Malawi Flames Game

caught Cosmas sleeping

Cosmas & McGuire

Tunisia vs Malawi Flames

1st time in a movie theater, we saw Transformers 3

Caught McGuire sleeping

We went to the Malawi Flames National Team game in September. We took McGuire and Cosmas and had the BEST time. We definitely would like to go to another national game soon. The Flames played Tunisia and tied 0-0. If they would have won they would have been for sure in the African Cup of Nations. We also took McGuire and Cosmas to their first movie in a movie theater while in Blantyre.

Mt. Mulanje April 2011

Mt Mulanje

Mid to the end of April was spring break and Easter break. We were able to travel with the Hiroto’s to Mt. Mulanje, which is about a 5-6 hour drive south of Lilongwe. We arrived and ate at Jungle Pepper Pizza, which is like, the BEST pizza ever according to Kellen and (now) Jeff. After lunch we drove south to Mt. Mulanje. After arranging whom our porters would be (yes we had 4 of them for the 4 of us) we settled in for our last night of having a shower and a bed to sleep in. The next day we got up early and hiked for 6 long, hot, muggy, and hard hours. At one point we had to cross a river, which doesn’t have a bridge or handle bars to hold onto, or anti-slip footing. The river was raging (yes I’m over exaggerating) and the rocks to cross on were slippery and not easy to climb. I am not very agile, admittedly so, and the climb was rough, but we made it to the first hut before nighttime. We bathed off in the EXTREMELY cold river and cooked over an open fire. Part of the reason we had 4 porters to carry our stuff is we brought along a cooler. We wanted to have good food every night so we packed a cooler full of food. After soup, garlic bread, and tea we settled in for the night. 

The Hirotos are part of the “mountain club” which means they have the key to a cupboard in each of the cabins that stores pots, pans, silverware, plates, cups, and best of all, mattresses. We slept on mattresses on the floor in our sleeping bags. We woke up early the next morning and headed for the next cabin. This cabin is located at the base of the peak, so we were eager to get there in good time so we could relax the rest of the day before we hiked to the peak the next day. After hiking on slippery rocks and up steep paths, we arrived and repeated the process of the previous evening. We took cold baths in the river, refilled our water bottles and ate dinner to prepare for the peak the next morning. We woke up early and hiked to the peak. I have never had such a hard time hiking in my life. We were only 15 minutes into hiking to the peak when my calves and thighs cramped. I have never ever ever had that happen before. It really made me feel out of shape. After 3 hours we made it to the top. It was beautiful. You could see the tea plantations and the landscape perfectly up there. We spent a few minutes taking pictures then started heading back down. So, I said the hike up was hard, right? That’s because we were hiking up a 45-degree angle. The hardest part was descending. Again, being very unagile I lost my footing a number of times. I honestly thought that I was going to fall face first off the mountain. We took two of our porters with us, and (since I was the last one in line) one of them (who had no shoes on by the way) was hopping down the mountain while I shimmied on my butt down the rocks. Thank goodness I have plenty of padding on my hiney to allow me to shimmy down the side of the mountain J

When we reached the cabin we made our way towards the last cabin. The walk was beautiful. It wasn’t as hard of a hike to the last cabin, but was definitely one of the most beautiful hikes. The cabin sat at the base of one of the peaks/plateaus. We did the nightly ritual of bathing in the cold river and cooking dinner. We got up the next morning and headed towards the car. All in all it was a beautiful and wonderful trip. I love that I can now check off “backpacking” up a mountain, and I did it on my 25^th birthday. I thought I’d never enjoy backpacking up a mountain. Even though I don’t technically meet the criteria of a “legit” backpacker because I didn’t carry all my pots and pans and food myself I still had a great time. There is honestly nothing like being that high on the mountain and seeing God’s creation and beauty without rails or “safety” footing. 

opening birthday presents before we started our hike

on the tippy top of Mt. Mulanje

it was QUITE chilly

Kellen & Jeff swimming

Becca jumped in as well :)

Post from March 2011-Surgery in a 3rd World Country

Jeff, Becca and Kellen Hiroto, and I went hiking at Nkhoma one weekend. We decided to go “off the beaten path” and it was super hot so no one wanted to wear pants. I mean, we wore shorts, it was just too hot for pants. It was the end of rainy season, the brush was grown over and the paths were unclear. Every step was an unpredictable motion towards the peak. If there was a hole, the only way you knew it was there was when you stepped in it. I like going off the marked path, especially when you’re with someone that’s climbed the mountain a number of times before (Kellen & Becca).

