastor Mkisi spoke on the battles we are in being Spiritual battles. We are fighting the unseen. Sure I’ve heard this before many times but today was like a pep talk from Jesus. Perfect timing of coarse but I was so down I still wanted to cry. I ate some cheese curls and that held me up until I got home but I was still battling. Then I decided to try to listen to K-Love on my computer. What do you know it works, Praise God! I have a month to go here and this is going to really help keep me going.

#2 Had a really hard day and I was ready to come home. My daughter called that evening on Skype and for the 1^st time Skype worked for 22 minutes all the other times we were lucky to have more than 30 seconds. I talked to my grandson and Bill and Kelly. Kelly put her iPhone on the counter and I watched her make a cake. Almost like being there with her. Praise God he knew how much I needed that.

#1 Again I was down about a week or so ago and all I could think of to do to help was Praise God. I walked toward the store to get some water and praised God all the way. I wasn’t there a minute before my phone rang. It was Steve Butcher our Hesed President calling to see how things were going with our Orphanage build here in Mzuzu. We talked for ½ hour. God’s perfect timing again, thank You Lord.

There have many other miracles while I have been here but these 3 are related. God wanted to let me know He is here with me and listening to my every word. Just when I’m doubting why I’m here He lets me know He is the one that sent me.

 

You need gravel and sand to make concrete

We left at 6:30 this morning to haul gravel to the orphanage and got home at 9:30pm, but thats not work. Look how they make gravel in Mzuzu, this lady is 81 years old and she sits all day and breaks rocks. The good part is what ever she breaks up is hers to sell. Tomorrow we will haul more sand.

Rynn

While out visiting a 120 year old lady we found puppies and Florence bought one. Her name is Lynn, that's prounced Rynn in Mzuzu. SHe will staying at Samuel's house becuase they eventually want puppies.

This is Agnes or Gogo ( means grandparent) she was alive during World War 1, whoa. As near as they can figure she is 120, they figured this out by what she remembers from childhood. She can still walk and see. When I asked to take her picture she got up and took her jacket off so she would look nice. The village where she is has been her home always. She wouldn't leave to live with her daughter so her grandchildren are watching over her but she still has her own house. They did update it for her from a thatched house to brick after she was biten by a snake and almost died.

Moses is nagging me for more homework to do so I better go for now and write out more math problems for him.  Be blessed.

Everyone,

Here are pictures of the little boy we went to get yesterday. He was
living outside on his own in a town about 160 kilometers from Mzuzu.
He introduced himself to us after hearing we were looking for orphans
that needed a home. He cried when Samuel asked where his mother and
father were, and he said they are both dead.

I just wanted to share a little about what is going on here. Faith
Chapel thank you for your gift of finances for this month. I may be
using it for all the cooking pots and pans and dishes we will need
soon. I think we are going to Lilongwe to shop next week, thats at
least a 3 day trip. We will have to stay over night a couple of nights
while we purchase everything needed to open the orphanage. The lists
are quite long of items needed.

Thank you for being faithful servants of God,
Your Missionary Lynda

Churchville House

Wow, I spent most of the day at Churchville House- that’s the name I gave our orphans house. I setup an office- desk, chair and bench on the front porch. I have finished drawing the plans for our building even though it is already built we needed it documented. The next satellite houses will be smaller but still will easily hold 12 orphans and a widow.

During lunch I showed the workers pictures from last April when our Faith Chapel group was here. They were very excited to see the video of Pastor Dave and Bishop Samuel talking in front of the orphanage they are finishing up now. They said how much they appreciated us building this for the orphans.

My bedroom on top of the Main Building has a beautiful view and it will have a great breeze blowing thru all day. Yes Steve, I said my bedroom. I like to climb up there and look around and try to imagine how nice it will be when it is done.

Our chef Isaac will be starting to work here at the site soon. Until there is cooking to do for the team of 5 that are coming in December he will be used for building. We need all the hands we can get. I figured out last weekend we have 40 days left to finish both buildings. Samuel is trusting God we will have it done. The 40 days sounds prophetic in some way. God took 40 days to dry up the flood and Jesus fasted for days in the desert…. And we have 40 days left to finish God’s work.  Please pray with us that the tasks will be completed!!

Over due update

Saturday Oct. 13^th.  I need to stay home and clean my room today. My roommate left for home at 5:30 this morning, she has been with me since Wednesday. My desk looks just like my old office desk and my home desk, it’s a mess and I can’t find things; too many chargers, batteries and power cables.

