August 2009
Planting Malawi
EMMANUEL
INTERNATIONAL MALAWI
INTERNATIONAL MALAWI
PRAYER & PRAISE:
• Praise for a year of ministry
in Malawi. God has gener-
ously provided for us in
health and finances. We are
thankful for our strong team
of faithful supporters.
• Andre’s parents are visiting us
so we’re looking forward to
our time together (29/08-
16/09). Praise for Dad’s
amazing recovery.
• It’s the month of Ramadan.
We work in primarily Muslim
areas and we also have a
guard who is Muslim. Pray for
effective witness for Christ.
• The girls go back to school in
September.
People in Malawi are very
dependent on maize and nsima
as a staple food. Food
utilization training (above) is
about using alternative foods
and improving nutrition. Photo
album online (53 photos).
an update from the VanWoerdens in Malawi
A Year in Malawi [looking back on our experience]
It’s hard to believe that we’ve
been in Malawi for a year but
we first touched down on Ma-
lawian soil a year ago on
August 20. We still remember
vividly coming in for our land-
ing that day and having that
sinking feeling, wondering,
What have we gotten our-
selves into?! Now looking
back, we’ve experienced a lot
of things here in Malawi, most
of which we couldn’t have
even imagined. From stories of
poverty to the sound of laugh-
ter and dancing and singing
to enjoying the best of Mala-
wian cuisine in a rural village,
life in Malawi is difficult to
Felista’s New Wheels [a transformation story]
Last year when we were fix-
ing the dike at Namasalima, I
saw a young girl in the village
walking on her knees because
her feet were deformed. I
didn’t see her again until we
were renovating the school in
the same area last April. She
had a red wheelchair that sat
out sid e her c lass room
(classroom: brick building de-
void of desks or teaching ma-
terials except a blackboard).
Everyone else sits on the floor
so she does too. Besides, with
about 350 students in her
class there wouldn’t be room
for her wheelchair anyway.
Isaiah 61.3
imagine, really. We’ve been ambulances, food processing,
part of irrigation projects and and village savings and loans.
planting drought tolerant Emmanuel International is do-
crops; we’ve mobilized vil- ing a lot of great work here
lages to repair a dike and and we’re privileged to be a
prevent flooding, we’ve wel- part of Jesus’ mission of trans-
comed international teams to forming lives.
give a rural school a make-
over; we have built shallow [see A Year, p. 2]
wells to supply safe
drinking water and “Suppose you see a brother or sister
handed out mosquito
nets to provide pro-
who needs food or clothing, and
tection against ma- you say, “Well, good-bye and God
laria, and a host of bless you; stay warm and eat
other activities, like well”—but then you don’t give that
food distributions,
person any food or clothing. What
tree planting, bee-
keeping, bicycle good does that do?” James 2.15-16
We discovered that the front younger siblings. Around home
wheels of her wheelchair were she walks on her knees but to
broken so the chair had to be go anywhere she’s not only
tipped back on its back dependent on her wheelchair,
wheels so she could be pushed but also someone pushing her.
to and from school by a
friend, 3km on a rough dirt
road. I guess a wheelchair [see Felista, p. 2]
can’t be ex-
pected to last Felista’s old wheelchair
very long when at her family home
it’s only used
“off-road,” in
dirt and mud all
the time. Her
name is Felista.
She is 13 years
old and has 3
 P L ANT IN G M AL AWI August 2009
Felista’s Tricycle
But thanks to a generous friend from Rotary
Canada who has remembered Felista, she
now has a new set of wheels. Earlier this
month I took a health care professional
from Malawi Against Polio to assess and
measure her for a new tricycle, which we
gave her one week later. With a big grin
on her face, Felista peddled around her
village. She sent kids scattering everywhere
as she focused on mastering the technique
and not really watching where she was
going. I’m sure that next time I go back to
Namasalima, I’ll meet her on the road
somewhere, off to visit some friends, enjoy-
ing her independence. She will even be
A Year in Malawi
Life for us here has also been, shall we
say, an interesting experience. Admittedly,
Zomba is probably the nicest place to live
in Malawi, but we have learned to live with
a lot less stuff. The city has progressed
beyond mere survival but we’re a long
way from a culture of convenience. Electri-
Thank you for your prayers and support through the past year!!
Andre & Alexandra VanWoerden [Lara, Talia, Ezera]
Private Bag 12 Zomba Malawi
265.888.169.380 (Andre) or 265.888.169.382 (Alex)
alexandre.vanwoerden@gmail.com
vw-mw.blogspot.com
able to help out with the
family chores, fetching wa-
ter at the well or taking
maize to the mill for dinner.
Felista’s life has been trans-
formed. And even though I
only played a small part, I
was blessed to be part of
witnessing her story.
Felista’s tricycle
cal outages often leave us in the dark, the
bakery doesn’t always have bread, and
you can’t count on getting money out of
the bank machine. We do have vendors
selling wooden carvings at our door, but
there are only so many carvings you can
buy, especially when they’re
all the same. Eager vendors
quickly become more of an
inconvenience when they
insist you need more carv-
ings and “looking is free.”
But inconveniences aside, we
still have so much more than
most people around us. Our
white skin attracts straw-
berry vendors and beggars
wherever we go. We’re
asked for money several
times a day and children
call out, “Give me my
money.” But you can only
help so many people. Before
we came to Malawi, we
were told this would probably be the
hardest part – surrounded by poverty, or
rather poverty-stricken people, and not
being able to assist them all. “Suppose
you see a brother or sister who needs
food or clothing,” Jesus’ brother said,
“and you say, “Well, good-bye and God
bless you; stay warm and eat well”—but
then you don’t give that person any food
or clothing. What good does that do?”
(James 2.15-16). Sometimes it feels like
we’re being targeted for a daily test of
our faith. We wish we could do more
because the need is so great. But we do
what little we can to be Jesus’ hands and
feet. And the best place to minister is at
home with the people that work for us
and we have the opportunity to build
relationships with. The need here is great,
but Jesus compared the Kingdom of God
with a little yeast, a mustard seed, and a
cup of cold water. So we do what we can
with the resources and opportunities God
gives us.
Emmanuel International Canada
PO Box 4050 Stouffville ON L4A 8B6
905.640.2111 info@eicanada.org
www.eicanada.org