By Kathleen Radtke, member of St. Philip Lutheran Church
We started on our journey to the Chigumukire feeding center
on Tuesday morning with a quick stop at the house of the dean of the
parish. Dean Mawkala has been
instrumental in helping the people of Chigumikure make the feeding center self
sustaining. It was great to see a
community pull together to take care of the young children (ages 1-5) on their
own.
The church helped them get started,
but since 2009, they have been growing the maize and soybeans and making their
own cooking oil. Combined with water,
they are able to make a very nutritious porridge 6 days a week. It is inspirational how the feeding center
assistant volunteers his time to make all of this happen.
After helping to serve the porridge to the
children, we all gathered in the church for a bible lesson led by Pastor
Kelly. We then gave out health kits and
cross bracelets (made by the children of St. Philip). Some of the younger children were frightened
coming up to Azungus (white people), but it was so cool to watch the older kids
that weren't getting kits help them come up and get one.
We left the same as we were greeted, with
lots of singing and dancing. The smiles
and laughter of a united village will never get old and will always fill my
heart with love and joy.
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