Teamwork is key!

    On a Monday I went to a community called Kudooko for the first time. We started off the day by having everyone sit under a few trees while each staff member that was present took some time to share. It was amazing to hear each team member share, even the driver James! Eventually, I had a chance to share and I observed my surroundings before I started off by giving an illustration. I pulled a small tree up out of the ground and then asked everyone to look at it, as it's roots were completely uprooted and destroyed. I then explained how a tree that has not matured is very easy to pull. I then went over to a big tree that I started to try and uproot. I couldn't even budge it and obviously everyone started to laugh.
    I then used the illustration to emphasize the verse that I wanted to share. John 3:30 (which I have shared a few times while here) says, "He must become greater, I must become less." This is a short verse but with lots of weight behind it. I basically went on to say that there were two types of people present at the meeting. There were those who were like baby trees, they could be uprooted very easily. Then there were people like the bigger, mature tree. These types of people were solid, mature, and were not able to be uprooted as easily. I then concluded, asking if people would choose to daily allow Jesus to become so much greater in their lives, so that it could be said of them, they are a mature tree.
       On a Tuesday I went to community and was going to check up on some of the Maize fields that were growing, thanks to some loans that were given. I first went with one of the Somebody Cares staff members and we came across a marsh that had a flowing section right down the middle. The worker asked a few questions about the water because if it was not clean enough to walk through, we would have had to walk all the way around, which would of set us back a considerable amount of time. It turns out that the water was flowing enough to walk through quickly, so I unzipped the leggings of my pants, making them into shorts and proceeded into the water!
      After crossing the water, we proceeded to head in the direction of the Maize fields that were growing. We cut through different types of gardens such as groundnuts, pumpkin and other Maize fields. Arriving at the fields that were from the loans, the owner's definitely got excited to show us their Maize. As the below pictures show, the recipients of the loans look like they will indeed have good Maize this year. On our way back, Charles thought he would try to go through the water really fast. This was definitely a mistake as he almost got more than what he was wishing for. In other words, he almost had his entire body go into the water for a swim.

      On a Wednesday I went to Mandala with Enoch who is a manager here at Somebody Cares. We went into the classroom to take pictures of the children in general and also of children who had specific stories about how the ministry of Somebody Cares made a significant change in their lives. After taking several photos, Enoch and I left on bikes to check out the progress of the Centre that was being built. The Centre is coming along pretty well as the below pictures show the incredible progress being made. This is also one of the several Centre's that are being built.

       On a Thursday I had the opportunity to go to a Berean class training. These types of trainings are based out of Acts chapter 30 where it talks about how the berea people received the message with great eagerness and they examined the scriptures everyday to see if what Paul told them was true. This is the push behind the Berean class that Somebody Cares does. The Berean's receive a message from MD (Keta) but are eager to examine scripture to see whether or not what she says is true. I know for myself, when I went to MD's Berean class and examined the scripture given, I was in complete agreement with what was taught. She was going through some of the qualifications of being an overseer. When she brought up drunkenness she only addressed it quickly, but gave a lot of scriptures for the class to read. One thing she said in this section was how we so often target drunkenness but overlook a lot of other areas, which are often addressed alongside drunkenness. One such area would be gluttony.
             On another note, I finally finished one project! For the past week or so I've spent several evenings at Vanessa's house, working on some renovations. She is the lead manager who overseas the rest at Somebody Cares. The project I recently finished was laying carpet in her bedroom. There have been some pretty good laughs, especially when I came downstairs one night, high as a kite on fumes from the carpet glue. I told Vanessa that I was high and sat on the sofa. My eyes were completely bloodshot and I picked up a newspaper to see if I could read. I couldn't even concentrate enough to read a single word. After relaxing for a bit, I was able to get back up and finish the part I was working on that night.
        How about THOR!!! Vanessa has a puppy named Thor(or as Vanessa would say "my baby") and he is going to be a big boy. He likes to jump up on anyone that's in the house and the only way he listens is if Vanessa talks sternly with him! Vanessa also has a smaller dog named Mite, who has been a lot more energetic as of late, due to Thor being around.
      I recently went to a community that I had not previously been to. Njande is a bit further than what I am used to traveling to get to a Centre. However, watching the children line-up to wash their hands before lunch(for many, only meal of day) at this Centre was amazing to see. The line-up was so straight and only certain amounts were allowed to go over to the hand washing station. This Centre is a good example for other Centre's to follow as their hand washing before lunch is very organized.

