Planting Malawi September 2010 newsletter

We're back in Canada! home from Malawi, but still feeling kind of lost. But since we're no longer in Malawi, we thought we should update you all on where we're at. In our newsletter we've written about:

1. reflecting back on our time in Malawi
2. the journey back: going home
3. the way forward: home assignment

We want to take this opportunity to say THANK YOU for supporting us during our time in Malawi, whether it was by prayer or finances or moral support. Thank you for being there for us.

Now, as you can tell from our newsletter, we're back but we're not done yet. We are hoping to go back one day and in the meantime we do have a home assignment with the mission that we need your support for. Please don't forget about us now that we're home. Give us a call or send us an email -- we've got access to technology now!

Planting Malawi September 2010 newsletter[download a PDF version]

where in the world are the VanWoerdens?

Where in the world are the VanWoerdens? We left Malawi on July 17 but we won't be arriving home until August 23. We spent 2 weeks in Holland visiting Andre's family and doing some sightseeing. Then we stopped in Toronto for debriefing at the EI head office and checkups for the whole family at the Missionary Health Institute (poking us full of holes and making our kids scream was not exactly a great "welcome back to Canada" or "happy birthday" (it was Andre's birthday) but we survived that too. Then we loaded all our luggage back on another airplane and headed to northern BC to visit Alex's family and do some camping. We only have to check in all our luggage one more time, take one more plane, and collect our luggage again one more time before we're finally home!

Happy Canada Day!

Planting Malawi June 2010 newsletter

I know we haven't sent out an update or newsletter for a while. We apologize for the gap, but there is actually a reason for it -- time is running out, we don't know what's happening, and going home is scary. But, we're starting to face up to the fact, and thought we should let you know. So here is our June newsletter, with more about our going home, a cool transformation story we got to be part of, and a story about the difference a bicycle ambulance is making in a village that has been frustrated with the challenges of poverty, HIV/AIDS, poor access to health care, etc. It's all in there.

So we're leaving here July 17, spending some time in Holland, and then in northern BC, before finally reaching home August 23, God willing (I just got a notice about a canceled flight we need to rebook somehow...). So we look forward to seeing some of you again soon. Please let us know if you want to set a date to see us.

NOTE: For some reason you might see some missing graphics if you're viewing the embedded version on our blog. Download the PDF version to get the full graphics.

Planting Malawi June 2010 newsletter

International Day of the African Child

This little boy sat on my lap for almost an hour yesterday. We were out in a village to give the community a bicycle ambulance. The other kids were kind of picking on him because he said something silly to the "azungu." We were told he had malaria too many times and it has affected his brain. But he adopted me for the next hour, proudly sitting on my lap. I was sitting on a chair with the village chiefs while everyone else was seated on the ground facing us so I think he was feeling pretty special. I took his photo and showed him. Then we took some photos of the other kids together and he figured out all the buttons on the camera. He also took off my hat and wore it for a while. He was a cute little kid. He wasn't too happy when I had to leave, I think I had kind of made his day. And he had been my gift for the day. I found out after we left that it was African Child Day -- kind of appropriate.

Yesterday, June 16, was the International Day of the African Child. "It is [also] a day to fight for the cause of children in trouble: the AIDS orphans, child soldiers and impoverished youth who will inherit the continent."

Planting Malawi April 2010 newsletter

We missed writing our newsletter last month (March, that is) and we're kind of late for April, but finally there's an update from us here in Malawi. We've finally written the story of Alex breaking her leg, which made for a hectic March. We had visitors coming in April, the mother-daughter team, and Alex was planning to drive them around, spend some quality girl time at the game park with them, etc., but those plans didn't work out because she wasn't able to drive with her broken leg. But everything has worked out and we really enjoyed our friends' visit. I hope you've been able to follow their blog.

Now it's getting cold again, time for sleeping with blankets. We're also getting ready to leave in July and still trying to figure out what's next for us. Anyway, hope you enjoy our newsletter. Thanks for following what's happening here in Malawi.

Planting Malawi March-April 2010 newsletter

orphan care pictures

We've been quiet for quite some time, seem to have fallen off the radar with our last blog a month and a half ago. Sorry. Maybe no one is following our blog at all anymore these days because there hasn't been anything new (but statcounter tells me otherwise, there's still quite a bit of traffic), but it's time for a little update and some pictures at least.

So what's new? Well, first off, if you have not heard yet, Alex broke her ankle/leg just a couple of days after our last post. Pretty badly too. Needed surgery, acquired some steel hardware, in a cast and on crutches for six weeks, not to mention having to set her leg on the spot in the back of a car. We'll write more about that in our next newsletter. So other that fiasco, we've been keeping busy with various projects. For the last two weeks, we've had our friends from our home church visiting with us (see post below). We've been doing ministry at several orphan care centers with them, which has been a tremendous blessing to the children and their communities, as well as for Darlene and Sydney. You can read more about their time here on their blog though, so you get their experiences first hand.

Here are a bunch of pictures (83 of them) of their ministry with the orphans and other vulnerable children.

Hopefully we'll get a newsletter with more substance out one of these days soon so you can read about the other excitement we've been part of here...

mother-daughter team to Malawi

In April, some good friends of ours from our home church are planning to come to Malawi to do some ministry with orphans. They will be working with Grace Orphan Care, Ana ndi Athu, and Maula Orphan Care centers (photo album), all of which we've mentioned in our newsletter or blog. To learn more about what they are doing or to help them with their fundraising and collection of items for the orphans here, please read their mission letter or visit their blog, Darlene and Sydney in Malawi.

Planting Malawi February 2010 newsletter

Planting Malawi February 2010 newsletter

orphan care support

Hazelbank Presbyterian Church in Coleraine, Ireland, is supporting two community based orphan care centres, which is a really great project that I think is pretty cool. Here are some pictures from this week of the kids there (44 photos).

drought

In our newsletter we wrote about "who's keeping the rains?" Well, we've had a few rainfalls since then but also another 2 week dry spell, which at the cobbing stage of maize is really not a good thing. In some places the rains arrived at just the right time that even though the maize is only 3-4ft tall, it produced some decent size cobs. But in other places the maize is just small and dry. I visited Chingale on Monday, which is an area that's in the rainshadow of Zomba Mountain and suffers from chronic food shortages and food distributions every year. We found some pretty pathetic looking maize gardens in some areas there that definitely won't be producing much maize. But you really don't need to go far. Here in Zomba we've had more rain than in some areas just outside the city. You only have to drive 10 minutes to see fields of shriveled up maize 3 feet tall -- it's really depressing, and alarming too because people are surviving the hunger gap right now and counting on a harvest in March that won't be there. I hear the central and northern regions have been getting enough rain so hopefully the country will produce a surplus in those parts to feed the south. Please pray for rains so that some of the maize can still produce something. (13 photos)

Planting Malawi January 2010 newsletter

Planting Malawi newsletter January 2010

January photo album

A random collection of photos from the last month (112 photos).

go to web album