Dear Friends and Family,

Another beautiful week! I am blessed to have two outstanding teaching partners, Tisu and Gladys. We teach together, train teachers together, pray together, do outreach together and study the Word of God together. On this Thanksgiving weekend, I am very thankful for them, the pastors and their wives and kids whom I live with and for all of you! And the newest addition to our family here, our cat, Pang Ono Pang Ono, who you will see in a picture. It means “little bit by little bit” or “slowly” in Chichewa. She is my reminder to take it slow. She is our expert mouse catcher!

Because of the age span of our children, we have grouped the children academically and have begun to use the two front rooms of our school for group lessons. Dividing the students for a portion of our instructional time is increasing the amount of lessons we can give, the concentration of the students, and the students’ learning! For our cultural lessons this week, we studied North America! The children love to sing our continent and ocean songs. They enjoy studying the world! We studied and made flags of America and Mexico, studied the animals of Canada and created Monart penguins for Canada (Our children have never felt or seen snow. No one here in our town has a refridgerator so ice is hard to find as well.), examined the money of America and did crayon rubbings of the coins, ate Salsa and had a fiesta on Thursday. There are no tortilla chips here in Malawi so I had to improvise. Yes, for my friends and family, it was salsa toast time!

Pastor Brown came in to our class to give a great Bible lesson about Job! These kids love to sing and often will lead me in all the worship songs. Our parents contributed greatly again this week! And best of all, our carrots and cabbage are beginning to grow in the garden! Yahoo! Malawians are quiet people for the most part, so I feel one of my jobs is to teach my friends here how to get really excited about the great things that are happening. I think it’s catching on. When Weta Weta, who has been diligently watering our garden, saw the vegetables had begun to grow, he looked at me with this wildly enthusiastic smile and gave me two thumbs up. We are all thrilled about the garden.

We continue our outreach and teacher training at the Chifundos. We are preparing for our Montessori Teacher Training of the orphan care teachers the week of January 12th. My pastor from California, Jeff Kreiser is coming to visit the ministry and school here the same week. Cindy Dickson, Pam Loomis and possibly another friend or two are visiting from Lakeside Church in April. And a Montessori Teaching Team is coming in June with materials for another classroom and to hold a teacher training! Yahoo!

And lastly our Ndirande Church is praying about starting a Widow’s Program. Run by widows for widows. Strengthening them with the Word of God and small business training. Let me know if you want to help specifically with this ministry. Rock on Jesus! Who is our continuous source of inspiration, wisdom, and strength! John Chapters 13-17

If you are interested in assisting in making a difference for the orphans of Ndirande, please email me at maribeth@theocean.cc or donate directly through Lakeside Church. Put Attn. Gina, Lakeside Church 745 Oak Avenue Parkway, Folsom, California, USA, 95630. Put Malawi Montessori Project- Maribeth in the Memo Line. If you would like to help us finish this beautiful Children’s Home so we can better minister to the needs of the orphaned population here, please go to www.acts3.org The Children’s Home is designed to have a medical clinic, etc. This facility is designed to be a blessing to the children of Ndirande! Let’s finish it!

Please continue to pray for us here as we seek to follow Jesus and fulfill His plan for the children here!

Love, Maribeth