     On Friday a few events took place. Somebody Cares sold two of their pigs, which were then brought to the butcher shop. Later on that day, I found myself handling the freshly cut meat, packing it into bags to give to the staff. One of the pigs was bought by Amai to bless the staff(That's a lot of bacon).

Another event that took place on Friday was an emergency. The Home Based Care department had several employees come back from community where they immediately started talking about the situation they encountered. To sum up, a child headed home was struggling after not having a proper meal in at least 3 days. The parents of the children passed away because of aids and the oldest child is now raising the others. Unable to properly eat, the oldest child has been forced to stop attending school and try to find food throughout the day. Because of the emergency at hand, the staff came together and raised money to provide a relief pack. The pack was delivered the same day, having Maize, and cooking essentials in this pack. Please pray that Somebody Cares would be able to continually come alongside this family.

  Teamwork is key especially in situations like the above. In many of my posts the term "I did this" is used but it should be understood that it is not without several employees help. The staff at Somebody Cares are truly amazing and they are continually learning how to become a stronger team. Tuesday's is devotion time, Wednesday is video lesson time, Thursday is specific prayer time and Friday is game time. Much team building occurs during these times!!! All throughout the week there are meetings to communicate how things can be accomplished more effectively as a team.


"Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all it's many parts form one body, so it is with Christ."
       - 1 Corinthians 12:12
Our individual gifts should be used to bring unity to the team, to the body of Christ!

Where do I even start!?!

These past few weeks have been packed full of all kinds of stories and I am having a tough time narrowing down what I would like to say.

I guess I will start off what happened yesterday. I was in one community and Amai Theresa(FED) came to the community. I was buy taking photos and meeting with the different groups before she came. After she spoke to several of the groups she told me to gather my stuff and go with her. We were headed to a community named Mandala.

Edward was the driver and it seemed like we were going into no-mans territory. He was off-roading it at it's finest and I never knew the route he took went to Mandala. We were driving past the front yards of houses, right through the middle of a football(soccer) field, and going through what I thought was walking paths and not driving paths.I sure didn't ever take this route to get there! {[[ side note, Edward and I went shopping together this past Saturday and my bargaining line that made him laugh was, "the mountain your climbing is to high!"]]}Eventually we made it to where a new centre is being built. It was amazing to see the progression sense the last time I saw it.

There was a funeral happening in this community so there were not very many people out and about. We were watching the construction being done on the centre when all of a sudden one lady after another started to show up. We ended up handing out football(soccer) jerseys and shorts to a ladies soccer team. There is a league going between different communities which brings ladies together in sport. Usually, sports have only been played by men so this has been a huge step forward. The amount of joy on the woman's faces was evident, but then they kicked it into next gear. They broke out into song and dance and we were having a great party on a construction site. After the singing and dancing were over, there was obviously a bigger crowd that had arrived. We then handed out candy to the majority of the people that were present and headed on our way.

We stopped right next to a pond that had a Maize field on the other side of it. A Man came with us from the construction site and jumped out at this location to pick Maize for Amai (which she later gave away). I was just sitting and waiting when all of a sudden I saw a fishing!!! Oh Boy Oh Boy. I didn't ask FED or Edward If I could get out, but instead jumped up and took off. The boy jumped up and began to run for his life, LITERALLY! I then came back to the vehicle where FED and Edward were talking about what I was doing the whole time I was gone. When I made it back to my seat they said the boy thought I was coming to kidnap him and traffic him. Supposedly white men are part of the human trafficking(at least that's what children are told) and many young children run away. I was still not sure why this boy ran when there were other boys close by who didn't seem to mind me there.

