I want a buffalo! It all started a couple months ago… Matt was talking to Brian Biedebach, mentioning that both Matt and I love pickles, so we might need to plant some dill and garlic in Malawi to make our own pickles. Brian said we’d be better off making cheese than pickles. What? No cheese in Malawi? Well yes, they said, there is cheese, but it’s really bad. Uh-oh. How are we going to make pizzas for the youth group? And what about Mexican food? So we started thinking about cheese. Somebody has to make the cheese, so we should be able to do it, we figured. After seven gallons of curdled milk down the toilet, we finally had a pound of good mozzarella. Visions of gouda and colby jack cheeses… But mozzarella was a good start.
Now to make it the best mozzarella. Ever heard of Mozzarella di Bufala? Yep, that’s buffalo mozzarella, and it’s good! If you look in a cheesemaking book here in the States, they pretty much say “Oh, it’s good. But you can’t make it here because you can’t get a supply of buffalo milk.” BUT – they have buffalo in Africa! Water buffalo. 
So began the desire to get a water buffalo. And here are my additional circumstantial justifications:
1) The African Water Buffalo is on the endangered species list, so someone needs to look out for them.
2) I could sing the Veggie Tales song and it would be true, so long as mine is slow. But I can only sing it to you if you get your own water buffalo, and yours is fast.
3) I think it would be great for making friends in Malawi!
4) Matt and I are both lactose intolerant, so we can have buffalo’s milk, but not cow’s milk.
5) They can fight off lions. Really. National Geographic said so.
I keep telling Matt that these – in addition to cheesemaking opportunities – are great reasons for getting a water buffalo. He’s not convinced. Yet. But he said maybe I should get some feedback from the blog. So now it’s up to you. Yea or Nay on the water buffalo?
Monthly Archives: September 2008
Meet the Biedebachs
One of the blessings we’re looking forward to in Malawi is being able to work in ministry with a family that we love. Meet the Biedebachs! Brian and Anita, Ami, Bradley, and Benjamin. 
The story of the Biedebachs and the Floreens is a fun one. Matt first met Brian and Anita in South Africa in the summer of 2001, on his way to Mozambique for a missions trip. Then, a few years later, an opportunity opened up for Matt to go to South Africa as an intern to work with the Biedebachs and the church there. So Matt spent all of 2005 with the Biedebachs, learning about life, construction, ministry, and everything in Africa. Move to ahead 2007… the Biedebachs move to Malawi to work with a church in Lilongwe and the ball starts rolling for the Floreens to go join them in ministry.
As we are heading to Malawi, we have thanked the Lord over and over again for this family. One of the incredible graces and joys we’ve been experiencing is that the Lord, even now, is putting on our hearts similar burdens and desires for ministry. As a small for instance, Matt and I are reading through the book of Acts right now, and we’ve been talking about Christian fellowship. A few days ago, Matt and Brian were talking, and Matt mentioned what he and I had been talking about. Brian’s been thinking about it too! He is just starting a preaching series through the book of Acts. And it’s been excited to see many other examples of God providentially leading us in the same direction as He prepares us for living and working together. Please pray for the Floreens and the Biedebachs, that the Lord would continue to knit our hearts together for ministry. It’s so exciting!
If you want some more info on the Biedebachs and what their life is like, you can click on the picture above to see their blog and learn more about them.
And Hi Biedebachs! We can’t wait to come see you!
Africa: More Than Just Flannelgraphs
We’re moving to Malawi! It’s a small country in Africa, but to many of us, Africa is one big country. Everybody has their own zebra, and they live in small huts on the edge of a vast desert. I’m quickly learning that this is not true. I think my perceptions of Africa are largely based on VBS missionary stories that were told with large colorful flannelgraph pictures. I figured I wasn’t going there, so I didn’t need to spend a lot of time making sure my mental image of Africa was accurate.
And here we are. We have plans to move to Malawi in the spring, and we’re going to visit – my first time to Africa! – in about 2 1/2 weeks. I’ll tell you a few things I know – or I think I know – about Malawi.
It’s green! That’s what I hear, and what I’ve seen in Matt’s pictures. Trees, fields, crops… it looks beautiful! Lake Malawi boarders most of the eastern edge of the country, which would explain the green.
Matt posted a lot of pictures of Malawi on his site – click on the picture below to see more.
It’s not always green, but they do have a rainy season and the lake, so it’s a lot more green than I thought it would be. There’s plenty of browns and reds too, especially in the bricks of the mud huts.
It is poor. I was just looking online to make sure I had the right info. Matt and I had been telling everyone that we had heard it was the 4th poorest country in the world, so I figured I’d check the stats before making any declarations in writing. I found several sites that said that Malawi was the poorest country. And then several commentators who said that those sites were all wrong. One thing they agree on: at a GDP of $800 per person, Malawi is definitely in the bottom ten.
The people of Malawi are happy. Happiness has nothing to do with money. The country is stable, they are able to survive from day to day. 
Matt was so struck by this that he took a series of pictures of the people of Malawi that he entitled African Joy. It’s a separate set of pictures from the ones we linked above, so click on this picture to see even more of Malawi!
The last thing I’ve learned about Malawi that I’ll mention here is that a lot of people have heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, but there has been little training in what to do with the gospel – how to teach the Word of God to others, how to apply the gospel to their lives as growing and learning Christians. That is what pierces my heart. I want to go. I want to give my life and my energies to helping them learn what this precious gift of the gospel is, how it can give them true life, hope, and joy.
The gospel is there. This reminds me that we are stepping into a great heritage of those who love the gospel and love Africa. Our desire is to be good stewards of this gospel, to encourage the church in Malawi, and to be a faithful brother and sister to the believers there who desire to learn and grow in truth.
Thanks for reading through the first blog post. We’re excited to have you join us as we start out on this journey. The next six months will be full of getting things ready to go, and I hope to share with you the funny stories and the random deep thoughts that fill our days.
“I have seen, at different times, the smoke of a thousand villages – villages whose people are without Christ, without God, and without hope in the world.”
– Robert Moffat, Scottish missionary to South Africa, son-in-law of David Livingstone