Arrived in London

Hey everyone,

A quick update from London Heathrow. We have arrived after a night flight from Johanesburg. We will be getting on British Airlines Flight 295 in about 30 minutes and will arrive today in Chicago at 1:55 pm.

Please pray for a little sleep on the plane and for safe travel to Chicago and on to home for everyone.

God bless you
Chris

Safe arrival in South Africa

Hey everyone,

We had an uneventful (Praise God!) trip to South Africa and have been processing what God has done in our hearts and lives while on this trip. The team is in a retreat this morning and we will do some more debriefing this afternoon.

We went to Church and to the Aparthied Museum yesterday. Praise God for the changes here.

We will be leaving on Wednesday and arrive in Chicago Thursday afternoon at 1:55pm on British Airlines.

Thank you for your prayers
Chris

Leaving Malawi Tomorrow

Hello everyone,

We spent the morning at a crisis nursery. They take in babys that either are dumped or that are orphaned as the mother dies in child birth. They were so adorable. Some of the baby's were HIV positive. It was heart breaking to see these beautiful babies and know that some of them won't reach adulthood.

Everyone enjoyed playing with, feeding some and holding the little ones. My God bless these little ones.

We have been packing and cleaning this afternoon. We will finish cleaning in the morning and leave for the airport at Noon.

Here is a photo album of our trip.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=58642&l=d02f9&id=506906884

Please pray for our time of reflection, prayer and listening to God in South Africa. This will be a critical time for our team as we spend time individually and corporately reflecting on our time and seeking what God has been saying to us.

Pray for Madeline, Dudley and Me as we lead them through processing their experiences and the ways God has been speaking to us.

I don't know if I will be able to up date this while in South Africa so if I don't no worries. We will arrive in Chicago at 1:55pm on July 31st.


God bless you and thank you for your prayers!!!!
His Servant,
Chris

Wow only a few days

Hey everyone,

We have only a few days left. THe entire team returned from our adventursome weekend. God used the conferences to bring people to himself and challenge others to grow in their relationship with Jesus. Our students did a great job in their various activities. Kyle and Rachel K. led their whole group in morning devotions which is more like a sermon and worship than what we do with devotions at home. James and Drew were asked to train their group in Bible study. Reports of all were that they all did wonderfully.

Tuesday
We went to an orphanage and helped feeding 550 kids yesterday. It was hard and wonderful all at the same moment. The kids loved playing with us and were so sweet. Many of them seemed to be a bit malnourished and they were all very small for their age. Jacob was bigger than 12 year old kids. Their meal was one cup of rice and they seemed to be very thankful for that. The ministry also had a work program for widows. The widows were taught to sew and knit and the things they made were sold in a store in town. Praise God for this ministry that is caring for orphans and widows.

We leave for South Africa on Friday. I will try to update you at least once more before we depart Lilongwe.

Thank you for your prayers
Chris

Mwadswala bwanji! ("Good evening" in Chichewa) It's Rachel Main, fulfilling her blogging duty.
I must first thank all of you, those I know and do not know who have been diligently praying for me and the rest of the team. One thing I have seen clearly this trip is that God indeed answers prayer.
From earlier posts you will have read that I travelled with Alli to Salima for a "School-Leavers SCOM Conference." The conference is for Form 4 students (equivalent in grade but not necessarily age to a senior in high school) as they prepare to leave school, either for the work force or college/university. The teachings encourage students to have a Christ-centered approach to life after school. For instance, the theme of my conference in Salima was "Defend you Position", related to the story of Mary and Martha and our need to place ourselves first and foremost at Jesus' feet. From the same gifted speaker we also heard a talk about opposite sex relationships. By hearing the specifically directed messages, we were able to better understand the struggles of Malawian teens.
In addition to learning from the conference, Alli and I had other great experiences this weekend in travelling apart from the team. We were able to do things that a 20 person group can't do, like ride on the back of a bicycle as a form of a taxi. With such experiences of devotionals starting at 5 am, nearly getting lost by the lake (I'm fine Mom, I promise), and spending 20 minutes learning how to work the toliet, shower and sink, we had an eventful and fun weekend. I was so blessed to spend time getting to know Alli better, the oldest UIUC girl with the youngest.
short side note: going near the lake is interesting as the Muslim influence in Malawi increases. (possible prayer request for you)
Now, we are back. A day earlier than we believed. I'm anxious for the rest of the team to return so we can have a big share fest. I enjoy those, as those of you who know me might guess. I like talking.
Thanks for reading. We love hearing from you in comments!

