Pics

More coming, but this is what I have right now!

The Tanzanian program... Door of our truck

At a well...one of the few kids who let me hold her

MMM African staff--field officers from Tanzania, Malawi, and Zambia

Finished!!!

2,578 wells have been installed this year!! That means 38,600 people now have access to clean, protected water! (Calculations based on about 150 people served per well)

We met with the whole team in Mzuzu on Friday night (long drive down from TZ). Roughly 24 volunteers and 40 Field Officers and 6 Support Staff come for dinner and sharing time. After a feast (salad, veggies, chips, rice, chicken, beef, and desserts) we each stand and tell where we saw God in this year's trip. Stories from first time volunteers who can't believe what was accomplished to those who have been coming for years who still find we are doing the impossible. As far as we know, this is the only organization to succeed or even attempt to install 2500 wells in 8 weeks. And we can only do it by coming together as people of God. With the support of so many back home, with the leadership of our African team, with the knowledge that what we are doing is making a difference...we push and we are successful! Utukufu kwa Mungu!! Glory to God!!

PS. There are still about 800 wells that have been built but have yet to be funded...be a part of the miracle! Www.MMMwater.com

Dedication

I "helped" install 83 wells this year! (I don't do the installations, i drive to the wells) What a blessing! In Tanzania the villages seem to be larger and the need for multiple wells is great. Many times on the way to the well we were to install we would pass one that had been installed in previous years and a couple that were put in by Team 1. I love seeing past wells that are still being used!

As we dedicate the well to the glory of God, there is clapping and ululations. Sometimes I have to start these (though not often) and other times someone from the village gets onto them. We begin with a prayer by a church person usually from the village. As it is in Swahili I pray on my own for the village, the women who don't have so far to walk anymore, the children who won't get sick as often, the water that it blesses all who use it, and the other volunteers and MMM workers who are working all over Malawi, Tanzania, and Zambia, traveling over "roads"and paths to the remote places.

Then Woody or I talk about the well: how Christians in America heard about their need for clean water and wanted to help. That they donated money to finish the well built by the villagers. That the well represents the love of God and it is written on the top to be remembered and used as a reminder to pray and give God the glory for all the blessings in our lives. We speak of the ownership of the well, that it does not belong to me, or to MMM but to the village (I try to instigated some cheering here). And with that ownership comes the responsibility to take care of the well and the water beneath it by keeping the area clean and the animals away from it. By keeping up with the maintenance plan and calling the maintenance man promptly if it breaks. We ask that they share with others what they have seen and heard about the well and about the goodness of God. Time is given to them to add words. Many thanks are proffered to God, to MMM, to us, to the donors back in America. They tell us that this well is very needed and please can we help their neighbors with this blessing. They assure us that they will take care of the well (and some start lecturing their fellow villagers right away). Their thanks are often prefaced with, " we have no words." And the gifts we were given (chickens, bananas, ground nuts, and onions) with "we have no gift." They feel the inadequacy of trying to repay one of God's blessings. But the lights shining in their eyes and the smiles in their lips are more than enough for me.

If it is a new village, a demonstration on correct usage of the well follows and then we make our way back to the truck to head to the next miracle!

Typical day (2016)

Tanzania and Malawi are a little different. In our days it doesn't seem to be much different but still. In Tanzania (and some of the stories I've heard from other volunteers even in Malawi) they don't stop for lunch. I wasn't sure how I was going to deal with that. For one thing, I'd forgotten to bring any snacks to have when meals schedules and my hunger didn't quite get along. For another, I like to eat and take a small break from the bouncing and jostling of dirt roads. But, I figured I would be open...

My days have always started with breakfast. (Again, some volunteers say they skip that because they start so early--craziness, I say.) Usually an egg and white bread slices this year and sometimes a boiled sweet potato piece. (Last year add potato fries each morning.) Then load up the truck with more than enough pipes and pumps for the days plan (one day we planned on 10 and completed 11 because one just happened to be on the way back). And then start driving...

