Divine Appointment

God blessed me with David Nixon as my seatmate on my 18 hour flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg. Within the first five minutes of stowing our bags we learned of the reason the other was traveling to the continent and experienced the joy of knowing that God had orchestrated our meeting. David is pictured here preparing to baptize with one of the native pastors who works with the NOAH Project.

On the 18 hour flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg God placed me in a seat next to this man. David Nixon, by profession, a computer software programmer; By heart and by calling, a visionary and missionary. He has built and opened a school for orphans a few kilometers outside the Malawi capital city of Lilongwe. At the time I met him he was feeding a few dozen orphans a day and preparing to meet with the local chiefs and government officials about the school nearly ready to open. That has been about a year ago now. During a recent phone conversation he told me they are now feeding several hundred a day and educating many orphans and adults. They have also been able to provide clothing, vocational training and medical treatment for many during the last year. The work God is doing through David is inspiring.

For more about the ministry in Malawi go to http://www.thenoahproject.org/ . N.O.A.H. stands for Nlira-Wanga Orphan Aid Home. Nlira-Wange means “I am crying for my own” in Chichewa, one of the native languages of Malawi. David has been able to take his experience with the NOAH Project and share the methods and contacts with missionaries in Haiti and is seeing many hungry fed there.

My six day journey to my final destination included an overnight in Johannesburg, South Africa. David helped me to find a hotel room and gave me lots of advice for staying safe in a city that is known not to be so. He had arranged for a tour of some of the sites in Johannesburg for his own overnight in the city and was granted permission for me to tag along on the guided tour. We are pictured here in front of the Apartheid museum in Johannesburg. The museum tour was an emotional one. South Africa has racial problems on par with what the US had in the middle of the last century. They have come a long way but still have a mighty task ahead of them.

"If you have courage, you will influence people based on your convictions. If you lack courage, you will influence people based on your comfort zones. Courage will take you anywhere you believe God is leading you. Without courage, you will go where you are comfortable." Wayne Schmidt

Mama Evelyn

Mama Evelyn is the lovely young woman shown here.

She is ambitious, energetic, hard working, a wife and a mother. She runs the Grace Farm Shop where the farm workers can purchase soap, seed, peanut oil, lotion, batteries, etc. without having to walk into the village. She carries her son Benjamin everywhere she goes on her back in a getinge.
This is the traditional way that Malawian mothers transport their youngest child.
She asked if she could be my friend and touched my heart deeply. Her hospitality and acceptance of me as a strange white American woman challenges me to be hospitable and friendly to people in my community who are from other cultures and in need to someone to reach out to them the way she reached out to me.
I asked if she would teach me to do my laundry they way she does the laundry for her family. We went to the creek and I found out that elbow grease is the main ingredient and that the skin on my hands and wrists is soft and not suitable (at this time) for the hand washing of clothing. After scrubbing only one skirt in the manner that she showed me--rubbing it with a cake of pink soap and scrubbing it against my opposite inner wrist--my wrist was bright red and very sore. Mama Evelyn finished several items while I did only two. My clothing items were only dusty, not heavily soiled, so there was not a need to beat them on the rocks in the creek the way heavily soiled items are cleaned. We rinsed them in the creek and then walked back to the house to hang them on the line to dry. Now keep in mind that this creek is the water source for the nationals. They use if for watering their animals, drinking, cooking, washing their clothing, bathing, watering their gardens, etc. While my clothes were still wet they smelled of the pink cake of soap. Once dried they smelled a little questionable.
One afternoon I invited the ladies to come to Bronwyn's yard to paint finger nails. This had gone over well with the orphan girls the day before. Only Mama Evelyn and one other lady (one of the two house mothers) came that afternoon, but after seeing their nails another lady showed up unannounced that evening for her manicure and pedicure.