Good morning friends, family, and co-workers. Today’s update covers both Tuesday and Wednesday and a portion of Thursday. As you might imagine, finding dedicated time to spend on the internet is rare as each person is busy either playing with the kids, hauling bricks, or sorting supplies at the Passion Center. Then when you do find time to hop on the `net, connectivity is extremely slow. In February of this year, the Passion Center was equipped with a wireless router for local internet service. This blessing now allows the staff to communicate with Passion Center leadership in the States with more frequency. However, loading web pages takes minutes and the process is a bit tedious, so we will have no complaints when our home internet router sporadicly loses connectivity!

VBS was a tremendous experience! We held 2 days of games, crafts, singing, and lesson time. Our theme this year was found in Daniel 1:8 as Daniel purposed in his heart. The focus was designed to share a Biblical example of a young man who established a set of convictions early in his life. Many know the story of Daniel in the Lion’s Den. What many forget though, is that Daniel was well advanced in years when he was cast into the den. As a teenager, Daniel was tested to either obey the King or follow the one and only true God. Jamie and I served as teachers and used this example of how Daniel purposed in his heart at a young age to follow after God. Our memory verses for the two days were Proverbs 3:5-6 and Psalm 27:1. The boys and girls are quick to learn a new verse in both English and the local language, Chichewan.

Our first day, we had over 600 children participate in the program. The children were divided into two main groups (older and younger...and don’t ask how that occurred…things just happen in Malawi) and then each section had 4 modules as mentioned above. Our second day exceeded the first with nearly 650 and on our final celebration day (Thursday), we passed out over 750 bags of candy. But we know a handful of those kids scarfed multiple bags!!

The volunteers rotated between classrooms as we kept the children in the same place for each rotation. The energy that greeted each session was unbelievable. You could hear the singing throughout the school yard and it was a great encouragement to others leading games or crafts to hear the children sing! These kids are so happy! They love the attention and have a blast singing new songs. You would leave a classroom of 150+ 1st graders and then walk into a room over 170 middle school children. Talk about overwhelming!!! It was, but it was a blast!

The orphans and young children of the surrounding villages live a difficult life. They walk barefoot many miles to school, they are surrounded by disease and death, and yet at the end of the day, they are just kids. They goof off, they cut in line, they push, they shove, they laugh, and they sing. And every day, they make decisions on the type of person they are becoming.

It does not matter whether it’s a Bible character, a group of fortunate Americans, or young Malawian children. The intensity and the duration of the struggle may vary, but we all endure temptations and trials. And it was our prayer and hope to share Biblical truths to encourage these children to purpose in the heart to follow after God. These children will be the future leaders of Malawi in the coming years. And now is the time to build a set of convictions and moral integrity to guide them throughout their life.

Teachers' Seminar

On Thursday afternoon, Betty, Leslie, and Jessica, three teachers from California along with Jamie, got a chance to visit one of the local secondary schools to put on teachers’ seminar. Betty and Leslie, who are elementary teachers, prepared most of the material for the presentation as well as a primary presentation for Friday. They brought a lot of good material to share with the local teachers in hopes of providing some new techniques to use in the classroom.

As with any visit in Malawi, the trip to the school started with us loading into one of the Mitsubishi Pajeros packed to the brim with people and supplies. We drove several kilometers to the school along some dirt roads through a couple villages as kids and people waved and smiled at the “azungas” (white people). The school consisted of several rectangular brick buildings, each containing one or two classrooms. The classrooms were not much different than our classrooms would have been prior to the technology and white board era. They had rows desks, chalkboards and chalk, and pictures on the wall.

After unloading all of our materials, we greeted each of the secondary teachers from the four different schools in the area. As with most events here in Malawi, we did not start on time and teachers trickled in throughout the presentation.

Overall, the presentation went well. It started off a little slow since we were speaking directly with no interpreters as all the teachers understand English. Sometimes the information we presented was not always understood the way it was intended or it took longer to explain than we thought is would. There was also the initial situation of female teachers presenting to all male teachers. The atmosphere did not start to loosen up and become productive until I was able to present some information. At this time the teachers became more friendly, answered and asked more questions, and became more open about their education system. The elementary teachers did their best to adapt their teaching techniques for the secondary level and they provided some great materials for the teachers to use in their classrooms. I don’t know how much new information we were able to share but, as I told them, if they could each pick up one new technique, the afternoon would have been a success.

In general, what they do here in Malawi is similar to what we do in the United States. Students have to meet certain standards before they can move on and they must also past tests to graduate. The coolest part about the experience is that all the teachers were Christians and they were able to integrate God and the Bible into their teaching. This is not something that is easily done in the United States so this is an advantage that they have over most U.S. schools. I was asked to open and close the seminar in prayer and pastor Eric shared a short biblical charge to the teachers.

After sipping some Cokes and Fantas together and getting a chance to talk with the teachers, we packed up our materials, went to the main office, signed the guest book and headed home. The teachers were very thankful and asked us when we would be coming back to present again. We all told them that hopefully next year we can come back for round two to share more teaching practices, learn about their techniques.

—Jamie & Rob