Prayer Requests:We leave for South Africa Friday-praise God for being Himself, for being so good to protect us and fill us with good experiences and lessons until the very end of our time in Malawi. Pray for a safe flight, luggage retrieval and happy times in South Africa for processing what we've learned in the past month and what do with new knowledge
The SCOM staff rocks our socks-Praise God for the work He is doing through this organization for the sake of His Glory in Malawi. Pray for your brothers and sisters in Malawi, the students as they grow in faith, the staff as they seek financial support and growth of their ministry.

Catching up a bit.

Hey everyone!
This is Micah. Micah Ward. It's my day to blog today. Several days ago (I don't really know when, but it was probably the day after or the day of the day that Esther blogged), we did our second day of Genesis Inductive Bible Study. For many of the SCOM staff, it was the first time that they'd done inductive bible study. If you don't know what that is, ask Chris later because it takes a little while to explain and I don't want to make it too long.

Anyway, I think it was the day of the second day of Bible study, which probably would have been the day before yesterday, we went to another SCOM meeting at the Lilangwe Technical College, which is where Linda graduated from. I don't know if you know who Linda is because I haven't been reading the blogs, but she's Duncan's wife (who, if you don't know, is the SCOM staff person who's kind of gotten stuck taking us everywhere, but we've all been having fun, including him and Linda, so it's been cool). The meeting was good, Danielle and Rachel Main testimonized. Then a teacher from the school spoke. It was good. She talked about Lazarus and Jesus and us.

Yesterday (I think) we went to "The Market" for the first time. "The Market" being the local curio market where you buy carvings and the like. It's pretty cool in the sense that you bargain for everything. Joey and I traded away our shoes for some cool stuff, it was like discovering eBay. All the merchants got to know Chris by name and they all got dissapointed when he showed up because he knew how to bargain. Unfortunately, a guy we talked to today didn't want to trade my shirt for his machete. I was dissapointed. I wanted a machete.

Today (Friday), Kyle and Rachel Keung went up to Mzuzu with a team from the UK that we haven't met yet (except for those 2) but will meet next Wed or Thurs. Rachel Main and Alli went to Salima with Gertrude and Irina (Gertrude is SCOM staff and Irena is kinda like a SCOM intern) and Drew and James went to Zomba with Yotomu (another SCOM staff person). The rest of us will be staying here in Lilongwe and all of everybody will be particapting in and serving at regional SCOM Conferences all accross the country.

Lastly, although it happened a while ago, I just wanted to point out that Joey and I were the only 2 of us non-Malawians that were cool enough to swim in Lake Malawi a while ago when we were in Salima and neither of us got any form of parasite (that we know of) or were eaten by hippos.
Those are all of the important events that I can think of that happened in the last few days, thanks for your continued prayers and comments and stuff. Also if you know me, I haven't been emailing anyone since a while ago because I feel lame using the internet here. So if you've been wondering why I haven't been emailing you, it is probably not because I don't like you.

Traveling to conferences

Hi everyone,

Today begins secondary school (High Shcool) Conferences. We have our team going to 4 different conferences around the country. Rachel Keung and Kyle are up in Mzuzu, Alli and Rachel Main are in Salima and Drew and James are on their way to Zomba. The rest of us are going to a conference here in the Lilongwe area. We will be serving in many different ways at the conferences. Some will lead Bible Studies. Others will serve in the kitchen. Some of us may do some speaking and we all will serve as counsellors to students.

Please Pray for:
our travel especially those separated from the bulk of our team.
opportunities to share Jesus' love with students.
open hearts of the secondary school students.
God's blessing for our service to these students.
Clarity of God's spoken word. (I (Chris) might have to speak to the whole group)

Thank you for your comments. They are really encouraging.
God Bless You
Chris

Greetings from Malawi. Esther is at your service. At least in updating our experiences in Malawi. What have we done here post the walking trip? Hmmm… good question. I wish I remembered… okay that’s all. OH and Jerome is not feeling well. Please be praying for him to feel better. Good bye. Just kidding. I’m back. Not kidding about Jerome. Really, please be praying.

On further news, we got to meet another group of students who are being taught to be teachers of teachers. An education college I believe it was called. Most of the students were at least 24, some were perhaps mid 30s. Definitely a different dynamic. Joey gave a compelling message on the beautitudes from the sermon on the mount. Micah shared his testimony as a white student in a 95% black high school and Allie shared her testimony about leadership in Greek IV. We got to hang out with the students after the meeting where food and drinks were provided. We felt very welcomed and thankful.

