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by Tom Logan
We need your prayers.
| We have three major goals this year. The construction of an Administration /
Library Building for the Embangweni Full Primary School, the rehabilitation of 10 teacher
houses and the building of 300 shallow wells, providing 90,000 to 100,000 people with safe
drinking water, before the rains come in November. Our plan is to build and install 300 shallow wells in 300 remote African villages within the 6 weeks our two teams will be in Malawi. Impossible, but we will do the best we can where we are with what we have and pray that God blesses our effort. The mission teams and the three pick-up trucks will be working hard everyday. |
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Each truck will need to get workers, cement, equipment and supplies to 100
remote village well sites. Two of our pick-up trucks are new (one the result of insurance
proceeds from the tragic accident last year, and one a wonderful gift from the
Presbyterian Church, Liberty Corner, New Jersey, and First Presbyterian Church, Paris,
Tennessee). Our third and oldest truck we pray will make it through this year’s
program. We plan on replacing it sometime in 2002 at a cost of around $28,000. As of July 14, 2001, we still have 77 shallow wells that have not been funded. Each well costs $300 — meaning an additional $23,100 is needed for this year’s program. |
Last year on October 24, with 3 weeks left to install shallow wells, Marion Medical Mission had received designated money for only 250 of the 300 wells we were busy installing. We went ahead with the installations. After the accident on October 24th, where Tom Logan was injured, we received donations for 149 wells. Enough money to fund not only the 50 wells from last year, but also 87 wells for this year’s mission.
The accident, as Jocelyn Logan pointed out, turned into a fundraising bonanza.
The problem this year is that Tom Logan is not willing to be in another accident and no
one has volunteered to take over that role. Therefore, we ask your help in funding this
year’s wells before we head for Malawi on September 27th.
| ... we ask your help in funding this year's wells before we head for Malawi on September 27 |  |
Some people have asked if going to Malawi is dangerous. I
guess some would say so. But what isn’t? As Tony Campolo has said, what’s the
point of “Tiptoeing through life so we can arrive at death safely”? What a waste
of time that would be! We can make a difference. We can make our lives count. Not only
does mission service impact others (safe drinking water, schools, churches, hospitals) it
impacts us!!!!! It makes a difference in us!!!
This is another dimension to mission service. It’s an offshoot benefit. When you see
the mission team volunteers and the people they are working with, their faces are aglow.
The joy of serving Christ is just bursting through. It can’t be contained. It’s
the sharing and the receiving of Christ’s love. It’s Christ’s joy and love
showing through His people. It’s the kind ofjoy that makes life worth living.
Matthew 22:37-40. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with
all your soul, and with all your mind This is the first and greatest commandment, and the
second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself. (Loving your neighbor is like
loving God). All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments.
Love your neighbor as yourself Not me first. Not me-ism. Not what can I get.
But how can we work together? How can I show my love for my neighbor? We are a part of
each other; we are a part of God’s creation. We are one with Him.
Together as Christians we have made a difference. Together we have reached out to our
neighbors in need. Together we dug the ditch. Together we brought the sand. Together we
laid the pipe. Together we installed the taps. Together we built the wells and the
schools!!! As part of the body of Christ we participated.
Know you are important. Know you are needed.
Know that we show our love for God by how we treat our neighbor —
how we love His creation. We-ism. Not me-ism. We owe God our best efforts.
There is real power when we follow Christ and therein lies true joy. A
joy that can't be stopped. A Joy that changes things in us as well as others.
How great our God is!!! How wonderful He is! It’s We-ism!!!! Not
me-ism!!! Love your neighbor as your self
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| Incredibly, Mr.Godwin Jere, elder at the Embangweni Presbyterian Church and
headmaster of the Embangweni Loudon Full Primaiy School sat across the desk from me. I had
heard much about him in faraway Malawi and here he was! He had stopped to visit Marion
Medical Mission as part of his United States tour sponsored by the Presbyterian Church at
Leesburg, Virginia. I had interrupted his correspondence on a computer at Shawnee Enterprises (the office where MMM is housed), but he greeted me warmly and was willing to be interviewed for the MMM newsletter. I felt a little under-dressed in my jeans and tee shirt. Like most Malawians Mr. Jere is very formal, and he was wearmg a suit tie and crisply ironed white shirt. |
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Before becoming headmaster, Mr. Jere served as teacher and deputy headmaster.
He is from the Mabilabo area, near Embangwem. He went to primary school in Kavinkhama
secondary school in Mzimba and then to the teacher training college in Lilongwe. He said
he was “born a teacher” and could not imagine doing anything else. He especially
enjoys primary school (grades 1-8), where he wants to upgrade administration and teachin
skills to better prepare the students for secondary school.
The school teaches “general paper” (history,geography and civics) English and
Chichewa (the national language), ma ematics and integrated science (physical and earth
science and agriculture). These are examinable” subjects—the ones in which
students must show competence before they can continue on to secondary school.
Examinations for secondary school are given in the eighth grade.
