Finding Faith in the Battle

School is out. The seminary has finished. Most of our furniture is gone. June was supposed to be the bit of calm before the whirlwind of July--as in most things, it didn't work out exactly as I expected! In the past 4 weeks, I've cooked more than I think I've cooked in the past 35 years of my life, combined. Literally! In the first 3 weeks of June, I made 10 chocolate cakes! Ethan had his birthday party early so classmates could come. We had each seminary class over for a last dinner. We had graduation dinner and graduation and the kids' teachers over and took dinner to our church's new pastor--twice, because they changed the dates on us without telling us! Then I've been getting ready for the team who arrives in 2 weeks. Just this week alone, I made 4 batches of lasagna sauce, 4 of enchilada sauce, 2 kg taco meat, 1 kg refried beans, 4 loaves of bread, 6 batches of home-made cookies, 6 salad dressings, 6 pie crusts, and various mixes: brownies, cobbler, and cor...

Most of the time, things here in Malawi remain in kind of a small-chaos state. Days that feel busy and exhaust you, but at the end of the day you can't really say what you've done. Or little changes, like 75% increases at the grocery store from day to day so you spend 3 hours going to all the stores trying to find the cheapest prices which may or may not be at the same store as you found them last week. But over the past few months, we've been looking at some actual big changes in our lives, and it's caused a bit of big chaos! For those who didn't get our June prayer letter, let me explain. The mission has asked us to transfer to Nairobi Kenya, and we have agreed! Miriam will be working as the Medical Coordinator, helping arrange for medical appointments, giving medical advice via phone, email, and Skype, and arranging for medical evacuations if necessary. Chad will be working with University students in Nairobi. It's a good fit for both of us. Plus, Kenya has...