End of July

Well another month has past and i guess it is about time to update my blog.

Sorry i havent done this for a long time. Things here are going great although as some of you may have heard i also got my wallet stolen from me this month so that was a big downer. All the big mission teams that come from NA have all come and gone and all of us here have made and now are missing our friends that came for to short a time. There are now only 6 of us mzungus (white people) here at House of Moses so it is pretty quiet compared to a month ago when there were up to 21 people. This past month i have been working a lot in the office with some of the staff and have especially been working with our new sponsorship liasion officer. I have been with her a couple of times to the Helen de Vos Christian School collecting photos and stories to send to the children's sponsors. Remeber it is only $200 a year to sponsor. Sorry if it feels like i am pushing this but if you were me and you could see what a difference being at the Helen de Vos school is compared to the child being out in the street begging for food or having to stay home and care for their siblings you also would regard it as a very little contribution. I would love to be able to tell the children at the school that my family and friends are sponsoring them so that i could bring their photo home with me and maybe even print a photo of you for them to have. I have had a couple of special conversations with my sponsor this year. I bought her a bible and a couple of school supplies and she introduced me to all of her friends and was excited to hear about my family back home.

At the House of Moses we have had a hard month as we have had a lot of trouble with the Measles. Having to put the house in lockdown was a very difficult decision for everyone. Not allowing visitors is one thing but not allowing any new admissions was just heart breaking. I dont even want to begin to think about what happened to those babies that were supposed to be admitted to House of Moses.

The following is a disturbing story and some of you may want to skip this next paragraph.

Yesterday at about 19 hours a vehicle arrived at house of moses. There were 5 people in the vehicle. 3 from the social welfare department, 1 baby and 1 grandmother. They had come from the eastern province of Zambia. The baby was 3 days old and had already gone through so much. Shortly after birth the mother who no longer wanted the child wrapped him in a blanket and threw him into the local community pit latrine. Afraid that her neighbours would hear the babies cry she grabbed a long stick and tryed to drown the baby in the latrine. We are so very thankful that the babies grandmother saw what was happening and yelled for some help and quickly the baby was retrieved. After being in hospital for 1 day he was brought here to House of Moses. He is doing very fine after even just one day and other then having a bit of scarring on his face he is very healthy. We prayed with the grandmother that her daughter who was now in prison would be saved from the evil spirit that had engulfed her. Please pray for the child and the family involved.

Well i hope everyone at home is okay. Sorry to leave you with a heartwrenching story but i thought it would be good for some of you back home to realize the situation we are facing on a daily basis. I again say thank you for all your prayers and support and again i am sorry that i have not been blogging regularly.

Banda