Malawi Trip -- Downstate Illinois InterVarsity

Malawi Update

2010-12-22T20:40:00.000-08:00

As you might remember in the summer of 2009, our family spent 3 months partnering with the Student Christian Organization of Malawi (SCOM.) We also had hoped to adopt a child while we were there. We spent many hours caring for children at the crisis nursery and serving at the SCOM office. One of the significant experiences for me was working with the refugee camp that is located out side of Lilongwe. The camp has ~8,000 refugees from all over Africa (Congo, Rwanda, Sudan, Somalia and others.) This is a place of extreme hardship. They are given 40 lbs. of corn meal, a few pounds of beans and some salt by the UN each month. They aren't allowed to work by the Malawi government, so they must make do with these meager provisions.

One of our friends, Delor, is 21 year old and has been in the camp for 8 years. His family was killed in the fighting in the Congo and he fled for his life. After working with us for the 3 months, he began to see the needs of children in the camp. He asked his pastor at the camp, "What could be done?" He then asked me, "Should we start an orphanage to care for the children?" I responded positively that it seemed like he was seeing a critical need but, I didn't really know where this was headed. In the next month, they broke ground on 3 buildings for feeding and school programs for the neediest children in the camp.

The ministry started feeding 33 kids in the camp. Six months later, they are feeding 85 kids and running classes for kids from the camp and three villages near by. The children aren’t all orphans as some have family in the camp or village but, aren’t able to provide enough for the kids. So to help those families, they are trying to provide, as they are able, a pair of goats for milk and additional food for their families (40 goats given so far.) They are also training women in sewing with 10 sewing machines. The women are learning to make simple clothes and items that they can sell in villages near by.

Some people have asked me how this ministry is being funded. Well, the funding is not great right now. Currently, we personally send $400 - $500 a month. But I hope to start a non-profit ministry to raise money for the orphanage and ministries there. Our gift provides the feeding program with barely enough to supplement what the church gives (85 kids aren’t eating well on a little over $.50 a day). We could use your prayers to get the non-profit up and running so we can do better at providing for the children.

God has bigger plans than we do! We went to Malawi to adopt one child, to have our family blessed with the joy of loving a baby. God had other plans. It seems he wanted to see many more kids and families provided for than we imagined. My heart continues to break for these kids and families. Praise God for allowing us to be apart of His ministry to the neediest in our world.

Back in the US

2009-09-04T20:36:00.000-07:00

After 2 days (42 hours) of traveling, we arrived home tonight minus all of our bags. They lost 100% of our checked bags. please pray for them to come soon.

It is good to be home.

Thank you all for your prayers and support.

Chris and Dudley

Party on Labor day

2009-09-01T08:35:00.000-07:00

We wanted to let you all know that we will be home Friday and can't wait to see everyone. You have heard all about our summer, what about yours?

We are hosting a picnic/BBQ at our house, Monday 12-3. You can come for all or part of the time. It will be great to catch up with anyone whose around. We will provide the hotdogs and drinks, Drop by and bring some food to share if you can. We look forward to seeing you!

Hope you can make it.

Adoption Update

2009-08-31T23:22:00.000-07:00

Friends, this has been a long journey. We have been praying for over 2 years and have felt that God was leading us to adopt again and recently felt that should be from Malawi. Well, we won’t be leaving Malawi with a child at this point. Jackson’s extended family has decided not to consent to adoption, so he will continue to stay in the nursery.

We are seeking the Lord and what he has for us in the midst of calling us to follow him here. At this point we don’t know all the whys, but we do know that He is in control and we have been called to surrender to him and trust him. One thing I taught in Tanzania was Christ is King, not us. As I prepared, it was clear to me that Jesus is my King and he gets to set the direction and lead. I don’t get to set the path and plan. He does. So I am to surrender all to him, be his servant and follower. So we are trying to trust and surrender all to him. It is with heavy hearts and a sense of grief that we will return to the US Friday (9/4). Our tears have come easily but our trust in him has grown in the midst of it all.