The roads are hazardous. People, bicycles, motorcycles, animals, other vehicles and a bad paving job....keeps you alert. Then you turn off the main road to a dirt road and all the same challenges apply (not the paving but then there are the washouts and ruts). Bouncing along to the first well after picking up a team of installers and builders. Here the villagers don't meet you at the truck. They trickle down to the well as it is being installed. Again they are shocked when I can do a basic greeting and I love seeing the smiles light up their faces. At many villages it is a second (or more) well so we don't have to do the demo or the full dedication service. We have a prayer, say a few words, and take a picture. Them it is off to the next well. These multiple wells are great. The need for clean water is so great that the lines at the wells are very long. And it was great to see previous wells that are still in good repair and use!

At some point we have a package if biscuits (cookies for Americans) and that suffices for lunch...and you eat them on the way to the next well. Once the wells for that day are done we head back to the hotel, and in some order depending on the time, shower, have dinner, prepare water and self for the next day and collapse into bed.

Tanzania

Three days in (it is Sunday now) and Woody Davis (from Jackson, Mississippi) and I have helped install 23 wells! We did 11 the first day. The villages in Tanzania are larger and many of them have had wells in past years and they want more because the need for clean water keeps lines long at the wells.

Tanzanians are a more reserved people compared to Malawians. We aren't greeted with the exuberance that I am used to but with a quiet earnestness as they greet us, listen to the dedication and watch the demonstration. They are very thankful to God for the opportunity to have the well, to those in America who donated to make it possible, and to us for helping with the installation.

If possible I find the children even more shy than in Malawi! I have scared one off just by smiling at her...not getting closer or anything. She didn't take off screaming, but she definitely left!

At one well there was a grandmother so excited she was bouncing through most of the dedication. She made sure to come and take my hand and we ululated together. Everyone still gets a kick out of that and I'm getting lots of practice. I still make a better sound when I move my head but to take a picture I try to keep my head still :)

I'm learning some Swahili as my Chichewa doesn't come in handy here.  Utukufu kwa Mungu (Glory to God) is on top of all the wells. And I try to say God bless you before I leave though I have yet to get it out smoothly-- Mungu awa bariki.

Assignment

Training went well. It is a lot of information at once. Most of it useful at some point but it can be overwhelming especially coming after such long flights and the jet lag! Introductions of the team...about 25 of us... A devotion from Matthew 3:11 about being baptized with water and spirit and the connection between the two. Words of welcome from the MMM Malawian coordinators and then the nitty-gritty...android training (to record the location and quality of the wells), talk of some cultural differences and re!indeed that the Africans we work with are the experts with the training, phones, money, pictures, tool boxes and installation/dedication services. We get our placements and partners and head out to practice driving the trucks (on the left and stick shift).

I have been partnered with Alisa Simpson from southern Illinois and we are headed to Tanzania! I've never been, so yippee, to new adventures! This does mean 2 days of driving before we even get to our first well...

**We have arrived in Mbeya now. It was 1 really long day of driving and a second somewhat shorter day. Wells start tomorrow (Thursday). I'm ready to get started (though grateful for this afternoon to rest up)!

We're here!!

We're here!

Team 2 has made it to Malawi! It took a while (those flights cover quite a bit of distance) but we all made it and all our luggage did too!

Arriving at the Lilongwe airport is such a welcome relief and as much as I would have likes to pur off getting my visa until I arrived it is definitely nice to have it already done because the line is shorter to get through passport control. I met some fellow volunteers in Addis Ababa (my last layover) and we worked at pulling off action packers (luggage of choice for most MMM volunteers) from the luggage belts. I stepped out early to meet with Linn, whom I hadn't seen in the 4 years since I left Nkhoma! She is a Norwegian nurse and is down visiting right now and this would be our only chance to see each other as I'm headed north with MMM. It was a great but short catch up time.

Soon the rest of the team came out and we started loading up the trucks. I heard another familiar voice from Nkhoma and looked up to see Jane, an English nurse who I thought I was going to miss completely! How much fun to come all this way and meet up with friends from everywhere!

An hour's drive took us to Mponela where we come for training and to *catch up* on the jet lag (as if that can be done overnight). Dinner and a little chatter with new and known faces before crashing hard under our mosquito nets...

MMM

I'm off to Malawi once again! Leaving the country soon for a few days in Liverpool to visit with Rhona and Isabella whom I lived with in Nkhoma. Then to Lilongwe with Marion Medical Mission for the rest of October! Here is a letter from MMM founder Tom Logan and I'll be updating as much as possible !  

  We are in over our heads beyond what we can do. We need to pray hard and ask others (friends, Churches, Sunday School Classes, the organizations we belong to) to commit to pray daily until the end of November. And when we pray…let’s move our feet (An African proverb I like). 