When the man who picked the Maize came back Amai asked him to call all the boys over. The boys came because they knew the man. Amai noticed that the boy who ran from me had some pretty badly ripped up clothing. She asked him some questions but he would not respond to her. She then asked the friends who were present, and then a story unfolded. Once Amai found out the boys name, Robert, she then asked him questions and answers came out. Robert was not from the current village that he was in. His parents sold him to a chief and the chief was forcing him to be a herdsmen. Child labor, Robert wasn't able to go to school and he obviously wasn't being taken care of. Amai was going to send her Cousin(another chief) to have chat with the chief who was guilty of this crime. This conversation was either happening today or the next few days. The chief in question already has been accused of sexual abuse in the past, so the odds are up against him. Most likely, Amai will call in the cavalry(some government friends and police). Amai see's Somebody Cares as a pioneer in ended human trafficking in Malawi, especially that of children. Amazing how my passion for fishing turned into a crazy story.

On a personal note, I have been having some trouble sleeping through the night for the past week and a half. I would wake up and a specific prayer request would be laid on my heart. It's amazing to see how some of the prayer requests that were placed on my heart had answers to them the next day. Some amazing break throughs have taking place, one being a drug addiction and unhealthy relationship.

"Christ in me, the hope of glory (Colossians 3:30)." This has been the verse I've been going back to along with John 3:30 for the past week and a half. "He must become greater, I must become less."

Where do I start, allowing Christ to become greater as I become less. Recognizing that he lives in me, directing my steps. Do I recognize this truth? Do you?

Are you being or doing?

Are you being or are you doing?

This was the question brought up to the staff by Pastor Eugene on Tuesday. We can continually be busy doing all kinds of good work to help people (even in the name of Jesus) but are we continually being in proper relationship with our heavenly father. May Jesus not say to me "I never knew you, depart from me(Matthew 7)."

On Monday I had the opportunity to go into Njewa community which is located in province two. Here I once again had the opportunity to work alongside the Home Based Care department. One of the patients we visited had cancer in his feet so bad that he could not walk. When we came to his area of the community he literally dragged himself along the dirt to meet us. It's interesting how this man's cancer situation could of been avoided if he was seen in time and if he had the money to pay for the medication. That's one of the problems. If people cannot afford medication they basically sit at home and get worse. After doing some visitation I had a chance to love on some children who had a recess brake in school. Just before we were about to leave, the community coordinator came over with a lady who had a baby. I was then told a crazy story. This lady adopted this young child after some devastating events. The mom's husband left the wife for another woman. The wife then got remarried and conceived. When her ex-husband heard of this he came while the current husband was at work and locked himself and his ex-wife in the house. When the current husband came home he was stabbed to death by the ex-husband. Later on while the mother was giving birth to the child she passed away. So the lady in the picture below adopted the child and was asking for help as she was struggling financially to take care of her own children and her newly adopted child.

On Tuesday I went to Mgona which is a slum. Picture walking down an alley and the gutter with all kinds of waste is right down the middle. Trying to walk on the side, the workers and I sometimes stepped in stuff. I say stuff because I wasn't to sure what it was. Here I only visited one young lady who was the community coordinators daughter. She was bed ridden for several days and I wasn't to sure what was wrong with her. She went to the doctors but wasn't getting better, only worse. I had a chance to pray with her, not only for physical healing but emotional and spiritual healing. It was evident that the sickness had done a lot of damage emotionally and spiritually to the family as well. Understanding that the medication that the doctor prescribed wasn't helping, I realized that her only hope was in the name of Jesus. I prayed in Faith, in the name of Jesus, to the God I have a personal relationship with.

What a transformation. On the left is the community coordinator helping hand out mosquito nets after telling me that her daughter was healed and went back to school. Glory to God. This happened on Thursday and the smile on her face says it all(compared to the sadness seen on Tuesday). There is power in the name of Jesus!!!

On Wednesday I was supposed to speak in community but our vehicle broke down just before we were supposed to leave. On Thursday it was raining be we decided to push on to Mngwangwa community even though we could easily get stuck and stranded. There was several times throughout the drive when your heard cheering as we barely got past some questionable flooded areas. Upon arriving I thought I was going to speak to about 10-15 pastors, chiefs and elders. Little did I know that there was over 150 people waiting to hear me preach. I walked into the room where everyone was tightly packed having a big dance party onto the Lord! The music then slowed down and then all the believers in the room(including myself) went on our knees in the presence of the Lord. Many of us then started speaking in tongues. During this time I basically told the Lord that I was not able to speak to this many people on my own, as one of my biggest fears is public speaking. YUP,  in my weakness he is made strong. Long story short, I spoke about unity in the Spirit through the bond of peace. After, one of the workers went up and reiterated what I said in Chichewa and then asked if anyone wanted to accept Christ as their Lord and Savior. I started counting the amount of hands that went up but lost count. I guess that's a good situation to lose count of!! Below are some pictures of people worshipping, the speaking, and people receiving Christ.