We spent two days this week doing some bible training for the staff at SCOM. We went through Genesis 12-18 and tried to understand what the author was saying using observations from the text. Oh, and we’re still alive- so no worries about that. Until next time.

Esther

Since Esther wrote this Jerome is feeling much better. But keep praying for the health of our team.

This weekend we will be splitting up and going to Secondary school conferences in differ

ent areas. Pray for safe travel, all logistics to work out and many opportunities to serve. Pray our team would continue to grow together and deeper.

Another Update

Hello! This is Rachel Keung, greetings to my family and friends!

I will be blogging for Wednesday and Thursday (7/10-7/11). Starting on Wednesday, the team left for the city of Zomba which is approximately 4 hours south of Lilongwe. The scenary was spectacular. It gradually changed from flat plains to rocky mountains. We eventaully made it to the University of Malawi-Chancellor College, the largest university in Malawi with one of the strongest SCOM chapters in the entire country.

We enjoyed singing praise songs, praying, and studying the Bible with our brother and sisters. The students volunteered to house us in their dormitories for that night! It was a joy to be able to spend an extended period of time talking and learning from the students. It turns out that the Christian stundents of Malawi experience some of the same joys and struggles of college life as we do at the university of Illinois--like cramming for exams and squeezing in odd minutes between classes to pray.

The next day I am labeling the day of walking. We walked a lot. Which is actually not a bad thing considering all the good food we are eating here. On most days we eat a Malawian dish called Nsima. It is a thick corn flour porridge-like dish that fills the stomach really quickly. It tastes somewhat bland but when added to fish (Chambo is the most popular), beef or chicken stew, or potato fries, it is delicious! So on Thursday we walked to the local botanical garden. The walking was worth it because the garden was beautiful. There were baboons running and swinging around all over the place. Afterwards, we walked back to the university to hang out with the students we had met the previous day. They showed us around the campus and we again enjoyed talking and sharing our lives with one another.

God bless you and thank you for your prayers.

Quick update from Lillongwe.

We will post a longer email tomorrow but I wanted to let you know that Grace has fully recovered. She is still tired but the fever has not returned and she seems to be doing well. Thank you for your prayers and concern. God is great.

We has another great trip and are seeing God use us to encourage our brothers and sisters here. It is so good to see the faith, courage and love of Christ's followers here. We are starting our training for the staff this week.

Pray for a great time at church and resting tomorrow after 4 long days on the road.

In His care,
Chris

Another trip this week

We leave today for Zomba. We will be there through Friday. We will be staying on campus with students and doing some more training and sharing. (This is another 4 hour drive so please pray for safety and for God to use us.)

On a health note:
Grace has gotten sick. She has about 100 mosquito bites (or so.) Which raises some concerns about malaria. She had a fever last night and has had loose stool all of yesterday. She is doing better this morning but please pray for her and for Dudley. We are all concerned for her but mom especially.

Everyone else is doing well.

God bless you and thank you for your comments and prayers,
Chris

Amazing weekend

Hello Faithful blog readers! :o)

This is Alli writing to you today about our ventures here in Malawi! I think because I was privileged to write to you all I am allowed to put in a small Hello to mom, dad, sister, boyfriend, and friends! Thank you all for your comments, prayers, and words of encouragement I miss you all! :o)

So here we are in Salima, Malawi a city next to Lake Malawi, east of Lilongwe. Yesterday we spent most of the day preparing and driving here. We are staying at a ‘challet’ called Beach Villa. The scenery is beautiful and our cabins are right along the beach, It will be a nice treat to sleep in beds this weekend :o)

Today we traveled about 20 minutes from our ‘challet’ to visit Salima Technical School, a college that SCOM works with. There we spent the morning singing and worshiping God together. Kyle shared his testimony of what the Lord has been doing in his life, and Rachel K exposited 1 Thessalonians 2:1-16. Chris then led us through a whole group Bible study of John 1:40-51. It was very encouraging for us to learn together the importance of preaching the gospel and the power that is in Christ Jesus.

