Malawi Day 15 – 18 July

We are up bright and early to get through to Mozambique. It is apparently a very bad road so please pray for safety on the road.

Last night we went to the Bombay Palace for dinner. It was really good food and a very nice atmosphere. Alida fetched her friends daughter Lineke from the airport. She is staying here for 5 weeks. She is a med student in Holland so I assume she will help Alida with the clinic. It will be really good for Alida to have the company.

It seems a little strange that I will not be in Malawi malawi. Malawi means tomorrow in chichewa and that is so typical of most of africa… Tomorrow is another day.

13h15: the road has been pretty good so far. Bad potholes for about 100km but now its a good dirt road.

Slept in Holiday Inn Mutare.

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Malawi Day 14 – 17 July

We eventually got electricity last night but were too tired to pack. We decided to wake early and pack this morning and guess what!! Yip, no electricity! So armed with headlights we started packing. We literally packed the back of the bakkie so tight that a mouse couldn’t squeeze in. Please pray that we don’t have to unpack everything!! Seriously I’ll loose my sense of humour.

We really tried to get away early but the usual happened… This one just wants to quickly print out documents and waits till the last minute and then the other one wants to drop off things at his sister… grrr

The trip to Blantyre went well except Gerrit was stopped for one of the truck lights which was not working. We were stopped for speeding. The limit changes from 50 to 80 every few kilometers and I was doing 80 in a 50 zone. K5000 (R250) fine paid on the spot. The terrible thing is Alida saw us and slowed down and was caught doing 53 and got a K5000 fine! Ridiculous! If we paid a K2000 bribe it would have been fine. This country is rife with corruption. It reaches to every level.

I went to get Hannelize & the boys temporary residence permit stamps while she went to see the auditors. The immigration office had already closed and they advised me to come back on monday, but I just smiled and was very friendly to the guy. Eventually he emerged from his office with papers to fill in which I dutifully did. He then dissappeared with the passports for at least 30mins… I was getting worried but then a lady swung the door open producing the stamped passports.

We are currently buying a few things at the Shoprite and then going to have dinner at the Bombay Palace.

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Malawi Day 13 – 16 July

What a busy day, taxi driver, waterbed drainer, electrician, computer technician, etc, etc.

I drove Lyson around from village to village to the schools to organise the outreaches for the americans who are coming next week. They do eye clinic’s and play games with the children. In the evenings they will have an open-air outreach where someone will preach.

At most of the schools we were welcomed but one school in particular we were not received well. Islam is very entrenched here. Gerrit says that there are approximately 1.4 million chiyau people and there are only a few hundred Christians. Most of the Christians on the farm are chichewa. It is so sad to see how islam has people bound here. There is a mosque in every little village. The building is normally the biggest, fanciest building in the village and it dwarfs the little mud & thatch houses

I will explain more about the history of the chiyau another time but it baffles me that the islamic influence brought in by the arabic slave traders, who abused & enslaved the malawian people, still is the predominant religion. It is almost like a generational Stockholme Syndrome.

When I was young I used to think that everyone in the world has probably heard about Jesus but chosen to reject Him in favour of their religion of choice. I do not know what percentage of the earths 6 billion people have not heard of free gift of life Yaweh, King of Kings, I AM, God the Creator of heaven & earth gave to us through Yeshua, Jesus Christ. I do know that in this area there are over a million who have not heard about this free gift of life. They live not only in physical poverty but in spiritual poverty too.

I really feel that we need to pray about how we can reach the islamic people here more effectively. Consultation with people like Lyson who was converted from Islam is important.

In the afternoon George & myself climbed the mountain. It was super hot and I am super unfit and it was super tough going as there were few footpaths, most of the time it was a case of panga in hand cutting a path through the super long grass. I had a super nice time and took some super cool photo’s. I had seen elephant droppings not far from where we were walking so I was hoping to get a sighting. I also saw plenty hyena droppings as well.

We are getting ready to leave tomorrow morning for Blantyre but the electricity has been out since 4pm so we have no water & no lights :-(

I am sad to be leaving Malawi. I have really enjoyed my time here and there is so much I would like to do here, but I am missing Kerry so, so much! I wanted to check so much more out while I was here but I just didn’t find the time. I wanted to spend time with Piet at the orphanage in Blantyre, spend time with Johan and maybe also travel around a little on my own, but there is always next time.

