RE: Muliko Literacy Project Newsletter
Carolyn Jones
Hello Chancy!
Happy New Year to you and your family!
What a blessing to read your newsletter! God is truly giving you a big mission there in Malawi, with many facets. It’s amazing how He works so uniquely in each person and in each area. Praise the Lord for your steadfastness and perseverance. My husband and I know that with the successes, come great challenges that are mountains God must flatten before us.
We saw Levi between Christmas and New Years – he is very busy as deputy head teacher at a girls school so we don’t see him often but he remains dedicated to the program and supportive as our Board Chairman of Hands Across Nations.
To all of the ILTI 2013 group – I would love to hear from you – I have so lost touch with our wonderful group of missionaries. One of the most wonderful new expansions of our “Learning to read to read the Bible” program here in the Lango Sub-Region of Uganda, is two new classes with the disabled and people with leprosy. One lady had been an outcast as she had been disfigured by the rebels cutting off both her ears and her lips. She is now a loved member of the class. One class has been going for about 6 weeks and is on lesson 11. The other starts this week. Many learners are missing fingers and toes and others have one paralyzed arm, but all are delighted to be learning to read and write. The class has grown from just 12 to over 20.
Also this past week, we were accepted into our third prison near us in Lira. It is a farming prison so we will be working with the classes each afternoon, 5 days a week. 3 of our teachers from Lira Main Prison were transferred there so we have a foundation there and will use them as trainers along with our lead trainer and several others who have been long term trainers.
We hadn’t had any village classes graduate from the program since 2014 until April of 2016. There are now several hundred learners from the villages who have passed their exams and have graduated and over 200 more are waiting to take their exams in the next few weeks. The Prisons have graduated 596 learners since our first class started in March of 2015. They learn so much faster because they hold class for 2-3 hours per day, 5 days a week. This is because they want to learn before being transferred or released from prison. Many are so thankful for their imprisonment because they have learned to read and write and do math up to simple algebra by the time they graduate. The inmates have developed their own mathematics program! We will be printing it out to use throughout the whole sub-region eventually.
Our first focus has been to translate the Bible into Easy to Read Lango language. We are printing short booklets of New Testament Books such as James and 1 John and sell them for about 6 cents, U.S. which everyone can afford.
There’s so much more that has happened here. God is just so amazing as He “shows Himself powerful on our behalf” 2 Chronicles 16: 9 as we all commit ourselves fully to the Lord.
May 2017 be the year where all of us see the Lord do even more amazing things through our 2013 ILTI group as we Love Him with all our heart, mind soul and strength and our neighbor as ourselves.”
I have pasted our most recent Hands Across Nations Newsletter below with a precious story of how our teachers are loving the least of these.
Go with God,
Carolyn
January 5, 2017
A big HANDS ACROSS NATIONS BELATED CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR’S GREETING FROM UGANDA, EAST AFRICA to our beloved friends in America, and all over the world!
I hope you all had a wonderful holiday. This newsletter was written prior to Christmas but I didn’t get it out to all of you in time. And now we are having difficulty with getting it sent out. It disappears in Cyberspace! Surely all of you will understand and enjoy the story below that is still unfolding.
Pretend that you are reading this a couple of days before Christmas………
As we head into the wonderful time of year celebrating Christmas, the birth of Jesus, and think about all that we would like to give and do for our loved ones, I’ve been thinking about what several of our staff did for a young man who had no loved ones.
The first time we saw Alex, he was lying on the grass near the literacy class that had been started recently for lepers. He had a small bag of the only things he owned; a few plastic bottles, some rags and some other indistinguishable items. Keith suggested we invite him to the literacy class. So Isaac, our illustrator who has cerebral palsy, approached the man, and invited him to join the class. Isaac volunteers as a co-teacher, which entails correcting homework, assisting students attempting to write with their mangled hands with missing fingers, and filling in when Lucy, the lead teacher is absent. He has a heart for the disabled, knowing the sting of being an outcast. Since becoming our illustrator, and giving his life to Christ, he has not only been trained as an adult literacy trainer, but has been invited to teach secondary school students in a private school, how to draw illustrations for books and other types of art work.