Then we took a break for lunch and returned later to do some on-campus evangelism. Now, I have never done anything like this at all, not even back in the States, so you can imagine I was quite nervous for what we were going to do. But as always, the Lord was so very faithful. We paired up into groups of about 3 (two U.S. students with each Malawian SCOM member) and went out onto the campus preaching the Gospel. Joseph, the SCOM student that Kyle and I were paired up with, was great. He led us to different places on the campus, and translated for the men and women who didn’t understand English. The first person I preached the gospel to (well, I preached, Joseph translated) was to two men who were working on and cleaning a bus. I led him through the story of Gods creation, our rebellion to Him, Jesus as our savior, and the choice we are presented with to follow Christ and be reconciled to God and let Him begin to transform our lives. Through Gods grace alone, we were able to witness this man accept Jesus into his life. How utterly AMAZING is that? Joseph prayed for him a series of 3 fairly long prayers, and the man repeated the words of acceptance too. It was truly a blessing to be a part of. As we were saying our goodbyes the two men talked to Joseph for a bit, he later told us that the men said that they were just doing their normal work on the bus, that they weren’t expecting anything to happen this day, but little did they know we would come to them with this good news. They told us they were thankful and happy we had come by. What an awesome, encouraging blessing to have my first evangelism experience!

The rest of the students (U.S. and SCOM) were similarly encouraged as well! It is amazing how willing and open people are to the Gospel here, I am really understanding how the Lord blesses the poor with rich faith more and more as we spend time here.

We will stay until tomorrow morning (Sunday) and then travel back to Lilongwe in the afternoon, we are all looking forward to some downtime of rest after a pretty full week we just had. Thank you all for your continued prayers and encouragement here are some ways you can be praying for us:Safe travels tomorrow, health (with the different water and food not agreeing with some), and good rest (people feeling effects of the long week)we have been able to get blog comments copied easily and brought back to the team, so feel free to continue to send prayers, verses, and words of encouragement, we have appreciated them all over here! Until they post again, goodbye!
For his Glory,

Alli and the Team!

We saw 11 people come to faith on Saturday. We gave them our some of our Bibles and encouraged them to walk with the Lord and to get involved with the SCOM mintry at Salima Technical.

Monday is cleaning day. Lots of hand washing going on. (see picture)

God Bless and Please keep praying

Chris

Malawi Update

This week we have been working hard at writing a bible study guide the SCOM students can use on the Sermon on the Mount. The students were really excited to do the Sermon on the Mount which they studied at Chapter Focus Week last year.
At the SCOM office we have been mobbed by primary school kids. We played soccer with them, sang songs and took pictures.
I am getting used to driving on the other side of the road and finding my way around town. I don’t think I will ever get use to the volume of pedestrian traffic though. One of the things we are constantly being confronted with is the extreme poverty. We always see warming fires at night and people carrying water from the pump. I feel like we have to be careful not to consider trash what might be their treasure.
Our kids are providing a lot of entertainment for the team. Everyone is getting tired of 20 questions. But several have said it wouldn’t be the same without them along. They are adapting better than I expected.
Thursday
Alli and Joe are feeling under the weather today. We have been experimenting with purifying our own water, and they may be feeling the worst of it. We were at another fellowship meeting today. Nina and Drew shared a faith story and we were in a Bible study with them on faith. We finally got hot water, if I didn’t tell you that before. Actually we had it all the time, we just didn’t know how to get it. They are letting us use the bathroom next door , which is helpful and it has a shower too. No hot water there, but it is better than just one bathroom. Another interesting thing is that every night the power goes out from about 5:30 to 6:15. Duncan said they shut down regions of the city at different times to save money.
Friday
Today we will be traveling to the lake for another fellowship meeting and we will stay the weekend to get to know the students more and help them in their ministry there. Rachel Keung will be sharing the sermon and Kyle with share his faith story. Monday is Malawi’s independence day so we will have the day off. Please pray again for safe travel. It is about 3 hours. Thank you for your prayers!!!!
For His service,
Chris

Wednesday

Thank you for the comments:

Wow, we have been busy here. The team has been preparing Bible studies for student small groups for the college minstry. We went to a Student Christian Orangization of Malawi (SCOM) meeting last night at a technical college in Lillongwe. Jerome gave his first Sermoin. Esther gave her testimony and several led in singing. We had an amazing time in worship to our King.

Drew finally got his bag today. He has been a trooper. It has helped us share as a group.

One other thing in our adventure. I (Chris) have become the main driver for the team. I am learning to drive on the left side and navigate the bikes, pedestrians and crazy drivers. I enjoy the turnabouts.

Isaac wants me to add the "Dad is a really good driver too."

Our schedule for the weekend will be quite full. More Bible study tomorrow and another SCOM meeting at night. Friday through Sunday possiblly Monday we will be at Salema Technical College by lake Malawi to witness and counsel students as well as share from God's word.

More later....

I am sorry this is brief but I must get back to the team.
Please keep praying
Chris Swiney for the team