The school also offers physical education, music, arts and crafts, home economics,
needlecraft and carpentry. Government policy dictates that both home economics and
carpentry be open to boys and girls. There are about 1600 students and twenty-four
teachers, including Mr. Jere. The class sizes are huge by American
standards. The Malawian government policy is no more than students per
teacher, but only the second grade has attained that goal. The other classes have as many
as 100 students!
The children walk to school, some for four miles. Discipline problems? “Kids are
kids” said Mr. Jere. Teachers cope with challenging students to do work outside the
classroom and to control behavior during class time. The government forbids corporal
punishment, so teachers sometimes use “drastic measures” such as requiring older
students to dig trash pits and do other physical work.
Mr. Jere commented on his visits to American classrooms in Leesburg, Virginia, and Quincy,
Illlmois. He appreciated the American method of identifying children with reading
difficulties and then implementing a variety of strategies to assist the students.
The Embangweni school has many needs. He noted the lack of supplementary reading materials
and supplies such as pencils. Because there are not enough outhouses (toilets) there is
much sickness due to lack of proper sanitation. The people can make the bricks for the
buildings but need money to hire skilled labor for the construction. They would enjoy
electricity at the school, but he said, “They can live without it."
He praised the beautifully renovated classrooms Marion Medical Mission donors made
possible. He said the reaction by the students was quite remarkable, inspiring them to
take more pride in their school and their studies. The renovation has also been an
incentive for more children to want to attend Embangweni Loudon Full Primary School.
Near the end of the interview Mr. Jere said his visit to the United States had been
“like stepping on the red carpet used only by the President.” He was honored, he
said to have “stepped here on the land which is the source of lives ot the people of
northern Malawi.”
My pen stopped. “The source of the lives of the people?” I asked.
“Yes” he told me, everyone is talking about Marion Medical Mission—even
very small children know what Marion Medical Mission is. They may forget other things in
Malawi, but Marion Medical Mission. The people make up songs and dances about Marion
Medical Mission.
Because of Marion Medical Mission there is “a great, great improvement for the
better.” Before the shallow well program, there were many deaths, especially for
children under five, caused by their unsafe water.
“We used to draw water from the river or from uncovered wells also used by dogs,
goats and other animals. We did not know the loss of life of the children was from the
water.
“Now the number of children dying has gone down. Everyone is talking about Marion
Medical Mission,” he said.
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The following are excerpts from recent letters from our brothers and sisters in
Christ in Malawi.
From Rev. Kingsley Nyirenda, Past Moderator of the Synod of Livingstonia.
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Greetings in the powerful name of our Lord Jesus Christ. His name is always great, the love of God is always a surprise and unconditional. God’s ways no man can know. When we receive news from you and about you, we see God at work. He loves you and he loves us. Each time I go home, each time I go to my village, I see what I regarded at one time as an impossible exercise. We have clean water to drink, surprisingly we have had the heaviest of rain for many years and none of the wells did collapse. Cholera, diarrhea, dysentery were orders of the day—now they are no more. We praise God for this. I
believe God shall still use you and Marion Medical Mission for many years ahead. God bless
you and your work. I am quite aware God has blessed not only us but many others in many
other projects you have undertaken. |
From Mr. Eddie Loyisyayo Jere,
Headmaster of Chizimya Full Primary School:
| Greetings in the name of our Lord. We express our greatest thanks for yet another bnew three roomed school block. This gives Chizimya a total of eight decent classrooms built by Marion Medical Mission and a three roomed administration block. Plans are underway to construct another teacher’s house. Bricks have been manufactured and are just about to be burnt. To this the Chizimya community and everyone else is thankful indeed to the Marion Medical Mission and all friends there. We are also thankful for the school equipment you provide us from time to time. Such equipment includes carpentry and tailoring equipment and other supplies for Chizimya. These we are sure will promote the effective teaching and learning for the pupils of Chizimya... |
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Lastly we ask God to be with you all the time. We kindly ask you to tell all
friends of Marion Medical Mission that we remember them in our prayers, thoughts and in
all our daily undertakings.
May God bless you all.
Eddie Loyisyayo Jere
Headmaster
From the Embangweni School for the Hard of Hearing,
Acting Headmaster, Mr. C.K Mondwe writes:
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Greetings from me personally and the entire community for the hearing impaired
children in the Name of our Risen Lord—Jesus Christ. Let me again inform you that the school is steadily growing. We have reached standard four. I have every hope that you will be amazed to see how the children have grown up. Hearing impaired children like Brandina, Chifuniro, Cynthia, Komani, Simon have really grown up. Five (additional) specialist teachers have been posted to the school this academic year, an indication of the rapid growth of our beloved school. |
Hostel 2 is about to be completed. It will be occupied by the hearing impaired
boys in a few weeks time from now! We are so thankful and proud of this newly built
hostel. It will indeed alleviate accommodation problems for our deaf pupils, more
especially the fact that our boys will have their own hostel.
May God bless you, your church and not forgetting Jim and Carol Nussbaumer in particular.
Looking forward to seeing you and Mama Jocelyn. I wish you good personal health.
Yours,
C.K. Mondwe
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