April 29th, 2023
Oh, what a beautiful morning! Oh, what a beautiful day, I have a glorious feeling, everything things going God’s way. Oh, what a beautiful day.
In case you’re not familiar with the above, it is a close copy of a song from Oklahoma, but it truly was a beautiful day.
I was up early today for some reason, woke up at 4:30 am here, which is 10:30 pm for those of you in the states. Laid in bed for about 30 minutes, slowly waking up fully then I was up and running.
Started the day normally, in God’s Word, prayer, devotional with the team and then we headed out to do three bible camps that are done each Saturday.
As we are heading out, Ovi received a call from some gentlemen who are going to fix the landslide behind the Bible School and they needed 200,000 kwacha[roughly $200.00] to buy two shovels, two hoes, 2 manchettes and a wheel barrow.
That was a very high price, so we decided to go purchase them ourselves and drop them off, as we were still close to the mission house.
We were able to get all the items for 95,00 kwacha! But wait, it gets worse. When Ovi returned to speak with them, he asked about the total price they wanted for the job, their written proposal said 1.5 billion kwacha, I’m not making this up.
That is the equivalent of 1.5 million us dollars. Fortunately, they said that the billion was incorrect, whew.
It was supposed to be million, not billion! That is still insane and roughly $150,000. The feeding center didn’t cost that much! $150,000 to build a retaining wall about 3 sections long. Needless to say they were sent home.
Off to the camps we go, two of the camps were combined into one village due to the roads, and it was amazing. Most of the children had already confessed Christ as Lord and Savior, so Karey taught them about the responsibilities they had as children of God.
At the end everyone got a sucker, such a great time, filled with songs of praise, and the Word of God.
We had so many there that we had to stop at a local place to get more suckers before the next bible club.
Sadly, we encountered a woman while in the van that was struggling mentally. Many ignored her, but some laughed. It is always hard to watch someone created in the image of God, be ridiculed for any reason.
If she hadn’t been violent, we might have attempted something, but after she took a swing at someone, we thought it best to move the van down the road and wait for Samuel. He arrived back at the van and off we went.
Again, it was singing and the Word, but unlike the last one, only a few had accepted Christ, so we shared the gospel and again many professed to accept Christ. We were faithful to plant and to water, God does the harvesting, so we leave that in His care.
On a sad note, as we concluded, we realized that once again, the number of children had greatly exceeded our expectations and we did not have enough to go around. So, we opted out of giving out any, least we offend some.
Ovi did tell them that when they returned next week, they would bring extra, but still, you always hate to disappoint.
Afterwards we had lunch, then took the team out for a little souvenir shopping. Small place in town that we have been to many times over the years. Leah thought it amazing that they remembered our names.
Ovi received a call from them later to say thank you, that they were all happy and everyone was eating tonight. Funny, we go to just by souvenir’s, not understanding the impact of the money spent.
As we returned, we all got together to make dinner for the Cornea’s. Just to express our love and serve them, as well as serving the Malawian natives.
Afterwards we had our normal debrief, and we cleaned up for the evening.
Tomorrow is church in Nasedegu! Looking forward to seeing them. Sundays are shorter days, as the HFTF team does need some time to set aside for the Lord’s day. So, after service tomorrow we will all just hang out and let everyone rest.
That’s a wrap for the day. Looking forward to tomorrow and what the Lord has in store for us.
Thank you for praying.
Blessings in Christ,
Brother Ed