            Pray for the volunteers safety and efforts, pray for our African partners (the Field Officers, Installation Supervisors, well builders, and the 2,550 village communities hoping to have a source of safe drinking water they can maintain themselves, pray the funds necessary will be available)

            In Malawi there are six million people at risk of starvation due to the drought/famine caused by El Nino. Pray MMM will get maize to those at risk, and do so safely.

            A $20 donation to Marion Medical Mission buys and distributes a 110 pound bag of maize to a family providing them with the necessary food assistance needed for a month (no overhead in the US and less than 3% in Malawi). MMM has promised the Synod of Nkhoma Church of Central Africa Presbyterian it will provide 15,760  110 pound bags of maize ($20 x 15,760 = $315,200) to those most at risk.

            Within the last month, Marion Medical Mission has purchased and distributed 4,000  bags of maize. MMM has raised less than 50% of what is needed...yet, we must buy maize when we can find it.       

            $400 provides a rural village in Africa with a sustainable source of safe drinking water. Marion Medical Mission’s 2016 goal is to build 2,550 wells before the rains come in November; in an area covering roughly 57,000 square miles.  All 2,550 villages have been selected and they are in the process of making the brick, gathering stone and sand; 25,550  110 pound bags of cement have been purchased; subsistence farmers have made around 2,800 pumps; 1050 African builders are ready to start construction September 1.

            MMM has received funding for 1,053 of the wells leaving 1497 that need to be funded.

            Where will the funds for maize and wells come from?  It can’t be done. It is impossible. Marion Medical Mission has been here before...last year, and the year before, and the year before, and the year before...

            You are needed. Only together can we be who God created us to be. Together the impossible is possible. Apart the possible is impossible. 

            Tax deductible donations can be sent to Marion Medical Mission, 1412 Shawnee Drive, Marion, IL 62959. 

            To donate online, go to www.mmmwater.org  

            Tom Logan, Marion Medical Mission

Superhero Challenge

As our summer theme was superheroes, we created our own to embody the characteristics we looked at each night. Our Art Director, Val, made masks and capes and during worship each night they made their appearance.

Welcome Warrior--Acceptance
Doctor Discipline--Self-Control 

General Grit--Perseverance

Helpful Heart--Kindness

Brave Beast--Courage

Then on Thursday afternoons we held the Superhero Challenge--a relay race for all camper groups on campus. The relay "baton" was the cape and mask that would be passed off for the 15 stations. At each station there were supplies for 1 or 2 people to complete the task. If only 1 person was needed, that person had to have both the cape and the mask. If 2 were needed, one would wear the cape and one the mask. Divided into superhero teams, they did things like 3-legged race, Holy Water Transfer, potato sack race, wheel barrow race, tp roll, hula hoop, and so many more:

Go and Use your Powers for Good

Our send-off theme was "Go out into the world and use your powers for good". We went over (again) that we all are superheroes, that we have these superpowers (and many more) and that now we are to go back home and use them for good in the world. All of these powers take practice and often we need help from others to use them. We know that we are not alone. I then played a message from Kid President about being a hero since I couldn't get him to come to camp :)

Our verse at worship was Philippians 4:13. We repeated it in pieces and as a whole. Then stood up, posed in our best superhero poses, and said in unison, "I can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens me!"

Back to Africa!!

I'm headed back again! The well installation season for Marion Medical Mission starts September 18th with 23 volunteers. They will be in Malawi, Zambia and Tanzania for 3 weeks getting a great start on the 2,500 wells we plan and hope to install this year. Team 2 (the team I'm on with 20 volunteers) comes in October 9th to complete the installations...mostly complete them anyway, as the Malawian, Tanzanian and Zambian staff continue to install wells until the rains start...Thus last year in 2015, there were 2,678 wells installed!

September and October is when Marion Medical Mission installs wells because it is the end of the dry season and thus the water table is at its lowest point. The rest of the year there should be water in the well since there is water at the time of the installation.

Now, though, after 2 years of drought, the water table is very low. The people are hungry because there hasn't been a good harvest in those 2 years. So Marion Medical has expanded to help with food distribution in addition to clean water wells. MMM is in a unique position to be able to help effectively.

