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Hello from Lilongwe

We spent 2 nights and 3 days in Chiwengo. It was a 2 hour drive from where we were staying at COTN. All of the people are so kind and so grateful for what we do. The village in Chiwengo was orginally built by president Kamuzu, the first president of Malawi, for his family. It had many cottages. That is where many of the orphans stay who people support through COTN. We got there around 12:30 and set up our clinic and worked for about 3 hours. It was nice because we could leave up the easy-ups and it wasn't as much work to set up and take down each time. We still needed to lock up all the crates where we keep the medications and supplies, but set up and take down was much faster.

We had a delightful surprise when the children of the orphanage had a program prepared for us after dinner. There were about 40 to 50 children. Their program was wonderful and was a highlight for all of us.

The next day we had a full day clinic, starting about 8:45 a.m. and going until around 5:00 p.m. Many people walked from surrounding villages to be seen. These people live a higher standard as most of them have shoes and brought cards from a clinic where they apparently get seen from time to time. I would love to include pictures, but they are not on this computer. Hopefully when we get home we can add some pictures.

We wrapped up clinic yesterday around 2:30 p.m. and were packed and on the road by a little after 3:00. We got back to the COTN village in Lilongwe. The people at COTN take such good care for us and cook all our meals. It was nice to be able to relax a little yesterday.

Today is Sunday and we went to Brian Biedebach's church and spent the day with a little down time before we go on to another village tomorrow. For the remainder of our time in the clinics we will be setting up the clinic and taking it down on a daily basis. We go to one local village for 2 days and another one for 2 days. It is so hard to believe that we are half over with our clinics. We all love these people so much.

Thanks again for prayers. We have seen so many answers to prayers in God providing medications at just the right time, to people being found who were on the verge of death, to many professions of faith. We are all holding up and continue to feel your prayers.

Chiwengo

Today we go to Chiwengo, about 2 hours north of here. We will spend 2 nights there.

There are so many stories to tell that we could go on forever. One very exciting story was when some of our team was making housecalls in Chirombo village and a mother came with 2 preschool children. They were extremely sick and were driven back to our clinic where we gave them IV's and antibiotics. They responded well and perked up quite nicely very quickly. Dr. Ted Moore said they would probably have died by the next day if we had not been making the housecalls.

Will try to update more on Sunday.

3 Days in Malawi

We are finding it very difficult to connect to the internet and update the blog, but we are finally here. We only have dial-up so we are unable to post any pictures.

We just spent the last 3 days in Chirombo. It is difficult to even describe what we have done so far. Yesterday we had people making some housecalls while we ran our clinics under the easy-ups. Just as they were about to return to the clinic a mother came with 2 young children who were dehydrated and septic. They drove them back to the clinic where we were able to treat them with antibiotics and run some IV's on them. It kept us there pretty late, but Dr. Ted Moore said they probably would have died by the next day. There are so many stories to tell and awesome answers to prayer, we are all keeping journals and will tell you more when we get home.

Tomorrow we go to another village 2 hours from here and we will be staying 2 nights there. We probably will have no access to the internet from there, but hope to update the blog more on Sunday and maybe even add a few pictures if we are able.

Everyone sends their love to our families and friends. We so covet your prayers. We leave as early as we can load our 6 SUV's with all our supplies, go to the village and set up the clinic and work until dusk. Then we come home and have to restock supplies and get ready for the next day. We all feel your prayers and are all holding up.

We are in Johannesburg

Hi Everyone,

We made it without a glitch to Johannesburg. We were not able to check our baggage clear through Lilongwa, but ALL of it came through. Thank you everyone for your prayers, we are all feeling them. Even the long flight went better than most of us expected. We had a lovely dinner with some of the missionaries here and are about to retire. We fly to Lilongwe, Malawi tomorrow after breakast and hit the road running on Monday. Keep praying for diesel fuel.

Thanks from all of us on Team Malawi - will try to add pictures are we are able.

Malawi Itinerary & Prayer Requests

Please pray specifically for the following:
•On 8/31/08 there was no Diesel Fuel available in Malawi – This happens from time-to-time, but without fuel we cannot drive to our clinics as Malawi only uses diesel.
•Pray for our luggage logistics. We hope to check our luggage straight through from LAX to Lilongwa. Since we must spend the night in Johannesburg, we do not want to have to gather the luggage (about 56 pieces) only to recheck it to Lilongwa the next morning. It would also be wonderful if everything gets to Lilongwa!!
•Pray for the health, strength and safety of each of our team members.
•Pray for the people we are ministering to that they will be open to the gospel.
•Pray for the Biedebachs - that we will be an encouragement to them.

See the sidebar (below the Africa Map) for our schedule and where we will be each day.