Blessings to My Friends and Family!
Dear Friends and Family,
Thank you for your prayers and love! Beautiful things are happening! I look forward to the surprise visit from Heather Kreiser and Sandy Listberger, from Lakeside Church, arriving in Malawi on October 7th. Please pray for their preparation and safety. I can’t wait to cook my favorite Malawian foods for them- including roasted ground nuts! My amazing friends, Annie Holt and Pam Loomis, plus many other of those crazy compassionate women are hosting a garage sale for Acts III Global Ministries, Malawi at 953 Palmer Circle in Folsom, California 95630 on Saturday, September 27th. Please show up to donate items or shop til you drop. 100% of the purchases go to Acts III. Ladies! You completely inspire me and I’m praying!
We finish our last week of the quarter this week! Pics of the kids doing plein air water color are below. We finished session three of four sessions of the Montessori Teacher Training and Material Development this Friday for the orphan care workers. They are deeply grateful for the training and materials. The session was supposed to end at 4 p.m. but they all stayed until 5:30 p.m. to complete their materials.
Peace and Love to you all!
Love, Maribeth
Great Pictures for You All- They are worth a 1,000 words!
Dear Friends and Family,
Thank you for all your love and prayers! I really do feel them all the way over here in Malawi! Thank you for your financial support that is delivering on my dreams and others. We began our first of four Friday trainings for the community development workers at three local orphan care centers: Chifundo I, 2, and 3, right here in Ndirande. I can walk to each center. Chifundo means “Mercy” in Chichewa. At the end of the Montessori training on how to teach Practical Skills, these women said the most beautiful things to Tisu, Gladys, and I. With tears in her eyes one woman said she has been praying that someone would come and teach them how to teach the children and now God has answered her prayers. That made me cry! Their gratitude was so inspiring! The teacher to child ratio at these centers is approximately 40 or 50 to one and the social, academic and spiritual needs of these children are so great. The town of Ndirande is a town of great poverty and addiction. These women are doing the best they can for these needy children with very little supplies. Not only has God called us to train these teachers but to encourage them and express our acknowledgement for their work.
This is a Montessori Material Development Workshop. The teachers are going to make sandpaper letters and numbers, the tabletop number rods, spindle boxes, etc. With only $70.00 we had a carpenter make 770+ 5 x 5 blocks for the letters and 14 sets of the tabletop number rods. Thank you to all my Montessori Teacher Trainers that visited! I want you to know that Tisu and Gladys trained these teachers on Friday and it was beautiful to see them share about the Prepared Environment, the Montessori Materials and Montessori Teaching Philosophy. I was amazed at their knowledge and ability to demonstrate it!
Somebody have a garage sale and buy me some more wood, would you? (smile) May Jesus rock your world in the BIGGEST of ways this week. May He challenge you to love beyond your capacities. James 2:14-17 He said it, now go do it! Love, Maribeth