So I tend to stick with my women's and widow team, I don't like to stray from them, because I love them so much and I have an amazing connection with most of them from previous years, I always feel like I'm cheating on my team if I go somewhere else, well I strayed for two days this time around. What was nice was the two days I strayed were two days where my team had breaks. This might sound bad, but it is needed. Last year my team was overwhelm with too much to do and not enough time to do it, and this is something we usually try to avoid, but we just overloaded our schedule.
This year we did the same things as last year but were able to condense everything, for example we did one long women's conference with all three villages that came to one spot, instead of 3 separate conferences at all three villages in three days. I really liked this way because all the women can come together and learned together, and taught each other. The other thing we did was instead of going to each individual widows home, we had the women come to one location in their village and we saw them at the same time. This was good and bad in my opinion. Good because again we had everyone come together to be with each other, also we did more dancing and singing, which was fun. What I did not like about it was we were not able to do things with them in their homes/huts, we couldn't go to their homes to help them clean or cook or learn their lives, and we couldn't go to their homes to see if maybe they may need a new roof or if their 'foundation' was cracked. These are things we look for when we go. And the other thing I didn't like about it, is that not every widow could make it to us, because they had a disability or were too sick which prevented them from being able to make it to where we were. This was a new way for us to do our widows meetings, and I think it was a good jumping off point to teach us what will be better for the future. I know our hope is for the women to be able to take control of their own conference and lead us, which is coming soon, this year they did a lot of the work on their own, and we did very little.
We also did something new this year, a leadership meeting, where Duwa the women's leader of Live Love Malawi, found and brought who she knows are amazing leaders in their village back to the ABC campus, We got together with approximately 30 women leaders to learn about what they wanted to see change in their village. It was really neat to see them all collaborate together and even have some arguments of what they felt was more important or should be first on the list. Collectively each of the three villages, wanted better education for their children, more people of the village to come to know God, and to have a way to be able to provide not only for their families but for their community. We had them write and draw what they were looking for, for their future and then choose one thing out of their list and explain how they can start trying to make that happen. It was pretty amazing. I am excited to see if anything comes to fruition by next year.
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| Here is a Chichewa Bible 1 John 4 2-6 I took this pic for 1 John 4:4 |
One team wanted their village to have more of their community come to know God. They decided that it needs to start with them, and that they need to be the voice of their community to have people learn of Him. They really want more men to come to know God, and realized that getting the wives involved to see how they are changing can in turn help the men find God as well. They also need more bibles, they do not have enough bibles for each of the women in the bible studies they do every week, only a couple for everyone. I believe the received many bibles almost immediately as Mosaic church found a way to get them more Bibles. I own a Chichewa Bible myself from an amazing student who gave me one last year.
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| Another pic of Chichewa Bible 1 John 3:16-23, I took a pic for 1 John 3:18. |
The next group came up with a way to make money, They wanted to start their own farm, and ways to be more self sustaining, I wish I would have taken more pictures of this leadership meeting, rather taken any pictures, but of course, once again, I was too excited to even care about pictures, and was just happy to be there. The moral of this story is if you want to see more of Malawi, you all need to come with me next year :)
The last group is a village that has been with us from the very beginning they want to be more self sustaining, they want to make money on their own to help their community, they have a garden, they have land, and they have a sewing business, and they make a bunch of stuff, clothes, purses, bags, bracelets etc. They are partnering with Live Love Chandler to find a way they can sell all of their product(s) here in the states. It is pretty amazing.
Watching these women learn together, argue together, find a way to make their own villages better, and more successful together is something I wish everyone can see. These women have very little and yet they have each other.
Watching these women learn together, argue together, find a way to make their own villages better, and more successful together is something I wish everyone can see. These women have very little and yet they have each other.
The quote at the top of this blog has been seen a lot recently and it needs to be. I am saddened by the hate, the loss of lives, the violence, and the lack of love we have seen, and I LOVE the generosity, and togetherness, the love, and education of the people this has been affecting the most. HERE is an article my pastor wrote this last week in Relevant magazine. I'm proud my church spoke about what is going on, I'm proud my church prayed together for everyone.
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