John Is in Malawi

(photo: John and Snoden with the teachers and students in the new fifth grade classroom)

We’re about one month away from meeting our first grandchild! (Notice how I said “first” because we’re going to expect more?) Also, our project to raise money for travel to Malawi on DonorSee recently funded. When I posted that project it was a request for two plane tickets, and John and I planned to go together. But when I posted that, two things were different than they are now. (1) Lauren was not pregnant, or she wasn’t very pregnant, or we didn’t know she was pregnant. Whatever the case (I can’t remember) it wasn’t going to be a problem for us to leave her. (2) Plane tickets were about half the cost they are right now. Yes, half. I know inflation is blamed for all kinds of stuff, but it is really hurting us in so many ways. So, after all of your generous donations to get us to Malawi, we could only afford one ticket, BUT we could only use one ticket, so it worked out just fine. John is there right now and I’m here with Andy and Lauren and Ben in case Baby Kora decides to come early.

John’s only there for a couple of weeks, and there’s so much work to be done. We talk every day and he sends me pictures and videos. I hope you follow us on social media so you can keep up with what’s happening during his visit. In case you’re not seeing it, I’ll fill you in here.

As we kick off a new school year, in which our original preschool students from 2017 are now in the fifth grade, we’re super excited to have just completed construction on the newest building on the HUGS campus! Thanks to some very generous donations, we finished it just in time to promote all of our students into the next grade. As we advance each class to the next level, we’re honored to welcome twenty-one new preschool students. John is meeting all of those kids this week.

Our 180 students don’t just come to school at the campus. They also eat breakfast and lunch with the staff and learn about Jesus, all in both English and their native Chichewa. These kids are being given opportunities that are changing the course of their own lives and those of their posterity. By the time these fifth graders get to high school, we hope to start mapping out a HUGS college and vocational school. We like to keep the vision before you so you can join us in not only prayer for the details but also the satisfaction we feel as the stages of the plan materialize.

Speaking of the plan, it has always included, among other things, a chapel. Thanks again to a very generous friend and donor, that has been funded. One of the things John and Snoden are working on right now is where and how to build that. We have decided that the best idea is to incorporate the chapel into a pavilion that will be central to the campus and will also serve as a general meeting place for all of our corporate activities. This decision came with much prayer, conversation, and counsel. We feel it’s important to raise the kids up to associate God with and honor Him through absolutely every aspect of their lives. Have you ever heard someone who professes to be Christian act in a worldly way and say, “It’s just business.” Well, we’re hoping that never happens with our graduates.

In case you have a few minutes for a blast to the past and would like to be reminded of our original plan for the ministry in Malawi, follow the youtube link “MalawiVideo” to see the very rudimentary seven-and-a-half minute video we published after our first visit to Africa in 2017. We’re in awe at how much of it has already come to fruition, and we fully trust and expect that it will all materialize in God’t timing. As always, thank you for being an instrumental part of the HUGS for Tomorrow ministry. We’re forever grateful for your generosity. May God richly bless you.