A Day with a Special Message, Outreach and Final Painting

If you had to ask me how my day was I would say absolutely diverse on three accounts; my morning quiet time, the outreach program and finishing up the classroom without looking like a Smurf or Shrek. We planned on leaving before 9am to a village to weigh the babies and children, as well as give vaccinations. So before we left I had my prayer time and an interesting message came across…join a missionary! I immediately opened my eyes wondering if it was a thought of my own or if Yahweh (Hebrew for God) had spoken to me. So just out of curiosity I researched missionary programs in Africa and the first website I entered showed an abundance of work opportunities throughout the world and I was blown away. The job opportunities were not only for evangelism, but for my exact trade and interest including writing, design, publishing and the like. I couldn’t believe my eyes and had a trickle of excitement knowing that I could use my skills and talent that I have been so graciously blessed with to spread the Word/Truth. But I Ieft it to simmer in my mind as I had to focus on our morning project…the Outreach Program.

So we left for the clinic to fetch the doctor and vaccinations and after a 20 minute drive or so we arrived at a little village with all the Mama’s ready with their bundles of joy. The children were quite curious about us and just starred, with some even crying as I imagine they haven’t seen “Europeans” before. After everyone started to settle and the materials were ready the Mama’s took all their kiddies to a BIG tree… First up was the weighing of the babies and toddlers and let me tell you this method was definitely a novelty to me. Picture the image of a stork carrying a baby wrapped in material in its mouth. Now picture a scale hanging off a tree with a hook that the child, wrapped in this type of material, is hung on which pulls down on the scale resulting in the needle moving to the relevant number. 

I was amazed! There were about 40 children weighed this morning and of those, 25 were under 12 months and were given their vaccinations. So our task was to write the weight value in each child’s book before the Mama’s took their babies to the doctor and assistants for the vaccinations. It was such an incredible sight to see how this system had been put into place. I was simply in awe that I could be there to witness all of this in the middle of the bush in a little village. We spent about 2. 5 hours before we headed back to Lifuwu for lunch driving beside large rice farms and through other villages with heaps of kiddies waving hello / goodbye frantically as the car drove past. I just smiled to myself feeling so grateful for this journey and experience in Malawi.

After we had lunch we packed the car with all the last materials we needed to complete the class and headed off. There were only a few last drawings on the wall dedicated to “Things” that I spoke about before and the wall of the “body”. The other volunteers had drawn a Mama hand in hand with her son and were busy painting while I finished the items on the “things” wall including a sun, hut, flower and a few other pictures with their help in between. All I can say is that the classroom looks freaking fantastic and we all did such an awesome job in 3.5 days. It was a very rewarding moment!!

This class will be used for the older kiddies in the age group of pre-school and I can only hope that it will make their learning experience an absolute pleasure, sitting in their new desks that have also been sponsored.

I will take this time to reflect on the mind blowing, exciting and rewarding week I have had and ponder a little more about the message I received this morning and the meaning behind it...