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Sewing, Stories and Sunsets: Our Final Day at Home of Hope

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<< Previous Post:Friday 22 August-  Suitcases, Sunrises and Sapling>> There’s a quiet kind of joy that settles in when you spend time creating something with your hands, especially when it’s for a cause that truly matters. Over the past few days, Gillian and Ruth have been welcomed into the gentle rhythm of the “Pads Room”, a calm, purposeful space filled with fabric, laughter, and the steady hum of sewing machines. Here, they’ve watched Cynthia, Pirilani, Ellen and Edina sewing beautiful tote bags and zippered wash bags. The wash bags, lined with waterproof fabric, are perfect for carrying toiletries or similar items when travelling. These handmade pieces will soon make their way to the UK, where Protection for Education will sell them to raise funds. It’s a beautiful circle — the money raised helps continue the team’s vital work of sewing reusable sanitary pads for the girls attending Home of Hope’s schools, making sure no girl has to miss a week of school every month...
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Suitcases, Sunrises and Saplings: A Day Rooted in Hope

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<<Previous Post: 21 Aug 2025,  Brushstrokes, Visions and a Feathered Thief>>   Ruth was up unusually early today, 5.30am, and sometimes, the quietest moments speak the loudest. She sat on the veranda as the sky slowly changed before her eyes. At first, just a pale glow. Then streaks of soft pinks, gentle oranges, and deeper hues began to spill across the sky behind the hills. A new day unfolding, slowly but surely. Her only company was a whole choir of enthusiastic cockerels announcing the morning with all the confidence in the world. There’s something powerful about starting a day like that, unhurried, full of colour, grounded in creation. Later that morning, we received a copy of a photo that just made our hearts swell – six more Home of Hope students heading off to university. Each one standing proud. Behind the smiles lies a huge moment, a step into the unknown, often many hours from Home of Hope, and the beginning of something that will shape the rest of ...
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2025-08-21 Brushstrokes, Visions and a Feathered Thief

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<< previous post 20 Aug 2025: A Great Big God, a Sad Goodbye, and a Laptop That Changes Everything>> <<next post: 22 Aug 2025: Suitcases, Sunrises and Saplings: A Day Rooted in Hope>> Last night, the air at the guest lodge felt a little extra sparkly. John Platt and Chimwemwe Luwanda had just arrived, weary from travel but full of light, back in their familiar Home of Hope rhythm. Every summer, like clockwork, they bring with them not just paints and brushes, but colour, expression, and joy in abundance. Their murals now dance across walls all over the Home of Hope site – vibrant shapes, joyful faces, and swirls of community spirit. They're more than just decoration. They tell stories. Stories of belonging, imagination, and hope – in technicolour. You might spot a giraffe peeking around a corner, a pair of footballers going for the ball mid-action, or a school of colourful fish swimming through the blue hues of Lake Malawi. And behind each mural are hours of...
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2025-08-20 A Great Big God, a Sad Goodbye, and a Laptop That Changes Everything

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   << Previous Post    Mulungu akhale nanu: May God go with you   >> << Next Post: brushstrokes-visions-and-feathered-thief >> It was only just light when the first gentle strains of singing began echoing through the grounds, as the day began with morning devotions at 6.30am. A whole 30 minutes later than their usual start time, just for us soft Brits. This morning, it was Hannah and Helen who led the way. They introduced the song  "Our God is a Great Big God,"  complete with actions and the kind of energy only early-morning faith can spark. With every line explained in English, and then again with love and care in Chichewa, the words speaking to everyone in the room: that they are held in the hands of someone far greater than themselves. Afterwards, we wandered back to the guest lodge, where the now-familiar aroma of Nsima porridge waited. Warm bowls, full bellies, and full hearts. But then came the part we’d quietly been dread...
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2025-08-19 Mulungu akhale nanu

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 <<  Previous post: 2025-08-18 What's possible? >> Ready for take-off! The almost-university-students we've been meeting and working with during these last days stopped by in the morning for a final group photo all together. Mulungu akhale nanu: May God go with you. We've planned several times to spend a a couple of hours in the local town for some fabric shopping. (If that doesn't sound fun, bear with...) Thompson took us down, and dropped us by shops Gillian and Ruth know of old.  One of the oldest shopping streets in Mchinji It's wonderful what you can buy here: nuts and bolts (probably on the buyer to match the two); tool-heads, tool handles, and strips of inner-tube rubber for binding the two together; pipes, metal in all shapes and forms, cables, timbers... To me it still has the feel of a frontier town in a Western.  And alongside all the gritty practicality... Sudden colours of Africa ...this rush of colour! Ruth chose designs with particular fri...
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2025-08-18 What's possible?

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 << Last Post: 2025-08-17 And... rest >> << Next Post: 2025-0819 Mulungu akhale nanu >> Hannah's photo of the Milky Way from two nights ago. Yesterday I'd really wanted to sign off with a photo of the night skies we've been seeing - not realizing that Hannah already shared some in our team WhatsApps group. No special equipment required. Heavens. Phone. Are you surprised the sky can look like that to the naked eye? Many of us Northern-Hemisphere-dwellers are around too many street lights to see much star light. But just because it's uncommon to see doesn't mean it's not out there. Some of us sat down today with a paper list of "stuff that needs doing" here (doing = purchasing; constructing; maintaining; repairing...), typing it into a spreadsheet. We added estimates - Phil's job is all about estimating - and it didn't take a huge number of rows to blast past the budget. But that's OK. It doesn't mean its not possi...
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2025-08-17 And... rest

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 << Last Post: 2025-08-17 Of Land and Laptops >> Our morning at Mchinji CCAP church I do enjoy Sundays here. There's no church choir like an African choir! Had not most ladies of the congregation been some 25km away at an annual church convention there might have been the usual three, four, or more singing groups at this morning's service, each offering ear-dazzling items they'd prepared. The one choir in attendance today (from Shinghai Chipeta's church) would "wow" anywhere. In his closing remarks on the service, Phil told them "I love that you move your whole selves! After all, worship isn't just about words, it's about taking dynamic action!" We'd prepared to perform a little "skit", riffing on John the Baptist's imperative to crowds of listeners: "The one who has two tunics should share with the one who has none."  Gillian - the unfortunate woman walking on a cold day with no coat; Helen - the indus...
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