Please pray for this mission and if you feel lead to donate, do!
~~$400 pays for a well that helps an estimated 150 people have access to clean water

~~$20 pays for a 110 pound bag of maize that will feed a family for a month through the famine

~~$$ any amount can be donated to MMM for wells or food, or can be donated to me to help me cover the costs of the trip.

Peace and love to you!

Perseverance

Perseverance was the theme for Day 4. Perseverance is the quality of continuing to try even though things are difficult. To not give up. To work at something over and over even when you want give up. Jesus told a story about prayer in Luke 18: 1-8. A widow who was seeking justice went to the judge. This judge did not fear God or respect others and sent her away. She came back until the judge decided to give her justice so she would stop bothering him.

What would have happened if the widow had stopped after the first denial? or even the third? She had to persevere-continue to try even with the challenge of the difficult judge. She wanted what was right, justice which is often bigger than one person. She is not asking for a selfish thing but for right. And in the end, due to her persistence, justice is rewarded even though the judge still doesn't care.

We often try things that are hard. Things that we might want to give up on. Things that we won't be good at until we work at it, practice over and over. Perseverance keeps us trying, helps us to get better. If we stopped doing things because they were hard or we weren't good at them the first time, our lives would be smaller. When we persevere, we have feelings of accomplishment that help us to persevere the next time we try something hard(er) or bigger than before.

Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team. Oprah Winfrey was told she would never be a presence in front of the camera. Hard work and perseverance took them to great heights. What great heights await us?

Self-Control

Self-control comes next in the less well-known story of King David from 1 Samuel 25: 2-39. David was in the wilderness near the lands of Nabal. Nabal is a rich man whom David had done a favor for in the past--taking care of some of his men and sheep. David has asked that Nabal give his men some food from the feast that he has prepared, but Nabal accuses them of lying and sends them away. When David hears this he calls for his men to prepare to wipe out Nabal. Nabal's beautiful and clever wife, Abigail, hears what Nabal has done and calls for her servants to gather food and gifts and sends them to David. She follows and throws herself at his mercy, asking for him to spare her husband and not have blood upon his hands. David then praises God for sending Abigail and stopping him in the heat of his anger.

We talked of the difficulty of self-control over our feelings and emotions as well as over our actions. That we often need help outside of ourselves to keep our self-control. We need an Abigail to remind us that how we behave and think are up to us and are our responsibility.

When I read this story, I am reminded of Donald Duck cartoons in which he gets very mad. The red rises from his collar to the top of his head with steam pouring out of his ears (?!) until there is an explosion of rage with yelling and kicking and bouncing around. This explosion ultimately leads to an apology for losing control (in the cartoon, in life we often live with guilt for quite awhile before apologizing).

I challenged them to come up with some strategies to keep self-control--counting to 10 (or 4), deep breaths, walking away, talking to someone, prayer, and to use them in the coming days with fellow campers and changing plans...

Acceptance & Kindness

Day 2, we looked at acceptance and kindness through Jesus's story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). When a lawyer asked how to be assured of a place in heaven, Jesus asks what the law says. "To love God and to love your neighbor." Then the lawyer asks, "Who is my neighbor?" Jesus responds with the story of the man who is robbed and beat up on a roadside, passed by 2 religious people, and helped by a Samaritan. When Jesus then poses the question back to the lawyer, "Who was the neighbor?" The response was the one who helped. "Go and do likewise."

We talked about why the Jewish people who heard the story didn't like it. That the hero of the story is the enemy of the Jews. Jews and Samaritans did not interact, talk or touch. They were the people on the sidelines, the outskirts, the non-entities. In order to love our neighbor, those are the people we are to see as people, to help, to include--those who annoy us, those who are different from us. At camp I talked about acceptance of the people in your cabin who you were spending all week with, acceptance of change and difference. Kindness to those who pester or who we don't like.  We are all children of God and thus all worthy of both acceptance and kindness.

I find this lesson very important today when we have so much fear of "the other," when we don't see or recognize the humanity in so many in our society. Trying to remember that our neighbors, whom we are to love, may live next door, may look different from us, may believe different things, are still God's children. The Law says love your neighbor--Syrian, gay, black, homeless, refugee, transgendered,  poor...  Jesus says, "Go and do likewise."

