A few things have changed around here, so it’s time for some updates…

Our cute little puppy of a couple months ago is quickly becoming a large dog.  Weighing in at around 45 pounds, Simba is now 4 months old, and this picture is a pretty accurate idea of what he spends his time doing – lying down and eating.  And if he’s not eating his food, he’ll gladly eat rocks, snails, entire maize stalks… anything that fits in his mouth!

Rachel is growing too, as she enters the second trimester.  Baby Flo is starting to make an appearance!

At 14 weeks, Baby Flo is doing great!  Matt got to come and see the ultrasound this time, and we marveled at God’s creative design as we watched Baby Flo lift up a hand to show us all 5 perfectly formed fingers – so tiny, but already there and moving around!

Another thing that’s growing is grass!  The rainy season was very late this year, but it’s finally here.  We’ve had rain every day for a week now, and it’s so beautifully green!  It feels like we brought the green home with us from vacation!

What’s growing here?  Our box of burned out electrical items!  Voltage spikes, brown outs, and all other kinds of electrical anomalies are a part of daily life here, so we try to protect our more important items (fridge, freezer, computers, etc) with voltage guards.  The guards lying on the ground are both dead due to a spike a couple weeks ago.  The one on the left has a little black hole one it where it burned completely through – but it protected Rachel’s computer!  The one on the right protected Matt’s computer, all his back-up drives, the printer, and the internet router, but when it burned up, it got so hot it burned the two holes in our wall!  On to the next set of voltage guards, and more lessons in Malawian electricity!

The Ladies’ Bible Study on 1 Peter has been fabulous!  They’re 16 weeks into the study, and just starting chapter 4.  All the ladies have learned so much from this small book and God has grown in each of them a greater appreciation for studying His Word carefully, thoroughly, and in context.  The graphic above was generated by Wordle.net, highlighting the key words for the book of 1 Peter.

And finally, though this has nothing to do with growth, a little glimpse into our adventurous lives here in Malawi – a Nile monitor lizard that we chased out of our kitchen last week.  He’s much smaller than other monitor lizards we’ve seen, but he made up for his size with aggression and snake-like movement!  We’re hoping this guy does NOT grow and come back for a visit!

After almost 9 months in Malawi, we decided to take a little time away. When you’re living in a new country, your “days off” are just as busy as your work days, so we knew we needed to go away to rest. And away we went…

To the Zomba plateau. It’s a 4 1/2 hour drive south of Lilongwe, and a whole world away! The ferns, trees, and GREEN overwhelmed us, and we started to relax right away.

We had rented a 2-bedroom cabin down a little dirt road, and thoroughly enjoyed a cozy fire to keep us warm in the evenings. It’s the hot time of year here in the southern hemisphere, but up on the plateau it was cool and brisk, and high enough in elevation that there are no mosquitos.

The first thing we did when we got to the cabin was take a walk. This is how we looked when we left for the walk…

And this is how we looked when we got back to the cabin. You might notice that we’re smiling even bigger in this picture – the rain was awesome!

We decided that this trip qualified for Christmas and birthday presents for both of us, but Rachel did have her actual birthday on this trip, so we went for a boat ride at a trout farm.

Matt thought that Rachel probably shouldn’t be paddling on her own birthday, so quickly took over paddling duty. =)

In between resting and reading, we saw quite a bit of the plateau, including William’s Falls…

And Chagwa Dam, a hidden, remote little lake that was one of our favorites.

One of us took A LOT of pictures on this trip and thoroughly enjoyed hauling a big camera across fields, through the rain, over waterfalls…

Same said adventurer conquered a few mountains in search of just one more photograph.

Our last adventure was exploring the western side of the plateau. We had tried to drive out this direction, but the roads were too eroded, even for 4-wheel drive. So we hiked them. It was almost 4.5 miles uphill to reach Chingwe’s Hole, a hole ~60 meters deep, situated right on the edge of the plateau, overlooking the valley and plains below. When we got to the cliff, this is what we saw. Fog and clouds!

But as we waited, the clouds lifted and the fog blew out of the valley – it was beautiful! Suddenly the 4.5 miles uphill was worth it!

On the way back down, the clouds settled back in, and we slipped and slid in the rain all the way down!

And we loved every minute of it. We drove home from our vacation feeling rested. Our times of refreshment in God’s Word and our times of enjoying the beauty and wonder of His creation are reminders of His grace to us, and we’re ready to jump back into life and ministry with a renewed excitement!

