Booked and Confirmed!!

From the title as you may tell our flights are booked and we are going FOR SURE!!!! We are planning on helping more with Hope (our nursing student). She is still in nursing school and she has just transferred schools. Our plan is to educate nurses and Doctors so that we can open up a clinic. We have 3 more fundraisers and they are a spaghetti dinner which is April 27th, Bon Voyage Pancake Breakfast on May 31st and a Maltese meat order. We are hoping to change Malawi some more and to really make a difference. We will be doing Bags of Hope again and we are looking for people to donate small toys, girls underwear and other small items. And that is your hope for Malawi update. Write to you soon.

Jaako Polkki

You can email us at hopeformalawi@yahoo.ca if you can help us in anyway or if you have any questions.

Valentine's Chocolate Fest

As you may have guessed from the title, yes, soon we will be having a Valentine's Chocolate Fest. There is going to be all the chocolates that you can imagine! It is gonna be February 15th from 7:30 to 10:00 p.m. I don't know about you, but that's a party I wanna go to. All proceeds will go to Malawi.

Speaking about Malawi, Hope our scholarship student is switching schools because her school closed down and this school is alot more expensive than the other so there are going to be a few tough times. But I still believe we can get this amount of money too because I believe God is supporting my mission. And hopefully things will work out.

Hope is going to nursing school, her parents have died and she's watching her siblings. And she really wants to become a nurse to help others. So that's why we are supporting her.

I am going to the Toronto area during the March Break to be on the Miracle channel. If you want to see my presentation and hear a bit more I will be happy to come to my group or church. Email me at hopeformalawi@yahoo.ca.

Talk to ya soon.

2nd Annual Hope for Malawi Feast

We are having our 2nd Hope for Malawi feast on November 10th starting at 6:30 p.m. Same as last year, we are serving traditional Malawian food that the villagers there eat! This time we'll even be closer to the taste as we've been there and they taught us how to cook some of their foods!!

It will be held at Thunder Bay Christian Fellowship, 515 N. Syndicate Ave. (Behind the Dairy Queen on May St.) Come out enjoy the food, see how we helped in Malawi in January when we went and hear about our plans to return to help the kids in June 2008!! We are sooo excited.

The meal will be a semi-formal so dress up and come and have some fun. We will again be having a silent auction with many great items to bid on! Tickets are $20, please call 622-1030 for more info or for tickets!

Hope to see you there!!!

Sue (Jaako's Mom)

PS. We are also having a craft market on Nov. 17th from 10 till noon. Admission $1.00. There are still some tables left to rent. Cost $20.00. Lots of advertising will be done! Call 622-1030.

The Warm heart of Africa

In Malawi they gave us a very warm welcome. Like joy and happiness but underneath those smiles they carry a burden of pain, suffering and hunger. They're very nice and they need help. And they just can't survive without our help. So I just want to help them more and more. So I'm going back to Malawi hopefully in Spring 2008. And I would like your guys help. I'll write to you soon. Please pray for us.

From Jaako

Hope

As you may know, we have sent Hope some money for nursing school. For those of you who don't know, she is a lady who lives in Malawi who lost her parents and now is watching her younger siblings and one died shortly after we left. Well we raised up money for Hope. A little bit after she got it she was in a car accident and she's probably gonna need fake teeth and work on her face. Please pray for her. Also please pray for me as we are hoping to go to Malawi next Spring or Fall. Talk to you soon. Jaako.

Children's Market

We are having a Children's Market on Saturday, September 15th at Thunder Bay Christian Fellowship at 515 N. Syndicate Ave. 9:00 A.M until 1:00 P.M.
This is a market for Mother's with babies and children!! Come early to ensure you get the items that you need!

Vendors wanted!! Tables are $20.00. Please call Sue Polkki to book your table. 344-5529.

This will be a fun morning! If you can help that day please call Sue!

Thank-you!

The Thieves

A few days ago a group of men attempted to break into the property of the Jonats (the missionaries in Malawi) and one of the guards tried to keep them out and they threw a gasoline bomb at the guard. And he is in alot of pain. When the Jonats came back they were shocked to see police in their property and they just left right away to go to the police station and came back with more. Please keep the guard in your prayers. He is a very good man and to the Jonats he is family and he feels like family to me also. So just keep him in your prayers.

