a most incredible God moment

I was brought to tears at supper tonight. I was invited to join two of our team members, several Credit Union employees and an exchange employee of a Credit Union in Lilongwe,Malawi. As we made each others' acquaintance and heard what our new friend Mervis does at Finco in Lilongwe, God was there. Her Credit Union (Finco) is in Kawale, Lilongwe - the community we will be working in the first week of our stay. One of her roles is to teach a 4-6 week budgeting course to people who wish to begin their own business. The participants are then asked to "gather" in groups of at least 10, get a business loan, continue providing progress reports, and repay their loan in 6 months. The exciting part of all this is- she knows the language, can teach budgeting during the day time hours, and all a no charge. It is part of her job. How much better can it get?

Mervis returns to Lilongwe July 9th and we arrive July 29th. It will be awesome reconnecting with her in Malawi. She has also offered to teach us how to train women to make polish - a request of the Kawale leadership. I love it when God surprises us. Networking like tonight - arranged by one of our awesome prayer warriors - is amazing affirmation to me that God cares about every detail of our involvement in Malawi to help the orphans and widows affected by HIV/AIDS.

Our last official team meeting

Our "new and improved" team for Malawi 2011. So glad Leona and Liz have joined us and look forward to being the "hands and feet of Jesus " together. Our last team meeting finished today with a focus on approaching our mission experience with EXPECTANCY - which promotes openness to change, encountering Jesus and a positive perspective regardless of the circumstances and outcomes of the event; as opposed to EXPECTATIONS that can lead to frustrations and minimize our effectiveness and openness to divine revelation. Our next get together is July 21 to pack our "ministry supply suitcases" and then we leave July 27. After all these months, we only have to turn the calendar page once more to be on our way. God continues to guide us each step of the way.

We so appreciate your prayers. We are thrilled to know that our prayer support team is at least 90 strong ( 10 for each team member). What an army of warriors we will be to spread the love of Jesus to the widows and orphans affected /infected by HIV/AIDS - you here in Canada and us in Malawi. Thank you for ministering with us! Blessings.... Lydia for the team

WMBCMALAWI2011 Team

The ladies are: Alice Whitman(insert),

Sara Neufeld, Lydia Giesbrecht, Gloria Mathies, Naomi Klassen, Joy Thielman, and Judith Voth. God is doing some great things as we plan, prepare, and bond. We covet your prayers since we are also experiencing challenges: personally and in fundraising .

God is faithful in and through it all. For this we are grateful.

God's Surprise

Hi. Well, our team of 6 has met several times to become acquainted, go over details of the trip, and bond as sistas. To my very pleasant surprise, I received an email from Joy who had initially said (when I called her as a reference for one of our team members) that she would come at the drop of a hat if she had the $5,000. We warmly welcome Joy to our team! Well, the money has been provided AND she is now one of us. We will all be together for our first team meeting (Alice joins us via Skype) tomorrow. Yeah!

Folks, please pray for us. The closer we get to departure date (3 1/2 months), the more Satan wants to use his tools of discouragement, family issues, extra financial burdens, etc. to make us question whether we are really supposed to go. I have been so blessed to work through a book on spiritual warfare, the theme which will be used for our morning devotions while in Lilongwe. Yes, we ARE fighting a real battle but we also know who has the victory, and that is Jesus Christ. We want to put on our armour and claim it daily - now and in Malawi.

God's Little Angels... a God story

The major lesson God is daily teaching me is that He is in control and my focus is to trust. By this age, you would think it would come easier.... Guess I'm a very slow learner. What energizes me are stories and experiences where I know the "happening" is a God story. Sooooo here is another "God happening".
Last Friday I received an email from a friend. She and her friend had sewn 49 receiving blankets for the team to take to Malawi. Could I please come pick them up? Absolutely!
There is something beautiful about when people are obedient to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. It is not only the widows,orphans and vulnerable children that are blessed by these blankets but also the pastors who run the programs and the giver of the blankets. Pastor Kelvin of Kawale always says: " May God double your blessings." I pray this will be true for God's angels who sewed and gave the receiving blankets.

Wisdom

Wisdom is one of the reasons I return to Malawi. His mom is not well. He is one of the happiest children I know; his laughter still rings in my ears. I met him in 2008 and again in 2010. He stole the heart of most women on our team. He has AIDS and my prayer is that he will learn to know Jesus. He goes to a public school, where the class size is often 100 children; resulting in slow academic progress. I pray I will be able to connect again this summer.

Someone asked me yesterday....

Why do I return to Malawi? What is the purpose? What am I anticipating on my return? I was sitting and perusing the pictures from the last few trips and realize the most heartwarming sight is the joy I see on the orphans and widows faces when they see me again. They quickly retrieve the scrapbook we've made for them and remember... When I consider that every year, someone has died shortly after our return to Canada and think of all the widows and children who may not have a personal relationship with Jesus... my heart aches and I want to share the love of Jesus with them. As a mother and adopted grandmother I see the children running around in tattered and torn clothing and think... would I not want someone to care enough to help if I was in their shoes? So, we teach the widows skills and support small IGA's (income generating activities) like soap, donut and candle making, tailoring, selling sugar cane or other products. This enables the widows feed their children, put a roof over their heads and pay the $2. yearly school fee.

My dream would be to bring youth, families, trades people yearly to encourage, build relationship, and be the hands and feet of Jesus. We have soooooo much. How can we not????

This is why I feel compelled to return.