May Newsletter - Trip Report

Dear Friends,

We have a very special May newsletter for you. The team who went to Malawi last month had an amazing time and we thought here at head office that you would like to hear and see what they got up to: The UK team members are safely back from an amazing time in Malawi. The trip was really inspiring and encouraging. We saw nearly all the projects and were so welcomed by the children and the Malawi team. A few of the highlights: Nurseries after school club: The visit to Glad Tidings Orphan Care with UK full time volunteer, Ali Beckett, to see the after school club in action for the nursery children and to see and take part in the nursery classes at Jonasi and Kundai. The children were learning well and really responsive to the games played.

The new Health Clinic: It was a landmark to be able to dig the first trench on the construction line for the clinic and to dedicate the land to God. The team prayed for the construction of it and for the use of the clinic for the community. They also dedicated the new Ambulance which was parked just by the building site. It was a moving time to know that God has enabled this project to begin and that it will serve 13,000 people when completed.

Blackboards 4 Classrooms: The team visited Napache School and met with the headteacher. After viewing the site we were shown the new blackboards that they had been given for their outside classes, enabled though our appeal last year. The head was very appreciative for the support of Starfish.

Pastors Resources Libraries: We met with a number of Pastors who use the libraries and were pleased to hear that they have been greatly helped by the access to Christian study books. They have not only been helped in their sermon preparations but also in their course studies to achieve their divinity degrees. Two have passed the exams with distinction, which they attribute to the help from the books.

Ngolowindo Michael Jackson Legacy Orchard: We were so pleased to see the growth and development of the orchard. The fruit trees and bushes had really grown and were bearing fruit. We were privileged to eat Passion fruit and Guava freshly picked that day.

Min y Don Team: In our second week we were joined by three of the team from Min y Don Christian Adventure Centre in Wales https://minydon.com. They were on a fact finding visit to assess how they can partner with Starfish to teach the nurseries, schools and children’s clubs about team games and sports to enable the children to learn skills of doing things together to achieve a goal. They brought with them some Kwik Cricket sets and taught the children and the teachers how to play cricket! This was totally new to them but they soon got the hang of it and some were really adept. We are hoping to raise funds to provide enough cricket sets for all the schools and children’s clubs. The Min y Don team also helped us to think about installing some low level activity equipment in the schools, which we hope to do in due course. If you would like to support us with this initiative please let us know.

"Enabling local tradesmen to do the work required was something that had a big impact on us. We also had a wonderful Easter Sunday for us, very different from what we’re used to. A great welcome was given to us and we introduced the world’s finest game to Salima, a real highlight for us. Looking forward to Malawi winning the World Cup in a few years!" - Pete Cook from Min Y Don.

There was so much to see this year on our trip and we can only share a few of the things as time prevents us from writing about all the other things, however, to touch briefly on a few of the other projects we saw:

We attended Chapsinja church where a dedication service was held on the 10th anniversary of the building of the church facilitated by Crowborough Men’s Group.
The Bible Explorer meeting with the trainers was encouraging with news that the programme will go into another 11 schools in 2019. They also have a letter from the education department giving them authority to go into all the schools in the Salima area.
We saw the progress at the Madalitso project and viewed to new buildings.
The Sponsored student’s day was amazing with 160 students attending.
We visited and prayed over the site for the new primary school at Moyo which will start to be built in partnership with Mission Direct in July 2019.
The Children’s clubs day at Kaputu School was a special time, with all the teachers and helpers taking part in games and sports. Kaputu is where Starfish first began the ministry in 2003.