Blessed

Blessed are the people whose God is the LORD!
Psalm 145:15b

If our God is the LORD, then we are automatically blessed and will be blessed no matter what! It's so powerfully encouraging. I have been comforted this week as I have been constantly reminded of this again and again.

This week has been one of those crazy kind of weeks! As in, it has felt like a year! Not because it was bad at all - God always proves Himself faithful! Just because so much has happened in the last few days - the amount of things that would seem to happen over the course of a year. . . :)

Here's a quick rundown:
Wednesday - Major rat infestation in the house! We have detected them in almost every room, and noticed they've made a mess of our kitchen cabinets!
Thursday - Exterminator falls through my ceiling! He's OK, though he asked to be taken to the hospital because he was experiencing some pain near his ribs. The hole is now repatched.
Friday morning - Fire at school. Everybody is safe, nothing damaged
Friday afternoon- My housemate and I are hit by a flatbed semi at the gas station. We're OK!
Friday evening- I am followed home by a young woman who ends up in our house. The guards are on the watch, and nothing has happened!

So Saturday I decide to let my mind rest a little, and go love on the babes.
They remind me that no matter what happens, in Christ we are blessed! I will trust in His hesed and I will rejoice in the salvation He has provided! So I pray that I'll be more dependent on Him, and we praise Him:



There's a new baby at the nursery:

















What a cutie.

So, now it's time for a new week. And I'm blessed! And I will be blessed with all He is, has been, and will continue to be for me.
Why? Because my God is the LORD!

Amazing Love

Galatians 5:22
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. . .

Friday afternoon.

School gets out at 1:10.

At 1:30 some of the teachers take the middle school girls to Chitipi orphanage where we have prayer, a Bible lesson, a craft, and a game for the children.










This year we are focusing on the fruit of the Spirit.
Today we talked about love.
We love because he first loved us. (I John 4:19)
And He loved us in the greatest way possible:
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends. (John 15:13)
. . . which is what Jesus did. . .but while we were enemies of God!
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person - though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die - but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. (Romans 5:6-10)Then God has demonstrated, by sending Jesus to die, wonderful, amazing, unfathomable love, which we are called to emulate:
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13:34-35) One of the many reasons I enjoy spending time at Chitipi: I'm always encouraged to see the love the orphans have for one another! It's such a great reminder of what a testimony to Christ our love for one another can be! Last week we were playing a game after craft. . . We were all standing in a circle. I was right next to little Zionee and her friend, one of the girls who suffers from AIDS. We were all having so much fun. They were giggling like little girls do. Then during the game, I noticed they had left the circle. I scanned around for them, and realized they were standing off to the side. Zionee was vigorously scratching her friend's hand. I couldn't make out what they were saying, because they were speaking in Chichewa. As I came closer, I realized little Zionee was worried because there was a splinter in the older girl's hand. She spent the next several minutes determined to get it out, and even sacrificed the game she was playing (and enjoying!) to help her friend. . . It was really sweet! I witness little acts of love like this all the time at Chitipi. . . and it melts my heart!
May we as God's people love each other because He loved us first.
And may others know that we are followers of Christ by our love!

Rejoice in Him, through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation! (Romans 5:11)
And praise and thank Him that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from His love in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)

Happy in Jesus

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness. . .
Isaiah 52:7

Happiness. . .
Whenever I hear that word now, I always think of my friend Happy at Chitipi, a home for orphans. He is happy because he has heard good news of happiness! He has been crowned with steadfast love and mercy by his heavenly Father. His soul constantly remembers the benefits of the LORD. The joy of the LORD is his strength.
God's children have so much to be happy for because of Jesus!
Happy has really been a blessing to me, as have all the children! I remember blogging a little bit about Happy a couple of weeks ago and wanted to share this picture of him. Be encouraged and know that you are loved as you remember all of the benefits of the LORD! And as you think of all these, be happy in Jesus!


This Friday a couple of the teachers from ABCCA and I will be taking some of the students to Chitipi again for outreach. I'll be leading a lesson on God's love. Pray that all of us would understand more and more what is the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge! Pray for Happy and the rest of the children at Chitipi, that God would continue working in and through them.

Be happy in Jesus . . . there is none like him!

PALIBE WOFANA NDI YESU. . . There is none like Jesus
PALIBE WOFANA NDI YESU
PALIBE WOFANA NDI YESU
SADZAPEZEKANSO

NDA YENDA YENDA. . . . . . . I've traveled all over
Konse konse
NDAZUNGULIRA . . . . . . . I've gone round and round
Konse konse
NDAFUNA FUNA. . . . . . . I've searched and searched
Konse konse
SADZAPEZEKANSO. . . . . . . Forget about it!


