As you might remember in the summer of 2009, our family spent 3 months partnering with the Student Christian Organization of Malawi (SCOM.) We also had hoped to adopt a child while we were there. We spent many hours caring for children at the crisis nursery and serving at the SCOM office. One of the significant experiences for me was working with the refugee camp that is located out side of Lilongwe. The camp has ~8,000 refugees from all over Africa (Congo, Rwanda, Sudan, Somalia and others.) This is a place of extreme hardship. They are given 40 lbs. of corn meal, a few pounds of beans and some salt by the UN each month. They aren't allowed to work by the Malawi government, so they must make do with these meager provisions.
One of our friends, Delor, is 21 year old and has been in the camp for 8 years. His family was killed in the fighting in the Congo and he fled for his life. After working with us for the 3 months, he began to see the needs of children in the camp. He asked his pastor at the camp, "What could be done?" He then asked me, "Should we start an orphanage to care for the children?" I responded positively that it seemed like he was seeing a critical need but, I didn't really know where this was headed. In the next month, they broke ground on 3 buildings for feeding and school programs for the neediest children in the camp.
The ministry started feeding 33 kids in the camp. Six months later, they are feeding 85 kids and running classes for kids from the camp and three villages near by. The children aren’t all orphans as some have family in the camp or village but, aren’t able to provide enough for the kids. So to help those families, they are trying to provide, as they are able, a pair of goats for milk and additional food for their families (40 goats given so far.) They are also training women in sewing with 10 sewing machines. The women are learning to make simple clothes and items that they can sell in villages near by.
Some people have asked me how this ministry is being funded. Well, the funding is not great right now. Currently, we personally send $400 - $500 a month. But I hope to start a non-profit ministry to raise money for the orphanage and ministries there. Our gift provides the feeding program with barely enough to supplement what the church gives (85 kids aren’t eating well on a little over $.50 a day). We could use your prayers to get the non-profit up and running so we can do better at providing for the children.
God has bigger plans than we do! We went to Malawi to adopt one child, to have our family blessed with the joy of loving a baby. God had other plans. It seems he wanted to see many more kids and families provided for than we imagined. My heart continues to break for these kids and families. Praise God for allowing us to be apart of His ministry to the neediest in our world.