 At 7am Samuel and I left to buy rebar for the second floor of the main building at Hesed House Village. When we arrived I finished the measuring of the building I had started yesterday so I can work on the floor plan today.   There is an original plan but sizes have changed since that was drawn up and we want to figure out where the water pipes will be before we pour the concrete slap for the second level. In case you are wondering why they use concrete I asked, It is because the building is made out of bricks and they need a very solid surface up there to hold the weight.

  Shortly after we were there Samuel had said he needed to run a ½hour errand and would come back for me, LOL, he said bank, and diesel and rebar would take ½ hour. I left with him instead of staying in the middle of nowhere with no bathroom in sight and I could see far because I was up on the decking for the second level; nice view from there. We were gone for 4 hours, by the time we got back we had to just unload the rebar and go home.  But Praise God we have a whole barrel of diesel thanks to donations from home. Now we can travel to Lilongwe to buy the supplies needed for Hesed Village without being concerned about fuel. Samuel is also going to Tanzania now that their 2 countries have settled down and stopped talking war. He needs truck parts and tires from there because they are very much cheaper.

 At some point I need to go back and make a measurement and drawing of Churchville, our orphans home built by Faith Chapel. Kenny and Marie the house Mum will live there. I will be creating a new drawing for the next orphans home. This house will be a little simpler to help keep costs down for the next group who will raise money to build a home. Samuel says there will be 10 homes, I say 12 and Steve is planning on 15.

Pastor Boyd and his family arrived at Samuel’s house Thursday with 2 large boxes, some bags of things, 2 suitcases and 2 chickens. I took pictures of the boxes because they were left over boxes from Samaritan’s purse. Now we know where 2 of the boxes of Christmas presents arrived, awesome. Yes these children truly have nothing but that’s according to our standards. They all seem as happy or happier than our children but not as healthy, no cartoons, TVs or video games here for kids.
I asked Samuel why Pastor Boyd was here because they really hadn’t been spending much if any time together .He said Pastor Boyd is trading ministry with another pastor that is arriving on Monday. I think Pastor Boyd and family have been in a remote place for quite some time and they need some ”freshness “ as Samuel called it.

When Samuel said that word, ‘freshness” it made me think about why I am comfortable here, everything is fresh and new. After 40 years of working every day I needed some freshness in my life. Having to trust God in everything you do is awesome also, at home we can pretty much take care of ourselves. Here in this strange country I have to trust God, He sent me here and He will take care of me. God has made me so brave I even slept on the floor for 3 nights. Matt, Tom, Dave and Pat know how brave that is. Whatever those bugs are that Monster Kitty used to eat they are big, big enough to put a leash on and walk outside almost. They are about the size of a ½ dollar, do they still make coins?
There have been many souls saved from the crusade we did for 4 nights; Samuel is a very exciting Evangelist for Jesus. I have video recordings I am going to put on CDs so we can share what he is doing here. In the last paragraph I talked about having to trust the Lord to provide for you, I think that really helps open people’s hearts. They have no other hope  here but Jesus to help them day to day and then that promise of Heaven when it’s done.

Sunday Oct 14^th. We took 60 new Born Again Christians to Lake Malawi to get water baptized this afternoon. I joined in also so I could say I was baptized in Lake Malawi. To get to the lake it is 47km over a winding mountain road. The devil was very angry about all these new Christians. Both our trucks overheated on the way home. A 1 hour drive turned into 5 hours of driving, stopping, driving and then finally 1 truck had to stay where it was and wait for parts. 30 people and kids were left there while we continued on. At least we were on a paved road or tarmac as they call it and not on a dirt road. The pavement was warm so we sat on it because our clothes were still wet. As soon as it gets dark here; 6:00pm, it gets cool fast.

The trip to the lake was the first time Kenny had seen a lake. He was a little frightened when he got there but I got him to sit in the water and when the 1^st wave hit him he laughed a lot. It is a real treat to see children experience things for the 1^st time. That’s why I am so blessed to have my grandson live with me, I have seen a lot of his 1^st time experiences.

 

 If I could speak and understand their language I would be asking everyone, “what do you think Heaven will look like”, I’d like to hear what Americans have to say compared to Africans.

Steve Butcher thinks Africans would say Heaven is like America. And since I’m from American and sent here to Africa by God I must be an Angel. Thanks, Steve.

I think Heavens main difference will be the Love. Nothing matters more than Love and that’s all God is asking us for. If only we could see the good in people and not all the negative stuff we could love anyone just like God Loves us and commands us to do.

