Past Prayer Requests

Last updated on January 15, 2010

As the HIV/AIDS toll mounts throughout Africa, prayer is a primary weapon in the battles that lie ahead. "The main idea is to pray for the grandmothers, because many of them don't know the Lord. They need to know the Lord and they need His help in raising these children." --Charlotte Day

Continue Asking God for . . .

Pray for Kim Day as she has badly sprained her ankle, that it would heal quickly.

Pray for rain!!! The last we heard it had stopped for two weeks and the Maize that was about three feet high was wilting in the Zomba area. Charlotte said everyone is looking at the sky. People are praying and trusting the Lord for His mercy and provision of the rain that they depend on for a harvest.

Pray for The opportunity we have to begin work in two new villages... Kawiya #1 and Kawiya #2. We discovered another sub village of Kawiya that is very needy.

Pray for Catherine Cheonga our wonderful new staff woman who we have been able to hire to come along side Mary Phiri and the work with Early childhood Education we are doing in villages.

Pray for the year end donor letter that will go out this week to all who have contributed to Gogo Grandmothers this year. Pray they will be well thanked and know the blessing of God in their lives.

gogos and children and as she attends workshops to learn things that will enrich our village programs.

Pray for Dick and Charlotte as they travel home to Malawi arriving November 22nd. Pray for the protection of their health as they fly and for all the new projects planned to be guided step by step by the Lord.

Pray for the final version of our Village Assessment Forms that will be used by our staff to give us feedback and prayer requests for individual villages.

Continue to pray for God to heal Cody Day. He is the grandson of Dick and Charlotte Day who developed Why Wait? and Gogo Grandmothers in Malawi. He is 13 years old and has had a reoccurrence of his cancer. He is a strong and courageous young man and the only child of Dave and Dallas Day.

Pray for the NEW Seeds of Soy and Joy project, that will teach gogos to grow and process soy beans that the children need for their protein... remembering that 47% of children under five suffer from malnutrition and stunted growth. Pray for the selection of the villages we will begin the project in and for the team of people that will work with this project. (This project is being made possible by SEEDS, a group of Christian women in the San Diego area who have come together to give a grant for this purpose.)

Pray for the gogos who have attended the Grieving Workshops in July and August to help these grandmothers who have often lost their husbands and children and are now raising the grandchildren who are also grieving. These gogos need help in coping with many challenges, such as the anger some children feel and caring for children with HIV/AIDS. The Gogo groups that had workshops were 7 villages near Zomba, Kondanani, Makungula, Mwaiwandigwela,Mtogolo, Ndagopuma, Kachere and Kawiya.
Mary Phiri and Irene Chaluluka have coordinated the training of Children Corners volunteers for the five pilot sites in the Community Based Childcare Centers we have been working in. This project targets helping grieving primary school aged children who drop in at the centers in our villages for play and creative work. Pray for these children to be encouraged and for the volunteers to be ready to share the love of Christ with them.

(November 5) Pray for the faithful use of the Proclaimers (digital audio player that plays the New Testament in drama form. Given to us by Faith Comes By Hearing) they were left in many of our villages in July 2009. Dick and Charlotte Day are taking six more home with them in November. Pray for their placement. One is now in Kondanani where we heard it was being played by Frankie's home. (Frankie is an old, former Muslim grandfather who has 4 young grandchildren in his care, but he is ill) Another Proclaimer is being played in the clinic in Zomba. Please pray for the one that we use in the prison in Blantyre and that the three other prisons that have schools where we have a Why Wait? program can have them. Two were sent up the our northern villages, Thowolo, Luzi and Chipayika. With so much illiteracy and no electricity, this is a powerful tool to hear God's Word spoken.
Pray for the good use of the Sabor (It is a digital audio player that is loaded with 40 Bible lessons from Genesis to
Revelation, with a flip book of pictures to go with it. It is made by Global Recordings Network) We took four that can be used in the villages.
Pray for the continued use of the Four Steps of Prayer in our Gogo Groups. All of our eight sponsored villages received a workshop from Leslie Lewis and Mary Phiri in July 2009 and were left with Four Steps of Prayer booklets for each gogo. (made with drawings for those who are illiterate) Leaving a legacy of prayer and love for the Lord will be one of their great gifts to the children.
Pray about identifying the right children who might need school fees in our villages and the possibility of some day providing tutoring in villages for children to help keep them in school and succeeding. There are three girls needing help we know of in Kondanani village. One's mother died and she and a little brother are living with a gogo. Another's father died and the home was taken by the father's family, leaving the mother destitute with three children. Flossy is recieving help, she is a child headed household in Kondanani, and cares for her 3 younger siblings. (See "News" Africa)
Pray for Kim Day who has left to spend this year working along our SAFE staff with gogos, orphans and vulnerable children in Malawi. Pray for her ability to quickly learn the language.