Isaac gently spoke to Alex, learning his name and that he would like to attend the class but was very hungry. He agreed to go with Isaac to the class, dragging his right leg, his right arm curled up and quite useless. It was obvious he hadn’t bathed in a very long time, and he smelled of rotting flesh.
We purchased a meal of posho (corn meal and water) with beans for a mere 30 cents which he slowly ate during the class. One leper, a distinguished sort of looking man named Y.K. was angry that we had brought Alex to the class saying he was a liar and a thief. The rest of the lepers were happy to have him join them.
At the next class, Isaac was able to discern that Alex had some painful wounds in an area which suggested an embarrassing disease. He told of being raped in the village, getting the disease and being so ashamed that he walked many miles to beg on the streets of Lira for the past year. He had not bathed in all that time, and had never seen a doctor. The children who came around to the class didn’t seem to mind and were happy to help Alex with his writing lessons.
At Ayira Hospital, our longtime friend, Dr. Opio had his assistant evaluate Alex’s wounds and test his blood finding that he had an extreme case of a venereal disease but thankfully not HIV as Alex had feared. Right away, he began IV treatment, learned how to bathe three times a day for his wounds to heal, and had a trip to the “Saloon” to get his head shaved. All this time, Isaac was encouraging Alex and letting him know he was in good hands. By nightfall, Alex had a bed with donated clean sheets and a mosquito net, a basin, and a dear woman named Agnes who agreed to cook him 2 meals a day for just over a dollar. By that evening, he was opening his Little Bible from the literacy class and attempting to read it to the people there in the hospital. Isaac told me it was the best day he had ever experienced, seeing how with care and love, Alex was a transformed person from a desperate, forgotten and demeaned beggar, into someone who could give to others and rise above his circumstances.
That Sunday, Alex attended the church at the hospital and gave his life to Jesus, becoming a new creation in Christ. His smile was radiant and he continuously thanked God for his life and for healing. In less than 2 weeks, his weeping wounds were completely healed and Alex was strong enough to dance and sing at the hospital fellowship time for more than 2 hours. At the next literacy class, Y.K., the fellow learner who had rejected Alex previously, told me he had changed his mind and now loved Alex like he loves himself – as Jesus says to do. He said, “We are one” – a complete change of heart which became so tender toward a man he did not want have near him.
Next, we had to find Alex’s family back in the village. Isaac took on the task and learned where his family had been, but his mother had remarried and moved away. Trusting God, without knowing for sure what would happen, Isaac, Peter, our lead teacher trainer, and Paul our driver, headed off to the village with Alex and the hope that he would know his way back home.
The result was absolutely God’s perfect timing. Their clan leader had called his mother back home to take care of Alex’s younger brother who had been left alone. They had just finished their clan meeting with her and all the relatives when Alex and our team arrived!!
Alex and his mother were reunited in such a surprising way. Only the Lord could have coordinated all of the events which took place in order to set up this reunion at exactly the right time.
He was welcomed with open arms, with the family stating they would all help him. They had not known his whereabouts or condition for over a year. Seeing that he could stand before them, confessing his mistakes and asking forgiveness, as well as how he was learning to read and write was a miracle to them.
Alex is surrounded here by his family members. I wonder how they all coordinated their shirt colors without knowing of the momentous occasion! He looks very much at home with his extended family.
God also provided one of our Hands Across Nations literacy classes within walking distance to Alex’s home! From being a hopeless and despised beggar to being healed and restored to his family, and becoming a new born Christ follower all in less than 3 weeks, is a true miracle of Christmas – Christ with us. When we step out in faith to help “the least of my brothers” Christ is with us, leading our steps.
