The ‘Good Hope’, marine ambulance sent out to Lake Malawi in 2009, has been a great success and is a well used and appreciated facility.

Recently the David Gordon Memorial Hospital (DGMH) at Livingstonia asked about the possibility of another vessel to be based at Tcharo, some 15 miles further down the lake from the Good Hope’s base at Mlowe.. John Watt of Macduff Shipyards responded and has sourced a suitable redundant ship’s lifeboat in Denmark. This has been purchased and is currently in Macduff being overhauled and converted for Lake Malawi. The DGMH have given it the name ‘Robert Laws’ in memory of the founding Scottish missionary who established Livingstonia.

The plan is to ship the boat out in June from Macduff to Chilumba, where the boat will be launched. There will be space in the container for about 400 boxes of goods but, for this container, we can only accept boxes for Livingstonia, Mlowe and the lakeside communities. We require blankets, sheets, clothing and woollen goods. Jim Givan (01261 833318) has agreed to act as ‘co-ordinator’ and boxes of goods should be sent to him for processing and storage prior to loading the container.

This is an opportunity to make a real difference to the people of Livingstonia and the surrounding area and, if funds become available, it is hoped to get a quantity of medical supplies, which are in very short supply at the moment, into the container with the boat.

 Container FCL79 was loaded last week – not at Strachur, but at Walkerburn. The Presbytery of Melrose and Peebles collected bicycles, craft materials and sewing machines, tools, toys and theological books to send to the Presbytery of Zomba with which they are twinned.

Once the goods had been collected in one place, Melrose and Peebles Presbytery organised volunteers to load the container while the Raven Trust supplied expertise (and Raven Trust trustee Iain McPhillimy) and administrative support. It was a real community event as the Presbytery involved children from the local churches, primary and secondary schools

Zomba is in the south of Malawi, not far noth of Blantyre, and is outside the Raven Trust’s area of operations.  The theological books will be given to the Theological College there. We send our best wishes with the container and are sure it will be recieved with joy by the Presbytrey of Zomba.

John had a very successful hip replacement operation and was out of hospital and home within 4 days. He is a little frustrated that he still unfit for ceilidhs as yet and has to rely on crutches and Sue to get about. He is healing well but tires easily and needs frequent rest throughout the day. However, day by day he is improving and he and Sue thank you all for your prayers and good wishes.

Keith Feay is a retired x-ray engineer and his wife, Judith, is a radiographer. They have visited Malawi several times, installing and servicing x-ray equipment and training local people.. Working with SAM (the Service and Maintenance unit set up at Ekwendeni to undertake repairs to hospital equipment) and John Gulule (a hospital service engineer) Keith is now able to problem solve and give advice via the internet and Skype.

In the last few weeks faults in an x-ray unit and a film processing unit have been diagnosed with Keith’s long range help. The equipment has now been repaired locally and both pieces of equipment are working satisfactorily.

It is hoped to develop this ‘electronic link’ further to support Malawians in servicing and repairing hospital medical equipment of all kinds with the support of those with professional expertise in the U.K.

It may seem strange that the Raven Trust sends quantities of blankets and woollen clothes to such a hot country as Malawi. However, in the mountainous region, high above sea level, it can get very cold, especially at night.

Donations of knitted and crocheted goods for children are always needed as well as other clothes and blankets for babies and young children. The boxes of baby/toddler clothes and blankets are sent to Orphan Care Departments in Livingstonia (Mrs Soko) and Ekwendeni (Esther Lupafya), to Maternity Wards in Livingstonia and Ekwendeni and to Mlowe Clinic.

The staff in all these departments would like all those who have donated baby and children’s clothes and blankets to know how deeply they are appreciated by those to whom they are given and how much excitement there is  when a Raven Trust container arrives with boxes of gifts from the UK.

Thanks to money donated to the Raven Trust for the purpose, on his last visit to Malawi John was able to buy 140 Bibles translated into Tambuka – the local language of Northern Malawi. They are pictured here being delivered, by trolley, to the house in Mzuzu.

The Bibles were then distributed to many people. Alex and John, seen here, are members of the Mzuzu Evangelism Association team and were very pleased to receive Tambuka Bibles as neither had ever owned one. John (on the right of the picture) is also going to use his Bible in Friday morning Bible study sessions at work in World Vision.

