The Gills in Malawi

Our babies are all doing well this month.

We thank God for the provision of a sponsor for Samson, the newborn baby.  I am humbled and amazed every time that God provides!  He had terrible nappy rash when they brought him in to be weighed so I gave them some sudocrem that came on the container and asked his guardian to bring him back the following week for a check up, I was so happy to see the cream had worked and he was not screaming in pain any more.  The above picture is of Samson.

Isaac went for another check up at the eye hospital.  Lydia said they removed his eyeball to examine the cateract!  Yikes!  I am so glad I was not there!!!  They are happy with the progress and will operate on his eye to remove the cateract when he is 2 years old.  We still continue to pray for a miracle healing though

We said goodbye to one set of twins as their sponsorship time has now come to an end.  They have progressed really well and we are confident that they will grown into healthy young girls.

In April we said goodbye to Violet as her sponsorship had ended.  We had a visit this week from her and her guardian as she is not doing very well.  She has swollen legs and signs on malnourishment.  When Lydia asked the guardian how much she is eating she said they have one meal a day.  I have asked them to come in later on this week so I can take a closer look at her and we may need to try and find a sponsor to help the family. 

We thank God for the provision of finance to sponsor the 3 triplets, we also have the full sponsorship for Rebecca and also for another baby called Chikumbutso. We are so grateful to God for these babies and are amazed each and every time that God provides for these precious children.

I had to laugh to myself today as a lot of out babies are older now and much more aware of me....the white face. It sounded more like I was giving them all injections than just weighing them from all the screaming that was going on!!!

Rebecca was not too well today so we sent her off to the hospital. One of the new babies father who is HIV positive has taken a turn for the worst and seems to have lost his mind so please keep him in your prayers, they have given him some medication to help him. Isaac will be visiting the eye hospital in Blantyre for another check up on his eye the first week in August. Manuel is trying to stand now so I am delighted with his progress. Mchenga has gained a good amount of weight now and is crawling into a big healthy baby boy.

All the babies have gained weight so I am very happy with that. We said goodbye to Chifunero this month, although we are still helping the family until January with food each week. Above to the left is a picture of Mchanga and to the right are the twins Rebecca and Tamala.

This week we found out that two of the children that attend our daycare had been abandoned by their mother and were living alone in their home.

The mother had left after the youngest boy had challenged her about the way she was living her life.

This is the harsh reality for children here especially those who stand up for what they believe. We met with their older brother and his wife who were living in another house and they have agreed to take them in. Still it must be painful to have your mother just up and leave you.

You can help us to help children like this by sponsoring a child, joining project 200 or making a donation on our donations page. You can commit to pray for the work we are doing here and you can spread the word to others who may want to help.

To stand up for what you believe is not always easy but you can be sure it makes a difference.

The run up to Christmas is always busy with lots to get ready and look forward to.  On Thursday the 23rd we had our pre school christmas party.  I arranged 3 simple games for the children, well I thought they were simple but they took a little while to get the hang of them!  We played pass the parcel, the children were not quite sure what to do and kept holding the parcel and not passing it on and also needed help with the unwrapping!  We then played 2 more similar musical games and by the 3rd game they knew what to do!  It was really fun, then the kids had a nice treat of cake and juice, they even got a small goodie bag with some new shoes that we were able to give them because of a donation to us from another project and a new t shirt.  Everyone went home very happy!  In the pictures above you can see us playing pass the parcel, Nathan getting the final prize and Martha enjoying her cake.

Some of you will remember us telling you about Cabu whilst we were on furlough.  He had an operation on his leg just before we went away as he had broken it over a year ago and it had not been set correctly and he had been left unable to walk.  Cabu is now doing really well.  His knee is still swollen but he can now put his foot on the ground.  We have been told that he will walk again....which is so amazing and we are so thankful to God.  He now has physio therapy sessions with Lydia twice a week which are painful but in the long run will be worth it.  Cabu is a brave boy and always puts on a brave face and a big smile despite his pain.  We are really excited as this month Cabu will get a new house thanks to someone sponsoring him and his family a new home.  We are so so thankful to God for this as this family are one of the poorest families we have met and are so special that to see them living in a home that will keep them dry is a miracle and a blessing that they will remember for a long time!  What an incredible gift to give....Thank you Lord!

We are looking for a sponsor for a new family that have come to us for help.

They are both blind and have a baby who is 1 year 2 months old.  They are not able to continue feeding the baby boy due to health reasons.  The mother has been blind since the age of 8 and the father has been blind since the age of 15.