What a joyful Christmas gift from Jesus to all of us involved in the new life of Alex. It was also a gift of ourselves to Jesus coming at just the right time of His birthday. Halleluiah, nothing could be better!
Alex calls regularly to Peter, our lead trainer, to let him know that he is continuing to do well and is so thankful for how God used a few, good hearted people to help him when he was so unable to help himself. Stay tuned, and pray for this young man. There are no Christ followers in his family so he will need other Christians that can help him grow in his Faith in Jesus.
Merry Christmas and may God’s love, expressed in His coming to earth to be with us, fill your heart and home this year.
From Uganda with love, Keith and Carolyn Jones
If you would like to contact us, please do not “reply” to this email as the whole newsletter comes back through with your reply. Please write directly to our email addresses: keith...@handsacrossnations.com and caroly...@handsacrossnations.com
If you would like to make a contribution to Hands Across Nations work in Uganda, you may send it to: Hands Across Nations, P.O. Box 9048, Spokane, WA 99209
From: ilti...@googlegroups.com [mailto:ilti...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Chancy Gondwe
Sent: Saturday, January 7, 2017 12:40 AM
To: ilti2013 <ilti...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Newsletter
Happy New Year dear friends!
I trust you are all doing well. I am doing well and the Lord has always been good and faithful to us here.
Please find attached our recent Newsletter.
Keep well and greetings,
Chancy Gondwe
Team Leader
Muliko Literacy Project
--We teach to reach people's needs--
P.O. Box 624
Mangochi
Malawi
Cell phone: +265(0)99 340 7489
Learn more about Muliko:
www.facebook.com/mulikoministry/
www.facebook.com/Royal-Kidz-Academy/
"Only one life to soon be passed, only what is done for Christ will last" - John Piper
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Chancy Gondwe
www.facebook.com/mulikoministry/
www.facebook.com/Royal-Kidz-Academy/
If you would like to contact us, please do not “reply” to this email as the whole newsletter comes back through with your reply. Please write directly to our email addresses: keith.jones@handsacrossnations.com and carolyn.jones@handsacrossnations.com
If you would like to make a contribution to Hands Across Nations work in Uganda, you may send it to: Hands Across Nations, P.O. Box 9048, Spokane, WA 99209
From: ilti...@googlegroups.com [mailto:ilti2013@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Chancy Gondwe
Sent: Saturday, January 7, 2017 12:40 AM
To: ilti2013 <ilti...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Newsletter
Happy New Year dear friends!
I trust you are all doing well. I am doing well and the Lord has always been good and faithful to us here.
Please find attached our recent Newsletter.
Keep well and greetings,
Chancy Gondwe
Team Leader
Muliko Literacy Project
--We teach to reach people's needs--
P.O. Box 624
Mangochi
Malawi
Cell phone: +265(0)99 340 7489
Learn more about Muliko:
www.facebook.com/mulikoministry/
www.facebook.com/Royal-Kidz-Academy/
"Only one life to soon be passed, only what is done for Christ will last" - John Piper
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ILTI2013" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to ilti2013+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
Tedd Lodes
On Jan 7, 2017, at 1:03 PM, Carolyn Jones <caroly...@handsacrossnations.com> wrote:
Hello Chancy!Happy New Year to you and your family!What a blessing to read your newsletter! God is truly giving you a big mission there in Malawi, with many facets. It’s amazing how He works so uniquely in each person and in each area. Praise the Lord for your steadfastness and perseverance. My husband and I know that with the successes, come great challenges that are mountains God must flatten before us.We saw Levi between Christmas and New Years – he is very busy as deputy head teacher at a girls school so we don’t see him often but he remains dedicated to the program and supportive as our Board Chairman of Hands Across Nations.To all of the ILTI 2013 group – I would love to hear from you – I have so lost touch with our wonderful group of missionaries. One of the most wonderful new expansions of our “Learning to read to read the Bible” program here in the Lango Sub-Region of Uganda, is two new classes with the disabled and people with leprosy. One lady had been an outcast as she had been disfigured by the rebels cutting off both her ears and her lips. She is now a loved member of the class. One