Beanie Baby Bonanza

Sukasuka Village, Malawi … Over the course of the years Vaughn and Peggy had a hobby of collecting beanie babies. The collection grew, and by the time of Vaughn’s death the number had reached into the hundreds. Peggy decided to donate the collection to the children of Malawi. In August her neighbors, Dick and Suzi Stephens, carried dozens of the dolls to Malawi in their luggage. When a team from Austin, Texas arrived to travel with them around the country they decided the time was right to delivery some of Peggy and Vaughn’s precious collection to children near the Mozambique border.

On Sunday, only the second day since their arrival in the country the Austin team traveled from the Mapiri Lodge in Dedza, to a small community on the Mozambique border, Sukasuka Village. At worship that morning the children seemed to outnumbered the adults, and they were sitting attentively on the concrete floor near the front of the building. After services, and before the group could depart the building, the American team announced they had gifts. Out came the Beanie Babies from Peggy and Vaughn.

Judy Bomar, wife of church elder and preacher at the Western Hills Church was a major blessing of the morning as she went from child to child handing each one a precious beanie baby. Many, if not most, of these children had never received a fresh, new doll in all of their lives.