Renner Sep 2018

“In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well" (Romans 12:6 NIT).

Dear friends and family,

Our Headmaster, Lauralea Harriott, who has just passed her one year anniversary at Rafiki Malawi, has great ideas for extra projects and competitions to keep the school kids excited about school. Her latest endeavor was a portrait contest. Students were invited to draw any person from our Rafiki Village: student, staff or missionary. We have some very talented artists as you can see, and these were the finalists.

Third place went to Chawanangwa who drew his friend Jack.

Chawanangwa came to us in 2007, shortly before his fourth birthday. His mother had died soon after his birth while his father abandoned the family and later died. He had been taken in by an uncle who could not provide adequate nutrition or care. Currently age fourteen, he sometimes struggles with attitude and behavior but since coming to Rafiki has grown into a healthy and bright young man with great potential.

His “subject”, Jack lost both parents as a baby and was being cared for by his grandmother who was barely surviving on the meager amount of food she was able to grow herself. In 2008 at age three Social Welfare placed him here with us and he settled in well. He is quite a naturalist and loves learning everything he can about animals. One day he was found to be carrying a live bird in his pocket! Currently age thirteen, he is also a proficient reader who has completely exhausted our available library resources.

Second place in the portrait contest went to Takula, who drew his cottage brother Innocent N.

Takula’s mother died before his first birthday and his father died when he was three. He had been cared for by an aunt who lived in a temporary shelter with a minimal and undependable income, until being placed with us in 2008 when he was four years old. His interest and ability in art was evident even at an early age. Now age fourteen, he loves drawing some of our local birds, especially the falcons. His patience and attention to detail when drawing each tiny feather is remarkable. He once gave us a book he had made, filled with various bird drawings and scientific information about each one.

His subject for the competition was his cottage brother Innocent N. (we have to put the surname initial after his name because there are two more Innocents in their cottage!). Innocent N. came to Rafiki a few months before his third birthday along with his older sister Anna. They were both in very poor health due to severe malnutrition, but quickly improved. He just celebrated his thirteenth birthday and has grown into a quiet, thoughtful boy with a great smile and sweet spirit.

The first place winner was Christopher, who chose Uncle Larry as his subject.

Christopher, age seventeen, is one of our oldest residents. He came to Rafiki at age four, six months after his younger sister Ruthie was brought here. Both of their parents had died and they were being cared for by a grandmother with thirteen other people living in the same small house. The family frequently went without food and the children were initially quite malnourished. Chris is very creative and has many talents. In addition to his artistic abilities he also enjoys writing poetry and songs!

His subject, Uncle Larry, needs no introduction. He wears many hats in this Village using skills acquired over a lifetime of what we viewed as just normal day-to-day experiences. Now starting our fifth year at Rafiki Malawi, we are constantly amazed at how God uses these experiences and skills. We are trying to give these children similar experiences and opportunities to develop skills that will assist them in their lives outside of Rafiki, as we have reported in previous newsletters.

As you can see from these drawings, many of our children have natural abilities which just need to be honed and cultivated. We also have children with beautiful voices who love to sing. We try to encourage the recognition and development of these God-given gifts in our children, so they can be used for His glory.

We currently do not have a music or art teacher for the primary or secondary schools. It is not easy to find local teachers with this training, since they are not considered to be essential subjects, they are in our classical Christian school. Most government schools have very little paper for students to use even on core subjects, and pens and pencils are like gold. Most government students have never used a crayon or marker!

We would love to have someone out there who loves music and art consider coming to Malawi to work in our school helping these children further develop their skills and abilities. We recently had a short term missionary who is a world renowned taxidermist and naturalist. He taught some art classes with amazing results in just the short time he was with us. Imagine what could happen with someone who could stay a bit longer?! Is God calling YOU?

We want to again thank all of you who so faithfully pray for us and contribute to our support so we can be here watching God work in the lives of these children. We will be in the Bismarck, ND area November 3 – 8 and would love to connect with you if possible!