class has been going for about 6 weeks and is on lesson 11. The other starts this week. Many learners are missing fingers and toes and others have one paralyzed arm, but all are delighted to be learning to read and write. The class has grown from just 12 to over 20.Also this past week, we were accepted into our third prison near us in Lira. It is a farming prison so we will be working with the classes each afternoon, 5 days a week. 3 of our teachers from Lira Main Prison were transferred there so we have a foundation there and will use them as trainers along with our lead trainer and several others who have been long term trainers.We hadn’t had any village classes graduate from the program since 2014 until April of 2016. There are now several hundred learners from the villages who have passed their exams and have graduated and over 200 more are waiting to take their exams in the next few weeks. The Prisons have graduated 596 learners since our first class started in March of 2015. They learn so much faster because they hold class for 2-3 hours per day, 5 days a week. This is because they want to learn before being transferred or released from prison. Many are so thankful for their imprisonment because they have learned to read and write and do math up to simple algebra by the time they graduate. The inmates have developed their own mathematics program! We will be printing it out to use throughout the whole sub-region eventually.Our first focus has been to translate the Bible into Easy to Read Lango language. We are printing short booklets of New Testament Books such as James and 1 John and sell them for about 6 cents, U.S. which everyone can afford.There’s so much more that has happened here. God is just so amazing as He “shows Himself powerful on our behalf” 2 Chronicles 16: 9 as we all commit ourselves fully to the Lord.May 2017 be the year where all of us see the Lord do even more amazing things through our 2013 ILTI group as we Love Him with all our heart, mind soul and strength and our neighbor as ourselves.”I have pasted our most recent Hands Across Nations Newsletter below with a precious story of how our teachers are loving the least of these.Go with God,Carolyn
<image001.jpg>
January 5, 2017
A big HANDS ACROSS NATIONS BELATED CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR’S GREETING FROM UGANDA, EAST AFRICA to our beloved friends in America, and all over the world!
I hope you all had a wonderful holiday. This newsletter was written prior to Christmas but I didn’t get it out to all of you in time. And now we are having difficulty with getting it sent out. It disappears in Cyberspace! Surely all of you will understand and enjoy the story below that is still unfolding.
Pretend that you are reading this a couple of days before Christmas………
As we head into the wonderful time of year celebrating Christmas, the birth of Jesus, and think about all that we would like to give and do for our loved ones, I’ve been thinking about what several of our staff did for a young man who had no loved ones.
The first time we saw Alex, he was lying on the grass near the literacy class that had been started recently for lepers. He had a small bag of the only things he owned; a few plastic bottles, some rags and some other indistinguishable items. Keith suggested we invite him to the literacy class. So Isaac, our illustrator who has cerebral palsy, approached the man, and invited him to join the class. Isaac volunteers as a co-teacher, which entails correcting homework, assisting students attempting to write with their mangled hands with missing fingers, and filling in when Lucy, the lead teacher is absent. He has a heart for the disabled, knowing the sting of being an outcast. Since becoming our illustrator, and giving his life to Christ, he has not only been trained as an adult literacy trainer, but has been invited to teach secondary school students in a private school, how to draw illustrations for books and other types of art work.
Isaac gently spoke to Alex, learning his name and that he would like to attend the class but was very hungry. He agreed to go with Isaac to the class, dragging his right leg, his right arm curled up and quite useless. It was obvious he hadn’t bathed in a very long time, and he smelled of rotting flesh.
<image002.jpg>
We purchased a meal of posho (corn meal and water) with beans for a mere 30 cents which he slowly ate during the class. One leper, a distinguished sort of looking man named Y.K. was angry that we had brought Alex to the class saying he was a liar and a thief. The rest of the lepers were happy to have him join them.
