The Passion Center for Children serves children orphaned by the AIDS epidemic in Malawi. We seek to rescue those children at greatest risk, providing food, comfort, medical care, and a safe place to live in the name of Jesus Christ.
January 24, 2011 was a significant day at Northwest Bible Church, as Pastor Mark Trotter announced a church-wide mission project for the Passion Center for Children. This endeavor involved shipping an entire semi-sized container, jam-packed full of needed supplies for the education and development of the precious children at the Passion Center.
Church member, Matt Wojnarowski, remembers the announcement clearly and a few weeks later, the suggested donation lists were delivered via bulletin inserts. Matt looked over the list, thought about the needs of his own seven children, and tucked it into his Bible. By the second week of the project, Matt knew exactly what the Lord was impressing on his heart to share with the needy children. One of the items on list for the container project was a foosball table.
Sponsor a Passion Child and begin the change they need. Each of these children need an individual or family to stand with them. Would you be that person? Maybe you already know the joy of sponsoring a child and a friend would like to know that same opportunity. Begin sponsoring one of these children.
Our American intern, Misse Mbongo, wrote to tell us about a field trip for some of the older Passion kids during their break from school. As orphans from the villages, they seldom get the opportunity to go on trips. The outings provide a great opportunity for the staff to encourage the teens to live for Christ.
From the early days of The Passion Center we’ve known that heath care, sanitation and hygiene were major needs in the surrounding villages. Disease, the absence of medicines and the lack of health education in the rural areas of Malawi are severe. The Passion Center was frequently asked to provide bandages, pain-killers, and other medical supplies for those who had nowhere else to turn. It was not uncommon to see weak and emaciated sufferers falling off of bikes as family members tried taking them to clinics. Untreated wounds and bones left unset grew to become threatening health issues. But this situation is beginning to change now that The Passion Center is training, equipping and encouraging a group of volunteers to compassionately care for their neighbors.
Meet Isabel Mpinganjira, her story has recently changed—for now she’s safe, cared for and can smile again. She is only 13 years old, and her situation underscores the growing role that The Passion Center Residency Home plays in seeing God rescue, redeem and restore broken lives.
This past month Child Welfare officials turned to The Passion Center to care for Isabel. What we know so far is that her mother and father were migrant farm laborers in the North region of Malawi. When her mother became seriously ill, her father left seeking help. As her mother’s condition grew worse, the father never returned and Isabel’s mother died weeks later. Alone, disoriented and vulnerable, a neighbor took Isabel in for a time. When they could no longer feed her, she was turned away. For the next year she fended for herself working any available job she could find in the local trading center. Finally her plight came to the attention of local Child Welfare officers. When they couldn’t locate any family members and without the ability or facility to care for her they asked The Passion Center to step in. Isabel is already responding to the love and care her new home is providing. She’s learning about the overcoming love and grace of God in Christ firsthand and is quickly making friends with others who have also been abandoned, abused or who have no home. Read more…
“You hear, O Lord, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed, in order that man, who is of the earth, may terrify no more.”
