Day Five: Visiting Orphans at FOMCO

This morning we visited Friends of Mzuzu Community Organization (FOMCO) to help feed 160 Vulnerable and Orphaned Children (VOC). This is one of the many social institutions supported by CitiHope International which provides nutritious meals to over 10,000 children a day. It was a shocking, disturbing, moving, and at the same time an inspirational and joyful experience to witness how Malawians care for their orphans. Instead of institutional orphanages, they organize and support extended families and guardians who bring the children in their care daily to a Care Center and Feeding Station that provides food, education and recreation through community volunteers.

Last time we were here there was a rain storm, and we collected enough funds to repair the leaking roof of one of the rooms used for feeding the kids. This year we brought the kids two soccer balls and pumps, school supplies, and promised to make another donation to the long awaited classroom still under construction.

During the afternoon we hiked a long ways to visit a 21 year old girl and her younger sister whose parents both had died. They had been living in a small mud brick house until last February when a week long rain storm blew the house down (walls caved in and the roof blew off). Their pastor invited us to assess the damage and see if this was a construction project we might consider sponsoring.

Later this afternoon we went shopping for camping supplies: blankets, mosquito nets, and food provisions for our 2 day trip to remote villages. Tomorrow we will travel 3 hours to the Ethini Village where we plan to install a new well for 1000 villagers, and then stay overnight in the Village of Zowe where we installed a well for 1500 villagers in 2007.

Liberation Spirituality: Henri Nouwen and Gustavo Gutierrez in Dialogue

Liberation Spirituality: Henri Nouwen and Gustavo Gutierrez in Dialogue Lecture Notes: Presented by Michael J. Christensen, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Practice of Spirituality and Ministry, Drew University; and International Director, Communities of Shalom, The United Methodist Church Introduction “There is a little man in Peru, a man without any power, who lives in a barrio with poor people and who wrote a book. In this book he simply reclaimed the basic Christian truth that God became human to bring good news to the poor, new light to the blind, and liberty to the captives. Then years later this book and movement it started is considered a danger by [the USA, or Rome], the greatest power on earth. When I look at this little man, Gustavo, and think about [the President of the US, or the Pope], I see David standing before Goliath, again with no more weapon than a little stone, a stone called A The...

First Generation Lambs Club Reunion

Fifteen of us gathered Saturday night at the Lambs Club for a 35 th year reunion of those who helped start the Lamb’s Church in Times Square in the mid to late 1970’s, including: Rev. Paul S. Moore , Founder of the Lamb’s Church of the Nazarene, and his wife, Tamara Dr. Michael J. Christensen , charter member and former associate pastor, and his wife Dr. Rebecca Laird Fr. William (BJ) Webe r, former Associate Pastor and Director of the Lamb’s Residency, and his wife Sheila who lived at the Lamb’s Jim and Dustee Hullinger, who were on staff together and made the Lamb’s their home for over 25 years Effie Canepa , who was the church pianist under 3 pastors, and her husband Peter Shirley Close, who attended the Lamb’s in the late 1970’s while studying, performing and teaching music and voice Carl "Chappy" Valente , former associate pastor Rev. Bob DiQuatto , lead singer of the Church’s “Manhattan Project” and staff member of the Lamb’s, and his son Jason Rev. Gab...

Not Afraid of Death by Julia Esquivel

In reading your blog, Michael, I immediately think of these two poems is poem by Julia Esquivel, from Guatemala, whom I had the pleasure of meeting years ago. Un abrazo, Ada Maria I AM NOT AFRAID OF DEATH I am no longer afraid of death I know well Its dark and cold corridors Leading to life. I am afraid rather of that life Which does not come out of death, Which cramps our hands And slows our march. I am afraid of my fear And even more of the fear of others, Who do not know where they are going, Who continue clinging To what they think is life Which we know to be death! I live each day to kill death; I die each day to give birth to life, And in this death of death, I die a thousand times And am reborn another thousand Through that love From my People Which nourishes hope! THREATEN WITH RESURRECTION They have threatened us with Resurrection There is something here within us which doesn’t let us sleep, which doesn’t let us rest, which doesn’t stop the pounding deep inside. It is t...

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