Week 2 and still hauling wood

This is how you put a second floor on a brick building in Malawi. We have to build a very strong deck to hold the cement floor we are going to pour soon. We have already gone to the forest 5 times to get the wood that is needed for building this deck. Yes we could have bought the wood in Mzuzu but the cost was too high.  

 

Speaking of high our last trip to get wood was the furthest in and highest spot we have been so far. I took some nice pictures of the valley and other mountains.

I’m sorry updating this blog page has been slow but the internet connection over here is so slow half the time I can’t get on line. Very early in the morning has been the best time, I can get 30kbps, in case you don’t know that is very slow. It is not possible to search the web. I have my name down to get a new internet device that should work in Mbps but they haven’t called back yet saying they have one, it is a USB connection.

Kenny our 1st orphan

It makes me so happy to look at this picture I have tears in my eyes. We walked to the doctor holding hands, what a joy that was! He found my Tic Tacs in my bag while we were waiting to see Dr. Just like home and having Brandon with me, if there is candy he’ll find it.

I took 7 year old Kenny Kuanda to the doctor this morning. He had a big raw spot on his neck. They checked him over and said he had a fungus. They shaved his hair off the spot, washed it and put a cream on. He needs to wash and apply the cream 2xs a day. We also just found out he is HIV positive. We have medicine for that also. I heard the government provides that medicine for free so in the future we won’t have to pay for it. Today’s expenses were 13,860 Kmw. I’m pretty sure that is about $52.00.  Everyone made a big fuss about how much it cost and said they did a whole bunch of tests because I was with him, white lady has money. Pretty funny since I couldn’t pay the entire bill, I still owe them 3,860 Kmw. Samuel is saying don’t pay them the rest but I can’t do that, I signed my name I’ll pay the bill. Kenny was tested for a lot more things and I’m glad they did, it’s nice to know what kind of health he is in. He weighs 18kg and is 7 years old. Grammy weighs 60kg. I’ve lost a little weight but am happy to lose a few pounds.

Our widow’s full name is Maria Tembo. She couldn’t find enough words to thank us for taking care of Kenny, I finally told her to thank God because He is the one that has sent us to help. Maria is 55 yrs old. She had 3 or 4 miscarriages when she was 1^st married. After her husband died she starting taking care of sick people and then raising their children after they died. Maria will need to be tested for HIV also because of all the people she has taken care of including Kenny. Maria has been going to a Baptist church but will join Church on the Wings this Sunday. She was treasurer at her current church and has taught that job to someone else before she left. She doesn’t speak English, we will need to work on that because all the children need English and she will be Mom. They can help each other.

My 1st ever letter from Brandon

I miss you too Brandon. I like Africa a lot. I am feeling fine, thank you for asking. I love you too!
Love from Africa,
Grammy

Trip to Forest for Timbers

A day with a lot of small details that held us up, this is how a day goes in Mzuzu. We left the house at 7am to go to the forest to get timbers for main building at HESED House Village.

1^st small detail we had to get gas but we had no money. Waited for the bank to open at 8 and went and cashed a check for Samuel and filled out paper work for my money gram from Faith Chapel. I had to leave my passport and they said I could come back at 9am.
8:30 We left to go wait for Florence to bring Samuel his cell phone then left to get gas. There wasn’t any gas so Samuel decided to make the 1^st of 3 trips he had planned for the day to get the timbers. He was going to find gas on the return trip.
9:00 We arrived at forest, maybe 20 miles out of town. Samuel paid for the 300 timbers we need but found out we would need to go deep into the woods so we had to return to Mzuzu to find gas. Samuel had left the gas money with Florence so she could purchase it ahead of us and we could just go get it. That didn’t work. We found gas but had to wait for Florence to meet us with the other work truck and the money.
10:00 Then we went to bank again to get more money for Florence and to pick up my money gram that should have been ready, it wasn’t and it took us an hour to get it. Thank you Faith Chapel for your donations.
11:00 Head back to forest but encountered a speed trap and had to pay 3000MWK, that’s only about $12.00. We got back to forest and found some men had already started cutting timbers for us but they were the wrong ones. We needed bigger and stronger wood. We had to take the workers further, much further down the road and then very, very deep into the forest. I think we drove over 2 mountains to get back to where the gum wood was. We were traveling on a dirt road all the way winding up and down the mountains. After that ride in I was laughing about the U-Haul truck ride I had once to California that I thought was rough ride. I can’t begin to tell you how difficult that ride was for the truck. It stalled about 4 times on the way in and I had to get out so they could lift the cab and spray started fluid in engine.
12 noon they started cutting timbers we had 4 workers with us. By 4:00 we had to leave because it would be dark in an hour and we needed an hour to back out to the main road. On the way out we were held up by a truck with a flat tire and no way to drive around him.
5:30 we made it to the orphanage with the timbers and unloaded them. We had 67 timbers. We will need to make at least 2 more trips back into the forest tomorrow.

