Dear Friends and Family,

Bono, the lead singer for U-2, and a person committed to ending extreme poverty and AIDS in our world (see www.one.org), was interviewed two years ago at the Leadership Summit televised at Lakeside Church in Folsom. He was interviewed by Bill Hybels, Senior Pastor of Willow Creek Church, who is his friend and also a man committed to being Christ in action and word in the midst of the AIDS Pandemic. When Bill Hybels asked Bono how churches get involved, Bono said, Bless what God is already blessing. He was refering to many of the organizations and leaders God had already sent to Africa and other places impacted by AIDS to serve those in need, like the orphans.

The teachers in our recent training are from five orphan care centers that serve orphans, living with guardians within the community of Ndirande. This week I visited two to the three Chifundo Orphan Care Centers run by the Prespretarian Church. These three centers (three of seven in the area) are
serve 70-300 children each, 2-5 years of age. They provide breakfast and lunch, love, Christian teaching and songs, and prepare the children for school. The are community based organizations and they raise their own crops to feed the children and employ those within the community to assist with this. They provide Home Based Care training for volunteers who minister to those who are sick within the community. They visit the children within their homes regularly for accountability and guardian support. They have boards made up of community members and sollict the help and participation of the children’s guardians. What they are doing is working and even though they are working with very few resources, they are very effective. They maximize what God has given them. Their goals are clear and they have healthy systematic ways of meeting these goals in an atmosphere of love, respect and community.

I had the opportunity to spend time at two of the centers this week. The Malawi Montessori Project has two goals: to educate the future leaders of Malawi and to train and resource an educational community. I did not make up these goals for MMP. God put these two specific goals on my heart and confirmed them through my collegues, Kim Yeager and Laura Witwer. God has the most amazing way of bringing people together in relationship to deliver on His agenda. God has brought us into relationship with the Chifundo Orphan Care Centers so that we could expand what is possible for the orphans of Ndirande. Please see the pictures below. You will see the teachers that participated in our trainings. If you want to make a difference for orphans, I know who is doing it and how you can help.
If you are a Montessori teacher (especially the 2 1/2-6 credentialed), come to Malawi to train! If you can’t come send me additional Montessori materials or money to make materials here.

Thank you to my family and friends! It is because of all of you that I am here!!! Please pray for Heather Kreiser and Sandy Listberger who leave SFO on Oct 5th and arrive in Blantyre on Tuesday, October 7th. I have a great schedule for them! Please pray that God will reveal all the He wants to see in Acts III Church Malawi, the Malawi Montessori Project, and here in Ndirande.

Love, Maribeth