<image003.jpg>
At the next class, Isaac was able to discern that Alex had some painful wounds in an area which suggested an embarrassing disease. He told of being raped in the village, getting the disease and being so ashamed that he walked many miles to beg on the streets of Lira for the past year. He had not bathed in all that time, and had never seen a doctor. The children who came around to the class didn’t seem to mind and were happy to help Alex with his writing lessons.
<image004.jpg>
At Ayira Hospital, our longtime friend, Dr. Opio had his assistant evaluate Alex’s wounds and test his blood finding that he had an extreme case of a venereal disease but thankfully not HIV as Alex had feared. Right away, he began IV treatment, learned how to bathe three times a day for his wounds to heal, and had a trip to the “Saloon” to get his head shaved. All this time, Isaac was encouraging Alex and letting him know he was in good hands. By nightfall, Alex had a bed with donated clean sheets and a mosquito net, a basin, and a dear woman named Agnes who agreed to cook him 2 meals a day for just over a dollar. By that evening, he was opening his Little Bible from the literacy class and attempting to read it to the people there in the hospital. Isaac told me it was the best day he had ever experienced, seeing how with care and love, Alex was a transformed person from a desperate, forgotten and demeaned beggar, into someone who could give to others and rise above his circumstances.
<image005.jpg>
That Sunday, Alex attended the church at the hospital and gave his life to Jesus, becoming a new creation in Christ. His smile was radiant and he continuously thanked God for his life and for healing. In less than 2 weeks, his weeping wounds were completely healed and Alex was strong enough to dance and sing at the hospital fellowship time for more than 2 hours. At the next literacy class, Y.K., the fellow learner who had rejected Alex previously, told me he had changed his mind and now loved Alex like he loves himself – as Jesus says to do. He said, “We are one” – a complete change of heart which became so tender toward a man he did not want have near him.
Next, we had to find Alex’s family back in the village. Isaac took on the task and learned where his family had been, but his mother had remarried and moved away. Trusting God, without knowing for sure what would happen, Isaac, Peter, our lead teacher trainer, and Paul our driver, headed off to the village with Alex and the hope that he would know his way back home.
The result was absolutely God’s perfect timing. Their clan leader had called his mother back home to take care of Alex’s younger brother who had been left alone. They had just finished their clan meeting with her and all the relatives when Alex and our team arrived!!
<image006.jpg>
Alex and his mother were reunited in such a surprising way. Only the Lord could have coordinated all of the events which took place in order to set up this reunion at exactly the right time.
<image007.jpg>
He was welcomed with open arms, with the family stating they would all help him. They had not known his whereabouts or condition for over a year. Seeing that he could stand before them, confessing his mistakes and asking forgiveness, as well as how he was learning to read and write was a miracle to them.
<image008.jpg>
Alex is surrounded here by his family members. I wonder how they all coordinated their shirt colors without knowing of the momentous occasion! He looks very much at home with his extended family.
God also provided one of our Hands Across Nations literacy classes within walking distance to Alex’s home! From being a hopeless and despised beggar to being healed and restored to his family, and becoming a new born Christ follower all in less than 3 weeks, is a true miracle of Christmas – Christ with us. When we step out in faith to help “the least of my brothers” Christ is with us, leading our steps.
What a joyful Christmas gift from Jesus to all of us involved in the new life of Alex. It was also a gift of ourselves to Jesus coming at just the right time of His birthday. Halleluiah, nothing could be better!
Alex calls regularly to Peter, our lead trainer, to let him know that he is continuing to do well and is so thankful for how God used a few, good hearted people to help him when he was so unable to help himself. Stay tuned, and pray for this young man. There are no Christ followers in his family so he will need other Christians that can help him grow in his Faith in Jesus.
Merry Christmas and may God’s love, expressed in His coming to earth to be with us, fill your heart and home this year.
