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