We are still looking for the opportunity to adopt and our attorney will continue the process while we are in the back in the States. (I still would love to adopt Farook, the HIV positive child, and hope to follow up our options with him.) It now becomes even harder with us not being here.

Tanzania Fellowship of Evangelical Students (TaFES)

2009-08-26T21:16:00.000-07:00

InterVarsity is part of a worldwide movement of indigenous campus ministries in almost all the countries of the world. TaFES is a small movement with 12 staff. 8 are new staff this year and the rest are all under 10 years on staff.

So to have Patrick who has been on staff 17 years and me (14 years) was amazing to them. These young people were so amazing. Their faith and commitment inspired me. Patrick and I taught, challenged and encouraged them about the faith journey of Abram and following Jesus as staff.

I was so impressed with the staff especially the young ones. One young man, Simon, was especially sharp. He is starting his second year and was teaching the new staff how to inductively study the scriptures. His training was excellent and I was so blessed to get to know him and talk about life and ministry. He is from the Massai tribe. (You have probably heard of the Massai warriors.) He has a heart for his people and longs to help them come to Jesus. He will be leading the community development ministry for TaFES this year.

The community development wing of their ministry works in rural villages to bring about positive change and to fight against poverty and injustice. 5 of their new staff will be joining this project and be stationed all over the country. I believe these young people will make a great difference as they serve God in the villages.

One of these intelligent young people was Kristen, who just graduated from college. Her insights and faith were amazing. After one of my sessions, she came up to me to talk about the Bible and Jesus. She said I had encouraged her trust of Jesus and that she was now even more committed to trusting Him and to bring his love to her work.

Thank God for the opportunity to serve Him and bring Him Glory.

Some other highlights:
Seeing the Indian Ocean, buying Ice cream from a vendor in the midst of a traffic jam, seeing the fish market (smelling it was not a highlight), spending over 40 hours driving and talking with Patrick (a great opportunity for encouragement and building our relationship)

Thank you for your prayers. They were needed.

Travel to Tanzania

2009-08-24T10:01:00.000-07:00

My week in Tanzania was such an adventure a blog will not do it justice, but today I will give you a brief look at our travel then later I will let you know about the training.

Day 1: collided with bicyclist. He broke a rib and our side mirror was broken off. Saw Malawi emergency care in a hospital up close, maybe too close. I am glad I haven’t had to use it yet. Day 2: In Tanzania, we drove through clouds way up in the mountains and saw giraffe, monkeys, impala and zebra along the road and slept a cold 4 hours in the truck. Day 3: traffic violation #1. No fire extinguisher on board and chose to pay the fine not the cheaper bribe that was requested so we could avoid the higher fine. In Dar es Salaam, capital city of Tanzania, the power goes out just as we are about to enter a very busy, very large intersection with a stop light. Insane, aggressive gridlock followed with cars going every which way.

Return trip Day 1: traffic violation #2 passing in a no passing zone when the other car was virtually pulled off the road! We paid the fine, but only after arguing our point. Saw more animals including an elephant. Then we towed a broken down van 100 km through the mountains and it almost pulled us off a cliff. We slept a couple hours in the truck while waiting for the border to open. Day 2: Non-eventful, and arrived home safe and in one piece. Praise the Lord!!

Tanzania

2009-08-16T11:13:00.000-07:00

Chris left for Tanzania today to speak at Tanzania's National Staff conference for the IFES movement (of which IVCF is a member). Please pray for safe travel for the 18 hour drive. Also pray for minimal delays so they can get there in plenty of time. He is traveling with Patrick, the General Secretary of the IFES movement here in Malawi. Pray that Chris could be an encouragement to him and the good work that he is doing in this place that is very difficult to minister in. Pray for Chris's talk, that he could communicate the Word of God clearly, and the Holy Spirit would use him to say what he wants them to hear. The conference lasts the week, so they plan to head back next weekend.

