one.

It's hard to believe it's been 3 weeks. I feel like I've been here forever and I'm not even halfway done yet. Still have 5 weeks to go, but I know these next weeks will go by fast. I have less than a month until we head back for debriefing. Crazy.

We've gotten into our routine here at Chiwengo, but this week was a bit different. "Daddy Chris"--Chris Clark, the president/founder of COTN, came to visit yesterday and today. This whole week there have been rehearsals for singing/dancing welcome program every night in place of devotions at the house. We also have been cleaning like crazy--everything had to be perfect. It's just been really cool to see firsthand the heart behind COTN. We had a meeting with Chris Clark this morning and it made me love COTN even more. It's not enough to just rescue children and raise them. They must be transformed and in turn, transform the nations. That's what COTN is about and I love it. We've been hearing more of their stories lately. Most of these children are double orphans and it is said that COTN has a gift for finding the worst of the worst and taking them in. And that just makes me want to love on these kids even more. It's so fun to just see their eyes light up when you smile at them.

In addition to Daddy Chris coming, the children started their midterm exams this week. These are huge. We've been tutoring the kids a lot lately. It's been encouraging because they will actually seek us out for extra help. I have standard 6 (6 grade) and I'm making them memorize their multiplication tables. It's sad how far behind they are, but progress is being made. I was doing flash cards with one of my kids, Benson, while waiting for the rest to show up. I would pause for a bit and he would say "Auntie, go." It made me smile to see that he wanted to learn more and encouraged me to keep it up.

So our independence day was Saturday and Malawi's was monday. Pretty cool.

God's been teaching me a lot. He's really been forcing me to rely on Him for everything. We ran out of drinking water this week so we had to use purification tablets in the regular water. I was nervous, but just little things like that are teaching me to trust Him and know that He's got this. And He's got all these children. And He's got everybody. He's showing me how much we need to step up and care for the widows and orphans in their distress. We have to stand up for the broken, the oppressed. We have to fight injustice. We belong to the richest nation in the world and we could easily solve the worlds problems, but we need to step up. The church in America isn't doing too weel at being the Church. God requires us to act. It's part of His plan to redeem the world for us to care for those less fortunate than ourselves. The Church must step up to the plate. There's too much at stake not to. A lot of the times I'll pray for God to give me a passion. And we all do that--like show me what you want me to do. But I've learned that God just wants us to act. So that's what I'll do. I'm just going to act. I can't sit down while so many in the world are suffering. When 50,000 a day die from poverty related causes. When 1 billion live on less than $1 a day. When children are caring for their parents dying of AIDS. So I'm going to act. And I'm going to act with all my heart this next month.

2 things really stuck with me from this past week:
1. 2 of our kids went to a funeral for their uncle. He was beaten to death in a village.
2. I was playing outside with some of our kids when I noticed 3 kids who weren't ours just standing there. They had tattered clothes and swollen bellies and looked sad. I started playing with them, and they just lit up. And I loved it. I just wanted to show them that someone cared and acknowledged them. That's what it takes. That's what we need to do--to show people that we do care for them. That someone acknowledges them and wants to make them smile. And that's what I want to do for the rest of my life. We are called to act. It's not optional. Big or small. Just act. We can only change the world one person at a time. And I want to be that one person for someone. And God has called me here this summer to be that one person.

the spirit of the sovereign lord is on me, because the lord has annointed me to preach good news to the poor. he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners -isaiah 61:1