Our creative juices are flowing...

Although Children of the Nations already has programs set up in Malawi, as interns we are expected to be proactive in coming up with additional ideas we can contribute while we are there. Along with our single bag of personal belongings (clothes, shoes, toiletries, etc.), we are each allotted 50 lbs. of supplies to bring over and use within our programs. It has been challenging to think of what we want to bring since we still don't know exactly where we will be placed within the organization. However, we are pretty sure that Sarah and Leslie will be developing some sort of art program with the orphans and Rachel and I will most likely be working within the Widow's program. This would include helping them with their daily activities of making jewelry, textiles, bowls, etc. for them to sell at the markets for their source of income. It would be a mixture of craftiness and business as well as being able to build relationships with the women through learning their trade. We are in the process of trying to get donations for art supplies such as paints, markers, paper, glue, scissors etc. and sewing materials such as buttons, zippers, thread, yarn, needles, patterns etc. We also want to bring lots of jumpropes since that is always a fun activity that the kids love and are currently using anything they can find to tie together. In addition we have been brainstorming a unique program that we can do in addition to our internship roles. All of us feel on our hearts that since we are a team of just girls then we want to spend some extra time getting to know the older girls since they tend not to get as much attention as the little kids. They are used to having people come in and out of their village all the time, and visitors are more inclined to love on the 4-10 year olds rather than the junior high and younger high school kids. We feel that just because these kids live in a different culture than we do doesn't mean they don't go through the normal struggles of adolescence that we have all experienced. Therefore we want to form a sort of big sister-little sister program where we meet with the older girls once a week and really get to know them and spend time with them. We want to plan something different to do with them every week such as making crafts, baking, painting nails, etc. We are still working out the details since there are cultural barriers to work through, but we are definitely passionate about this idea! Even though we have been bouncing a lot of cool ideas off each other we still have to be reminded that our plans way not work out the way we envision. Please pray for faith to follow our passions as well as being open to allow God to change our plans. Thanks for reading and I'll keep you updated on more to come :) Hope you're having a blessed day!!