Saturdays almost always start with a Skype call to my parents, aka Nana and Papa. I get to talk to them by myself for a while first, and then when the girls are up at 7 they join me and share their happy early morning cheer. Abigail is fascinated by the 10 hour time difference, and Naomi loves showing off all her baby dolls.
Just as we were finishing up breakfast, Priscilla showed up. Priscilla, affectionately known to Naomi as “My Rilla,” works at our house on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, watching the girls in the morning and helping with odd jobs in the afternoon. While Matt’s away, I asked her to come on Saturdays too, because sometimes it’s just nice to have another adult around. And today it turned out to be especially helpful. The girls couldn’t care less if it’s helpful – they just love playing with her!
My first job of the day was to wash Naomi’s rain boots. It is the rainy season, but she wears these everywhere, rain or shine. I don’t know what was growing in them, but the stink coming from them was unbearable, as were Naomi’s feet. The feet soaked in an antiseptic bath, and the boots went three rounds with 1) antibacterial soap, 2) bleach, and 3) baking soda and vinegar.
Since the girls were occupied and the beloved boots de-toxified, I dragged myself to my computer and worked on finances and taxes. Blah. That’s all I’m going to say. No, I will add: if you like keeping track of finances and working on your taxes, you should move to another country and enjoy it in 2 currencies. Blah.
In the course of the morning, word spread quickly through the neighborhood that our friends and landlords, living just a block from us, had been visited by thieves during the night. The thieves had broken a hole in their wall and poisoned and killed their dogs. Nothing was stolen, but this seems to be a popular tactic – break the wall and get rid of the dogs one night, come back sometime in the next couple nights to steal things. We once had someone try this at our house, but our dogs were too big for the little poison they were given, and we had the fence repaired right away that day. And installed lights on the street to discourage it happening again.
As I head to bed shortly, I’m thankful for God’s care for us. I know we are in His hands no matter what happens. But I also know that we must be wise, and so I am very thankful for an excellent night watchman and 2 big dogs who sound pretty scary. Our guard told me not to worry tonight, Simba put on his best guard dog face, and Samson stretched in preparation for a night of walking the perimeter. We would all appreciate your prayers for our neighborhood the next few nights.
I spent the end of the morning visiting a friend, Susan, who is recovering from bacterial meningitis. She is back at home as of Thursday, and just today feeling well enough to want some reading material. If bacterial meningitis can be compared to an extreme migraine lasting for days and days, you can see how feeling well enough to read is real progress! So I took a few books to her, and some wonderful grapes!
Lunch went surprisingly well. Those of you who have/had little kids will know that lunch can either go surprisingly well, or it can be… let’s say, a series of great teaching moments.
After lunch, the girls had their rest time, Priscilla helped with a couple cleaning projects, and I tackled a problem with a candle sconce. As I was finishing up the blog post last night, I heard a dripping noise coming from the direction of the hall bathroom. I figured the girls had not turned the water off completely and it was slowly dripping. So I ignored it for a few minutes while I finished up on the computer. When I went to investigate, I found that it wasn’t water, but that one of our hall candle sconces had a hole in the base or catchment area. Every drop of wax that hit the tile floor splattered in a fine mist about 15 inches across the floor and up the wall. Oh dear. I stopped the dripping last night, but this afternoon I scraped all the wax with my pastry scraper (yay kitchen tools!), and decided to fix the offending candle sconce. So I got out the soldering iron and waited for it to heat up. And waited, and waited, and waited… Then I checked the wiring, changed the plug fuse, TOOK THE ENTIRE SOLDERING IRON APART! No good. It’s dead. So, when all else fails… I fixed the little hole in the candle sconce with a small piece of duct tape. Not one of my fancier fixes, but it will do for now!
Also during rest time, I had a counseling session for about an hour, our final session, wrapping up a short series with this counselee. It was a good series, and has challenged me personally to think more deeply  and biblically about the true nature of faith and God’s good purposes in our lives.
But rest time doesn’t last forever! “Mom! Let’s play tickle machine! Touch this knee to turn it on and I’ll tickle you, and this knee to turn it off!” My favorite part was when she thought I was taking too long between tickles and pushed her knee herself to turn on the tickle machine! Lots of giggles and fun times!
As I write out all the details of my day, I’m struck by how ordinary today was. The only missing part was Matt. But this is kind of how my days go: fix things, pray for God’s protection of us, visit or take care of someone who’s sick, drink lemonade and talk about true saving faith with a friend, play with my kids… I love this life. It’s full and it’s rich. I’m so thankful that this is where the Lord chose to put our family!
On April 19th, CAPA graduated its first class of Masters of Divinity students. These students had studied hard for 3 years, and it was a joy to cheer for them as they crossed the stage to receive their hoods and officially finish this arduous course.
It was fun to sit around and chat with this group, to hear what they’ve been learning and experiencing. Having interviewed some of the same students for multiple years, they are seeing growth in the lives of the CAPA students! They were also able to go to some of the students’ churches this weekend, and have been thinking through their experiences and pondering the ways in which they have seen God working – here in Malawi and in their own lives. You can check out the group’s blog here: 
As the sun set and dinner ended, the twinkle lights began to show in the trees. It’s hard to believe that there were no trees in the yard when we moved here! It’s such a nice space now!
We are thankful for the work this team is doing. They have conducted and transcribed 100+ interviews with the CAPA students this year. As the team finishes up the interviews and posts them online, you can get to know the students and hear their testimonies at: 