You may recall how in another post I talked about how I was able to explain to a lady the meaning of the name miracle. Below is a picture of Maria and her daughter Miracle as Maria explains what she learned about during the children's rights training.

Miracle with bag on head

This weekend Charles, Wayne and myself were supposed to go to Lake Malawi. However, Wayne was not feeling well so we stayed. On Sunday Wayne still wasn't feeling better after two nights of fever and little sleep. We decided to take Wayne to the hospital instead of going to church. It turns out that Wayne has Malaria and a throat infection. As I got up to leave the hospital my eyes rolled into the back of my head and I blacked out. Wayne caught me just before I hit the ground. When I came to I was on a hospital bed and they asked for my approval to do some testing. I didn't really have a choice did I??? At the end of the testing I was told I was just severely dehydrated. During the testing I was on the Saline drip. They told me when I was leaving to just drink a lot of fluids. About 3 hours later I woke up from a nap and puked 3-4 times. HMMM... I then got Charles to drive me to a better hospital. It turns out that the dehydration, puking, headache and fever that I was experiencing was from a bacterial infection.  I am now on antibiotics for several days and am feeling a lot better. I am not surprised that this happened especially after the amazing week of seeing God at work. Satan comes to steal, kill and destroy. BUT, my king of majesty is mighty, awesome in power, and is the creator and sustainer of all things. Jehovah Rapha, he is God my healer.

Tomorrow and the rest of the week Rita and Richard from Visionledd(international partner of Somebody Cares) will be seeing the work that is going on through this amazing ministry. Please pray that the amazing things that happened this past week will only be a small sample of what is to come. Shout out to my Summit family, "to him who is able to do exceedingly more than what we ever hope or imagine, according to the power that's at work in us, to him be glory forever and ever in Christ Jesus, Amen!"- Ephesians 3:20-21, school verse for the year. Do you believe He's able to do exceedingly more?

This past week I learned what it truly means to "draw near to God, and he will draw near to you (James 4:8a)."
The responsibility is on us for this promise. My prayer, if your reading this post, is that you will simply talk to God and allow yourself to draw near to Him, knowing that he will draw near to you.

Are you a Refrigerator or a Garbage can?

One of the most impactful questions MD(Keta) asked recently was "are you a refrigerator or a garbage can?" Someone who is a refrigerator stores up knowledge until it has to be used and they draw from it. Differing, a person who is a garbage can hears something and it goes in one ear and out the other. Are you a garbage can or a refrigerator? Furthermore, when it comes to mentoring are you being a mentor to someone whose a refrigerator or is your time spent trying to mentor a garbage can resulting in little or no transformation?

This week I had the opportunity to go to FED'S(Chief Theresa) home community. On the drive there I had the opportunity to see how funny she is and also to understand her views on politics. I asked a question about where did all the money go that was made when selling the presidential jet and that set the conversation in motion. She and Somebody Cares have distanced themselves from the government especially when a lot of nonsense started to go down internally within the government. She has told me several times, Herself and Somebody Cares are here to help the people not to pocket material gain for themselves.  It was evident when she started to talk like this that I would be in much agreement with her. She has literally lived out what many books i've read have talked about. She's someone I have learned a lot from so far and I hope it continues!

Arriving at her community she turned to me and asked me to click away with my camera. She chatted with the chief while myself and Lusuwilo(a Somebody Cares manager) went to check out some Maize fields. I was amazed as the fields we were seeing were twice the size of the maize that I saw in the city. Arriving back where FED was, she told me I saw other peoples maize but not hers. We then jumped in a vehicle and went to her field that was newer than the others. This Monday it should be fertilized. This should allow her maize to catch up to the other maize, in time for harvest and proceeds going to help those in the communities.

