We'll Never Forget

Hello Family and Friends! We are excited to share some of the highlights from the last couple of months. What a great time! We had a visit from Jeremy's mom, a trip to Mozambique, National parks, visiting the sick, preaching and training, strange rashes...so much happened! Where do we start?!

Rachel and I took a day to take Aisha to a national park about an hour away to see some of the wildlife up-close and personal. She loved it! We liked it so much we ended up taking my mom there when she was in town. This was a huge protected area where a lot of wildlife could be spotted from the road.

Nyala and Zebra

This place was so great!

Wildebeest (AKA Crocfood!)


These were a couple of friendly guys that I met with Mom at Liwonde. I could have reached out and touched them! In fact, the guide was daring me to jump on top and wrestle him. I admit it - I didn't have the guts.


Speaking of guts...

Here I am enjoying a meal offered to me in Mozambique. These are chunks of goat stomach with goat intestine wound up around.

Here are the goats before dinner...

We preached in two different village churches in Mozambique - they were packed with happy people!

Pastors in Tete, Mozambique

The village I stayed in near the Zambezi River in Tete

The church drumset

The small brick structure was my squatty potty and shower. The funny thing was that the wall only came up to just below my chest and there were about a hundred people around...yes...watching the white guy take a bath.



We've been telling you quite a bit about the community based HIV/AIDS support center called WOFAD that we've been working quite closely with. Just before mom came it, we were conducting an experiment with them, attempting to make soap from goat fat and homemade lye.
Making soap

After 3 hours of cooking smelly fat and caustic lye we ended up with...smelly fat. Oh yeah...and the next day I (Jeremy) broke out in a rash that covered my entire body save my face and lasted for almost two weeks. I think we'll leave the soap idea alone for now!

The whole point of the soap was to try and help the organization create a means of self-sustainability. They have already had some help from the Canadian government, and are keeping a corral of pigs which they are able to breed and sell. The proceeds go toward their community awareness, HIV testing, and Home Based Care activities. Here is the newest batch of piglets! These guys were only about 2 weeks old when we took this picture.

Once mom came into town, we spent a lot of time visiting the sick and dying in their homes and in the hospital. Three of our patients died while mom was here. One of them was a little one-year-old boy, Martin, who had pulled a pot of boiling water over himself. He has a sister who suffers because of Cerebral Malaria, so we were in his home just hours before he burned himself. We saw him again in the hospital, just days before he died.

Another was Paulo. Paulo was 35 years old, and had been lying on a mat for 3 months; unable to eat anything without vomiting. His family didn't understand the illness, yet refused to take him to the hospital. They suspected witchcraft and were simply waiting for him to die. The ladies of WOFAD acted against the families will and arranged transportation for him to be taken to the hospital. Even in Malawi it is illegal to deny anyone medical attention if they want it. Paulo was desperate! Once arriving in the public hospital, the only bed available for him was a mat on the floor. Several liters of intravenous fluids were all the hospital could offer, and Paulo died, most likely of AIDS, just two days later.

The third patient we lost we weren't able to meet at all. Arriving at her house with much needed food and medication, we learned that she was away visiting the witch-doctor. She died the next day.


We love working with WOFAD. One of the patients whom we have seen turn around completely is an elderly woman we lovingly call Agogo, or "Granny". When we first found her she had been abandoned to die by her family. She couldn't walk, had no food or water, and couldn't make it to the outdoor latrine to relieve herself. She was depressed, and told us several times that she was planning to kill herself.

Rachel with Agogo

Her life has been totally turned around! After several months of visits in which we would bring her food, pray with her, cook her breakfast, and help clean up around the house, she is a different person! I (Jeremy) brought a couple of guys from the church, and we worked together to clear a proper path for her to make it to the latrine.

Rachel and I have been shocked and humbled that through these small efforts God has literally changed this woman's life. What a priviledge.

Here is Jeremy's mom out on home visits with WOFAD. You can see the other WOFAD ladies in the blue vests. Baby Daniel was getting sleepy, so Mom offered to give him a free ride.

While we were out, we saw something I thought you might get a kick out of...
I think he is more famous here than he is there! Obama wraps, T-shirts...its crazy!


A few months ago I felt inspired to do something a little crazy. We are living in one of the poorest countries in the world. A few districts to the south of us are suffering quite a bit because the rains didn't come this year for them, and they lost most of their crops. In our part of the country, however, the crops abounded. The solution? Share! We hosted a 3 week food drive among our Blantyre district churches, and were able to raise well over 1,500 lbs. of food, clothing, and soap. These are the world's poorest people giving to each other! Isn't that exactly like Jesus?

The next few pictures tell the story of how we prepared and distributed everything that was collected. All in all 75 elderly people in a distant, forgotten village received a huge portion of clothes, corn meal (their staple food), salt, sugar, and soap.
It was hard to hold back the tears as we saw the humility and gratefulness of the people who received the gifts. What a moment.

Alright, well we wanted to give you a taste of what home life has been like the last couple of months as well, so...here is a taste of life in Africa!