Here are some of the Mzuzu Evangelism Association team at work in a suburb of Mzuzu – taking their message to the people of the area through the medium of drama and reading their Tambuka Bibles. The team have now been invited to take their message into the local prison.

We have been advised by Ben Mhango, our driver/mechanic in Malawi that the replacement fuel lines for the emergency single phase generator at Embangweni Hospital have arrived. Ben has now fitted them and the generator is working well.

We have now been offered a 3-phase generator by Macduff Shipyards who have reconditioned and serviced the generator set. This machine would be capable of a much greater load, allowing more pieces of hospital equipment to be operated during the frequent power outages.

We are very grateful to Macduff Shipyards and are hoping to ship the generator set out to Embangweni in a container in February.

Many of you will remember our blog about the spec-tacular Christmas trees set up in Dunoon, Argyll for Christmas 2010 when people donated old glasses by hanging them on the trees and took away a “thank you” tag to hang on their own tree at home.

For Christmas 2011, the theme was continued, but in addition, people were invited to donate small pieces of costume jewellry which they no longer wanted. These will be given as gifts to orphan girls in Malawi.

Thank you, once again, to the people of Dunoon and surrounding districts who were delighted to support this initiative. I hear the trees almost collapsed under the weight of your gifts.

The evangelism project has become established in supporting local Christians to share the gospel. One method they use is the ‘Jesus film’ showing to perhaps 500 or more people using video projectors.  The Raven Trust is providing the equipment for this work.  Secondly we are encouraging street evangelism and the Malawians have established the Mzuzu Evangelistic Association to undertake music, drama, storytelling and sport.  Many have become Christians through this -  even in this its early days of ministry.

Just a example of how the Raven Trust provides replacement or new parts for machinery in Malawi.  These uninteresting yet vital pipes are the fuellines for the emergency power diesel generator at Embangweni Hospital.  New ones are not available in Malawi yet could be obtained in the UK.  Thank you John Watt of McDuff Shipyard for your assistance.  Ben Mhango, our local engineer will fit these pipes once they arrive early in the New Year.

On a very wet and stormy day our intrepid team of volunteers loaded FCL 77 with 1226 boxes of hospital supplies, educational supplies, clothes, bedding, tools and household goods. Just after 2 pm,  the container set off for Greenock on the first stage of its journey to Malawi so that the lorry could get over the Rest and Be Thankful before the road closed at 4 pm. Our thanks to our volunteers – you are a great bunch and we hope you have all warmed up now. Thanks also to those who keep the volunteers going with supplies of pancakes, cheese scones, hot soup and filled rolls. Bon voyage FCL 77. We pray that your contents will prove a blessing to those who receive them in Malawi.

At this time of year in Malawi the weather is hot and dry. Ideal bridge building time!.  Earlier this year Neil Lilongwe, while visiting Malawi, saw while on route to Chiabalazi, outside Ekwendeni, a village bridge in need of major repair.  On return to the UK funds were kindly donated by Cake Stuff (see their web site www.cake-stuff.com for more photographs) and recently the community led by the village headman undertook the bridge construction. 

On his recent visit John provided technical support and purchased local materials. This new bridge will provide an all weather link from the village to the main road.  The village people are very grateful and the bridge will enable hospital visits, make daily school possible for the young people in the wet season besides opening up business opportunities.

The bridge was opened before John returned to the UK amid great celebrations and lots of cake!

The Mlowe Clinic is basically what we in the UK know as a ‘cottage hospital’. It is under the management of the major hospital at Livingstonia. Mlowe provides basic outpatient, maternity, HIV/Aid’s and emergency services to the local community. Beyond Mlowe the communities of Tcharo and Zunga are reached by boat so the Mlowe Clinic provides a ‘stop over’ for patients on route to Livingstonia. Some patients are treated at Mlowe such as malaria cases. It has a resident Clinical Officer and Matron as well as other staff to support the various services undertaken.

Work has progressed well on repairing and maintenance of the Clinic. The roof and rain water ways have been repaired. Electric lights installed into the Nutrition Unit and all electrical fittings replaced throughout the clinic which where damaged or not working. Water is currently being piped into the staff houses from a revitalized bore-hole system and the whole clinic given a coat of paint.