Newsletter July 2007 (first adoption Kind en Toekomst)

Dear friends of Kondanani,

Good to be able to write to you again about the coming and goings of Kondanani.

We are a blessed bunch and no weapon formed against us has prospered yet and never will.

I have been away in various places in Europe, it was a blessing. Each church and people are precious to be part of.

Ireland was very special, if you have not been there you need to, it is the greenest place in the world AND the coldest I think.

Kondanani was blessed beyond what we could think or imagine, it was great.

Not an easy place for the missionaries who work there. To preach the gospel according to the Word of God is difficult, the people are steeped in, what seems to be ancient Catholicism.

It has not been that long for Ireland to have become part of the developed world, apparently 15 years ago it was still a third world country. Not now any more, but there are behaviour patterns among the people which reminds me of third world countries.

In between all my travels I went back for to days to Malawi because the God Channel came and did filming, I am sure some of you will have seen Kondanani on TV several times.

When I left Malawi I decided to go via Dubai to Europe. It is cheaper because it is considered inconvenient, but I wanted to see the place so I decided on a stop over. It was an inconvenience going back the same way, but never mind.

I spent three days there and had such fun, all by myself ofcourse. The high light was going dune bashing. Really you have to experience it to appreciate it. We got into four wheel drives into the dessert, and then at fast speed get up on top of the dunes, you can imagine what happens, the car goes for a spin and one really thinks any time now we are going to roll, and then, what is on the other side of the dune, I have to tell you it is hair-raising. But of course the drivers do this on a daily basis, nothing will go wrong. This went on for at least an hour, I laughed so much, but not everybody did, some people in the car were terrified, they were probably annoyed with my fun.

Dubai is an amazing place, the old testament talks about God saying to Abraham, that he would multiply and bless Ishmael like he promised to bless Isaac. It is very obvious that God kept His side of the bargain, the offspring of Ishmael, the Arab world are blessed materially, if only they knew the Saviour it would be perfect.

The other night I got woken up at 2.30 am by the watchman, his English is not so good neither is my CheChewa.

He said mama 4 children, come 4 children. I thought that there were 4 children who had got sick in the middle of the night, wondered about it too, because our children are seldom ill. When I got to the house where I thought the ill children were, he told me, no not there, come. He took me to the pig sty and I found that Inkspot the pig had given birth to 11 little piglets. What a relief, no sickness but increase of blessings. I did not really needed to be woken up for that but I thought never mind it is a joyful occasion.

One more week and we will have an other two pigs giving birth. We have so many pigs, I am not even sure how many, we have to get to 1000.

Our farm is growing, 4 more calves on the way, our herd is increasing. There are lots of veggies growing.

The children give us a lot of fun, just by the way they say things.

Patricia said to her house mother, I am an orphan. The house mother asked who told her she was an orphan, she said I figured it out in my head. I have no mother so I must be, I came out of nobodies tummy, I was JUST born and here I am. She found it very amusing and had a big laugh about it. I thought, thank you Lord she is a happy child otherwise she would react different.

But what when the day comes when she does understand that she has no mummy and daddy?

We need so much wisdom. The children are growing up and get more and more understanding of the difference.

I am so grateful though that we can give them a happy life.

Sometimes they come to me and quote the bible scripture they have learned for that week, the latest one was Psalm 139:13.

The child quoted: You knitted me in my mothers room, I said, no that is wrong, it says you knitted me in my mothers womb. But the teacher said so, and if they think the teacher said so, even if they did not, that is gospel to the children, so the womb stays room until she knows better.

It reminds me when I was about three years old, came home and told my mum about the apple and the bear, my mother told me it was an apple and a pear, but according to me the teacher said bear.

What I am trying to say, apart from the funny side, is, the influence and responsibility of our teacher is very big.

Just a few more funnies.

The teacher asked Ulita, what is the equator, her answer was a large truck.

The children had to do a test which was multiple choice, the question was:

I can taste the flavours of: Feet, food or fits? Most of them had it right but one of them decided that "feet" could taste quite nice. These blessings give us lots of laughs.

I shared with you in my last newsletter that we had entered into an agreement with a Dutch Adoption Organisation.

The first parents are here at present and staying with us on the property in one of the houses.

They are adopting a set of twins. The court case will be on the 31ste of July for the adoption to go through. What a joy to witness the bonding between the children and papa en mama.

Every day something is happening in the lives of the parents and the children. I love the way the parents come and "brag" on the children as if they had had them all their life, the children have just turned two. We have moved the cots and clothes into their house already because the children and parents were ready for that. The children just love their new parents, these little ones will never know any different, Kondanani will soon be forgotten at their age and that is fine with me.

I laughed yesterday, I asked the parents when they were coming for coffee and papa said, yes we must, but you know with two children life is quite busy. I am just enjoying it so much see them getting into the swing of parenthood. One thing will be strange to me that, when I go to Holland next year and visit them I will find the children speaking in my mother tongue.

I understand it a little bit of the bonding, my son and his wife decided to increase their family by adopting a little boy. I am amazed how I feel about this baby, he is really like the others, I feel the same about him, he is so precious.

We have had a few unpleasant things happening and we really need your prayers for the protection of the children and the missionaries.

About two months ago we had an other armed robbery, I was not here this time, but it was very nasty. Linda and Cherie escaped being raped, but only just, Cherie her clothing had already been ripped by a panga knife and two of her teeth knocked out, Linda screamed the place down and I think that was a deterrent, but in essence we know that God's Hand delivered them.

I was proud of their response, they forgave and went on their knees praising God for save deliverance from the hands of them who wanted to harm them. A lot of stuff was stolen.

Three weeks ago we had a break in at my office and a lot of cash was stolen, in fact someone knew where I kept the foreign cash because that is the only place that was broken into. The police have no leads, and I am not sure if they ever will, there seems to be no investigation going on at all.

We have no choice at the moment but to build a three bedroom police house and make sure that there are at all times 2 policeman on the property.

Our present school is going to be to small at the start of the next school year. We have been blessed with the finances to build a new learning centre. The foundations have been dug and the fence around the school property has been erected.

The children are so exited about going to their new school in January 2008.

The children are doing very well at school, it is amazing how they learn, the school system we use is definitely very valuable and of benefit.

At the end of this letter I am doing my usual. If you know of anyone who is self supporting, and below 65 can teach build or do anything for that matter, please get them to contact us, we need people all the time. That is, if they want to come to this beautiful country. We only have armed robberies every two years !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I better take that back.

Love from all of us at Kondanani.

Annie Chikhwaza.