Finding Faith in the Battle

The team continues to thrive, despite unseasonably cold nights, large spiders, and whole minnows for lunch. They have had a wonderful time in the community-all 16 youth are having the opportunities to share the full gospel and they're all getting the honor of leading people to Christ. One girl was terrified when she was asked to share with the chief and all the others who wanted to listen. She was totally relieved when lots of women and children came to listen and the chief never arrived! She shared beautifully, and many responded. Afterwards she asked her translator why the chief didn't show up--imagine her shock when the translator informed her that the chief WAS there. She was the woman sitting beside her who was first to pray to receive Christ! I guess we forgot to mention that many chiefs here are women!!!!! Today they went hiking in the woods, where they saw a Nile Croc (from a safe distance in the river!!!) and a hyena. Now they're at a community football (socce...

Our team of 16 arrived safely, with all their luggage (a minor miracle in itself!) Since they brought me tortillas and cream cheese and other goodies to help with the cooking, I was exceedingly glad! My role here is cooking, and it's going well. I've learned a few things, such as 2 cakes is too much but 30 scrambled eggs is not enough. Who would have known???? We've only had minor issues, such as the back seat falling onto the tray of lasagna, and my phone flying into the chocolate cake. The youth are doing amazing! They're flexible and sweet and helpful and no one is complaining about anything. Grace Community parents, you should be proud!!! No one is sick, and they've all survived their first day of door-to-door witnessing in a high-density area of an African city, and that's no small feat. We are very pleased with how everyone is doing. Time for devotions now!

I was in Kenya for another meeting these past 4 days. It brought back even more memories than my last trip, I think because we were meeting at a conference center right down the road from my high-school. The mist rolling down the mountains, the light drizzle that isn't really rain but is more like you're walking through a cloud, the freezing evenings around the fire... yes, I was still in Africa! But it's around 8,000 feet elevation and wonderfully like winter in the Pacific Northwest. We also went up to Rift Valley Academy to visit someone--it hardly looks any different after these 17 years, and I even saw a teacher I knew who is still there! As I stood there in the infirmary of my old high school, I was struck that when you say good-bye, you never really know if it's forever. Here we are going back to our high-school hangouts, something I never thought would happen. So who knows if the good byes that we have to say in the next few weeks are forever or not. I'm hop...

Anya, almost 11 years old Ethan, age 8 Isaac, 3 1/2 Omara, 20 months For Ethan's 8th birthday, we went to the Lake for one last time. We arrived in time to have our freshly ground coffee overlooking the most beautiful lake in the world. The kids spent all day swimming, building sand castles, and running from waves. And we managed to return home with no sunburns! Ethan made a super-cool sand creation by digging out the sand instead of building it up--told us it was an Indian. I could see the eyes, nose and mouth, but no distinguishing feather in the hair or anything. I asked him how he knew it was an Indian...he pointed to the dot on the forehead!!! Just one more way my kids are growing up with a whole different set of 'norms'!

Here are just a few photos of their special day. They worked so hard and sacrificed so much for the 3-4 years they spent studying--I got a little teary-eyed at seeing their joy! Graduates, their wives, and the faculty Us with Frank Banda Chad goofing off with Maere A typical graduation present--cocka-doodle-do (or kuku-loo-ku)!

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...