I had such an interesting conversation with Gerrit regarding small ventures which we could start which might suppliment missions income. We will chat more about it when he returns. He also has a contact in Malta which might come in handy. Hmmmm

Prayer requests:
- Hanelise & the orphans are really taking strain emotionally & need peace & comfort
- Gerrit as he prepares for a hectic week with a team coming and he needs to move over 100 cattle around.
- Grace Farm management as they prepare to take up more responsibility
- Myself, Hanelise & the boys as we drive back to CT.

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Malawi Day 12 – 15 July

Yesterday I slept really well! I woke up a little late 06h30 and left for Mwame. A cow broke her leg a few weeks ago and it is not healing so I had to go fetch her. It was quite exciting fetching a cow on the bakkie without decent ropes, the cowboys tied her up with torn up mielie bags which broke several times along the way.

After I got back I started working on a spreadsheet working out local building costs. Certain building materials are cheaper and and others more expensive. Labour is very cheap but very unskilled. Also, the building methods are different. All walls, internal and external are double wall with decent concrete foundations, floor is 100mm concrete which is steel floated. The walls are then built with mud bricks and mud as the daga. Afterward about 10mm of the mud is scraped out and daga is plastered into the gap. This saves alot of cement.

I went to bed really early yesterday so I got a good sleep. Today Gerrit and I went to Danny & Mgambo to vaccinate & count the cattle. The plan is to fatten 30 steers for 3 months. There were 25 steers ready for fattening at these two farms, there is one at Namonde and hopefully 4 at Mwame.

It was really hot and we were out in the sun all day long. We had a great steak roll which we braaied at Mgambo… Something is just so lekker about being outdoors braaing.

While we were gone the guys managed to get the truck tires and welded springs on so the transport for the team coming on the weekend is ready.

We are currently watching Beauty and the Beast… I really love the french candlestick!

I’m off to bed.. Good night.

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Malawi Day 10 – 13 July

After getting back from taking George to hospital I spent some time with Amos going through the spreadsheet I created a few days ago. He seemed quite excited and encouraged.

I then helped with a whole bunch of odd jobs, packing boxes and sewing coolerbag zips back on, etc. Its lekker being someone’s slave ;-)

We had many visitors throughout the day. Mama Rita from Allelujah catholic clinic, an Australian lady who works with the young Australian girl we met on the way back from the lake on Saturday, Dewald, who we met at the lake, came for lunch with his helper Albert. Also when I was at the hospital the local chief brought about 150 people for a concert/display demonstrating their desire to grow soya in the coming season. This is really amazing as Gerrit says that he has never experienced this before.

We also went to visit Keith and Christine. Unfortunately I only got to meet Christine and her two daughters Hannah and Mary. She was such a lovely lady from East London.

Peter the vet innoculated the cattle today and in the process 4 cows went missing. Gerrit, Lyson, Peter & I went to join the cowboys looking for them. After a while we decided to pray and leave it in God’s hands. 30mins later the cowboys found them.

Hanelise’s cooking once again had me having a huge second helping. It was a really good day as almost all we needed to achieve was actually achieved.

Prayer requests:
- Dewald’s health
- many villagers to grow soya this season, a good harvest and a good price.

Thanks:
- donation of corrogated roof sheeting & couches by Dawid’s client.
- so many answered prayers today.
- opportunities to speak into & build into peoples lives.
- such a good friends/colleagues in Robert & Deon
- an incredible girlfriend who is looking forward to seeing me.

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Malawi Day 10 – 13 July

Slept late thuis morning :-) woke up at 06h30!! Was really good. During the night I must have woken up 4 or 5 times to tuck little Hendre in because he keeps on kicking off his blankets. He also has a tendency to move right to the edge of the bed with his one leg off the edge. A few nights ago I woke with a huge thud! It was Hendre whacking his head against the cupboard next to his bed as he fell. I jumped up to help him & found him fast asleep as he fell, flat on his face mind you! Picked him up and put him in bed and he never woke once.

I installed googletalk on Gerrit’s laptop and I will install it on Alida and Lyson’s PC’s too I hope that it will be a great help for the communication. The satellite internet connection is going to be of paramount importance to a successful transition period. I see that even though Gerrit tries to encourage the senior staff to take decisions themselves, they rely greatly on him to guide their decisions. He will ask them leading questions to "guide" them to the answer so his regular input will be very important over the next few months.

Thank you so much for your prayers, especially those for guidance for me as to the next step. I have heard some specifics on what to do next regarding the vision he has given me. I still need to run the ideas past some people but I’m encouraged and excited. Please do not stop praying for:
- wisdom
- guidance
- financial provision
- revelation of his perfect will and timing

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