Sadzi, is the newest village in the Zomba area to have a sponsoring Gogo Grandmothers' Group. Pray for this group from Faith Presbyterian Church in NE as they form a leadership team and begin their ministry of prayer and car for this village.
Pray for the new village, Kawiya, near Zomba, that the new Gogo Group at Rancho Baptist Church in Temecula, CA has just adopted. Pray that this connection will be a great blessing to the Rancho group working here and to the gogos and children in Malawi.
Pray, also, for the new group at The Little Church By the Sea in Laguna Beach that has just adopted Mwaiwandigwela village. This village has never had a US Gogo Grandmothers group to pray and share with them before.
Pray that the Muslim chief in Kondanani, Chief Chisupuli, would come to know Jesus as his Savior. (See "News" Africa tab)
Pray for Sammy Bakali, the carver who makes our gogo necklaces, arks, ect. He has TB. Pray for his healing and coming to know Jesus as his Savior and Lord.
Pray for the cargivers (Village girls trained by Mary Phiri to be preschool "caregivers/teachers") in each of the Community Based Childcare Centers, (CBCC) of our adopted villages. These young women and those who cook for the children need your prayers as they care for so many children five days a week from 7:30 to 11:00. They recieve a small allowance for their work because of your support.
NAC (National Aids Commission) has no funding for us at this time for the schools but is giving funding to start the Why Wait? training of teachers in prisons, and asked us to reapply later. Pray for Why Wait? to be continues in the classroom curriculum of Malawi Public Schools. NAC wants to fund Why Wait?, but needs the "OK" of the Ministry of Education in Malwai. PRAY that this is given as it always has been done in the past.
Praise/Prayer for Dick Day... Cancer in remission!
Pray about identifying the right children who might need school fees in our villages and the possibility of some day providing tutoring in villages for children to help keep them in school and succeeding.
Pray that some support for the Malawian staff might be raised and that a wonderful relationship might grow between the staff and their supporters.
Pray for the children in the Community Based Childcare Center's to come to know who Jesus is and how much He loves them.
Pray for the physical and spiritual strength of the village gogos (grandmothers and grandfathers) as most care for many children with few or no resources.
New people and groups to sponsor the 708 village gogo grandmothers and the children they care for this year, for just $30.00 a month. That would mean the gogos in 12 villages would be covered, including the needs of about 2,124 orphans and vulnerable children. Wow! God can do this and each of us can be a part of His answer! (Click to view a sponsorship flier.)
The leaders in newly forming Gogo Grandmothers groups that they will be aggressive and faithful and that none will grow weary in doing good as we serve Christ by assisting the African grandmothers caring for the orphans of AIDS.
For the many projects Gogo Grandmothers groups here are planning ...African dinners, luncheons, boutiques, garage sales and other fundraising events in their churches and communities this Thanksgiving and Christmas season.
In the Zomba hospital we now see a new outreach for Gogo Grandmothers and SAFE with the many grandmothers who are the caregivers in the hospital for the premie babies and children in the wards... grandmothers with babies bound to their chests in the Kangaroo ward. Pray for Kim Day and Irene Chaluluka (National Field Director for SAFE) who with the Zomba urban Gogo Grandmothers group have decided to cook a meal for the hospital gogos and mothers in these wards once a month...having prayer and devotions with them. (See the wonderful story in News-Africa)
(November 2009) What emotion to see bare foot gogos bringing small baskets of dried maize (corn) and pouring it in 50 kg (110#) bags to feed other peoples children! For example in two of our villages they brought back 24 bags which means over a ton....and provided hundreds of meals of warm porridge. So, the planting is very important and the fertilizer is crucial. The next planting for 2009 will be this November/Dec when the rainy season begins. Pray that all gogos receive their vouchers and the money we send to purchase their bags of fertilizer this year. We will now be providing for the gogos in ten villages this year. Last year it was four.
Pray for a chief for Makungula Village as they still mourn the loss of Mai Chief (Ufumu)Mwera Makungula who was 'Group Village Headwoman' over 13 villages. She went to be with the Lord on November 14, 2008. Her burial was on the 15th with hundreds, of villagers, chiefs, the CBCC teachers and the gogos from her Gogo Grandmothers group. She was a part of the very first Community Based Childcare Center and Gogo Grandmothers Group in a village. Pray that the new chief will be good and wise. The late Chief Mwela's son Paul Mwela is acting chief pending the selection of the new chief. (See full story in News- Africa)
Specifics from the 3/5/08 Gogo meeting in Mwaiwandigwela: (Eight grandfathers were there and some are active in their committee.)
- Bambo (Mr.) Danson Nkumba: His wife died Dec 1, 2007 and he is raising 3 grandchildren
- Bambo Paulo Nkoloma: He fell and broke a knee; now walks with a stick and pain.
- Gogo Enelessf Lambulira: She is blind and sick, caring for four primary school grandchildren.
- Gogo Elizabeth Matinga: She came in a wheelchair made like a "tricycle" that she pumps by hand. She has six grandchildren - four in primary school, and two in high school.
- Gogo Florence Chitingwe: She can't walk. Sent her grandson to the Gogo meeting. Someone needs to visit her in home and take food and clothing.
- Ufumu (Chief) Kathyrn Mpulula: part of her roof has fallen in; need to check it out.
- Ufumu Elena Kumatama: very old sub-chief who can't come to Gogo meetings. All her children are dead and now she cares for 5 small grandchildren. Need to visit and take food and clothing.