On the hike up the mountain I remember being bitten by something. It hurt so bad I looked around to see if it was a snake. We kept hiking and eventually made it to the top. I checked my leg out when we got to the top and noticed there were 2 holes where the bite was, but it didn’t look like a snake bite. Later that evening the bite started itching really bad. I was really sleepy and didn’t feel great, but thought it was just from hiking that day.  Well, three weeks of antibiotics later my leg had a massive boil-looking thing on the bite area. I was referred to the big Korean hospital here, called Dae Young Luke. They receive doctors and interns from Korea, the UK and the United States on a regular basis. Anyway, I met with the Malawian surgeon there, and he told me I had to have it surgically cleaned out. The bite was infecting the tissues around my calf and I needed to have it cleaned out. Lovely, right? Right, so I thought he would just give me local anesthesia so I could be awake for the whole procedure. Nope, I was completely under. The whole procedure took maybe 30 minutes. Danie, my good friend here from California accompanied me to the surgery since Jeff was busy teaching class. Now I’ve got a wonderful scar and another check on my list of things I’ve done. Surgery in a third world country, CHECK!

Panga knife used to beat down the overgrown brush

Near the top of Nkhoma...post spider bite

Mid Term Break

Midterms start next Tuesday and it is a much needed “break” for me. I feel like things have not slowed down since taking over as Athletic Director but this will be a chance to relax and breath. Monday is Mother’s Day in Malawi so that means a holiday from all classes and sports!

We have started doing sports outreach and it is exciting to use sports as a means to share the gospel of Christ and disciple young people! The ABC athletes are totally excited about using their talents to glorify God. We are currently going to high schools around Lilongwe to do outreach as well as working with Chisomo Idea to reach students through a soccer academy.

Four out of our five sports teams are in leagues and the men’s basketball team is currently in 1^st place in their league. The other teams are doing well and glorifying God through their playing. It is so exciting to watch as our teams share with the other team before or after matches about the ultimate reason for playing is to glorify their mighty God! What a joy to be a part of!

One thing that has come up with sports becoming more involved in leagues and especially outreach to local high schools is the need for more transportation. Chisomo Idea has a van they are wanting to sell in order to buy a bigger one for their transport needs. It will be around $4000 to purchase the van for ABC to use for its various needs (sports being a great need). If you are interested in helping out, please let me know by emailing (jwhite916@gmail.com).

To end I would like to let everyone know that Carson and I will be returning to Texas Dec. 16-Jan. 16 to visit family and friends over the Christmas break. We would love to reconnect with you so please let us know if you want to hang out, eat breakfast, lunch or dinner together, or meet up for a short time.

We love you guys and are thankful to our Lord for the love you show us!

Because of Jesus,

Jeff

A Special Thank You

This is a video I did for my former teammates at Rider High School who gave money to buy brand new Nike uniforms for the ABC Lions Soccer Team. They all sponsored the number they wore in high school in order to purchase all the jerseys. A special thanks to Patrick McCauley and Jeff Jacobs for coordinating the fundraising, purchasing the uniforms, getting them screen printed and to the team from Faith Baptist to bring to Malawi! We are truly grateful to the Lord for people who care about the students at ABC and are willing to help out in various ways.

Because of Jesus,
Jeff

Vitumbiko Nyoni

Catch up post. This incident happened in late February.

           Malaria has been bad this year.  I don’t know how bad malaria season has been in the past, but Dr. Young (who’s been here more than 5 years) says this is one of the worst.  One of the silly problems we face on campus is the students think they’re immune to malaria, so they don’t sleep under their nets that are issued to them at the beginning of the school year. They believe that since they’ve been in Malawi all their lives and they’ve had malaria before that they won’t get it or won’t have a severe case of it.

            Vitu was a really really good volleyball player. He was as tall if not taller than Jeff. He would spike it (or as they say in Malawi, bang it) really hard. The volleyball team gained a huge threat when Vitu joined the team at the beginning of the year. He was a freshman and in the little time he was here, he was proving to be a major threat to the other team during volleyball matches. He had one of those smiles that stretched from ear to ear. He was a quiet guy, but was a loud voice on the volleyball court. When he was asked who his friends on campus were he immediately would say the volleyball team.

