Mission: Kilimanjaro 2010
Project 1:27 Updates
Upgrade facilities or ‘our orphanage will be closed’ (Monday, Aug. 16, 2010)
One corner of the single room that has been used to house 15 orphans at Far & Wide Children's Home in Kambona, Malawi. (Photo by Gary Fallesen)
A team from the government’s Department of Social Welfare visited the Far & Wide Children’s Home on Aug. 5. They told Pastor Duncan Nyozani, whose Searchlight Ministries oversees the orphanage, that the building is too small for the 15 children we are housing. They also told Pastor Duncan that additions must be made to the bathroom facilities.
“They say we are feeding the children in a proper way,” Pastor Duncan said. Climbing For Christ provides monthly support to buy food for the children. “Our kitchen is also good, and sanitation is good,” Duncan added.
“All the orphanages in Phalombe District (in southern Malawi) are closed due to poor feeding, poor structures, poor sanitation, etc. It is only our orphanage that has been spared, and given time to improve it.”
By God’s grace, we have time. But not too much time.
The Department of Social Welfare inspectors told Pastor Duncan that we had until the end of August to build additional housing and larger restroom facilities (two additional toilets and another bathing room).
“We need US$7,500 to do these works,” Pastor Duncan said. “We have already started making the bricks.
“Failure to improve it in a way they want and our orphanage will be closed.”
Making bricks, above and below, for the site, bottom, where one residential building with a bathing room and two toilets – one for the boys an one for girls – will be constructed. Volunteers from Searchlight Ministries are making bricks for the orphanage, instead of buying bricks. Money is being borrowed to buy firewood to burn these bricks, Pastor Duncan said. (Photos by Duncan Nyozani)
Quenching the thirst of His children (Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2010)
The gift of water is a precious thing, especially in a dry and dusty land like Malawi. “Having this borehole is a miracle to us,” said Duncan Nyozani of Searchlight Ministries. “It means that God loves us and that He does not forsake His people. God is showing His practical love to these orphans, the school, and Searchlight Ministries.”
Searchlight consists of four churches (three in Malawi and one planted in Mozambique), and an orphanage and secondary school in the remote village of Kambona in southeastern Malawi in the region of the Mulanje Massif and Mchese Mountains.
Duncan said that without God sending Climbing For Christ to help Searchlight, the orphanage would be closed by now. “But thank God for His wonderful provisions through your ministry.”
Climbing For Christ initially loaned US$8,250 to Searchlight to dig a well at its facilities in Kambona. After our visit there during Mission: Kilimanjaro 2010, the Lord has moved us to waive repayment of that loan. It was God’s gift to the children and people of Searchlight. He has provided!
“I cannot express in words how we are thankful for this,” Duncan said. “We are sending a million of thanks to you and your organization for this great blessing of a borehole at the school.”
“In Exodus, chapter 17, the Israelites had no water to drink,” Duncan said. “The Lord told Moses to strike the rock and water came gushing out.”
Today, water gushes from the rock-hard ground at Kambona, quenching the physical thirst of those in need.
“‘I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.’” — Exodus 17:6 (NIV)
New year, same old water problem (Friday, Jan. 1, 2010)
An inspection team from the Ministry of Education headquarters in Lilongwe, Malawi visited Searchlight Orphan Care's school in early December 2009. Pastor Duncan Nyozani, the Climbing For Christ member who oversees the orphanage, was away at the time. He said the inspection team “found that the school was good,” but they did not employ enough teachers and there was a lack of water. “Lack of water was a big problem to them,” Pastor Duncan said, “and they decided to close the school. This inspection team has closed many schools all over the country.
“They said we must drill a borehole on the school site so that there is water and employ two more qualified teachers before 14 December 2009. Failure to do this, our school will not be opened.
“So we are crying that our school has been closed due to a lack of water at school,” Pastor Duncan said. “The water situation right now is worse, tap water has dried up. People are struggling to get water. We are having this problem because it is the dry season here in Malawi. In January. we do not have this water problem. It rains in January and we do have tap water running.”