That the contact with the cabinet Minister of the Elderly and Disabled made at the burials would encourage him to check out Gogo Grandmothers. He is also a Member of Parliament from Zomba and the one who got the well dug for Simiyoni village. Charlotte gave him a Gogo Grandmothers brochure and he expressed interest in coming to see some gogo meetings in villages. Pray for God to make this seed grow into blessing for the gogos.(See Charlotte's letter on the News in Africa page under the NEWS tab above.

Thank God for these answers . . .

Our proposal, Seeds of Soy and Joy, to SEEDS was accepted! We will receive $10,703.24 this month as a grant to begin a program to educate the gogos in a number of villages to plant and process soy seed in order to help provide the much needed protein for the children's diets. This is a pilot project that if successful can be expanded to many villages. Pray for the land to be made available by the chiefs in the villages chosen and for the people who will form the training teams.

We were able to hire Catherine Cheonga, a teacher and Why Wait? trainer of trainers to work with Gogo Grandmothers and assist Mary Phiri with early childhood education in our villages. Wonderful provision!

$5,000 was sent to completely finish the Simiyoni school this week! God you are soooo faithful! It has been wonderfully used by the children and gogos even in it's unfinished condition.

Fertilizer money was given out to all our sponsored villages during the planting season. This meant 11 village received assistance this year, some from unexpected sources... to us, but not to God!

We now have eight Gogo Grandmothers Groups in the US that meet once a month to pray for the gogos and children and plan fundraising projects. We also have seven Partners who are churches or small groups that are also very committed and involved. Along with the contributions of our Sponsors of a Village Gogo, fertilizer will again be provided. Last year it was for 400 gogos in five villages. This year it will be given to gogos in 10 villages. Praise the Lord!

Two churches have introduced Gogo Grandmothers to children's groups. One Sunday School class at Granada Heights Friends Church is raising funds for a kids to kids (goats) program for Kondanani Village. And Rancho Community Church has adopted Gogo Grandmothers as their Awana project.
(August 2009) Moira Chimombo's visit to Southern CA. She is the Executive director of SAFE in Malawi. She had the opportunity to speak at Biola University, e3 Partners, a number of churches, be interviewed by two radio stations and speak at out Gogo Grandmothers Retreat August 22, 2009. Praising God for this wonderful woman God has raised up to lead this ministry in Malawi.
We had a wonderful all day retreat for Gogo Grandmothers, August 22nd. Charlotte Day, founder of Gogo Grandmothers, Moira Chimombo, Executive Director in Malawi of SAFE (NGO Gogo is organized under), and Bertie Knowlton, first Gogo Group leader all shared the history and vision of the ministry. Judy Wills and Leslie Lewis shared their trip pictures. Lot's of interaction between group leaders and members made the day very profitable. (See "NEWS" US for more information)

(July 2009) Judy Wills (Gogo leader at Granada Heights Gogo Group) and Leslie Lewis (US Coordinator) had a wonderful. confirming, humbling, profitable trip to Malawi to visit five villages and the SAFE Staff.
(August 2009) Two wonderful new Gogo Grandmothers Groups have formed, Little Church By the Sea in Laguna Beach,CA and Rancho Baptist in Temecula, CA. The gogos and children in Mwaiwandigwela and Kawiya villages are going to be blessed by the prayers and action of these groups.