            The volleyball team had a tournament in Salima (near the lake) one weekend. They played very well, and once again Vitu proved how powerful he was on the court. He wasn’t acting sick, didn’t hold back while playing, so no one thought anything was wrong with him. Monday morning Vitu went to a local government hospital. While you don’t have to pay to be seen at the government hospital, the line (or cue) is usually really long and it’s not always guaranteed they’ll have the correct medicines available. Vitu sat in the line and after some time (and having lab tests done) it was confirmed he had malaria. The medicines were not available for him to get, so Vitu went back to the ABC campus.

Side note: it has been rumored that there’s not enough or no meds readily available for clinics and hospitals to give out for malaria. There’s been a number of times that patient’s family members at our clinic said they went to another clinic or health center in a village earlier and they didn’t have the malaria meds, so they had to come to our clinic because we have them in stock. We’re not the only clinic that has them in stock, but we have them so we’ve had a larger number of really sick kids come to the clinic.

            Anyway, on Wednesday Vitu came to the ABC clinic and was diagnosed with 4+ malaria. We were unaware of how long Vitu had severe malaria because he didn’t have the test results from his previous visit to the hospital on Monday. Vitu was started on IV quinine that afternoon due to him having 4+ malaria, just like any other patient would have been. Before I left on Wednesday afternoon, I stuck my head into Vitu’s room to say that I was going home (or as they say knocking off) for the day. He looked fine, told me to have a good night and off I went on my 2.5-second walk to my house (which is literally a 2.5 second walk from the ward). About 5:30 that evening Vitu went unconscious. The nurses couldn’t wake him up. Michelle and Amanda, his volleyball coaches, were there shortly after Vitu went unconscious. Even though Vitu was in that state, he was still vomiting quite a bit of green emesis. The nurses were constantly cleaning up his vomit, and it seemed like no amount of medicine stopped him from vomiting.

Vitu’s vital signs stayed stable, and he continued to receive IV quinine, but now every 8 hours instead of every 12 hours. Danford, a medical assistant at the clinic, and Dr. Young were called to come assess Vitu. After much deliberation, it was decided that prayer and the every 8-hour IV quinine were Vitu’s best hope. Danford stayed with Vitu most of the night. Eventually during the night Vitu had to have a catheter inserted and his fever was uncontrollable. Sponge baths and lots of Tylenol (suppositories of course) were done to control his temperature.

            In the morning when I arrived at work I found Vitu in this terrible state. His uncle that is living in Lilongwe was there, and the uncle said he had called Vitu’s parents to travel to Lilongwe from Mzuzu (which is about 6 hours away, by car). All day we prayed, monitored, and prayed some more for Vitu’s condition to improve. Every time I’d walk into his room to check on him I’d sternal rub him and he’d move a bit. A few times he’d even open his eyes and flutter his eyelashes, but he never regained full consciousness. At this point his urine was turning dark brown. A nickname for malaria is black water fever since it turns your urine black, literally. He was proving to have this symptom. We checked Vitu’s parasite level on Thursday and it was only down from a 4+ to a 3+(this was after 4 doses of IV quinine, which usually drops your parasite level quickly). We continued his IV quinine and eventually his father and mother arrived later that evening. His parents were gracious for all the medical care, and many of the college students visited Vitu and pray/encourage Vitu’s family. I can’t begin to express the amount of students that were constantly in and out of the ward while Vitu was there. The nurses at the ward even started complaining because they couldn’t do any nursing care because Vitu’s room was always so crowded.

            Friday was another eventful day of IV quinine. No improvements were seen in Vitu’s condition. His urine was still dark brown, his parasite level was still 3+ and he wasn’t showing any signs of regaining consciousness soon. We still had hope though, because we had heard of a girl that had 4+ malaria and was in a deep coma for 4 days, and miraculously regained consciousness. She is a missionary family’s child who is attending Rift Valley Academy in Kenya. Again, we prayed and prayed for Vitu to wake up and show us that stunning smile.

