Montreat in Malawi
Follow a team from the Montreat Presbyterian Church in Montreat, NC as they work along side the MoH staff in Malawi.

By Jenny Schermerhorn
Montreat Presbyterian Church team

Thursday May 25 - The arrival in Malawi
Monday, May 29 - Crisis Nursery and Women's Retreat
Tuesday, May 30 - The visit to the village

Saturday, June 3
Today was our last Bible School of the trip. After another trip to the market for food, (try planning meals and shopping in a completely different country!) most of us headed out to a village called Khwamba. After about an hour of driving, twenty minutes of it on a VERY bumpy road, we rolled up to the MoH feeding center. The kids flooded out and surrounded the van cheering and yelling. We found out later they had been waiting all day – it was 3:00pm when we pulled up. We had a huge group, close to 300 kids.

While we ran the Bible school Stephen and Forrest worked on repairing a well pump that had broken. After skits, Bible memorization and games we joined together for a time of group singing and prayer. We were treated to a round of performances – a group of about 10 young boys did a traditional dance for us, and then we heard a large choir.

The music here is just amazing, I wish I could bottle up some of the energy these kids have for music and bring it home with us. (Listen to a sample by clicking here) We wish you could be here with us to meet the hundreds upon hundreds of orphans that MoH is helping every day.




Friday, June 2
Hiked Mount Nkhoma! What a hike! The view from up there is unbelievable! (see photo) It's like being on top of Mt. Mitchell with no other mountains within 20 miles. We could see all the way to Lilongwe in the South and almost out to Zambia in the West. We can't wait to show everyone the pictures. We also visited the Nkhoma Hospital. It was an overwhelming experience to walk the halls of the hospital. We have a lot to process, but we can say we praise God for the work that He is doing among the patients there.

Thursday, June 1
Our last day in Matapila. The men met at the worksite early, around 7:30am. The foundation dug, bricks were brought to the site, and cement was delivered. It is exciting to see a building going up where where there was nothing less than 24 hours before. Today I paid more attention to what the children were eating, and I was impressed. They were given large servings of nsima, (a major staple of the Malawian diet, a lot like grits), cooked greens, and today servings of fish. Many of them were holding things that we made in craft time the days before. After our Bible school time was finished, a choir sang to us as a thank you. Just before we left the children prayed for us, asking for safety and blessings on our journey. We drove out of the village around 4:30pm and got back to the Area 14 house after dark. Friday we will visit a hospital in Nkhoma, as well as hike Mount Nkhoma. Thank you all for your prayers. I can tell you very honestly that we are experiencing them in very real ways each day.

Wednesday, May 31
Today the men made great progress on the chicken house. The foundation is completely dug, and a truck was found to move some bricks from where they were being stored over to the jobsite. Some of the women and I walked over to Katondo, a village about 30 minutes away. Katondo also has a MoH feeding center. We met the feeding center director, Gift, and delivered some skirts for the girls there. The walk there was wonderful, and we enjoyed seeing the tiny houses that sat beside the trail along the way. Some of the women who went on the women’s retreat were there, cooking nsima. It was good to see them, and we laughed at some of our memories of camping together. And then came another day of Bible school with the children of Matapila. Different skits were performed, but the same structure was followed. As soon as we arrive the children grab our hands or asked to be picked up, it’s overwhelming and rewarding all at once. We are able to remember some of the children’s names, but they can remember all of ours. While we can say a few easy Chichewa phrases, most of our one-on-one communication with the children is laughter. Everything we do is observed, and laughed about, giggles and shrieks and guffaws. We closed the day with laughter, and many of the children walked with us all the way back to our house.

Tuesday, May 30
Today we packed up the car and headed out to Matapila, a small village about an hour and a half from the capital. We will stay in the village for three days and two nights. Try fitting twelve people in a land cruiser, for an hour and a half drive. Cozy.

The drive was strikingly beautiful! Open landscape dotted with green trees, and huge mountains jutting out of the ground with no introduction. While in the village we will run a three-day Bible school with the children who eat at the feeding center, and the men will work on building a chicken house.

We dropped our bags at the house where we would be staying, and quickly gathered our supplies for our first Bible school. Shadraq, the MoH feeding center director, gathered the children together after they finished eating, and opened with songs. The singing lasted for about 20 minutes, and we were immediately impressed by the volume and rhythm of the music. (You can hear a sample of the kids singing and music by clicking on the "Our Work " menu and selecting the Music and Video links.)

