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.