            Saturday morning around 8:25 I was called by the nurse to come down to the ward, and to come fast. I knew. I rushed down and ran into Vitu’s room. The matron (charge nurse) and another nurse were present in his room. I felt for a pulse and felt none. I started chest compressions, but no one else moved to help. The charge nurse lowered her head I stopped. I stopped because I knew it was time for him to go be with Christ. His mother, father, and uncle were present. I ran down to the clinic and tried to find a clinical officer to come confirm Vitu’s death (something that is “required” to pronounce someone dead, or so I’m told by the nurses). When I entered the ward I could hear the wailing. I wrote in an earlier blog posting about the wailing that occurs after someone has died. Wailing is appropriate after someone has died because it conveys how sad the family is. But, to hear someone wailing after tragic events eats away at your nerves and soul. Vitu’s mother was by his side screaming and tears running down her face. The father had left the room, and an aunt was holding Vitu’s mother up while she was grasping his arm. I entered the room and the matron, Dora, had gathered a few of the nurses to help prepare the body for transport to the mortuary. While Dora and I were wrapping the sheet around Vitu one of the students entered the room to help. We asked him to get Vitu’s blanket from his room, and when he returned he returned with the blanket and a crowd of students. As we were waiting for the student to return with Vitu’s blankets (that’s what people wrap the dead body in temporarily before they prepare it for burial) I made the mistake of looking at Dora, the matron, and we both burst into uncontrollable tears. We hugged each other and sobbed. We didn’t realize it at the time, but the news of Vitu’s death had spread throughout the campus like a wildfire. A few of the students entered the room to help prepare Vitu for transport. Oh, we needed the help, because Vitu was extremely tall. When we were ready to wheel his body out of the room and into the ambulance we were greeted by a huge mob of students. We wheeled him out and I couldn’t move the gurney any further without hitting a student. Wheeling him down the hallway I saw nearly all the students. Walking outside I saw even more students along with several of the ABC faculty.

            Traditionally, the family members and a clinic staff member rides in the back of the ambulance to the mortuary, and the mother rides in the front seat. Rosemary and I rode with the uncle, father, and aunt. We took the campus truck and many of the ABC faculty took their cars and loaded up as many of the students as possible (also another tradition when someone dies. Everyone that’s around must/usually goes to the mortuary to unload the body). One of our nurses that knew Vitu and his family for a long time rode in the front with the mother because she was crying and heaving uncontrollably. The nurse held her the whole ride to KCH (to the mortuary) and I was very thankful to her for being there to comfort his mom. When we arrived at KCH Rosemary told me to have some of the students help put the body in the morgue. I selected a few students (strong students mind you) to help take Vitu out. I helped with the head and directed them to the room that the mortuary staff guy pointed out for me. When I opened the door there were already 4 bodies wrapped in colorful chitenjes in the room. Since I was at the head I had to go into the room first. The whole time I was thinking “please Lord don’t let me get stuck in this room.” We placed Vitu’s body in the room on the shelf where another body was already placed, and wheeled the gurney back to the ambulance. The family loaded back up in the ambulance along with all the students loading back up in the ABC faculty’s cars and headed back to ABC.

            Next we had to decide the funeral plans. In Malawi there’s a culturally acceptable protocol that institutions follow when a death occurs. After long discussions with the family (the seniors and leaders of the student body and the dean of students and the athletic director were directly involved, not me, I’m a girl so I can’t be involved because it’s not culturally acceptable) it was decided the funeral would take place Monday afternoon, but we would travel to his home village about 2-3 hours outside of Mzuzu (a 6 hour drive) the following day. I was asked by the uncle to attend the funeral since I had a lot of involvement in Vitu’s medical care. I was hesitant at first, because I was nervous about not knowing all the “culturally appropriate” things to do/say, but accepted because I knew I needed to put my selfish desires aside and go because it’d mean a lot to the family, and (I’d realize later on) how much it’d mean to me. So Jeff, Michelle, and I rented a minibus to take the volleyball team and the college rented a coaster (big bus) to take the body, the family, and a few of the students.

The following day we had the memorial service so all of the students could pay their respects. I was asked to give an account of what happened to Vitu’s physical body. I’ve always been nervous about being in front of people, but have been able to semi-keep it together when speaking in front of a large group. Not that day. I literally don’t know what I said up there, it was too hard, too nerve wracking, and I was trying not to cry. That trick that we learned the first semester of nursing school on how NOT to cry was being put to practice the entire time I was speaking. After the service we loaded up the vehicles and headed to the village outside of Mzuzu. The ride was uneventful, and we drove those vehicles on roads I thought for sure we’d have popped a tire. Anyway, we arrived at around 11pm and were greeted by the family. The uncle led us behind the house and introduced us and all the students that traveled as well (probably at least 25) to the elders of the village. The women were inside the house singing. Rosemary told me they’d sing all night, and wouldn’t stop until after the funeral service the following day. The women take turns, but they sing and wail and pray all night. After eating nsima, beans, and greens the girls (Michelle, Amanda, me, and some of the students) were lead to a house about 5-7 minutes away from the house where the men would sleep. It made us a little nervous, but we found out that a few of the male students were going to sleep near us, which made me feel a bit safer. We slept on the floor on reed mats snuggled up next to each other. One of the students that slept in the room snored so loud I woke up at least every hour!