Courage

Day 1's theme was courage. Queen Esther was my Bible example. (Esther 4-5) Queen Esther's cousin, Mordecai, told her of a law the king signed that would kill all of the Jews on a certain day. He told her that she had to approach the king and save her people. She knew that to approach the king without being summoned meant a death sentence unless the king raised his scepter to hear the supplicant. She had not been summoned to the king in 30 days. She was scared, but Mordecai told her that this could be her purpose for being in the palace. He also told her that God would save the Jews and that she should be on the right side of history...She agreed to approach the king after 3 days of prayers and fasting by all the Jews. Esther then gathered her courage and went before the king (who welcomed her and granted her request for the lives of her people).

We defined courage--doing something that is difficult or dangerous, being brave, standing up for someone, doing something new. We looked at who can help us find our courage--God, Jesus, parents, friends, counselors. We talked about some of the camp activities that we would face during the week that might call for courage--spending the night at camp, being in the woods, rock climbing, canoeing, zipline,  hiking... and we talked about how practice makes it easier. The more often you use your courage, the easier it gets to use your courage again to do what you found difficult or scary before and to try new things.

Summer 2016 Theme

SUPERHEROES

Camp Grier's theme for the summer was Superheroes. The journals we created for the kids to have to help think more about the daily themes looked (somewhat) like a comic book:

Throughout the week we talked about the gifts (aka Superpowers) that God has given to each of us. Superpowers that we are to use to make this world a better place and to make this week (or 2) a great experience. The 5 superpowers we looked at were courage, acceptance, kindness, self-control and perseverance. Powers that all superheroes have and use in all the comics, cartoons and movies that we are so familiar with. We came up with our own superheroes to show our traits, tied in Bible stories and tried to link them to the challenges and fun we have at camp. 

New job!!

So this is a little belated (about 3 months), but I'll write it as it is way past due.

I got a job! I wasn't looking for a job as my part-time work kept me busy and free, but a friend put my name in and it sounded like a job I would enjoy...

I am now working for Camp Grier, a Presbyterian camp located on 500+ acres in Old Fort, NC. I've been hired year round, full time in the summer as the Director of Ministry, and part time the rest of the year as the Global Village Coordinator. I started in May, getting ready for the summer season. Vainglory assured they had the theme picked and journals almost ready...the theme was picked but needed some fine tuning and specifics put in. And suddenly it was summertime!

Nkhoma Hospital

Here's a note from the hospital in Nkhoma where I lived for 2.5 years. They do great work at the hospital and could use help in realizing their plans for the future of the hospital:

At Nkhoma, a small village in Malawi (the 5th poorest country of the world) is Nkhoma Hospital, now in its hundredth year.

The people of the community as with any other municipality need health care. Currently the hospital is under-resourced with sick children having to share beds, eye care patients waiting for hours on hard benches to be guided to their operations, no any privacy in the labour room and very bad facilities for the guardians (those who come to take care of the patients).

To serve the patients with love and care, Nkhoma Hospital needs better facilities not just for the patients and their guardians but also for the hospital staff too.
SOMETHING NEEDS TO BE DONE !!!!!!!

In June 2009 together with hospital managemenent and staff, I have put together a plan for the future. We have created a master plan and concept designs for throughout the hospital.
To realize the plan we need help, your help.
To find out how you can help please visit our website (www.nkhomahospitalfoundation.com). With your help we are sure Nkhoma Hospital can give the health care the community needs and the staff the working conditions they deserve.

Please do feel free to send this message to your family, friends and network.

With kind regards, on behalf of the board of Nkhoma Hospital Foundation,

Thijs Noordhoek, chairman

Eye clinics

In Bayonnais, Haiti, we had 3 optical professionals come with us for the beginning of the week. Dr. Paula, from Friendship Baptist church in charlotte, had been down last year. When she visited the school, she noticed that none of the 2000+ students had glasses. She knew that it couldn’t be possible that none of them needed them so she went home gathered her resources and 2 colleagues and came down with us. The first 2 days of our week there we spent checking the eye sight of the students from 3rd grade and up. That is over 1500 students! And then we managed to see adults in between the morning and afternoon school sessions!

In our whirl wind arrival, we were given instructions on conducting the eye test with an eye chart (that big E chart we all know). In the church we set up 4 stations with the charts and taped out the distance on where to stand. There were 2 of us and a translator for each station. I was designated the “gate keeper.” Each student filled out a card with their name, age, and class. Then the classes would come to me at a table outside the church. I would write a number (1-4) to designate which station to go to—in the hopes of separating friends and cut down on copying and some peer pressure. I think it worked.

