Flaming Waters

Foto Friday

Foto Friday

Free Puppies!!

Foto Friday

Ryan Bartlett the director of the Great Commission School (Free Methodist Bible School) in Lilongwe, Malawi took this picture.  You may want to visit his blog at teamwithafrica.org

Can I really do both?

Jokingly I told Curtis that it would be possible for him to be both when he grows up- a pastor and a clown.  I guess you really can do all things if you aim high enough!  Thanks Jason for the picture.

Foto Friday

Foto Friday

Happy Birthday Curtis!

Curtis is 5 years old today!  When he gets big he says he either wants to be a
pastor so he can preach about the cross or a clown to make people laugh.
Ryan told him that he could do both! 

Finding Water in Malawi

We have read statistics that say 45% of people in Malawi do not have access to clean and safe drinking water.  Since our arrival in February 2007, we have found the percentage to be inaccurate. As we travel to some of the remotest parts of Malawi we find that the percentage is likely higher. Through Free Methodist World Missions, the Clear Blue Project and Malawi Fresh Water Project we are brining safe and clean drinking water to the remote villages of Malawi. If you or your church would like to personally fund a well in Malawi then contact Clear Blue or Free Methodist World Missions for more information.

Last week I had the opportunity to travel to two sites where we will be drilling wells. The first step in well drilling is to survey the site and find water. The video says it all in how we find water in Malawi. Enjoy!

Children’s witchcraft tales rock Luchenza

For the last two weeks in the southern region of Malawi witchcraft has destroyed many lives.  Today I ask you to pray for the Free Methodist church in Luchenza.  The township of Luchenza is faced with a group of people wishing to recruit 100 children to kill their parents and then to live together as witches to perform witchcraft throughout the township of Luchenza and beyond.  Below is the article taken from The Daily Times on April 8th.

Ten children have stunned their parents and residents of Luchenza Township in Thyolo with revelations of how they have spent the past few months learning witchcraft.  And the parents are outraged.  They are demanding the immediate relocation of the suspected trainers comprising of a primary school teacher, a nurse and two housewives. 

The Daily Times visited Lolo Village in the township last Friday where nine of the children, three of them girls, told the story of their night expeditions on four winnowing baskets turned aircraft.  At the sign of some torch light or sound of a bell, the kids have been flying out of their beds through corners, windows, and some mysterious openings on the walls of their houses to four waiting aircrafts.  “We go on these trips naked, both us and the pilots (the trainers).  We sit on the edges of the aircraft, with just one bum.  The legs hang in space.  The pilot sits at the middle, so all of us are around her,” said an eight year old boy. 

The children, aged between five and eight, said they are 15 in number but they alleged their teachers have told them they would like to recruit as much as 100. The youngsters claimed they travel as far as Lilongwe.  They have also been to Mulanje, toured some graveyards and made stopovers on anthills where they dine or snack on vegetables, sweet potatoes and local pancakes (zitumbuwa) “We haven’t started eating meat yet”, said one boy who has just turned five and still at nursery school.

In their escapades, they are assigned errands such as carrying stones.  They are splashed with hot sand, slapped or kicked, sat or trampled upon and trained to shoot with bows and arrows.  The children said on return from their adventures, usually towards dawn, the planes do not land.  They just fly closer to each kid’s home and the passengers are thrown out.  “They have been telling us to kill our parents and we will be staying with them when our parents die.  But we have been refusing to act according to the instruction,” said another six year old. 

All this regardless, they have not been telling parents about anything.  Their trainers warned them they would be killed if they reported their experiences.  However, a seven year old boy could not keep a secret any longer.  He told his parents and mentioned friends’ with whom he had been going to the witchcraft school. 

The matter was referred to Village Headman Lolo last Monday.  The suspects, however, did not turn up when the headman summoned them to appear before him for their side of the story. His messengers were picked by the Luchenza Police when the men went to one of the suspect’s house to follow up on the chief’s summons.  Apparently, the suspect (name withheld), had called for police protection as an angry mob had besieged her house and broke its windows.

In an interview yesterday Lolo said he was disarmed to help solve the problem because the police told him he did not have any jurisdiction on the matter.  A concern parent, Mr. Chiwaya, whose two boys have been among the apprentices, said that both the kids and the parents appeared before the police early last week.
“They did not interview the kids.  And they told us that we had no mandate to take the suspects to task.  They say it is only the suspects employers who have such mandate,”

Luchenza Police station told The Daily Times on Sunday that the officer in charge was out of the office until yesterday when he would be able to respond to questions. 

The children reported that since the matter came out, they have not been picked for the expeditions.
“These people must go. We fear for our children.  We are already complaining about the increase of orphans in the country, and here we are.  It is not only HIV/Aids that is promoting the crisis of orphans in the country,” said Chiwaya. 

A call to one of the suspects went unanswered on Sunday and yesterday.Magistrate for Blantyre Child Justice Court Esmie Tembenu said an inter view on Sunday that teaching children witchcraft was unfair and abusive. She bemoaned lack of legislation against witchcraft in the country. 

Tembenu also said it was difficult for the justice system to settle complaints of children being taught witchcraft as whatever the children would say would need to be corroborated or it would not convince the system as the truth.The magistrate recommended the reintroduction of traditional courts.  She said such courts would be better placed to deal with the problem because “witchcraft is basically a traditional practice.” 

“But I feel sorry for our children.  I am very concerned that our children should be going through all this.  What type of Malawi are we creating for ourselves?  What type of future are we creating for our children?
Some of us are what we are today because somebody else looked after us properly.  We can’t really have our children go through this spiritual trafficking" she said.