But also we have some good news, we are going back to Malawi in about one year, next June. We don't have a date yet or anything, but we still have alot of time to get a date. We are really excited to go back, we feel like a year is too long to wait. But at least we have more time to fundraise instead of 4 months. Please keep us in your prayers also. And I will write to you soon.

Jaako

We're at it again!!

Just wanted every-one to know that Jaako is going back to Malawi in June 2008!! We were very successful our last campaign raising around $32,000 in only a few months. Thanks to all of you who made it happen. The children were greatly blessed and we want to do it again.

On Saturday, June 23rd, we are having a yard sale at Thunder Bay Christian Fellowship, 515 N. Syndicate Avenue (Behind the Dairy Queen on May) from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Hotdogs and pop will be sold after 11:00. If you have any items that you would like to donate, please call Sue or Debbie at 622-1030 for drop off location.

Come out and support this valuable mission that Jaako has!

Sue (Jaako's Mom)

Jaako will resume his blogs very shortly.

Hot Dog and Bake Sale

We are having a hot dog and bake sale after our church service on Sunday May 20th. It will start around noon. Hot Dogs and Pop will be a dollar each and we will have cheap baking!! You can come out even if you don't come to our church. Just show up around noon. All the money raised will go to Pastor Paul who I've written about in an earlier blog. The sale is at Thunder Bay Christian Fellowship. Thanks guys.

Jaako and Sue (My Mom)

Pastor Paul

Hello,

One of the pastors in Malawi, Pastor Paul his wife died a little while ago and he is asking for a loan to start grinding maize so his family can survive. Before we went to Malawi his son died and his house burnt down so we really want to help this family out. So if you guys would like to donate to Pastor Paul, that would be a great help. He needs $1,000 US dollars to start this. And he is going to try to repay the money that we give him and we're going to try and use that money to help kids go to school. So is it a win-win situation? or is it a win-win situation. Cause the money that you give now will be going to two things, so am I right? or am I right? Thank-you for helping me with my trip and I'll write to you soon.

Jaako

Cheques can be sent to:

Thunder Bay Christian Fellowship
515 N. Syndicate Ave.
Thunder Bay, ON
P7C 3X2

Tax receipts will be issued at year end.

Just a quick hello

Just recently the missionary Kim Weiler and Pastor Roberto came to my church. As you know from my first blogs that it was Kim Weiler that told everyone in the church to go up to the front and see what God has for you. And that is how my whole trip began. so we had a little discussion together about Guatemala and Malawi about there differences and similarities. Most of the things were similar but there were certain things that were different. Like both places are very good at art and crafts and all that and we talked about the difference like there money exchanges. Our family is thinking about going back to Malawi in June 2008 but this time would be nice to go with the whole family, so I will write to you soon.

Jaako

A couple stories from my trip

Hi, Today I'm gonna talk about some cute little stories about things I saw in Malawi. One time this little boy was looking at us confused because we were white and we were just looking at him and all of a sudden we saw a yellow liquid coming out of his pants. And if you are wondering about what I am talking about, I'm talking about the boy peed. That happened alot to us where we saw little boys pee their pants and all these different kids would walk through it and sit in it and not even care.

There were a couple of times where kids would look at us for about 5 minutes and all of a sudden would start crying if we came to them. All the younger kids were really scared that we were white. It made us sad that they felt so scared.

I'm really missing being in Malawi. I can't wait until next time and I will write to you again next week.

Jaako

Thoughts about Malawi

Today we were at Starbucks and we bought a couple snacks and a coffee and a hot chocolate and we were joking around that the hot chocolate cost so much money and it only costs $1.35. So then when we started to think about it more we could have sent two children to school in Malawi and like just think about it, your coffee everyday can send a child to school. Just one little coffee, approximately a dollar can send a child to school and still have $.35 left. And $.65 can just buy a note book and a pencil and their salaries are only about $1.oo a day so they don't have the money to do that. To spend all their money that they get in one day to send their child to school so they just don't educate them. Just a few thoughts to think about. Thank-you very much for supporting me and my trip.

Thank-you, Jaako.

Thank-you very much

Thank-you all for coming out to the report night. It turned out to see alot of nice faces there. My trip was wonderful. We're thinking about getting scholarships for different people in Malawi to help them survive but specifically for this one woman named Hope. Her parents died awhile ago and now one of her younger sisters has died and she really wants to be a nurse. So we want to try and give her that scholarship. It's gonna cost $700 every year for 3 year and she can't afford that but people here can afford that. I really hope we can help alot of people to get scholarships. I thank all of you for helping me with my trip and I'll write to you soon.
Jaako

So wonderful to be home.