The children were broken into groups by age, with a total of 165 kids - all orphans, just in that one area. While the women led the game, memory verse and craft areas, the guys got working on the chicken house.

This chicken house is one of several planned projects that will help provide a more balanced diet for the orphans as well as allow the community feeding centers to become more self sufficient. The men laid out the corners of the foundation and were joined by many men from the village who helped work on the project. The sun sets early here, and by the time we began the 15 minute walk back to our house, we enjoyed a beautiful sunset. Cooking dinner over a campfire in the dark was very challenging, and by the time we ate and set up our beds, we were very ready to sleep.

Monday, May 29
This morning we visited the Crisis Nursery. We arrived and were told “wash your hands and pick up a baby!” From one month to five years, we so enjoyed visiting with these children. After lunch and a trip to the wood market, we packed up and enjoyed dinner with a missionary family from our home church, Montreat Presbyterian.

Praise God for an amazing weekend! Just a few hours ago we returned from the first Ministry of Hope Women’s Retreat. MoH invited two groups of ladies to participate in this weekend- four students from the African Bible College and 17 women who work for MoH cooking and caring for orphans in their villages.

The theme of our weekend was Proverbs 31:10 “Being a woman of noble character.” Singing, praying, listening to testimonies, studying the scripture, holding small group discussions, and sitting on the shore of Lake Malawi are just a few things we enjoyed together. It was wonderful to meet these women and get to know their stories.

Josephina is a third-year seminary student who is interested in education. She is concerned that many of her countrywomen are given charge over the care and education of children, without any training themselves. Among other things, Josephina wants to write textbooks for such people.

Many of the women who work in the village are widows, and we heard their stories during the time of testimony Saturday night. “With eleven children, then my husband died, but God told me ‘I will take care of your children’, and He has! Ministry of Hope is sending all of my children to school.” Another woman shared how full of fear she was for many years, especially when she was alone. “I went to my brother, and he took me to some Christian friends - they determined I was this way, because I did not know Christ. I prayed to receive Christ, and right then the fear left.”

We praised God together when the time of testimony was over, worshiping Him for the active and faithful manner in which He has cared for these women and his families.
One woman who serves MoH in her village told me of a special role she plays. “I counsel girls and tell them how to dress and act around men, and how to walk with God,” she said. I told her how important she was. How wonderful it is for these girls to have someone like her, since their own mothers are gone

The women who serve the orphans with Ministry of Hope are wonderful sisters in Christ; I hope you will join with me in this prayer for them: God, thank you for these women! Please, continue to care for them and their families as they serve you in their own villages. Give them safety, physical health, and wisdom as they serve orphans in your name. Amen.

Thursday May 25th - The arrival
Greetings from Malawi! We arrived this morning in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi, after several days of travel. Thank you to all of the people who were covering us with prayer. We have all arrived safely and in good health. We were amazed at how well our trip went! From excellent flights to all of our luggage arriving in the right spot - we felt blessed by God in our travel. After a night in Atlanta, an 18-hour plane flight, a night in Johannesburg, and another two-hour flight this morning, we were very glad to arrive.

Upon our arrival we were met by Tony Bell, MoH’s director, and his wife Monica, along with several other MoH staff. We drove to the MoH office and guest house in Lilongwe, referred to as “Area 14”. Unpacking and visiting, we met with Tony and Monica , hearing updates on the work of the ministry in the city and surrounding villages. I wish every MoH supporter could have sat with us in the living room and listened to Tony speak. His passion for the children of Malawi seemed to fill the entire room. The excellent work that is being done and planned for the orphans of Malawi is very exciting.

While the women unpacked, and began to do final planning for the upcoming women’s retreat, the men jumped right into projects at the area 14 house. The screens in all the window’s needed to be replaced, and the boys set right to work taking out the windows, removing and replacing the screens, and then returning each window to its proper place. We were excited to see that we brought enough screen with us!

We go to sleep tonight with prayers of thanksgiving and joy. In closing, we would list a few things that you could pray for us over the next few days.

1) Pray for the women (MOH workers and ABC students) who are coming to the women’s retreat starting tomorrow and running through Sunday.
2) Pray for the men as they begin working on a project to build a maize mill in one of the villages.
3) For continued good health and energy.

“ If you are generous with the hungry and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out, your lives will begin to glow in the darkness, your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.” Isaiah 58:10 (The Message).

We have seen the “glow” of the MoH staff and pray that we will be lights of encouragement to MoH and to the people of Malawi.