The mountain hasn't moved

2009-08-13T14:21:00.000-07:00

We are still facing the mountain. It seems like God might have other plans for us and for Jackson. Some of the family members met with the social welfare director for the area Saturday, but are hesitant to sign the adoption release. Adoption isn’t a common thing here, so they can’t understand how this could be a better option for him. So we continue to wait. Yet the possibilities have virtually run out with 3 weeks until we leave.

Our hearts are heavy as we think of what future Jackson has as it seems there is no one to care for him, yet the relatives won’t give up custody. We drove up to Mzuzu this week to meet him and talk with the social welfare department there. It was great to see him and hold him and Dudley was able to feed him. He is a beautiful little boy. Please pray for God to provide the best family situation possible for him.

It has been a time of soul searching for both Dudley and I. It has been interesting to see how we each grieve and struggle through these days. Our questions are different yet similar.

DUDLEY:
Though this whole process we have really felt this is what God had wanted us to do. Yet when things don’t look like they are going to work out I start to question if he really did call us to this. I was reading in a book that talked about faith and how Noah followed God in building the ark. He made sacrifices, was laughed at, with possibly no concept of rain, and he didn't see the reality of his faith for maybe 100 yrs. So I feel like we are also doing something crazy God has lead us to, we’ve made sacrifices, people have laughed at us, but I don't want to wait 100ys to know we are doing the right thing. But in this, I have come to trust God more not in that he will do what I want him to do, but in his loving character towards me, that he will do what is best for all of us.

But if he did really lead us here, and we do all we can, and we pray and lay it all in his hands, and he doesn't bring it about, what then? Somehow we need to pray for an insight into God’s eternal viewpoint. Maybe our summer here isn’t about adoption, but about helping us take a step into something bigger God has planned for us. It is just hard to wait for God to reveal is plan.

CHRIS:
My question has focused on making sense of God’s call for us this summer. It has been “If adoption is not the reason we were to come to Malawi this summer then what is this summer all about? Why did we feel so clearly God’s call to attempt this crazy thing?” The short answer is I am not sure yet. I have thought a lot about faith and what it is and isn’t. It has been an emotionally hard summer. I have prayed and cried more than I have in a couple of years combined. I have thought about these three kids and the pain that their lives will be filled with as they grow up without parents. I also have wept for the millions of kids in Africa that are struggling to survive as a result of the millions that have died from AIDS. It is a good lesson for me to learn that I can’t fix every problem even with God’s help for one little child. God is in control and I never will be. The world is unjust and systems are broken. Tears can be healing yet I still am not comfortable with them. What is God doing in me and us? We have to wait to find out. He is sovereign.

I have been praying and thinking a ton about James 1:27: “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

He will show us His plan in His time. Thank you for praying with us and for us. Please continue to pray. We need it and the children of Malawi need it too.

Will God move the mountain?

2009-08-07T12:58:00.000-07:00

Chris has returned safely from the mountains on his quest for Jackson’s family. It was an adventure. He drove for over 30 hours in 2 ½ days with much of that being in the mountains of Malawi on dirt roads with inclines of close to 75 degrees in some spots. He made it back safely. Praise God!

Our first miracle is that Chris was able to get the social welfare director for the area to actually go to the village!! Twice!! We haven’t been able to get social welfare to lift a pen for us the whole time we have been here. Sadly, they were unable to locate Jackson’s grandmother, who has the say in his future. But, through the village elders they set up a meeting with her and the social welfare person for Saturday. So we stand here before another set of mountains. The 70 plus year old grandmother will have to walk for several hours down and up the mountains to meet with the social worker. He will have to journey for over an hour and half on those mountain roads to meet her. Then they will have to discuss what is best for Jackson and come to a decision. We need this meeting to actually happen tomorrow for anything to move forward.