FED(Chief Theresa Malila)

I also had the opportunity to watch young Malawians be trained in Silo building for storing maize. This will cut back on the 40% loss of harvest being able to keep almost all of the maize.

 Before

After

I also had the opportunity to attend Children's Right's teaching twice. The first time I was able to talk with a mother who named her firstborn Miracle. In Malawian culture there are many negative names such as "trouble" that children are named when they are born. Unfortunately, if a child is named a negative it is very unlikely that they will avoid acting the way that their name indicates. This mom was concerned that Miracle was a bad name as she did not know the meaning of the word. I had the opportunity to share the Biblical view of the word Miracle. I also said that if she ever finds herself in a difficult circumstance that she can't get through on her own, that she can call out to God who want's his Glory to be known. She was very relieved and started chatting with her friends about the good news of what her daughters name Miracle means.

Monday I start aerobics class out here in Malawi, time to work work it out!!! This will be a fun time as several staff members will attend, all the while keeping physically active.


"...the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him."- John 2:11

Continually Growing!

As I have spent a bit of time here in Malawi I have observed that the Maize, Tobacco and Ground nuts(peanut) are continually growing at a steady pace. In late April to early May it will be harvest time for these plants. It reminds me of how we should continually be growing whether its in our work, our mentoring and most importantly in our walk with God.

I have learned a valuable lesson about humility when it comes to our work. Keeping open dialogue with the ministry director and other staff members is crucial here at Somebody Cares. We should be able to communicate how our work load is and be able to ask for more time, to cut back the amount or to maybe even increase the amount. A caution would be to make sure employee's aren't asking for more time or to cut back on the amount of work due to laziness.

Another lesson I learned has been about quality versus quantity. I know that especially in North America we are about always wanting more...more...more. It is okay to want more but at the same time the question of quality comes in. If more is being added but quality of workmanship is lacking, is it really worth it? China has a lot of quantity of products that are made available in Malawi, but if you ask many Malawians about the quality they would most likely say its terrible. I think the question of quality versus quantity is a good one to think about.

I've been able to spend some time with the housekeeper's(Martha) son Moses. He wants to be a doctor in the future and he does really well in school. He has taken interest to me being on the computer. Opportunity, yes!! I've been able to help him learn some typing skills.

I've had the opportunity to listen to Keta's mentor(Mrs.B) speak a few times during the past few weeks.  One of the most impactful sermons was the one she spoke at Keta's ordination service. She talked about continually asking God to tell you what to do rather than coming into prayer with a whole shopping list in hand. It's an interesting way of praying and I have tried to implement it more and more.

We put together some Teacher's Manual's for the schools that are run by the center. This allows children to receive education and they are provided with a nutritious meal afterwards.

I had the opportunity today to pray with one of the Somebody Cares staff members. She has only been with Somebody Cares for a few months and when I asked how she was doing this morning in Chichewa, I could tell that something was up. I inquired and that's when she explained how her mom is never sick but today she was heading to the hospital. Right in one of the office rooms another staff member, this lady and myself had a prayer meeting. Our God answers prayers that are in obedience to his word. Her mom ended up getting medication and is feeling a lot better. Tomorrow I will find out how her mom has done overnight.

Today I also saw a sun halo. If you don't know what that is look it up on google and check out the picture I took below!

Psalm 19:1-6- GNT
"How Clearly the sky reveals God's glory! How plainly it shows what he has done! Each day announces it to the following day; each night repeats it to the next. No speech or words are used, no sound is heard; yet their message goes out to all the world and is heard to the ends of the earth. God made a home is the sky for the sun; it comes out in the morning like a happy bridegroom, like an athlete eager to run a race. It starts at one end of the sky and goes across to the other. Nothing can hide from its heat."
- LOL especially my skin that was burnt last week!!

What a great, majestic, creator God(Elohim= father, son, Holy Spirit) we serve!!

Burnt to a crisp!!!

On Tuesday after our devotion and prayer time I was told that I would go with three SomeBody Cares staff for the day. Stanley, Charles, Edward and myself were heading to a community that was almost 1.5 hours away from Lilongwe. 

To get to the general location of the community we drove about 40 mins in Edward's car. We then parked and got on Kabhaza's (bike taxis).

Jumping on these bike taxis was very neat but the workers definitely didn't enjoy it as much as I did!