The following morning we woke up and were told we could help prepare the meal for the family. As customary, the workplace/school/whatever pays for the meal for the family and funeral attendees. I found out this is the reason we brought the girl students. They were to prepare the meal while the guys went to the area where the funeral was to be held and sang. The guys were gone about 2-3 hours before they returned exhausted from singing for so long. They came back and sat right down while the girls continued to cook. Of course that didn’t sit well with me J

Next we made sure all the food was prepared (I learned how to cook pumpkin, Rosemary let us all stir the nsima) we brought it to the funeral area and also sang. We sang about 2 hours before anyone got up and spoke about Vitu. Then we lined up and all passed by the body to view it one last time before we took the body to be buried. After this processional men took 2 large long branches and placed the coffin on it and carried the body to the burial area. The entire village (ok over exaggerating, but it felt like a whole village) walked to the burial area. When we arrived many speeches were made. I was asked to speak again about what happened to Vitu’s body, and had one of the students translate what I said. That is harder than you think. If you’re not paying close attention you get caught up into what the translator is saying and forget to speak again. Also, if you say like, 3 words, sometimes it takes 3 sentences to translate what you meant! Anyway, I was able to do that on behalf of the clinic, and then Rosemary and I were part of the processional of placing a decoration on the grave once the casket was placed into the ground. After this we told the family we needed to get back to Lilongwe, as the students needed to return to classes. When we said goodbye to Vitu’s mom and dad, they asked that we return to their home village under different circumstances next time. They asked that we come and stay when it’s not for a sad reason, but for a happy one. This made Michelle, Amanda, and I sad, but we smiled and said we wanted to return some day soon. It was hard for me to leave Vitu’s uncle. I think that’s when I cried again. It was hard saying bye to the man I had prayed so hard with for Vitu’s physical recovery. After parting ways with the family we hopped back onto the bus and made the 6-hour drive home.

Looking back (and I literally mean looking back since this whole incident happened in February) I think this situation taught me how this earth is not the end of it for those who believe in Christ. Death is not the end of you it’s only the beginning. We don’t have to be super scared or sad about death because it’s temporary. Your life, my life, our lives are temporary on this earth. We get to see Christ when we get off this stupid earth! How amazing is that? We get to see Christ, our creator, the ultimate healer, the Maker, the Creator, the BOSS! This whole incident opened my eyes to that truth. While I am still sad and upset the whole situation had to happen, I now see the glory of Christ in it. I see how it was all in his plan.

Now, we’re more heightened than ever when someone, student or staff member, say they feel like they have malaria. I think we almost had malaria mafia around the campus. We will never forget Vitumbiku Nyoni, and I will never forget the student that brought such unity in a place. 

Vitu playing volleyball. He was AH-mazing at volleyball

REALLY long overdue post-Christmas 2010

Ok, I'm trying to catch up on all the blog posts I didn't do. I know this is way out of sequence, but I still wanted to post. I will attempt to catch up to present day.

No, we didn’t open presents. We had something better! We had BACON! Ok, obviously I was not thrilled to eat this (and I didn’t eat it), but Jeff and Mike were stoked to eat bacon for Christmas morning breakfast (bacon is different here, and hard to cook to make it taste like bacon from the States). We invited Mike and Danie over for Christmas morning dinner. Danie wasn’t able to make it because only 3 days earlier she had to fly home because her mom was placed on a ventilator and in ICU and was not doing very well. So, it was just Mike and us for Christmas morning breakfast burritos. After gorging ourselves on breakfast we headed to church. We were informed the week earlier in church that we should bring a present that we would like to give away, but it had to be a gift that we either knew someone would want or we would want ourselves. Mike gave away some sweet shoes that looked like Converse shoes he had recently bought. We gave a big bag of maize (which you make nsima from) and sugar. We placed all our gifts on a table in front of the church and we were placed in groups. We were given gift bags and told to fill them with 2 items. By the time we got to the front there were clothes and money left. We chose the clothes. Then, pastor Sean said we should give the items to someone who is overlooked, isn’t thinking about celebrating the risen Savior, and is working on Christmas day. My partner said she was going to give the clothes to someone in her neighborhood that she knew needed the clothes, and was working that day. Jeff and Mike were not sure who they were going to give their items to. We paired up with 2 guys, one that’s an ABC student, and one that’s attending the Assemblies of God College. The guys wanted to take their items to the construction workers that were close to the church. When we approached them the guys (speaking Chichewa of course) asked the worker if he knew what today was. He said in a non-enthusiastic voice that it was Christmas day. The guys went on to explain that it wasn’t JUST Christmas day, but it was the day the Savior of the universe was born and came to rescue us from our sins. After a few minutes of explaining this, and giving the gifts (a shirt and some money, and of course an invite to Flood Church) we prayed with the guy and wished him a Merry Christmas.