(April 2, 2009) The rains have been very good in the Zomba area. Mary Phiri had the opportunity to visited the Kondanani Community Based Childcare Center and the Pastor who cocordinates the Gogo program told her. "The Gogos will have a good harvest because of the fertilizer they were assisted with. This means there will be food in the households. We thank God for the hands that sent dollars to help in this venture."

Thank the Lord for the leadership of Gayle Davis as the leader of the Gateway Gogo Group this last year... and thanks for providing Mert Jones to take her place in a seamless transition!
Also, giving thanks for Bertie Knowlton's leadership for many years for the Mariners Gogo Group. Suzie Hamilton will come along side her now as Bertie transitions to "just a gogo member" this next year.

The start of establishing a "Children's Corner" in primary schools near our SAFE preschools. This is a transition place to meet emotional needs as well as spiritual needs of Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC), and seminars for Gogo Grandmothers on how to help grieving children.

Our $30 dollar a month "Sponsor a Village Gogo" program is making a difference--one grandmother, three orphans, and one village at a time! Click to learn more about the Sponsor a Village Gogo plan.

Many sponsorships, for the gogos in villages and the orphan children they care for, are coming in. Seven different villages have some sponsors so far! Makungula Village with its 62 gogos is fully funded! How wonderful! Even in some villages where there are just a few sponsors, it is making a huge difference. Blankets and sweaters are bought and distributed, teacher salaries can be paid and feeding programs for the children provided. In each Kondanai village and Mwaiwandigwela village there is a child-headed household that is now helped. School fees were able to be given in one case for the sixteen year old caregiver.
The Gogo Grandmother and WhyWait Story DVD Is Ready. To order your copy e-mail Leslie at leslie@gogograndmothers.com. Peter and Amanda Shackleford have finished the DVD of the SAFE ministry in Gogo Grandmothers is the village component and they have lots of footage of interviews of grannies and grandpas, orphans being cared for by them...bathing their charges, cooking, building fires, carrying water, pounding maize, winnowing, ect... It also tells about the Why Wait? story in the schools. It is now available for you to order. The cost is $5.00 ea.
(Sept. 22, 2008) For the UNICEF proposal that has been accepted and now is being implemented!!! Some of the things covered are the training costs for teachers in new villages in Early Childhood Development, the initial organization and training of new Gogo Grandmother Groups, and also a pilot project to establish a model "Children's Corner" to help grieving and vulnerable in the villages. Mary Phiri has trained 150 new caregivers for ECD/OVC (Early Childhood Education and Orphans and Vulnerable Children) as well as beginning to organize Gogo Grandmother Committees in the 30 villages targeted.
"The Story of Jesus for Children"--The Jesus Film shortened version--has been translated into Chichewa, one of the major languages in Malawi. It has a six-minute introduction showing village scenes, urban, gogos, children and schools in Malawi. We were given the large outdoor screen, projector and generator. We are showing this in the schools especially for the younger children. In just a few months thousands of children have already viewed it with many coming to Christ. In the villages...open-air... it is a real ministry to the gogo who are mostly illiterate.
Our first village to be fully sponsored is Makungula Village. All sixty-one gogos are sponsored thanks to the prayers and hard work of a group of men and women from Mariners Church in Newport Beach. What an encouragement this is to these gogos and children. Thank you to each sponsor of every village! You are making such an impact in the lives and hearts of so many as you share with them.

Praises From the last Update:

