In Malawi

Saturday
Today we attended a service to honor the Founder of SCOM. We started with a march down a busy highway, then through Mzuzu University and on to a Secondary school Gym, singing praise songs all the way. It was great to hear the history of SCOM and hear testimonies from people they have affected. It went 5 hours in typical African fashion. Many of the school kids asked for our address or email. After that it was another 5 hour trip back to Lilongwe. Not surprisingly we came upon a car accident with injuries so we squeezed even further to accommodate the three injured and took them a couple miles down an even bumpier road (more like a path) to what was called a hospital, although it was hard to imagine any of us would want medical care there.
Friday
Today we enjoyed the sun as we waited for the SCOM staff to come pick us up. It has been hard for them to find transportation for 20 people, but their church has some vans they can use a little. We made a 5 hour trip north to Mzuzu over extremely bumpy roads. The scenery was totally amazing, not necessarily in beauty, but in seeing how everyone lives. Lots of wood shacks or brick houses.
Thursday
We all finally made it to Malawi! (Well, all but Drew’s suitcase. Hopefully it will show up Monday!) The SCOM staff spent many hours finding and equipping a house for us. It is so good to have a home. Thank you to all that prayed for our housing. It is a 3 bedroom house on a churches property that was unused for 5 years. The girls have a room for sleeping and a small room for changing. The Swineys’ have a room, and the boys room had some issues so they are sleeping in the common room and moving out during the day. The tricky thing is 1 bathroom for 20 people. No hot water yet, but they are working on it. They brought a fridge and 2 small electric burners to cook on. We are sleeping on grass mats on the cement floor which can get pretty cold at night. After seeing how the rest of the country lives we are very blessed.

Off to Malawi

We are leaving for the airport in 10 minutes. We will not have internet access as easily for the next few days and maybe longer.

Please keep praying
Chris

In South Africa

Greetings from Pretoria, South Africa in the name of the Lord Jesus.


After 2 days of travel including over 17 hours in flight (including two overnight flights) we arrived yesterday morning here in Souh Africa. We were exhausted but thankful to be here. Many rested during the morning and in the afternoon we got some exercise at a park a few minutes walk away.

We studied Psalm 23 together in the afternoon. What a beautiful passage showing God's care and blessing in our lives as well as our need to be fully dependant upon Him. We enjoyed a good dinner and then talke about team expectations and goals.

We will be here today ,Wednesday and fly to Malawi tomorrow.
Please pray for our continued recovery from jet lag and for our teams bonding in the next few days. We would also appreciate prayer for our travel and first few days in Malawi.

God bless you
Chris

A phone number in South Africa

In case of emergencies you may call us in South Africa at the Pagani.
The phone number is 012-546-8438. Please only call if it is an emergency.

Pray for our travel. It is two days of travel to South Africa.
We will say hi to the Queen while in London.
Thank you for your prayers.

Ready or not! Here we go!

We fly out at 8:25pm on Sunday, June 22.
Our team will gather at O'Hare at 5pm by the British airways counter in the international terminal.

Please pray for
Preparation:
the last minute details
not forgetting anything too important
spiritual strength for all of the team

Travel:
on time planes
sleep on the plane
no motion sickness
lay over in London to be good for team bonding

Orientation in South Africa: (we have 3 days/2 nights in South Africa to prepare as a team)
our study of God's word
our team to develop trust