Category Archives: Our House

It’s Hot!

by Rachel

Smoothies, popsicles, and fans are really important in our house right now, because it’s hot!

Hot season

The cold season petered out the first week of October, and this week the heat hit full force, making up for its late arrival. It’s been 90-95 degrees (F) the last few days! With no air conditioning, we close up the house about 8am to keep the cooler air inside, which means it’s 82 degrees in the house at 3pm. That’s not bad – it’s actually enjoyable with a fan and a popsicle!

But we know what’s coming next… in about a month it will start to rain! One thing we watch is our neighbor’s roof. Weird? Maybe. But it’s the most obvious sign of the season. Here it is now:

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Nice and rusty looking. We’ll post another picture in a month of so once the rain washes it clean!

The Hamlines

by Rachel

We had the great opportunity to host Paul and Gail Hamline for a couple weeks this past month.  Paul had come to teach a biblical counseling course at Central African Preaching Academy (CAPA), and Gail came to serve in any way she could.

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This couple blessed us like few people can. They were missionaries in Tanzania for 16 years, and their love for the Lord and understanding of east African culture were a great example to us. Spending time with them made us better love Christ, His church, and Africa.

Our girls loved Paul and Gail too, as they played surrogate grandparents during their stay. Gail and Abigail had more in common than rhyming names: they blew bubbles and read and made up great stories together. Naomi would light up and start waving as soon as she saw Paul. We’re thankful that the Lord has given us a home we can share, and for those who come to strengthen the Lord’s work here in Malawi!

A Biblical View of Money

by Rachel

Bible Study Begins

For the last 5 years, Matt has taught the youth group at our church.  But this year, Matt and Brian switched it up so Brian took the youth, and Matt took over the adult Tuesday evening Bible study.  We host it in our home and eat dinner together beforehand, so it’s a full family, full house ministry for us.  We have an average of about 12 adults attending, and about 3 kids who watch a What’s in the Bible? video in the next room.  Matt is teaching on a biblical view of money, so we’ve had some great times looking at the Bible together and discussing what God wants us to do with our money and possessions. This is an enormous topic that we face and must struggle with every day in (any part of) Africa.  Pray for this group when you think of us – we want to be certain that we are obeying what God calls us to in every area of our lives, including how we handle our money and possessions.

Dirty

by Rachel

Our water has been off almost every afternoon and evening this week.  A picture is worth a thousand words, right?  Well, here you go:

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We’d heard that the water main north of us had fallen off its pillars, so that explains a few things. Matt went out early a couple mornings ago just to see.

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I keep hoping that the water will be on at the end of the day so that I can clean up 2 very dirty little girls who live in this house. (Ok, let’s be honest, Mom wants a shower too!) But we’ve gotten good at the sponge bath routine before bedtime.

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No, there are no shadows on their faces. The smudges and streaks are dirt. And just look at that grubby hand! That’s just how it goes when we’re playing on tile floors and outdoors during the dry/dusty season

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Dirty and oh-so-happy! at the end of the day.  =)

Rumors

by Rachel

We just heard the rumor that there will be little or no water from tomorrow (23 April) until 15 May.  Yikes!  Our previous record was 4 days, but 22 days… oh boy.  We also heard that some of the higher ups don’t like this idea as it’s right before a major presidential election (20 May), so it may not be so bad as the original rumor suggested.  But it sounds like SOMETHING is coming down the pipes…. er, rather, NOT coming down the pipes.

So here’s what we’re doing tonight:

Water Shortage 1Mountains of laundry.  We just got back from church camp, and we have all the bedding from the FBC team of 8 who had been staying with us until this morning.  Mountains.  Rachel’s tapping out at midnight, so we’ll get 4 loads in and we’ll see how it goes for the rest of Mt Laundry.

Water Shortage 2Stocking up.  Matt (and Samson) are filling every available container with water.  We hear that they will send water bowsers around to neighborhoods periodically, but we’ll start with a stockpile and see how it goes.

Off to take a shower.  And flush the toilets one last time…

IBF Christmas Parties – Year 5!

by Rachel

Yep, these were our 5th Annual IBF Christmas Parties!  With a new baby in the house, we weren’t sure if we could host the parties this year, but Rachel’s parents came to help out and we knew we could do it with their help.  And we’re so glad we did.  We love these parties, and more importantly we’ve seen over the years the importance of these times together as a church body in fellowship, worship, and fun.

IBF Christmas Parties 2014 5The photo booth is always popular for a little fun.  It’s a good memory too, as we try to print off a bunch of the photos people have taken and then hand them out at church.

IBF Christmas Parties 2014 1We always have a game for the adults as well – this year’s game was 4 on a Couch.  The group at Wednesday night’s party was very competitive, with the women finally pulling off a win in something like quadruple overtime. And then at Friday night’s party, the men pulled off a nice, clean win.