It is so nice to be home. To be back and see all the snow instead of always seeing green grass. It is so nice to be back with everybody that I already know and talk to them about my trip. Not many kids in Malawi had clothes that didn't have holes in them. I liked going to all the villages there and hear them sing so wonderfully and be able to help them. It was so nice to meet new people there. While we were there, we went to alot of villages and got to bring them supplies like maize, oil, rice, cane sugar, salt and either some goats or some chickens. Looking about how happy the kids were when I gave them their bags, their faces just lit up. Even if I waved to them, their faces would light up. They were so happy that I had came to help them. I'm really looking forward to next year. The people would clap when we had said that we were buying them supplies and they would sing songs. Their singing is so beautiful. I will write to you soon.

Jaako

Hope for Malawi Report Night

We will be having a Hope for Malawi Report and Information Night on Saturday, March 3rd at 7:00 p.m. It will be at Thunder Bay Christian Fellowship at 515 North Syndicate Avenue - behind the Dairy Queen on May.

Come out and see Malawi through the eyes of a 9 year old. We will have lots of pictures, video and items from Malawi!!!

Call 622-1030 (ask for Sue) for more information!!

Sue (Jaako's Mom)

I'm back home!!

Hey there,

We have just been home for about 3 days now and it's been great to be home. In Africa it was just hard to be eating in front of the Malawians. (Like in restaraunts) There's so many so we just can't give our food over. The poverty there is just hard to believe. The difference between how much we get and they get is again hard to believe. They only eat a little bit of maize everyday and that's pretty much all they get to eat. Their clothes look like they've been worn for about two years without taking them off or washing them. And they have holes and they are dirty and the colours are like nothing we get. There shoes have like holes by their toes and they are all torn up. We left for one village a whole bunch of shoes and a whole bunch of clothes for another. I will write to you again soon.

Bye. Jaako.

Hey guys, this is Sue Jaako's mom. It's good to be back. Hard but good at the same time. It's incredible how different our life style is from most in Malawi. The things we take for granted are amazing. The people there actually truly have nothing. They have a hut, usually an outdoor kitchen (fire pit with a roof), and maybe a few plates, cups, and something to sit on. We were invited to eat in the villages quite a few times, and it saddened me that they prepared for us their very best. In most places we had chicken although they don't get chicken often. It was hard to eat knowing that they needed it more. But you ate first, and then the household ate what was left. We always took as little as we could with out being insulting. Little meat and lots of Nsima (their corn flour staple) Then they always provided us with a Coke or orange Fanta!! It's actually hard to write right now because there is so much to say, so many experiences to tell that we don't know where to start. Maybe a little each day. It gets overwhelming at times. Blessings to all of you that prayed for us and supported our trip and to those who helped the Malawians. We made a difference. Small but sure!!!!!

Blessings, Sue

4 More Days

Muli Bwangi,

You guys probably all know what that means, because I have already said it in one of my blogs. How are you? Everything has been going great here in Malawi. When we went into Zambia, it was just flooded like crazy. We were there for two days. And it was hard to see all these homes flooded. We saw some kids playing in the water and then they would put their hands in their mouths. Cause they don't know what is happening to that water so that is how diseases are spreaded. I feel bad for everybody in Malawi and Zambia. We have been giving to most of the communities 5 bags of maize, 1 bag of rice and sugar, salt and oil. These are some of the foods that they need to live. It is really nice to be here and help many of the villages. We have just enjoyed it very very much. But it is also very heartbreakening with the poorness that is here. I will talk more another day. Tomorrow we set off to Blantyre for 2 nights for our last opportunity to help people. I'll talk more when I get back to Canada.
Bye Bye.
God Bless you, Jaako

slideshow link (click here)

click this link to watch a slideshow.

Muli Bwangi (How are you)

Moni (Hello)

Today when we went to a chief's house to eat some good Malawian food, these kids from the village wanted to see me. So we let the kids into the yard, which really isn't that much room and I told them 3 bible stories and played tag with them. It was wonderful. And most of them asked Jesus into their hearts for the very first time, including one man who had snuck in. And the man thanked me very very much for telling him about Jesus. I feel so happy for him.

Zikomo (Thank-you)

Jaako