Dear Friends and Family,
Philippians 4:6-7 and 19. God reminded me this week that I just need to ask Him for what I need. So I keep asking and He keeps delivering. (Great Pictures Below)

Thank you for all your prayers, gifts of love, and financial support! We have one more week of school before we go on Christmas Break (until January 17th). This is the end of our school year in Malawi. The children have been demonstrating the most outstanding leadership and progress within the classroom. Tisu and Gladys are completing report cards and holding Parent Teacher Conferences. These women are simply amazing! God has shown me that these women need the honor and privilege of earning their 2 1/2 to 6 year old Montessori Credential. We have been planning for my departure in June and I have been handing over responsibilities to them: lesson planning, assessment, report cards conferences, etc. These two women do not have a college degree, but God has given them intention, motivation, intelligence, love, creativity and focus.

This past week Glady’s planned all the cultural lessons for Zoology. We studied fish anatomy. She was brilliant! Creating a song and dance to help the students remember the different parts of a fish. We have small classroom fish, but she brought in dried and fresh fish for the students to study. Our cat, Pang Ono Pang Ono, is our classroom mammal. She participated in our study of the fish too. (See pictures.) The kids adore her and she is very gentle. By chance Pastor Kalima caught a very large crab in the creek and the children loved watching it eat part of our fish. Needless to say our classroom smelled for two days, but the learning opportunities were maximized!

The week of January 12th, Tisu, Gladys, Mary O’Neill (a Montessori teacher and owner of three Montessori preschools here in Blantyre) and I will be holding a training for the Orphan Care Workers and Directors of the seven Chifundo (which means “Mercy” in Chichewa) Orphan Day Centers. We would love your prayers! And not that anyone is asking, but here is my Christmas Wishlist:

That you all would know the powerful and gracefilled love of God.
That all of you would know how much I love you and how grateful I am for you in my life.
And finally, that people would continue to come forward saying, “The children of Malawi matter to me too.” and invest in the Malawi Montessori Project so that we can continue to invest in the lives of these children.

If you want to donate this Christmas, please send your tax deductible donation to Lakeside Church. Attention Gina, Lakeside Church, 745 Oak Avenue Parkway, Folsom, California, 95630. Please put Malawi Montessori Project- Maribeth in the Memo line.

I promise through prayer and hardwork to maximize your donation to provide a better education for the orphans of Ndirande. You can count on it!

Peace and Love,
Maribeth