We are trying to trust God and yet we have experienced the broken systems here this summer and know there are many obstacles that could thwart our adoption dreams. Everything is now at critical stage. If this doesn’t happen we have very few options left.

So will you join us in praying that God will do what is best for Jackson and give us the insight to know what our response should be if the meeting doesn’t happen

Prayer for this week

2009-08-02T06:36:00.000-07:00

We are humbled and very grateful for the many people that have said they pray for us every day: Cayla, Bonnie, Jeremiah, Sharon, Sylvia, Lyn and many others. A special thank you to our small group that has been praying for our adoption desires for almost 3 years. Thank you so much for your prayers and support.

This week we are making our last ditch effort to get something moving on adoption. Chris has been fighting his natural inclination to make things happen, instead he is trying to trust God and wait. (Not easy for him.) This last week we have sensed freedom to try something. So he is driving 12 hours north to Chitepa in a very remote section of Malawi in an effort to encourage social welfare to find Jackson’s extended family to verify his orphan status. He will take them to lunch and then drive them to his village to try and locate the family. He has an appointment with them Tuesday. Patrick has lent him his pickup to navigate the dusty roads and Madaritzo is going with him, because he is from there, knows the area and speaks the languages.

There are so many areas here we need God to work. Many we don’t even know to ask you to pray for. But do pray that they would be able to find the family, and get the necessary paper work, that we could file papers soon to get a court date before we are due to leave. Also pray for safety on the roads. They will have to travel some at night and that can be dangerous.

On the quiz:
Everyone guessed well. It was my toilet at the Nsaru conference.

A quiz

2009-07-31T02:08:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone,

I have a picture for you to guess what it is?

What is this?

Chris

Thank you for all the guesses. I will put the explanation up tomorrow 8/2.

Nsaru Secondary School Conference

2009-07-29T06:02:00.000-07:00

This weekend I had the privilege of speaking at the Nsaru conference. Nsaru is a rural area about 1 hour from Lilongwe. It was an amazing and eye opening experience. The conference was held at a private, girls secondary school in the area. (I could go on and on about the amazing boarding school but for the sake of time, let me say that this school is the vision of a young woman and her husband to provide a good education to young girls that wouldn’t be able to go to school otherwise.) The school has nice buildings, but it is very primitive. They don’t have electricity yet, they are still waiting (2 years now) for the electric company to install their transformer. They have a generator that runs 2 hours each night to give some light. Since they don’t have power there is no running water. Toilets consist of a small building with a hole in the cement floor, and showers are a bucket of cold water and a cup. Enough about the conditions, lets get on to the conference.

They have never had a student conference in this area before and this first weekend drew over 80 students. The cost of the conference was 300 Kwatcha or almost $2. Now this was too expensive for some students, so they needed scholarships to allow them to come. These students families are generally make a living through subsistence farming and odd jobs. And many can’t produce enough food to eat well all year long. It is a tough way to grow up and live.

I was asked to speak on “Impacting Society with Christian Values.” I chose to speak from James 1 and 2. I also helped with bible studies each day. These students haven’t ever had anyone teach them how to study the scriptures or any literature. Their schools are very poor. They normally have one textbook per class so the students don’t even get to touch it let alone use it to study. Though English is taught, most had very poor English skills but better than my Chichewa  Since I have such a bad accent for them, I had an interpreter. Thokozani is just finishing high school in Lilongwe at the age of 16. She did a great job. (She is the daughter of one of the SCOM staff. You can see her pictured with me.)

The students couldn’t stop saying how much the conference and God changed their lives. It is amazing how much they improved in their Bible study skills. God is touching lives through his word and his people. These young people really need mature Godly people to model the Christian life, showing them what it means to be a Godly man and woman.

One sad note for me was how the students and staff responded to me. I was a full participant through out the conference eating their food, sleeping on the floor, and all the rest. This was amazing to them! They could not believe a “white person” would choose to live like them. It would happen here is what they kept saying. I was so sad that white privilege meant that we couldn’t/wouldn’t sacrifice to be with them and love them. I was glad I could give them a different picture and enjoy the weekend with them. As is usually the case, I was so much more blessed by them than I could ever be a blessing to them. May God continue to help me and others to make such small sacrifices for His Kingdom’s advance.