A couple weeks ago, we had a fantastic visit from Bryan Martin. Bryan went to seminary with Brian Biedebach, and when the Biedebachs delayed their return to Malawi, Brian and the leadership of GMI started looking for someone who could come fill the pulpit for a couple weeks in their absence. What a breath of fresh air! Bryan came all the way from New Zealand to preach for 2 Sundays, to encourage us, and to see a bit of the country and the ministry here in Malawi. We also lined up opportunities for him to speak twice in chapel at African Bible College, to take the first week of Brian Biedebach’s Sermon Preparation class, and to spend time with many of the Malawian and expatriate families in our church and community. I don’t think he had 10 minutes of time to himself in the week and a half he was here!

But what a great time for us! We so enjoyed long conversations about Malawi, ministry, life, and theology. Bryan has a very evident love for people, and we were the grateful recipients of his care for the whole time he was here. Bryan, thanks for your willingness to come and serve us. You have truly encouraged our hearts for the ministry God has here!

We mentioned the Biedebach family in our latest newsletter, but we realized that many of you may not know who they are. Here’s your introduction!

Brian and Anita, Ami (6), Bradley (4), Benjamin (2), and Allison (6 mo)

What a blessing it has been to work with this family! They have fed and housed us, helped us find our feet in a foreign country, invited us into ministry and relationships, challenged us to love Christ more, and taught us a hundred things about what it means to love and serve the church.

The Biedebachs left for furlough 3 months ago, and it looks like it will be another couple months before they are able to return to Malawi. They plan to stay in the States to get some help for Anita who is suffering repercussions of long-term (9 months!), undiagnosed appendicitis. For updates on the Biedebachs and Anita’s situation, you can check out their blog. But here are some favorite and recent pictures of our dear friends and partners in ministry.

Ami, Bradley, and Benjamin fill out the percussion section, helping Brian lead music for youth group.

October 12, at the airport, on their way to America!

We’re just a bit jealous of these more recent pictures, as the Biedebachs got to spend an evening hanging out with Matt’s parents in Camarillo, CA.

We do miss the Biedebachs, but we know that God has plans for them in these unexpected months in the States, and His plans are so much better than ours. And really, 2 more months of Costco, mild California winter, and Grace Community Church… that’s not so bad! We hope they can enjoy this time of rest, and we look forward to having them back in Malawi soon!

Baby Floreen!

For those of you as unskilled at reading these pictures as we are, Baby Floreen is at the bottom of the oval shape, between the two plus marks. Though only about the size of a blueberry right now, we decided it would be a good thing for Baby Floreen to get used to being in pictures at a very young age.

We’re planning to return to the States for delivery. We are officially due the 23rd of August, but are still working with airlines and doctors to figure out when we’ll be flying to the States. We’ll let you know! For now, Rachel feels like she just got off of a 35 hour plane ride… turbulence, airplane food, exhaustion!

And if you’re wondering, no, the baby’s name is not going to be “Florence.” I spelled Floreen several times for the ultrasound tech, and finally he said “Is this close enough?” Um, sure. =)

Christmas in Malawi was fabulous! We did miss the cold weather and snow, but we had no lack of good friends with whom to share the holidays!

We hosted 2 church Christmas parties in our home. We had about 60 people come to the parties over the 2 nights, playing games, talking, and eating lots of food.

We sang carols, read the Christmas story together, and had a great time!

We’re so thankful we were able to spend these days of celebrating Christ’s birth with our church family!

We hope these holidays have been full of times for you to reflect on the wonder of God’s plan of salvation, and on the beauty of His Son, Jesus! We are truly blessed to love and serve Him as we head into 2010! Happy New Year, from our family to yours!

We finally found him – our fierce and ferocious guard dog! He’s only 8 weeks old now, but this Great Dane / Rhodesian Ridgeback puppy will be one LARGE dog someday… soon.

His name is Simba. We thought that meant “lion,” but apparently Shumba means lion, and Simba means great or powerful. That works, we’ll keep it!

For now he’s practicing his ferocious moves on a pig’s ear. That ear doesn’t stand a chance!

Watch out bad guys!

With the summer rains come the mosquitos, and, around here, with mosquitos comes malaria. Before we moved to Malawi, we didn’t know a lot about malaria, and kind of expected that every mosquito here would be carrying it. Not true. Only the female of a certain species of mosquito carries malaria. Still, we’ve adopted a policy of trying to avoid ALL mosquitos. Because it’s not like they show their “I carry Malaria” ID card before they bite you…

Here are a few things we do to fend off the mozzies:

Frequently used items, sitting next to our front door: mosquito repellent spray, mosquito repellant cream, and sunblock. Don’t leave home without it.