Your mercy flows like a river wide
And healing comes from Your hands
Suffering children are safe in Your arms
There is none like You

In His Care

Psalm 50:10-11
For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine.
This morning I took attendance. . . Afterwards we always have a short devotional, and then I let the kids share anything on their hearts so we can carry our burdens to Jesus in prayer. I took several requests, and was just about ready to pray when I heard one of the quieter girls. "Ms. Dinwiddie?"
"Yes, Catarina?"
"Ms. Dinwiddie. . ." Her voice was so serious. "The gardener found baby hedgehogs. Could you just pray that God would take care of them while they are so little? You know, just that he would protect them while they are babies?"
This threw me off guard for just a second. I'd taken requests for the students absent because of malaria, friends who had been asked to leave the country, and now. . . baby hedgehogs?
But I had to smile.
Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. And the ravens; they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them!
Surely baby hedgehogs aren't forgotten by Him either.
So we closed our eyes and bowed our heads and we prayed for those baby hedgehogs.
We thanked God that He cares about His creation. We thanked Him for showing us that He cares about sparrows and ravens and hedgehogs because it reveals how much more He cares about His own children who are created in His image! We thanked God for the way He takes care of us - how He provides us with everything we need, because of Jesus.
Later this afternoon I was sitting at my desk, grading stacks of math problems.
"Ms. Dinwiddie?" I look up and see Catarina and her friends walking toward me. "Have you ever held a baby hedgehog?" I could honestly say I hadn't.
Within a few minutes they had carried one up to my classroom and put it in my hands.
Yes, the little hedgehog that God created and cares for.
What a great reminder that, "Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours."

"To Such Belongs the Kingdom of Heaven"; Pictures from the Crisis Nursery

"Weak and wounded sinner
Lost and left to die
O, raise your head, for love is passing by
Come to Jesus
Come to Jesus
Come to Jesus and live!


Now your burden's lifted
And carried far away
And precious blood has washed away the stain, so
Sing to Jesus
Sing to Jesus
Sing to Jesus and live!

And like a newborn baby
Don't be afraid to crawl
And remember when you walk
Sometimes we fall...so
Fall on Jesus
Fall on Jesus
Fall on Jesus and live!













Sometimes the way is lonely
And steep and filled with pain

So if your sky is dark and pours the rain, then
Cry to Jesus
Cry to Jesus
Cry to Jesus and live!

O, and when the love spills over
And music fills the night
And when you can't contain your joy inside, then
Dance for Jesus
Dance for Jesus
Dance for Jesus and live!


And with your final heartbeat
Kiss the world goodbye
Then go in peace, and laugh on Glory's side, and
Fly to Jesus
Fly to Jesus
Fly to Jesus and live!" (Come to Jesus, by Chris Rice)





...but Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven."

Pursuing a Passion for Christ!

2 Timothy 2:22
So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

Note: My kids wanted to greet you from Malawi! If you click on the picture to the right, you may be able to read the notes that some of my 7th and 8th grade girls wrote to you all after school! :)


Passion is the theme in chapel this year for my 7th, 8th, and 9th graders at ABC Christian Academy.
Pastor Sean Kampondeni came and spoke to the children on Thursday. . .
"Kids, what are you passionate about? What do you just love?"
All the middle school girls shouted out that they loved chocolate, and the boys started arguing about their favorite sports teams.
Sean encouraged them to remember 2T22 (2 Timothy 2:22) and to flee from any passions that would distract them from or lessen their passion for Christ.

We have everything in Christ! Yet we continually seek joy in things apart from the all-satisfying, unceasing Fountain of living water that is available to us all the time. Why do we so often just sip when we could drown ourselves in all He is and has to offer! Pray that God would fill us with desires to come to the Fountain and to be flooded with all of the good things He offers to us in Christ!

On Friday afternoons we take some of the students from ABC out to one of the COTN (Children of the Nations) orphanages in Chitipi: http://www.cotni.org
We encourage them to make new friends and share Jesus with them. There are about thirty-five children living at this orphanage, all around the ages of three to eighteen. Yesterday we talked about the fruit of the Spirit with the kids, helped them make posters with verses, and then we played a game.
I spent a lot of time with a little boy named Happy who is happy and never stops smiling. His happiness serves as a good reminder to me that I should be rejoicing always because Jesus has saved my soul and I have everything in Christ!
Please pray for the kids at Chitipi as well as the ones who have a heart to serve there. And pray that God would cultivate in the hearts of all the children a passion for Christ!

Pray that in His timing the children, when asked what their greatest passion is, will unashamedly shout out, "I love Jesus Christ! I'm passionate for God and for His glory!"

Isaiah 55:1-2
Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.