Sharing a Meal and More!

It was a GLORIOUS day today!!!   The women's hut awoke to about 20 monkeys playing on the roof at 5:30am this morning!!!  They were crawling all over the deck and roof having a wonderful time and we enjoyed seeing them in their natural setting.  Pastor Jim brought his guitar and we had a time of worship with our team praising God as we overlooked beautiful Lake Malawi. We then headed over to the Orphan Village at Pothawira.  We could not have asked for a better day - 100 beautiful children welcomed us with songs and love, 50 of them singing to us as they returned from school in the back of Peter's pickup truck!  Peter led us on a comprehensive tour of the property, from the medical clinic to church and school, to the chilrens' homes and the dining hall - how great to see what God has been up to over the past year!  It was a great blessing for many of our team to see this vibrant village for the first time today.  The Mizzou for Malawi team got to see first hand the fruit of their labor as the toured the school. 

After our tour, we had the great blessing of sharing lunch with the children.  Debi Wolfe humbly served us all and we sat on mats in and amongst the children in the dining hall.  We had a delicious meal of beans and rice. Prior to sharing our meal together, the kids were so excited to see us, but were a little reticent to come and interact with us.  As Pastor Jim so eloquently put it in his sermon last Sunday, there is something about sharing a meal together that makes people open to the demonstration of the Gospel.  We saw with our eyes today the application of this as the children immediately warmed to us.  We started singing songs with them and then went outside to play all day long! 

We also ceremonially presented the blankets that our Colonial Children's program made and donated to the orphan village.  It was our GREAT pleasure to hand a personal blanket to each child, write their names on them as one of their first possessions, and see their smiles as they cuddled up with their new blankets.

We are now sorting shoes and getting ready for our big program tomorrow...once again demonstrating our love for "the least of these."