Newsletter Kondanani

December 1999
Dearest Friends,
On the brink of the new millennium, we can look back on all that God has taught us in the past and we can look forward to new challenges. New challenges will always be there, the last year has been a real challenge; we look back and say with our hearts "GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS OH LORD MY SAVIOUR, MORNING BY MORNING GREAT MERCIES WE SEE". This song has indeed become my anthem and I sing it often as I open up my heart to Him. If Jesus Christ is God and died for me then no sacrifice can be great for me to do for Him. The last year has been great, it is only a year since we received our first baby at " Caring Hands" Infant Home (we are now trying to move away from the word orphanage) we have now an average of 34 babies, this is as many as we can take at this home. We don't want to make it bigger we try to avoid making it an institution. It has been a time of great joy and many tears, there was a lot of work to do and we have know many days of extreme fatigue, I say we, because it has been team work with the nannies, supervisor, matron, cooks, project leader, gardener and even the night watchmen. I am proud of the dedication of each one of the staff members who have made it what it has become, every visitor who visits here is so touched by the work God is doing.
All our needs have been supplied, often in the most amasing ways. Our babies are beautiful and such happy little bundles of joy, we have lost several and yes we cried and the nannies were wailing at times, but we always knew that they went from our arms into the ARMS of the greatest comforter of all. Besides our own babies our attention has also been drawn to the little ones in the villages, we found many starving and I mean really starving, not just hungry, of course one has to see this to really understand the misery in the home where there is no food and the little ones are crying. Can you imagine the heart of a mother you in not able to fulfill the most basic needs for her child. I know stealing is wrong, but I understand the words in Proverbs 6 v 30; Do not despise a thief, if he steals to satisfy himself when he is starving.
We have now four Nutritional Projects were we feed malnourished children on a daily basis with a special diet, we travel deep into the rural areas, it takes ages sometimes because the roads are so bag and we have to cross rivers. The projects have been named after some of our departed babies like "Project Deborah". I always imagine that she is smiling when we are in the villages feeding. We have lost some of these children because they were too far gone and our next project as far as the nutrition side is concerned is for a clinic to admit these babies. I am looking for a volunteer nursing sister and believe she is coming soon. This is going to be an exciting project, the babies will have to stay for six weeks and the mothers have to be there, this gives us six weeks to minister the Word of God as well as giving us the opportunity to teach them income generating activities, so that when they leave us they can be economically empowered. Besides all of this there will be lessons on hygiene, child spacing, family planning, aids education, nutrition etc. I don't think they will get bored. We already have the building to rent.
In about April or May 2000 after the wet season is over we are going to start building "Kondanani Village" some of you who have been praying with us for the finances and have stood with us that God would meet this need, I can tell you the need for the first phase has been meet and I can not tell you how overjoyed I am. Some of precious ones will moving there from "Caring Hands" and of course in no time the Welfare will come more little orphans for us to love and care for. We will have a nursery school on site and some children from the surrounding villages will come to the school as well this will also keep our children in touch with the outside world. Some prayer requests; yes please pray for us, I tell you all of the great news, partly because I seem to forget the bad so quickly and it serves no purpose apart from that we learn from it, but of course the enemy of our souls is not sitting still, so we need you to intercede on our behalf. We have little Leva, she is nothing more than skin and bones, nearly a year old, but I am so optimistic. I believe that she will live she has put on 500 grams in the last week, tomorrow we are going to take her to the hospital to start on her TB treatment although the doctor can not find TB sometimes it is hidden. She is a very pretty girl with no father or mother and comes from a very poor part of Malawi where there is a lot of witchcraft and it is even quite possible that a part of the family is practicing witchcraft against her while she is not there. Their culture has difficulties understanding what an orphanage is and they think that the ancestors are angry if a child is given away. We asked a family for the adoption of a child and the answer was, we would rather let the grave adopt her. We are praying into these situations.
Then we have little Elisha he has very severe meningitis the salmonella organism, a new strain to the doctors and we are battling with him. I am sure that he is deaf now and he also has epileptic fits, but he does not have HIV. The little boy has life ahead of him, he is only 5 months old, his twin has died already but he was positive. Thank you for your partnership, for your gifts which made it possible for us to be instruments for His Glory, we ask you to continue to support us in the coming year. Have a wonderful blessed Christmas and a happy year in 2000. The Kondananians send you their love and greetings. Forever in His Service, we greet you with His Love,
Lewis and Annie Chikhwaza