<image009.jpg>
Carolyn Jones
Hi Tedd, and all of the ILTI 2013 group,
Thank you for your uplifting words. We all appreciate encouragement as it is sometimes difficult going when trying to change a culture and bring a new thing into their lives.
We are finding that the disabled’s class is growing so fast that we are now splitting into two groups so that the ones who first started will continue as they are now on lesson 13. The rest of the new learners will be with 2 new teachers starting from lesson 1. That will mean I’ll be there with them for the first few classes to ensure they have the method down correctly. The poorest of the poor are the ones who are hungry for the Bible and are desperate to learn how to read.
Just this past week, Peter, our head teacher trainer and I went out for a follow up visit to a group of HIV infected ladies. They’d had some troubles with their teacher coming to class drunk, and had not progressed past lesson 24. So we are raising up 3 other teachers and working with the other drunkard teacher to help him leave that behind. While Peter worked with the teachers, I worked with the learners – some could understand a little English and I’m getting much better at speaking in LebLango so we were able to communicate fairly well. That day we had brought the “Little Bibles” which have all of the verses from Primer 1 – we’ve put in 2 per lesson – in LebLango. Hardly anyone has the full Bible, even teachers are without so we (our translators) translated those verses in VERY easy LebLango . We sell them for 15 cents. I expected that they would be able to read some of the words but struggle with others. But to my amazement, at least ¾ of the class of mostly women, could read it quite smoothly!! So I had them take out the book of James that we had also sold to them that day for 6 cents. It is written in a little more difficult LebLango. Again, they could ready it so steadily it was just unbelievable! They read a full page and a half without much difficulty. So the drunkard teacher, as they admitted themselves, was actually a very good teacher but struggled with his addiction. Hopefully he will get deliverance from that. Here, people that drink at all, drink until they can’t function. There’s no “social” drinking of 1 glass of wine etc. So we are delighted with their progress and have sold them Primer 2 which they will start very soon. They were thrilled that we thought they were doing well.
The second wonderful experience was that one of our first graduates from the Lira prison program, was released after 10 years in prison. He was there over a land “wrangle” with his brother who stole his land and one of his wives (one went back to her family and the 3rd remained there alone) and bribed the police to arrest him . Cirpriano was one of our favorite students as he performed with his “thumb Piano” at several graduation ceremonies, with very funny songs he had made up. At the end of each one, he would sing a verse asking Keith and me to buy him clothes or maybe take him to America! After 10 years, no one had been coming to visit, he had no street clothes, and no way to contact his family to let them know he was returning home. So we had one of our teacher trainers go out and get him a used suit, shirt, shoes etc to wear home. We met him at the gate, coming out on his release morning, looking so sharp I even passed him without recognizing him at first! Our trainer offered to take him home by motorcycle, so we gave him some funds to purchase what he needed to go home – 1st thing was a mattress…….he’d been sleeping on concrete for 10 years. One of our translators is a member of the same clan so he called the clan leader who alerted the family of his return and also had 2 clan members met Cipriano at the prison with us, and let him speak with the clan leaders on their phone. So wonderful how God works. He has His people in the right place at the right time – we are sort of coming to expect to see His hands working on our behalf each day. The return home went well and we are praying that the clan leaders will work for justice and peace to prevail. Again, it is a privilege to have the Lord use us for His purposes both in the reading classes and with individuals as He puts them in our path. Cipriano reads and writes well (he was totally illiterate when he took the class) and has said he will teach his village how to read. We will be in touch after he has had time to recover at home. He has our contact information. The photos of Cipriano’s home going are above
OH, another good news, the Lira Prison men’s ESL class is starting the Book 2, “Yesterday” section! We’ve made up copies of 60 pages for workbooks for the 40 learners in the classes – there are 7 teachers. A big thanks to Don Edic for his work on those books.
I think about all of you in so many places being used by God for His purposes. May He strengthen and guide you each day.
Go with God,
Carolyn
Hands Across Nations Uganda
Tedd Lodes
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