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When the water runs dry, orphans must walk many miles with buckets to a pump to retreive water for the orphanage. This is fairly common in many places in Africa, and other developing countries in the world.
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Because a short-term mission team from the United States is scheduled to visit in late January 2010, the Ministry of Education allowed more time. But not enough. On New Year's day, Pastor Duncan revealed the latest news: “All schools that are closed because of a lack of (various) things have been advised that if they will not do the things that they were told by the education inspection team by 7 January 2010, they will not be allowed to start in the middle of the term. They will automatically miss the whole year.
“We have been very much discouraged by this situation,” said Duncan, who took out a loan for US$4,000 (at 30-percent interest) to hire a company to drill a borehole for water at the school. “I have paid for half of the drilling and installation costs.”
Water (“a lot of water,” according to Duncan) was found at a depth of 45 meters.
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“The other reason I have taken a loan to do the drilling work is that we have now started the rainy season,” Duncan explained. “In the rainy season, the drilling machines stop working. Drilling work is done in the dry season from September to December.”
Because Climbing For Christ will be surveying the orphanage situation in Malawi and seeking God's direction for future work there, this ministry has provided a US$8,000 loan (at 0 percent interest). Duncan will be able to repay the $4,000 loan early and at an agreed-upon lower interest rate (10 percent) and pay for the rest of the work on the drilling project. School should be reopened when our mission team visits in late January. A decision on whether the loan will need to be repaid or what action the Lord wants us to take will be made during or after that visit.
CHRISTmas in Malawi (Friday, Dec. 25, 2009)
Pastor Duncan Nyozani of Searchlight Orphan Care in Malawi, Africa received the US$1,000 wired by Climbing For Christ on Wednesday. “We will buy food and clothes for the children tomorrow,” Pastor Duncan said at the time. “Thank you very much for your support to these needy children.”
Today, Pastor Duncan sent this message:
“Greetings to you from Malawi! I hope you enjoyed Christmas. We are very much delighted to tell you that we had a very wonderful Christmas Day.
“We were able to buy new clothes for the orphans, buy good food for the orphans, and we also purchased shoes. They are happy to have these gifts. Thank you very much for your wonderful support to these very needy orphans in the community. You have relieved them very much.”
Some photos of CHRISTmas in Malawi:
Food for the hungry, above, and clothing for those in need, below.
Children from the orphanage (bottom) enjoy a wonderful CHRISTmas meal, above and below. If not for God's provision, these children may have gone hungry on the day that celebrates our Savior's birth.
Happy CHRISTmas Malawi (Monday, Dec. 21, 2009)
Pastor Duncan Nyozani, a Climbing For Christ member and the man behind Searchlight Orphan Care in Malawi, Africa, e-mailed Saturday to welcome us back from Mission: Haiti. “I hope you had a wonderful trip; we have been praying for you during your trip,” Duncan wrote. He went on to ask us to pray for his orphanage, which was closed by the government earlier this month because of a lack of water at the school. They need US$7,500 to hire a company to drill and install a borehole (well). We knew about this and will be investigating it further on next month's Mission: Kilimanjaro. What we didn't know was that funding had also run dry since the school was officially closed, but Duncan and his family were still keeping 15 orphans in their care.
Malawi orphans.
“It is very sad to see that our children at the orphanage will be starving during this Christmas (season),” Duncan wrote. “We are running short of food right now. From yesterday, the orphans are just eating one meal per day, which is very bad to these little children.”
We prayed about it, and then we decided to do more. I asked Duncan how much would be needed to feed the children. He said: US$1,000 (“if you are able”). Half of that would be for another month's worth of food and $500 would buy clothing as CHRISTmas gifts for the children. “They have ragged clothes,” he said. I told him we would wire the funds on Monday (today).
Later Saturday I went to the post office to collect our mail. In the mail was a check from a Climbing For Christ member in the United States. It was a gift for US$1,000. This was affirmation that Project 1:27 Malawi is part of God's plan for Climbing For Christ.
The money was wired today to Malawi. The children at Searchlight Orphan Care will have a happy CHRISTmas. Praise God!
— Gary Fallesen, president, Climbing For Christ |