Talk about some organized chaos! Someone worked out that it was about 2 minutes per student for the test. Each station saw roughly a fourth of the overall number—but I saw them all—and often more than once! If the kids could read the chart they were sent back to me (or my table where I got my translator to help as I didn’t really need a translator) to get a hygiene pack that had been prepared and sent by our home churches. The packs had a wash cloth, tooth brush, tooth paste, soap and comb (or some variation). If they couldn’t read the chart they went to the doctors where they were tested to get a prescription. They had brought (or sent) down many glasses of different prescriptions based on some research that Dr. Paula had done with her many mission trips and so the student would then go to Dr. Burke to get glasses. Everyone got a hygiene pack at the end of the eye exam.

So 2000+ were tested. About 573 were sent to see the doctors for further testing. 135 people got glasses and more prescriptions were brought back to Charlotte to be filled and sent down with the next OFCB group! That is some good work!

It was a very busy 2 days—hectic, crowded, chaotic, but so good to know that some people were getting to see clearly for the first time!

Many of the adults we tested couldn't read so we found this poster of animals to help with our assessments!

Lights

the many different ways to use the solar lights: as a lamp/flashlight, in a diffuser to light up a whole room (that doubles as an amplifier for sound), to charge your phone

testing the lights so we know how to explain (or demonstrate)

giving a light to a family

Solar lights

A Haitian house is often 2 or 3 rooms with walls of mud brick or concrete block. The windows if they have them are very small because there isn’t glass to keep out the unwanted animals (and people) and so they don’t let in much light. Going inside in the day time is like walking into a very dark closet—we would reach out to flip the lights on but that isn’t possible in Haiti. In Haiti the electricity (assuming you have it) is still off more than it is on. After the sun goes down, most of life goes to bed because there is no light, unless you have a generator which is very expensive to buy and then to run. So with the only light coming from the doorway the rest of the room is always in dark shadow, with the contrast of the blindingly bright sunshine and the darkness your eyes don’t really adjust.
We took 27 solar lights from Montreat Presbyterian Church’s alternative Christmas giving, provided by the Light Foundation which was founded by Olsen and Marilyn Huff (members of Montreat Pres) and their son Steve to Haiti. That means 27 households now have a reliable source of light in their homes. We cannot imagine what that means.
Personally, I got to deliver solar lights to 2 students’ families. The joy and pride on the students’ faces as we walked to their homes amidst the crowd of children that always surrounded us was priceless. They knew that this was going to help them. As we went over the many different settings and ways to use the light, I watched the fierce concentration of everyone around trying to remember everything that was said (and/or to understand my explanations as I was the translator into the French/Creole that I speak).
At the second home, it was only the 8th grade student who was at home. We had passed her mother at her roadside stall selling food, and she sent us up to the house. I misunderstood and thought she would be coming, but then realized my faulty reasoning that if she came then she wouldn’t have anyone at her stall. There were some neighboring children there, very curious and interested. I was a little worried about leaving the light but as we went through the settings and explanations she was very attentive. As we finished and put the light away and were getting ready to go back, her older brother arrived home. She wanted me to go over it all again with him so that they would both know what to do. I agreed and then had her do all the explanations and demonstrations to be sure she understood. She did a great job and was so proud. Her brother was very impressed as well. As we passed her mother’s stall on the way back to the guest house, she thanked us again and again. She knew that the light would be used to help her family and she was grateful.

Haiti--Bayonnais

At the end of January, I returned to Haiti! I was there for 2 weeks. The first was spent in Bayonnais with a group from Montreat and Charlotte, NC. The second was back in Port-au-Prince with Haiti Outreach Ministries.

Not much had changed at the airport. There is a new $10 fee to enter the country but that isn't much compared to many places. All of our bags came through though it did take some time. Another mission group had used the same bright green duct tape on their bags which was a little confusing. Got out to the school bus that would take us the 3+hours north to Bayonnais to find the reverse beep was broken and now ON all the time that the bus is on. Not a bad rode though the last hour is off the highway and very bumpy (I'm used to off roading). We were even more relieved than normal to get off the beeping bus!