The remainder of the trip we got off and on the taxis depending on how rough the terrain was. 

Upon arriving at the first community we were just in time to see volunteers preparing ensima(maize flour) and beans for 150 children.

 MD(Keta, Ministry director) found out I brought my camera and is getting me to take photographs at every location we go to. Even the staff are modeling for me but I agreed not to post any of their photos. 

The photographs that I took of a man's maize field had an interesting background story. This man was given the seeds from Somebody Cares to grow maize. As a micro-finance project, the man simply has to pay back the cost of the seeds come harvest time. Observe how well the maize is growing. 

On Thursday I helped with Home Based Care (HBC) which is one of the key areas that Sombody Cares focuses on. Alongside the staff I was able to visit eight different patients. One of the patients was a man who was 39 years old but looked like he was in his eighties. He had HIV, TB, and cancer all at the same time.  This would be considered an urgent need and he would be provided with funds for medication asap. Differing from HBC that I have done in Canada, when these patients get sick they usually just stay in their house to die because they can't afford the transportation to see the doctor and the cost of medication to get better. On Thursday I was grateful for Canada's healthcare system and the system that SBC has in place to come along side these patients.

Proverbs 14:31 " Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God."

 For myself, I need to make sure not to forget to put on sunscreen. I am now at the tale end of having a sunburn with the back of my neck almost done peeling. It was funny when I was at a small group where there was other caucasians. They had a good laugh while I looked like a cherry. Lesson learned indeed.

The Adventure has already started!

Pumping Iron, oh wait, it's a 47 pound bag!!!!!

I left O-Town(Ottawa) at 12:50pm on Saturday hoping to arrive in Brampton at 6:15pm. Things were running smoothly until we got to Brockville. It turns out that the train in front of ours broke down and we had to literally push the train with our train. This added around a 1 hour delay to my trip. The bad part was that my transfer train to Brampton was the last one out that night. I would end up missing that train and other arrangements would have to be made.

Upon arriving to T-Dot(Toronto) from O-Town I felt like my international travel had already begun. Union Station is the biggest train station in our country and I had no idea where to go as it was my first time there. The train attendant told me to go down the escalator and turn right towards the ticket booth. I got off the escalator and all I saw was a huge mass of people. 

I quickly went into my travel mode and found a Union station worker. Instead of taking the long way by stair case, the gentlemen took me to an elevator. I got into line at the ticket booth( at the bus terminal) and was told to go to the bus depot stop titled 46 Georgetown.  

So I proceeded where I was told to go(not knowing it was a good distance away). I ended up going to street level and having to walking across the street and down the way to bus depot 46. Backpack on, wheeled luggage bag in right hand and 47 pound luggage bag in my left hand, this was my 'Insanity' workout for the next few days. As I looked at the distance I had to travel I was like 'Good Enough, I got this.' Boy oh Boy, was I in for a TREAT. Did I ever have a workout and I quickly asked God to give me strength to get to 46 on time.

I ended up getting to the bus depot 46 on time with a few minutes to spare. Pounding back some water and some energy bars that my mom made( With Paula Nichol's recipe) I started to look around. I was in the heart of T-Dot where my LEAFS and RAPTORS play. Growing up in the Greater Toronto Area I started humming a song and it's definitely "cold when the airplanes land in the dot ohh."

The bus came and I put my luggage underneath and showed the bus driver my ticket from VIA rail and he said it wasn't valid even though his coworker told me to go there. Anyways, he just said hurry up and get on. Sweet, I was on a bus that I technically shouldn't of been on. I was looking out the windows, seeing the Air Canada Center, The Rogers Center, and of course the CN Tower. 

Anyways, when all was said and done I got to Brampton where my Grandparents were there waiting to pick me up. Swiss Chalet was great I tell ya ;)

I leave tonight at 6:30pm to continue my adventure!

Psalms 139:7 "Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?"

Even though I had an interesting start to my trip I look back at it and see that God was present through it all!! The Holy Spirit calmed me down when I could of very easily of broke down. The King of Majesty watching over me and his hand guiding me(verse 10)!!!

He is everywhere folks. We can't escape his Spirit or Presence. We can choose to ignore Him or choose to submit to Him.