            Next we had to give Mike and Jeff’s gifts. We drove near the ABC campus where some shepherd boys were taking care of about 50 goats. We gave them what we had brought for them (2 shirts and some money) and the Malawians we were with asked them if they’d ever heard the story of Jesus’ birth. They said they had, and the guys asked them if they knew that the shepherds were the first to hear about Jesus’ birth. They said they had. It was neat being around actual shepherd kids on Christmas day. I can only imagine, and wish I was a fly on a….well, piece of livestock at the moment the angels were proclaiming Christ’s birth!

After that cool interaction we went home and started preparing dinner. We had Chris, Jenn, Mike, and Jeff and me for our “family” Christmas dinner. Even though we didn’t have a lot of the traditional foods we all eat, we still had some tasty things to eat. For dessert? Peach cobbler of course! That was a treat since peaches weren’t anywhere to be found around Lilongwe at Christmas time. I had bought peaches a month before and froze them to make the cobbler. After that we all gathered around the projector and watched Chevy Chases’ Christmas Vacation. It’s just not the holiday season until you watch a few of these classic movies, and that one is definitely on our list. Jeff had downloaded it from iTunes, which of course took 3 days to fully download. We also did a drive by to Crisis Nursery. It was great getting to see the kids on Christmas. The kids had received presents from someone or an organization earlier in the day because there were new toys all over the place.

All in all it was a great Christmas. We all missed our families terribly, but we still made the most and best of Christmas.

School Starts Soon!

Students return to campus on August 22 and classes start on August 24. Over the next week I will be preparing my Philosophy of Education course as well as an outline for PE courses. I could use much prayer as I prepare these courses. Along with preparing courses, I will be working on getting the sports facilities fixed for the upcoming semester (repairing backboards, fixing the gym floor, doing inventory of equipment). One of the things I am most excited about though is working with Cosmas Phiri, a 2011 ABC graduate and sports intern for this school year, to revive sports outreach through ABC. We are working with government high schools to come in once a week to train the sports teams and share the gospel with the athletes. The headmasters (principals) have been very receptive so far which we praise God for! Can you imagine in the States going to a public high school and saying you want to partner in sports (which would be okay) and then tell them you want to share the gospel of Jesus Christ also? I was ready for the headmasters to decline when we talked about sharing our faith but that seemed to make it an even better reason for them to partner! Praise God!

New ABC Athletics logo on jerseys. Thanks Josh Deerinwater!

Miss Limbe is an ABC graduate and Grambling State graduate (Masters and PhD). She is an Education professor. She also lived in the Great State of Texas for 3 years.

Chisomo Idea - One of the sports ministries we will partner with. They have a girls soccer team that is developing!

Please pray for this upcoming semester and year that God would work in the students’ lives and spur them on to glorify His name! Pray that sports would be more than a game but would be used to evangelize and disciple! Pray for the staff as we seek to be Godly examples and teach truth!

Thank you for your continued support as we move into our second year in Malawi! We love you all with the love of Christ!

Because of Jesus,

Jeff

Summer Recap

The summer break has been tremendous. Here is a short summary of some of the activities:

July 1-8 – We had a team of 14 from Faith Baptist come and visit and do ministry with us. It was a very encouraging and rewarding time for us and we pray it was for them as well. We visited a few different ministries and they were really excited about working with Kellen and Becca Hiroto and the ministry they oversee, Bright Vision. It was great getting to visit with friends from Wichita Falls and show them what we do in Malawi! We pray for a continued partnership and people to continually come back and visit! There were too many highlights to name all of them, but I will mention one. We went to the prison (because of the fuel shortage we were not able to go on a mobile clinic) the last full day the group was here. On the men’s side Josh preached the gospel boldly to a group of maybe 75. He painted a beautiful picture of how Jesus is the only way to be truly free and He died and rose for each one of us. When he finished, about 20 men prayed to receive Christ as their personal Lord and Savior and it was a truly amazing time! What a joy to serve a living God who cares about those in prison in Lilongwe, Malawi!