The US organization that helps in Bayonnais is Friends of OFCB. The Haitian organization is OFCB. Operation Force Christ of Bayonnais. It is now headed by Pastor Actionnel Fleurisma. In 1993 he helped to start a school in his home village of Bayonnais with 105 students and 3 teachers. Now there are more than 1,700 students in kindergarten thru 13th grade. And they have started 2 satellite schools for the children who have been walking for 2 hours to get to school! Want to sponsor a student?

There is also a church there that has grown from a small cinder block church to a larger space used for education classes and community meetings. Along with a clinic for healthcare, and agriculture program, a local bank with a micro-credit loan facility many great things are going on in Bayonnais. Graduates are returning from university to work in Bayonnais at the school and in the clinic.

It is a very friendly area and there is always someone aaround who would live to practice their English, share ideas and ask and answer questions. I visited briefly in 2013 when mom was down with FOFCB and am glad I had the opportunity to return.

Food distribution-Malawi

200 bags of maize ready for distribution

waiting for the distribution

signing for the bag of maize

thumbprints or signatures

leaving with a month's worth of food

visit Marion Medical Mission to learn more!

Famine

Malawi is going through a terrible famine right now. The harvest was bad last year in that there really wasn't one due to the flood in November 2014 and the the rain stopping completely. People are starving. The harvest for this year is looking pretty good right now, but it is still growing and not ready to eat yet. Marion Medical Mission is helping to provide maize (the basic staple food) for families to get through this hunger time. I'll let this letter from Tom Logan tell more (and will follow up with pictures I took at one distribution) :

February 16, 2016

The famine in Malawi is real.

Marion Medical Mission’s (MMM) impossible goal in September of 2015 was to buy and distribute 10,000 110 pound bags of maize.

As a result of many wonderful giving people and Churches MMM has purchased 29,200 110 pound bags of maize and by February 20, 2016, will have distributed this maize to an estimated 80,000 people. And for only $16 per 110 pound bag.

Rev. Kachipapa, General Secretary of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian Synod of Nkhoma, took on the task of identifying vulnerable families and getting the maize distributed to them. He asked each rural Congregation* working together with the Traditional Authorities, to identify 400 of the most vulnerable families in their areas regardless of religious affiliation. These Congregations (Women’s Guild, Men’s Guild, Deacons, Elders) along with Synod officials, monitor the maize distribution.

Lorries carrying 200 110 pound bags of maize are hired to deliver the maize to the distribution centers** where the selected vulnerable families receive the maize. The roads to the distribution centers are dirt and because this is the rainy season the transport becomes increasingly difficult resulting in increased delivery costs. The government of Malawi, seeing the effectiveness of the distribution system, is providing 7 trucks decreasing the transportation cost by an estimated 75%! God is good all the time!

Marion Medical Mission’s Synod of Livingtonia, and Synod of Nkhoma Well Program Field Officers distributed 2,800 bags of maize to rural communities within their catchment areas. Rev. Mwasakifwa and the Tanzanian Well Program Field Officers donated $600 to buy maize for their Malawian brothers and sisters suffering from famine.

There remain many in Malawi at risk of starvation. Famine means people are weak making it difficult for them to work in their fields, leading to another poor growing season. Famine means well maintenance people too weak to repair wells, and villages unable to offer a gift of food when their well is repaired…leading to a return to unsafe drinking water.

We have a most effective and efficient way of reaching those impacted by the famine.

We again ask your help in feeding the least of these as Marion Medical Mission struggles to buy and deliver additional maize to the most vulnerable. The cost is still just $16 per bag distributed.

100% of your designated donations will go directly to Malawi to purchase and distribute maize. No overhead expenses on the US side. In Africa 3% goes for monitoring and distribution.

Mail your tax deductible donations to Marion Medical Mission, 1412 Shawnee Drive, Marion Illinois 62959. To donate online go to: www.mmmwater.org, or on Facebook go to Marion Medical Mission.

Thanks so much for all you do…only together as God’s people.

Tom Logan, President

* Rev. Kachipapa explains these Congregations average 1,000 members and 11 prayer houses.

** The rural Congregations that selected the vulnerable families.

Clean Water!!

A video of me joining in the dancing

getting there and installation

Crew 2 (October group) I'm in the green.

our truck

a few bridges to cross (ok, this one was on foot)

but this one wasn't

and installing