(Nov. 21, 2008) Baby Natasha in Simiyoni Village. She is the baby who was 3 months old but who looked more like a 1 month old! Her grandmother, Gogo Martha, was trying to breast feed her from her withered breast!!! After Charlotte gave her the formula makings and vitamins and showed her and other gogos helping her how to use a baby cup, boiled water, soap and how to mix the formula, she returned a few weeks later to find a smiling chubby cheeked little baby girl, everyone calls "very clever."
(Nov. 21, 2008) HUGE PRAISE! The funds for the fertilizer came in from sponsors, individuals and Gogo Grandmothers groups that held fundraisers. Then some government vouchers became available that brought the cost down for many gogo who were registered. What seemed to be the impossible need of fertilizer for all the gogos in our targeted villages-- was met this November, 2008. Now the rains can come!
(Sept. 20, 2008) 36 Gogo Grandmothers held their bi-monthly meeting at Makungula Village. They winnowed and sorted the dried soybeans...110#s..., which will be roasted, ground and used with the ground maize to make a nutritious porridge for the orphans and vulnerable children in the village. Soybeans have been distributed to our other villages too. This scene is being repeated in Simiyoni, Kondanani, Mtogolo, and Mwaiwandigwela. The grandmothers are sorting and winnowing the soybeans, bringing their flat baskets (licheros) that are the important 'kitchen' item in a Malawian household. Charlotte, daughter Kim and Mary Phiri did a Bible study on God's creation of seed-bearing plants and provision of food; then a teaching on nutritional foods available locally, having put together a food pyramid chart and a basket of fruits, veggies and dried beans and seeds. A good discussion followed with prayer
(Sept. 2008) Five teams visited the Gogo Grandmothers' work in Malawi this summer. Each has their own stories about teacher trainings, a medical clinic, a DVD produced, Gogos and orphans given sweaters, headscarves and blankets. Hundreds of blankets were distributed to Luzi, Thowolo, Kondanani, Mwandigwela, Mtogolo, Simiyoni this season.... all thanks to sponsors, Gogo Groups and the Lord's provision. One gogo (grandmother), when given a blanket, shared that it was the first real blanket she had EVER owned
The Here's Life Mission to Africa group from the U.S came to Mtogolo village June 8-16 to hold a medical clinic. There were 22 doctors, nurses, pharmacists and others in their group...and a 'pharmacy' that brought $150,000 of meds!!! A new challenge!!! In Mtogolo we have trained teachers; and they have a good Gogo Club going and are not near clinics or hospitals for medical needs. (One doctor for every 55,000 people in Malawi) and they are very open to Christian outreach.
This is the praise that Jean Kalinga shared after their visit. (This was the village she grew up in.) "Praise be to the Lord for listening to our prayers. Thanks for choosing us among thousands of communities in Malawi to benefit from "Here is Life" Medical and pastoral team. We got healing medically and spiritually. There is so much going on here; people's lives are changed forever. We are so happy- thanks for easing the pain of disease, death and hopelessness.
Thanks too for the new Gogo Grandmother group in Deltona, Florida that has decided to help sponsor this village.
Josh and Dottie McDowell visited the work of Why Wait? and Gogo Grandmothers with their daughter Heather from May 30th to June 5th. Josh spoke at Chancellor college campus church and the CC Great Hall on June 1 to both students and faculty. Many students placed their faith in Jesus and committed their lives to Him. The Westmont students who were there with their team really connected with the Chancellor College Students even singing and dancing with them. Josh and Dottie are also sponsors of a village gogo in Mwaiwandigwela Village and went and passed out headscarves and blankets.

See Dottie's story in Africa News.
For Gogo Grandmother groups in Makungula, Simiyoni, Mtogolo, Zomba and Thowolo who have made the small cloth "maize" bags with their names and number of orphans cared for. These have been available to Gogo Grandmothers groups in the USAfor donations, providing funding for fertilizer and prayer for the Malawian gogos.
For the trip Paul and Leslie Lewis took to Malawi Oct.15 - November 1, 2007. They participated in village gogo meetings in Makungula, Simiyoni, Mtogolo. They also got to help open a work with 61 gogos in Thowolo, a village in the Northern region of Malawi. Leslie taught the four steps of prayer in the gogo meetings. She encouraged the gogos to leave behind a legacy of prayer for their children and grandchildren. Leslie saw the orphans and vulnerable children with their caregivers in the village preschools (CBCC-Community Based Child Care Centers that go hand in hand with the Gogo work). Fertilizer was distributed in two villages.
For the active Gogo Grandmother Group in Zomba that helps the staff minister to the needs of the village grandmothers in their area. The Zomba group decided at their November meeting to have a meal together with the village gogos, taking some of the food out to Makungula, Simiyoni and Mtogolo villages. The village gogos helped with produce from their gardens... a combined city-village Gogo Grandmothers gathering.
For the wonderful U.S. Gogo Grandmothers Advisory Board God has given us. They have taken on the jobs we might otherwise have had to raise funds for; accounting, the store, graphic work, website, etc. They act more as staff than a board. All U.S. Gogo Grandmothers staff are volunteers too.