Carson’s mom, Kelley, was here from May 6-July 10 and it was a wonderful getting to spend so much time with her. She loved on some of the babies we were taking care of from Crisis Nursery, did some mobile clinics with Carson, made some yummy salads, and a million other things while she was here. It was good to spend time with her and let her get a glimpse of what we do at ABC.

Jeff’s dad, Greg, was here from July 13-August 8. We were somewhat limited in our traveling because of a current fuel crisis. It was great getting to see him and spend so much time just hanging out. We went to the prison to watch a soccer match and share the gospel, went to a village and stayed the night and Jeff preached in the church on Sunday, and of course he loved on babies from Crisis Nursery! He was also able to meet the student that he sponsored last year and that was a great experience.

With all of our visitors we received tons of gifts/goodies that are not necessities but very nice to have! If you helped get those things, we really appreciate it! We have enjoyed having goodies from the States very much and our friends here are also very thankful as we share with them (since we are spoiled and you guys sent us so much)! We are also grateful for all the gifts for the ministries we do here. We got new soccer uniforms and balls, 21 new Christian Education books for the College library (which is an area that is desperately lacking), and new volleyballs and basketballs! We also received handmade quilts for Crisis Nursery. And the list goes on and on of all the things that were sent with the team from Faith and our parents. We are truly grateful and humbled by your response to our wants/needs!

We love you all!

Because of Jesus,

Jeff and Carson

End of School

School, both College and Academy, has been extra crazy over the past month. From banquets to graduations and everything in between, I did not have much time to relax and update on everything going on. Here is a blog about the last month of school.

For the College there were many things that happened since mid May. The senior baccalaureate service was the last Sunday of May. It is a worship service to honor the graduates and praise God for an amazing four years. The college students in the music department put on an end of the year concert that was truly amazing. There are a few videos on our Youtube page (http://www.youtube.com/user/jeffandcarson) of songs from the concert. They are simply amazing and the music is beautiful! The night after the concert we had the senior banquet. It is put on at the Capital Hotel and is a very nice dinner and time of sharing about the four years. About half of the seniors shared about God’s faithfulness to them throughout their experience of ABC. We really enjoyed hearing the Christ-centeredness of many of the students. College graduation was June 4 and was one of the best experiences of the year. Our gym was packed with family and friends of the 43 graduates. A representative from the US Embassy spoke as well as 2 representatives from the Malawi Ministry of Education. It was nice to have distinguished guests at such a special occasion. A pastor from a Presbyterian Church in Mississippi was our keynote speaker and did a phenomenal job of charging the students to stay Christ-centered in everything they do because education without Christ does not change the world! As the students received their diplomas the atmosphere was electric! Cheering and shouting and just a great time! Graduation was a picture of why I do what I do. God has sent me to be a professor and teacher to disciple and teach students to have a biblical worldview and to leave and change the world! Many of the students are going to do just that and it spurs me on to continue doing what God has called me to do.

A boat trip during the Senior Trip to Lake Malawi National Park

Seniors 2011!!! Lake Malawi National Park 

4 Senior Men - (L to R)Titu, Blessings, me, Ben, Leonard

Cosmas in the middle with his mom and uncle. Cos is a 2011 graduate and will be a Sports Intern for ABC.

Me in my graduation garb. That (crazy) lady behind me is Michelle Halemeier, the volleyball coach.

Shonduri on the right was the 2011 valedictorian!

Charles one of the 2011 graduates. This is right after the grad ceremony.

The Academy just came to a close on June 15. It was a great year of learning how to teach and relying on the Lord to really work through me. I learned a lot through teaching middle school students and am thankful for the experience. One of the highest honors was being asked by the administration to be the keynote speaker at the Academy graduation. We had 5 graduation seniors (largest graduation class so far from ABCCA). The valedictorian gave a phenomenal speech about keeping Christ first and not straying off that path and I spoke about the very same thing! I used Philippians 3:1-11 with 1:21 as a conclusion about keeping the heart that everything is for the Lord. God wove our 2 speeches together beautifully to make graduation more of worship to God than anything else!

The group from Faith Baptist arrives 2 weeks from today and we are super excited about showing them around Malawi and the various things that are happening here. We thank God for everyone who supports us in various ways and are grateful that God has woven everything together for His glory and our joy! Praise God for His faithfulness to those who love Him and call on His name!

