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.

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.

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.