Quick sand

2009-07-23T04:02:00.000-07:00

I am sorry for the delay in writing. It has been hard to want to write with the difficult news. So here goes! Thank you for your support and prayers. - Chris

We had a great weekend in Salima. Students were taught how to do manuscript study and God spoke to them from Abraham's life. God challenged me again to trust.

Let me tell you a story that illustrates our adoption process to this point.
Have you ever driven in soft sand with a full bus and van? I don't recommend it. Friday night on our way there we drove on a dirt road buy the lake. Well a Sand Dune had covered part of the road and our bus got stuck. we were able to push it out then I drove our little van quickly across the spot but not quick enough and it too got stuck. This time the van got really stuck. We all got around and pushed and it seemed the harder we worked the deeper it went. We were finally able to back it out and then I drove as fast as the van would go careening and narrowly missing a tree but we made it through.

Our adoption process:
While we were stuck in the sand, I got a phone call from the crisis nursery in Mzuzu. They informed me that they had found the mother of the little girl that had been abandoned and that she was arrested for attempted murder. This is a big problem because now we must wait for her to be legally separated from the little girl before our process can begin. We were also told that the little boy was still waiting for the social welfare department to finalize his status as a unattached orphan. So we are stuck in the sand and it seems to be getting deeper with no end in sight.

We hope for a miracle but we must wait and trust in God. Our hearts haven't lost hope but we are still downcast in the waiting process.

Join us to pray for a miracle.

In other news: I am preaching Saturday and Sunday at a student conference on the topic of How it makes a difference being a Christian? Pray for my clarity and for God to speak through me to the hearts of the students.

Team Left for South Africa

2009-07-20T08:42:00.000-07:00

We had a great weekend. I will post something in the next day or so about that. Our team left today at 2:55 pm. They will spend some time in South Africa for the next week processing what God has done in their lives and through them to others.

Please pray for them. Pray that God would speak to their hearts and help them process their amazing time in Malawi so they can be prepared to share the ways God has blessed them with their friends and family at home.

Enlightening opportunity

2009-07-17T04:11:00.000-07:00

We started of early yesterday morning for the refugee camp. After a long, long rough dirt road, we pulled into a former prision. The buildings were in disarray and everything was very dirty. There are 16,000 refugees in small makeshift mud brick homes. Many of them have been in the interim refugee camp for over ten years. All of us, students and our family were welcomed into a dilapidated church building. We had the opportunity to experience worship with people from seven different countries. One of the most amazing thing in our experience here is how grateful they are for us just showing up. This was a great example of that. One of the students gave a short talk on relying on God’s strength to live godly lives and then Chris spoke about meeting God in our pain and suffering. It seemed your prayers were answered as Chris’s talk seemed to encourage, bless and challenge the congregation. Chris was greeted by everyone in the congregation as a man of God. It was an honoring and encouraging experience for all of us. The students were then able to visit some homes in the community while the church leaders showed Chris and I the different aspects of their ministry. It is amazing to think that a refugee church has a church plant in a neighboring village and an orphan ministry. They are providing care for 50 orphans, giving out of what little they have. It reminded us of the church of Macedonia. It says in 2 Corinthians,” In the midst of severe trial , their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity” One example of that is that they gave out of the 13 kilos of maize flour they receive from UN-Sierra they give 2 kilos to the orphans. Students were disheartened by the lack of opportunity for these people, yet encouraged by God’s work in them and in their midst. The plight of refugees in our world is a grave injustice. Would God help his people to do something about it. Thank you so much for your prayer. We head to a leaders retreat in a little bit. Pray for Chris and Craig as they teach this weekend.