Ladies from the church trying to teach Rachel how to separate the corn husks from the grain. She didn't quite get it! This is part of the process in making the flour for nsima...the staple food in this part of Africa.
Here's a typical meal at our house: Nsima, beef stew, and stewed greens from the garden.

Most of our produce we buy at this outdoor market. Mom took this picture from the market in Mbvumwe.

The other stuff we go to a big shop that sells imported stuff. The only jam you can find comes in cans...

Our not-so-scary guard dogs. From the left: Bimbo, Bimbo, and Roger. I have no idea why two of them share a name or why that name is Bimbo...but they are good boys.

Mom and I with some kids in Bangula- about 3 hours south of Blantyre on really tough dirt roads.

Our truck didn't make it all the way home from Bangula that night. We were stuck in the dark at the bottom of a mountain for a few hours before help came. That's Africa! You can see that Rachel was handling the situation quite well...

You could say that rivers in Africa are always full of life. If not fish, crocs, and hippos, for sure you'll find people - washing clothes, bathing, collecting water...

Mom, Rachel, and Aisha at the foot of the 3rd tallest mountain in Africa - Mulanje.

When Aisha gets out of hand, her Agogo knows just how to take care of the situation!
These two are going to miss each other when we go!

As I write this, Rachel and I are counting down our last few weeks here in Malawi. Life in America seems so far away at this point, but very soon it will be a reality once again. We are so grateful for all of the experiences we've had, and stand amazed at God. We don't claim to understand so much about God, but we do know this: He is good. He keeps His word. Most amazingly, he is able to use a young, inexperienced family to make a difference in the lives of people a long way away from home. Glory to Him.

Progress

I've decided to use the title 'Progress' to describe this blog post, because in so many ways it describes the last few months here. While this blog has been an attempt to carry all of you along with us on the journey we've been on this past year, it has been impossible to fully describe what has been happening in our minds and our hearts.

We came to Malawi ready to take over the world. It didn't take long for us to take a deep breath, look around, and realize that we don't have everything figured out after all. While we still feel that way, I can say that the lights are slowly turning on and real, wonderful things are happening around us.

We've been focusing our efforts in the city of Blantyre, which is the second largest city and considered the business capital of Malawi. In the township of Chilomoni you'll find the 'Mother Church' of the Cross Life network of churches. This is the church that we've been helping to pastor, along with working diligently to develop strong ministries to youth, children, home visitation, and small groups. Basically we've been doing our best to create a healthy body that can in turn develop other healthy bodies in villages and towns across Malawi and Mozambique. This time I wanted to start by highlighting the children's ministry. In the past year they've grown from a handful of kids meeting under a tree to a vibrant, well organized ministry that is reaching hundreds of kids each week with outreach programs on Fridays and a dynamic Sunday morning program. Best of all - they are now self-sustaining!

Kids ready to go on a field trip to Michiru Mountain to catch a glimpse of Hyenas

Our rockin' cool new children's pastor, Lilian Phiri

Needless to say, we scared the Hyenas away!

One of our goals this year in working with the 'mother church' in Chilomoni was to build a proper sanctuary that could also house the many conferences and training meetings that happen with Cross Life throughout the year. It has been a long process, but there is great progress! Check it out!



In future posts I'll fill you in on the other activities that are happening with youth and other ministries. Along with Cross Life, Rachel and I are also working with a small community based organization which is chaired by a member of Cross Life and also supported by Palm Valley Church. It is called WOFAD - or Women for fair development. We've written about this before, but it is a highlight of our week to spend hours trekking long distances with the ladies in WOFAD's Home Based Care program, caring for the sick and dying in our area.

This is Dyson, his grandmother, and his new mosquito net! He's HIV+, and one day we found him covered in mosquito bites - a dangerous thing for a boy with HIV in a malaria area. The next week we were able to provide him with a much needed net!

This is a video about Elifa - a beautiful little girl we visit often who is very sick and loves to sing!

Over Easter we joined up with hundreds of other Cross Lifers from all over Malawi and Mozambique in a conference held in the city of Luchenza. Can you spot Rachel?!


Ok - many of you heard about Aisha's hand. She was playing in a closet and got her hand slammed in the door. She almost lost the tip of her right ring finger, but thank God it was able to be stitched up. She may never have a fingernail there, but that is better than no finger at all! It is healing well and she will be just fine. Here's a picture and video:

Ok - so here are some fun pictures and video we took recently - Aisha had her best friend Martha over for some fun!

Trying to take a nap -- of course they never fell asleep!




Aisha, Martha, and their buddies outside the church





Aisha being a mommy and loving on Emanuel

Ok guys - that's it! Thanks so much for all of your prayers - God is doing so much here...especially in us. We love you, and are looking forward to seeing you soon. We will be returning to the US on July 9th. I (Jeremy) will still actively be involved with Malawi following up regularly from the US on the projects we've started and probably making a return trip in October or so. Regardless of what God does with us in the future, Malawi will always be a part of our lives!