When they brought the baby to us he was wearing charms around his neck and around his waist.  This shows that they have been to the witch doctor and the charms are worn to protect the baby.  Paul had a long talk with the family and explained to them that these things were not going to protect their child.  He spoke to them about God, and told them that only He can protect us and we must put our trust in Him.  They agreed and said they would remove the charms from the baby.  This always has to be the decision of the parent, we can only encourage them.

If you are interested in helping Chifinero.  Please get in touch with us and we will let you know how much this will cost.  The picture above is of the family with Chifinero and the other with Paul and Chifinero and you can see the charms he is wearing.

We prayed for the family and are asking God to restore their health and their sight, please join with us in prayer for this family.

When we left Hope Village in July we were looking after 4 babies.  Now we are providing for 8.  We have been so blessed to hear of the provision for the further 4 babies that have come to us for help.  Without your help these babies would not have lived, it is as simple as that.  We arrived back on the Tuesday and were very happy that baby weigh in day was going to be happening on the Thursday.  So we both went to meet the new babies and their guardians and enjoyed seeing the ones we already knew.

We had a full room and all the babies look very healthy although not all enjoy being weighed and many cried as they were put onto the scales.  Even Ezra came along to get weighed.  Isaac was the only one not there as he was unwell and at the hospital.  All the babies have gained weight and really look well.  The guardians are doing a fantastic job.  Some of the babies who don't know my face yet were a little scared of me and started to cry but I was very happy that Amy Grace only had smiles for me!

We have another baby who we need to find a sponsor, see the next story for details.  The pictures above are of our babies and their guardians and also Esther, Ezra and Lydia.  This I have to say is my favorite day of the month!

The other day we came across a roll of material that had been stored in our day care loft and decided that we could send it to the local tailor to make some new skirts for the girls who come to our daily programme.

Whist talking it through with Charles my attention was drawn to five of the older girls sitting in a group and I felt that God wanted to specifically bless them. Most of them have lost both parents and live with relatives and I felt God saying that they needed to know that their opinions and thoughts mattered and so we decided to demonstrate this by letting them design their own outfits, which they were so excited about. 

They decided it would be great if they all had the same outfit and so they told the tailor what they liked and he made it for them. They received their new outfits and tried them on for us to see. Tracy presented each one with a new pair of earings and they were so happy and thanked us for the love that had been shown to them. The great thing is that tomorrow is Independance day, a day when traditionally people will put on their best clothes and a day when these 5 girls will be the best dressed girls in the village.

Charles likes to get clay for the children at day care to mould from time to time.  They really enjoy it and are very creative in what they make.

On the left is Atupere with her lady and umberella shade, in the middle is Andew and his mobile phone creation and on the right is Chifunero and her microphone.

I had it on my heart to have all the girls over from the homes to have a girly night with them. I wanted it to be a night of fun and I wanted the girls to know the love of God and how special they were.

I sent each girl a personal invitation the day before but kept the night itself a bit of a mystery.

When they arrived they each got a garland. I thought it would be fun to let them try on some make-up and some nail varnish. They were giggling so much, it was so funny to see them. We then made some jewellery , a bracelet and necklace, we played some fun card games and had tea and a donut! Stella (Pastor Ganizani's wife joined me, and helped with translation).

Finally just before they left Stella and I prayed over each girl and played them a song. Each girl was given a scripture and a word and they were all so thankful at the end.

The house parents said they were talking about it and giggling the whole of the following day. I think I was blessed just as much as they were.

Evance travelled up to Blantyre on Friday to get the blankets but didn't make it back in time to hand them out Friday, so on Saturday we asked all the kids to make sure they came as we had a surprise for them.  When we saw how heavy the sake of blankets was, we couldn't believe that Evance managed to get them back to Hope Village!

The kids were so excited and all of them had huge smiles on their faces.  It has turned really cold in the evenings so this will make a huge difference to them.  A lot of the kids have cough's so hopefully having a warm blanket at night will help with the sniffles!!!

Today was the first day of our new pre school.

We have always offered a crèche on site for our children's homes, to give our house mothers a break in the mornings but Charles really wanted it to be a bit more as we only have 4 children who have been coming to our morning crèche so he did a little investigating of other facilities to find out the best option.

We wanted the crèche to be free and to be assisted by volunteers with each child bringing a small amount of maize to make porridge. When we put our idea across to the staff, they all said they would prefer to pay for the crèche and for us just to give the children a cup of tea and a snack.

We are not making any profit but just covering our costs. We have taken on an additional employee to help Charles and we opened up the Pre School today, we had 21 children arrive, they were a little unsure at first but soon settled in and it will take them a little time to adjust to the rules!

Most of them are at the age of 2, they are so cute and it is lovely to have the daycare building full of little ones!