IBF Christmas Parties 2014 2Good times of singing some favorite Christmas hymns.  “Hail the heav’n-born Prince of Peace! Hail the Sun of Righteousness! Light and life to all He brings, ris’n with healing in His wings. Mild He lays His glory by, born that man no more may die, born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth.”  What amazing truths to sing and celebrate together as a church family!

IBF Christmas Parties 2014 3Matt shared this year from Philippians 2 on the humility of Christ in the incarnation.

IBF Christmas Parties 2014 4It was a great time of celebrating together, and now we are looking forward to celebrating Christ’s resurrection together at Family Camp over Easter!

Around Our House… The Other Day

by Rachel

We’re a bit busy around our house these days… which would explain why the post entitled “Around Our House Today” didn’t get written for a couple days and so didn’t qualify as “today” any more.   =)  But like we said, we’re busy, so late is better than never! 

Here are a few of the things going on around our house right now…

Around the House01

Ladies’ Bible Study meets at our house every Tuesday morning.  We’ve averaged about 8-9 ladies every week, and we’re still enjoying the study through the Bible one book a week.  We just finished Psalms, and are on to Proverbs next week!

Around the House04

As 2 1/2 year olds, these three little ladies make our house a busy place!  (Yes, they were all born within a couple months of each other!) The Ayres family has been living with us for about 2 1/2 weeks, and Moriah Ayres is fitting right in!  Abi is, of course, enjoying playing host and general rabble-rouser.  And Rejoice, our housekeeper’s daughter, looks sweet and innocent, but she’s right in the mischief with Abi!

Around the House06

It’s rainy season, so the grass is green, the gutters are flowing, and the ferns, palms, ginger, and heliconia are lush and happy.

Around the House02

The grenadilla are happy too.  We’re picking fruit off the vines almost daily and enjoying grenadilla lemonade.

Around the House03

You know the people who collect spare cars in their front yard?  I feel like we do that with laundry appliances.  No really, there’s an explanation for the 3 dryers and 2 washers on our back porch.  2 dryers and 1 washer are broken.  And the one washer that does work isn’t ours – it’s the Ayres.  The guys mistakenly brought it over to our house when the container was unpacked.  We do have a new washer that came on the Ayres’ container, so it will come, the Ayres’ washer will go, an old dryer will go to be fixed, and then… somehow we’ll still have 5 appliances on our porch.  We are those people.  At least it’s not cars…

Around the House05

Titus (4) and Caleb (6) Ayres jumped right into school the week after they arrived.  School starts at 7:15, so they are up early every day!  And then they come home just before 1pm to work on homework – these guys are busy learning and making friends!

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Matt and Abi had a special father/daughter project morning.  It was a bring-your-own-toolkit kind of event.  They were blocking up holes under our gate and in our drains, because…

Around the House10

We got a puppy!  The Ayres got one too, so it’s puppy town around here now!  Samson is our new little guy, and he looks very much like his dad, Simba, did when we first got him!  Simba’s a little jealous of all the attention everyone’s giving his kids.

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Mac and Cheese night.  With all the kids in the house, we’ve eaten a few more kid-friendly foods lately.  The big kids didn’t seem to mind either.

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And we still get our regular, and not so regular, power outages.  Here Bethany’s looking over Jim’s shoulder to see pictures of light fixtures he found in town during the day.  Those two are spending a good part of each day, and several hours each night, working on plans and changes for their house.  It’s coming together, and I know they’re all eager to open all the boxes that came on their container and make that house their home!

Christmas Parties 2012

by Rachel

The Christmas parties were GREAT!  We had about 35 people the first night, and about 50 people the second night.

Christmas Party 2012

 

We had food, fellowship, a kids’ Christmas movie, Christmas pictionary, carols, and a devotional to go with the reading of Luke chapter two. We also had the photo booth again this year.  Here are a few of the great faces we captured there.

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We are so blessed to spend the Christmas season with these people, our friends and our family in Christ.  To all of you, friends and family, far and near, much love and a very Merry Christmas!

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Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas!

by Rachel

The Christmas Parties are coming!

PreChristmas Parties 1

This year we will be hosting the 4th annual International Bible Fellowship Church Christmas Parties at our home.  Over 2 nights, the 18th and the 20th, we will host everyone at our church who can make it to the parties.  Last year we had almost 60 people at each of the parties, for over 100 in our home over those 2 nights!

PreChristmas Parties 2

 

It makes for a busy week, but one that we love.  And it’s this week!

Ngumbi

by Rachel

Look at what we woke up to this morning!

We call them ngumbi, but you’d probably call them termites.  After the first big rain of the season, all the termites come out of their hills and look for new places to live, preferably places that have lights, like our house. It’s been raining off and on for the past couple days, so the termites had their annual “night out” last night and found their way into our house, despite closed doors and windows, and mosquito nets on the windows.

Would you believe that the Ministry of Health actually promotes eating ngumbi as a good source of protein?  Minus the wings, of course.  I think we’ll pass this year, but I will let you know that Matt’s favorite way to eat ngumbi is with a light sprinkling of cajan seasoning…