Small details is our slogan here everything is just small details, God is in control.

At Last I have a picture of the Home for our Orphans

If only you could see the hill top this house ( Faith Chapel's House )and HESED House Village is located on. It brings me great joy to see it and stand on this ground. When we were driving up Samuel said there is Churchville....I was almost crying with excitement. This is a photo that does not do the surroundings justic.

Our 1st Widow that will care for our orphans

 

 This afternoon we went to meet the widow that will be in our house. She sounds perfect for the job. Loves kids, couldn't have any of her own but has raised many other children who lost thier parents. She is 55 yrs. old and loves Jesus. She is the person everyone in the village comes to when thier children are sick. Since you have meet my friends, Bishop Samuel Mkisi is standing next to the widow and Pastor Duncan is behind us.

 

 

 

Glory Gas!

I arrived at the airport Friday at 1:30pm (7:30am N.Y. time) and Bishop Samuel was there to pick me up. After getting my bags and loading the car I found out there was a small problem, no gas at the gas stations and his tank was below empty. I prayed and texted home for Kelly to pray. She said the car would keep going on Glory gas and it did. We drove for close to an hour before finding some boys with bottles of gas. Praise God, but if we had stopped to pray before buying the gas God may have told us not thiers because we only drove 1 more block before we saw a gas station that had gas and they weren't charging double.
I  read Psalm 48 this morning in verse 14 it says "For God is our God forever and ever;he will be our guide even to the end." Guide is the key word here, if you are looking for guidance look to God and his Word.

Why did God call me to Africa!

I know why, I am bringing prosperity and abundance blessings .Where ever I set my feet the Holy Spirit will be; blessing others.
" Things always work out for me. Everything that I do prospers and I have abundance in Jesus' name."
Praises and Thank You Jesus for your blessings!

OOHHH!

7 days before I leave for Malawi.
 And for the next 5 days I will be busy with Faith Chapel's Annual Tent Meeting. Come and join us at 125 Bromley Road, Churchville. Friday and Saturday night 7 p.m. till....we all leave. And then Sunday at 10 a.m. Big Tent Big Weekend. Alot of music, worship and Christians. Check us out @ http://faithchapelofchurchville.com/  up coming events.

We have lift off

On Friday August 24th Faith Chapel is having a Missionary Commisioning service for me.
Today I ordered 200 business cards so I could alert more people to this blog and what Hesed Missions is doing.

And I have my ticket for September 13th for Malawi, Yeah!

August 15th already

Everyday I make another step closer to Malawi. I met with Steve Butcher yesterday and we talked over the building plans and where things are at right now. Steve is working on getting tickets for our group in December and my tickets for September.

We heard from Samuel today with good news. The water authority has blessed us with a lower price than was expected to bring water lines to the HESED House Village. Yeah God!
I also saw pictures of the first house with a roof on it. Things are moving forward fast.

This weekend at Tom Johnston's house we are having a fund raising garage sale for our HESED house. Thats on the corner of Ogden Parma Townline Road and Union Street in Spencerport. Tell all your friends to come because we have loads of things.

Where did the blog name come from

I named this blog "12 orphans at a time" because that is the number of children each house will hold. We are hoping for more churches to get involved and build more homes for another 12 and another 12 and another 12, you get the idea.
My heart goes out to these orphans because I was an orphan as a baby and I know all I ever wanted was a loving family and that is what we are building, families. We will not be walking away once the buildings are up. Our support and help with each childs future will continue.

A big time change in when I leave

I'll be leaving in September for Malawi and stay until December. There are a lot of building projects going on right now that I can help with and some signs to be painted. I am butterrflies in the stomach excited now.
Only 22 more days to get up for work!!!!

Donations

Any donation to Lynda's mission trip will go directly to feeding and caring for the children. I am volunteering my time and paying my own expenses.
I can take your donations or you can donate directly to http://hesedmissions.org/
May God Bless you for reaching out to His orphans and Widows.
James 1:27
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Bishop Mkisi and H.I.M. (Hesed International Missions) are building homes for orphans in Africa.

http://www.hesedmissions.org/