God has continued to bless me as the week has passed by with better health. All that is left from the Malaria is memories, which keeps me hoping I don’t get it again! I had my first and lets hope only bicycle wreck with minor injuries this week as well, so all in all I find myself starting this new week healed from them both!

On Tuesday I went to one of the bush churches to teach. This church is called Syonga and Pastor Joseph and his wife Ana are very special to me. I first met them when I was here last October and have been looking forward to having the time to go back and spend a day with them. It was such a great day. When we were traveling there on Tuesday morning I was still experiencing fatigue from the Malaria and I wasn’t sure how I would hold up teaching all day. Yet, I had nothing to worry about, our Heavenly Father took great care of me and once I started teaching, I didn’t notice anymore that my body was tired!

When we arrived they had set up inside the church for me to teach, but within a few minutes, we had to take our chairs and benches and head outside where there was more room.

The women just kept coming which is a testimony to Pastor Joseph and Ana and their hearts for the women in their area. Pastor Joseph counted later in the day and said we had about 200 women there.

Jimmy was so excited when he saw this lady. He remembered her from March of last year when he was translating for a team member witnessing to her. How good it was for him to see her and for both of them to remember who the other was. A special blessing for them both!

You have to realize where we were in order to understand the significance of that many women. Out of all the women, I was the only one who arrived by vehicle, the rest walked. Many of them for hours to reach the church. As we were driving down the bush road towards the direction of the church we passed women walking from every direction. To get to Syonga there isn’t a good bush road. We traveled through grass high as the car to get there, yet, these women walked through the mud and bush to come.

When our team traveled to Syonga last October, our vehicle got stuck and we had to get out and push it out of the mud, thats how bad the roads are there.

We had a wonderful day and the Lord moved in a mighty way as 7 of these precious women surrendered their hearts to the Lord.

On Thursday Benedicts took me to spend the day at the Agriculture training center where he works. The training center was having a workshop for widows. I was blessed to be able to see how God is working through this training center, making a difference in the lives of these women who just a short time ago had no hope at all.

I met and spent time with one of the founders, Alice, and learned first hand her passion for reaching out to those in need.

There are about 60 women they have been working with for a period of 2 years. All of these women have Aids and were in bad physical health. But to look at them now, you can’t tell their sick because their health has improved so much.

The training center has invested 2 years into making these women good farmers and good business women. They are now independently taking caring of themselves and their children. Their health has improved drastically because their diets are now rich in organic healthy foods!

Pastor Patrick who works with these widow women is doing a great job, I got to go out and visit some homes. The first home was that of elderly grandparents whose children died from Aids and they have been left with many grandchildren to raise. These grandparents have been taught these farming and business principles and are doing a wonderful job with the life they have been dealt.

The next home was very different. This hut is where these children have been living until just recently. Pastor Patrick told me that when it rained they had to sit up all through the night because the hut flooded every time.

The oldest girl has very infected feet. It was caused by the sanitation conditions inside the hut. Her feet have actual insects inside them eating her skin.

We are working on getting some treatment to her this week, please be praying for her. She has a tough time walking and because she is the oldest of these children her responsibilities are many.

The last visit of the day was incredible. I met a wonderful lady named Elizabeth. She like the other widow women has Aids and was almost bed ridden a couple of years ago. She is a recipeint of this farming training and her life has been transformed. She is in good health, her fields are producing good harvest and she is maintaining her children, even to the point of being able to pay for them to go to school.

All of these visits were unplanned and it was a blessing to arrive at Elizabeths home and find the house full of women having a prayer meeting! God is really doing some amazing things!

The best part of my visit there with Elizabeth was being able to leave a happy, healthier woman who now has hope not only for herself but her children. I’m very thankful for the opportunity I was given to see some great work being done by the Appropriate Rural Development Agriculture Programme (ARDAP). My prayer is that God will expand their boundaries and pour back into their work an abundance of blessings for ALL they are doing to make a difference in the lives of the hurting.

Love to all,

Joy Breedlove

Missionary – East Africa