Dear Friends and Family,
2015 has been a new and inspiring year for the Hodges
family. We started out the year moving
to Malawi, Africa to work as missionaries at African Bible College of
Malawi. The transition went pretty
smoothly considering all it entailed. We
brought 6 trunks from Houston with personal belongings and Samaritan’s Purse
had sent a container with housing items that we had purchased the previous
June. We both started our respective
jobs as Pediatrician and teacher right away.
We were blessed with a nanny, Joyce Banda, who came to us as a daughter
of a long time employee on campus. Also,
within the first week of our arrival, our long acquainted friend Wells came to
us asking to work as our house help.
They have been an enormous blessing in our lives. DR is thriving and has made many friends in
our neighborhood. He is talking and
running and learning to swim. He loves
animals and balls of every sort.
Kelly is really enjoying her work. She is working at the ABC clinic and
Children’s ward. She sees children from
many cultures; Malawian, Pakistani, Korean, Egyptian, Irish, Indian, French, Lebanese,
Afrikaans, and American. The clinic is known for its excellent care
throughout the city, so many foreign aid workers visit the clinic. The maladies
range from colds and ear infections to pneumonia and severe malaria. The hospital also has a thriving OB service
that often asks Kelly to check on unwell newborns. Her latest endeavor is to obtain several low
cost bubble CPAP machines for neonates with respiratory problems. The current system is to send these patients
to the central referral hospital where these machines are available, but the
nursing care ratio is something like 1:20 infants. God has really provided a perfect time for
this as Emily, a NICU nurse from Seattle, has just arrived for a year
term. Kelly really loves the Christian
clinic environment and gets along well with her colleagues and nurses.
Donald has become the ABC Mr. Do-it –all. He is teaching Physics, Chemistry, and Math,
as well as running the sound system for school functions including weekly
chapel, monthly movie nights, and the
amazing Christmas program. He is also
volunteering his time to map out the water lines on campus to help with
maintenance and to try to improve water supply to the campus. The campus is now installing 4 new water
tanks as a project to help with consistent water distribution on campus. Donald is making several contacts in the
civil engineering community also and hoping to have an impact in the future
with projects like well rig design and hydroelectric energy production.
We have joined a church called International Bible
Fellowship (IBF) that preaches God’s word.
It has been great to grow to know many of the people at the church and
an inspiration to see so many people that God is using here in Malawi. We have been blessed to be a part of the youth
ministry at our pastor’s home (right next door).
We are so thankful to God for the many blessings we have
received this last year. Special thanks
to all of our supporters, both prayer and financial, we wouldn’t be able to do
this ministry without you. May God bless
you and may you find Christ this Christmas!
Love,
The Hodges