Because of Jesus,

Jeff

Its May! Crazy Busy in School Life!

Things have been EXTREMELY busy lately. Once we came off Easter Break things have not slowed down. Carson’s mom arrived May 6 around noon and that night we had the Junior/Senior Banquet for the College students. The Juniors did an amazing job putting on the banquet for the Seniors. The next morning we had Super Saturday. This is a day of competition among the four classes and in theory, the staff has a team. I ran the 100 meter dash (forward and backward). Yes I can hear all of you laughing about how slow I am. I did win the longest goal kick which did not require running. I participated in the high jump since I had so much experience from my junior high days.

It was a great day that ended with a braii (African cookout) and the eating of smores around bonfires! The Seniors won the whole competition.

We are now looking forward to the Senior Trip to Lake Malawi this coming Friday-Sunday, May 20-22. It will basically be like going to summer camp for a few days. The Seniors are super excited as well as Carson and me.

Here is a link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NHikBwCpKs&feature=channel_video_title) to about 3 minutes of video (it is raw footage) for the Good News Club outreach I do with the College students on Thursdays. This coming Thursday is the last day for outreach for this school year.

As I posted earlier, I will be taking over College athletics in July. If you want to be a part of that please email or Facebook me. There are some things happening in Wichita Falls of collecting sports equipment and stuff to send us. We will focus on a few things this coming year including reaching out with the gospel of Christ through sports!

Thank you for praying for us and loving us! Specific prayer requests are a good end to this school year (3 weeks of College and 5 weeks of Academy) and preparations for summer teams coming to go smoothly.

Because of Jesus,

Jeff

1 Year B-Day catch up post #4

OK, It’s no surprise that Shaddy and Meesh are our favorites at Crisis. Their birthday was December 22, so we decided to throw them a mini birthday party. We made brownies and brought crates of drinks for the mommies that staff the nursery. We let the kids have some of the brownies as well, and it was a disaster. The kids, I guess, had never had something that sweet before, and the moment Caroline (one of the mommies) sat on the floor and tried to hand each kid a small brownie, they swarmed her and the plate of brownies was all over the floor! We also brought balloons, but most of the kids were afraid of them. Kondwani (one of the older kids) ran away from me, terrified of the balloons. Of course it was entertaining so I chased him around the nursery with the balloon. Meesh had fun trying to bite the balloons and after the first two popped I decided he didn’t need to be playing with the balloons anymore.

We were able to sing happy birthday to Shaddy and Meesh, and we got to Skype with my mom and sister for a bit. They also sang them happy birthday. It was fun to get to celebrate their one-year birthday, because birthdays are not celebrated very much at Crisis. It is very busy and stressful for the mommies, and there are more than 20 kids there, so it’s hard to remember EVERY single child’s birthday. That’s why I’m glad that we were able to provide a tiny birthday party for them. It’s fun for the kids, but also fun for the mommies. After we got back from the party I was looking through my pictures of Shaddy and Meesh when we first arrived in Malawi. They looked tiny compared to their one–year-old pictures. I think it’s neat how fast children grow and change, and I don’t think I realized how much Shaddy and Meesh had grown until I saw the pictures from July.

Anyway, Shaddy and Meesh have recently gone to a foster home (late Feb is when they were placed in the foster home). The foster family goes to church at IBF which is on the ABC campus. I have not seen the boys since they’ve been placed, but I hear they are thriving and doing well. While Jeff and I miss them terribly, we know they are in a great home being loved on and raised in a Christian environment. And now we’re extra happy we took pictures of them when we got here up until now, because we can share those pictures with the family. So when the boys grow up they will be able to have pictures of themselves when they were younger!

Happy Birthday Shaddy and Meesh!

It’s ALL About Jesus,

Carson

Birthday boys!

I like Shaddy's sweet smile in this one!

Whoah, surprised Shaddy in this picture!

This was the "attack of the kids" moment...notice Meesh reaching in for more brownies

This picture was taken when Shaddy and Meesh came to stay with us for a weekend because both of them had really high fevers. Amazing what Tylenol and Ibuprofen syrup do around the clock. We had them playing and splashing in the tub in no time!

Shaddy had figured out how to splash himself in the face...

splash wars!

the plastic bottle was more interesting than any of the toys we had for them to play with

oh, Jeff's hat was more interesting than the bottle

sleep-drunk Shaddy

random day at crisis

Shaddy's Mr. T hairstyle is in full swing in this picture!