Time: It has been a year

Sunset rock offeres some amazing views of the mountains and the valley below. It a gental remibder of the beautful landscape all aroudn us. This is about a 10min wlak from the house and you can see the road that leads to town.

How do you summarize a year of living on the continent of Africa? It has been full of work: work on our house, work in our house, school work, work on “The Project”, work on our characters. Probably similar to how you might describe your year. The difference is Malawi. We’ve put to work getting to know this place: its weather, its people, its language, its systems, its bureaucracy, its beauty. 

The difference is we have spent the whole year getting to know everything new. New community, new church, new friends, new bosses, a new language, new places to shop and new ways to get and make food. A new house, with new beds and new and very different schools. New bills and expenses. New problems: how long does a tank of cooking gas last, how do you wash muddy children without a bathtub and running water, how long will it take me to walk there, etc. New ways to rely on God.

Celebrations! We celbrated Emma's 8th birthday, Mark and Marcela's 19th anniversary in September.

We’ve also invited new people into our new home.  First, to share hospitality, fellowship and Bible study. With new friends to be made, meals must be shared. Mark has happily roasted two whole pigs and Marcela has purchased 50 plastic plates and counting. + Second, to live life alongside us. It sounds decadent to say we have “house help” but with minimal job opportunities in our village the expats are expected to hire men and women to assist in caring for their homes; helping us as we help them. They cook with us, eat with us and share the yard and house chores with us. We pray that we show the love of Jesus to everyone in our home.

Malawi is a beautiful country. The mornings start with sweet bird songs and wind in the palm trees. Our front porch is our favorite place to be and I know it's going to be a good day if I can make it there with my cup of tea before the commotion of the day begins. The sunny days and blue skies make the red dirt radiate up to the rising stone mountains. When the seasons change the dry dusty earth gives way to greenery, flowers and bugs emerge in an astounding way.  All of this speaks to God’s creativity. The monotone backdrop of life (either red orange in the dry season or lush green in the rain season) is exclamated with bright points of color from the African fabric worn by the woman. I routinely try in vain to capture this with my iphone camera. Meanwhile, Mark and Wesley are off climbing the mountain with friends.

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We acknowledge God’s faithfulness and our one year anniversary. The year definitely didn’t go as we’d expected it to but we know it is going according to God’s plan. We are thankful for our days full of work and good health and we wait eagerly to see what He has planned for our next year. 

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The project has been slow but still able to get some work completed. This week we have been installing the solar panels and power to the jobsite. We are also moving into the project office onsite which is a huge step. We are also engaging with the water dept on some vital infrastructual works aroudn the village. As you know around here, water is a vital resourse and last year the leve broke drainign all of the backup. We are working to improve and restore the reserve as well as improvments to the waste water systems.

We miss you all and think of you often.

Pray:

• for tangable progress to continue on the proejct as we gear up for a big push before the rains start

• As the hot/dry season starts please pray for comfort for those in need around the village

• Health and welfare for the family

• Our relationships with various ministries and people around Nkhoma to continue to grow, we are lloking at more way to get involved and some potetial big infrastructural projects with the water department

• for Mark to finalize some of the contract works (specifically concrete work) soon

• for the steel shipment that is at the boarder awating clearance into Malawi

Praise:

• Lots a good decisions have beenmade for the furute works and that most have been approved, just waiting to put all that work inot place

• for a beautiful time together during the school break in August

• for recent visitors from the US, what a joy seeing friends