We have 2 types of windows in our house, and this type doesn’t have a screen of any sort. The mosquitos come out from dusk to dawn, so we simply keep these windows closed from about 5pm until we get up in the morning.

We can’t keep all the windows closed, though! It’s summer here in the southern hemisphere, and it’s HOT! But check out these awkward windows – you can’t put a screen on the outside because they open outward, and you can’t put a screen on the inside, because then you can’t work the handles to open them…

Solution: mosquito netting curtains. Three lengths of mosquito netting firmly attached to the wall, but with enough overlap that you can pull them aside to open the windows.

But no system is foolproof, and the mozzies can still get in sometimes. They come in the doors with us when we get home at night, or in the windows we didn’t close on time. So we also use these “mosquito coils”. Think Citronella candle in incense form.

And we found these great handmade coil holders at the pottery place in Dedza!

The last defense against mosquitos is the net over our bed. Most bed nets hang from a frame about 3 feet below the ceiling. We decided to make our own and attach it to the ceiling so that we could put a fan inside our net; because otherwise it feels like sleeping in a cheesecloth bag!

And this is Matt’s design and Rachel’s sewing ability on display – we made it with 2 cords to raise and lower the net. If we lived in a tree, we’d be just like Swiss Family Robinson.

Safe and mosquito-free!

Lastly, we take a weekly medication as a malaria prophylaxis. We don’t have a picture of us taking a pill, but you should see some of the weird dreams that medicine gives us!

While we try our best to protect the health that God has given us, ultimately, He’s the one who determines if we get malaria or not. Our greatest comfort is the knowledge that if we do get any kind of weird disease, God will give us the grace we need to endure it. That knowledge keeps us from living in fear, and helps us enjoy life here in Malawi!

Making new friends is always fun, and here in Malawi it’s really easy. So we’re making a lot of friends, but some of them stand out above the rest. Meet the Banda family.

We first met Bright, on the far right, at our church where he helps lead worship every week. He’s a senior at African Bible College, and it’s been so great to get to know him over the last few months. About 2 weeks ago, he took us out to his village, Moya, and we were able to meet some of his family. One of his younger brothers is standing next to him, and his mother is next to me. Have you ever met someone that you immediately liked and wanted to spend more time with? Bright’s mom is one of those people for me, and I’m looking forward to getting to know her better.

The purpose of our visit, in addition to meeting Bright’s family, was to meet with the chief of his village about making door mats and area mats for our house. He makes the mats out of sisal, so Bright and his mom introduced us to the sisal plants around the village.

We bought a couple mats while we were there and put in an order for some more, larger mats. Then we took a look around the small village and met quite a few of the people who live there. This is the chief’s house and backyard fence.

Before we left that day, we took a tour of the Banda’s farm. It was fascinating! Bananas and rice in the boggy area near the river, tomatoes, lettuce, guava, maize, sweet potatoes, and so much more over the rest of the area. It’s all farmed by hand, machete, and hoe by 2 or 3 people. It was beautiful! They sent us home with lots of lettuce, tomatoes, and bananas, and they were so good! I was going to take a picture of them, but the electricity went out, which is not uncommon around here. So I made dinner in the dark and we ate by candlelight that night.

This last week, we were back in the neighborhood with Bright. After we confirmed a few things about the mat making process, Bright showed us another, larger variety of sisal. Some of you may recognize it as “mexican agave.”

He also showed us the sand mine that is a source of income for many people in the surrounding villages.

We’ll be back to this village many times over the coming weeks and months, so it’s fun to get to know some of the people and places. Please pray for us and for the Bandas, that we can encourage one another in the faith. And pray for us as we get to know the people of the village Moya, that we can be a testimony of God’s truth and salvation to them.

We’re starting a new study with the Ladies’ Bible Studies here at IBF. I’ll be leading the groups through the book of 1 Peter, with the helpful notes and lessons compiled by Lisa Hughes of Calvary Bible Church. I’m excited about the opportunity to continue studying with these ladies – we just finished A Woman’s High Calling by Elizabeth George this past Tuesday – and I’m super-excited to jump into this book of the Bible, rich with hope and encouragement.

I’d appreciate your prayers as I prepare and lead this study. I know that the Word of God is living and active (Hebrews 4:12-13), and I can’t wait to see it at work in my life and in the lives of all these ladies, my friends here in Lilongwe. Pray for the ladies in these studies too – for the continuing Tuesday morning group, and for the new Saturday afternoon group. It’s 21 weeks of really digging into God’s Word, so we’re all in need of diligence and the Spirit’s help to learn the truths of God’s Word as we walk through this book in the coming weeks and months!