More prayer needed

2009-07-15T06:01:00.001-07:00

Malaria is a common illness here in Malawi. 2 of the staff from SCOM have it right now. One of them being the General Secretary and the other the CFO.

The other prayer item is that I have been asked to preach at the refugee camp tomorrow outside of Lilongwe. I will be speaking on trusting God from Mark 9.

Prayer requests:
Please pray for Patrick and Charles to recover quickly.
And pray for this unexpected opportunity that we can be a blessing to those suffering as refugees.

thank you for your partnership
Chris

very busy week

2009-07-15T01:18:00.000-07:00

Wow! It has been a full past week. We have been running to different things like student meetings, Teachers conference and doing logistical things here in Lilongwe.

One fun thing is that we played basketball yesterday. It was good to get some exercise but both Dudley and I are a bit sore. We aren't as young as we used to be.
A prayer note: one of the staff for the student team, Bonnie Ward, fell and hit her head and has a good sized not on her head. She isn't feeling great today so we are monitoring her and wondering if we need to take to the clinic to get checked out. We will see after lunch.

Next two weeks will be very full:
I am going to be the main speaker for conferences each weekend. I am almost finished on preparation for this weekend but I need to do a lot of work for next week.
We are heading to Mzuzu to check on a baby for adoption. She was dumped and has been in the hospital there and now is being transferred to the crisis nursery. So we will be there at least Tuesday and Wednesday. (We may come back with a under 3 month old on Wednesday. Very unlikely but possible.)

So please pray:
1. Bonnie to be fine and 100% well tomorrow.
2. My preparation to bring the word of God to them in power and love.
2. Social welfare in Mzuzu to work things out for us to start adoption process for this little girl.

Chutes and ladders

2009-07-08T07:49:00.001-07:00

Have you ever played the game Chutes and Ladders? Our social worker in the US, emailed us recently and said that one her clients had used that game as an illustration for adoption. It is a good illustration.

Today was an emotional chute. We both just wanted to cry. First the embassy emailed explaining the process for adopting an HIV positive child here in Malawi. It could take 3 additional months and there is no guarantee that the waiver will be approved even if we are legal parents of a child. The second is that the social welfare department is not being helpful. We have gotten the run around again and again. I will go tomorrow to talk with them again.

Please pray for favor with the woman in charge of the office in Lilongwe. We plan to travel to Mzuzu on Tuesday July 22 to try to jump start the process with the social welfare department there.

Our attorney is also trying to get in touch with people higher up in the social welfare department to talk about the current options.

We need God to come through in a major way. Please pray. We are holding on to hope but it is hard.

Gratitude

2009-07-07T01:33:00.000-07:00

What are you thankful for today? Sometimes it is easy to forget all the things that God has provided for us. After a month of being here and having ice cold showers each day, I have had warm showers the past two days. We finally got a fridge on Friday. Several on the team remarked how great it was to have a cold drink.

I am also so thankful to God for our family and friends. We are blessed to have this opportunity to be here to serve and to be on this roller coaster ride as we attempt to adopt. We are definitely going up and down in our emotions. We hold to hope and trust that we are where He wants us. I am also thankful for God’s leading and guidance through our faith journey. I am grateful you are on this journey with us. We have so much to be thankful for today.

So we are thankful for warm showers, cold drinks, friendship and partnership and for our loving, gracious Father. What are you thankful for today?

With His great love,
Chris

Malawi and USA independence

2009-07-05T08:29:00.000-07:00

With the 6th of July being Malawi's independence day, Greg one of our students thought it would be great to celebrate with both on the 5th with our Malawi friends. So after church today we had a party at our place for 30 people. It was great fun with great food. It is a blessing to make friends and fellowship together. Here is a picture I took of our crowd. God bless and thank you for your prayers.
Chris

This week

2009-07-03T08:28:00.000-07:00

It has been a good week. The team had a good day and a half rest and then has been going this week. They went to a fellowship meeting on Tuesday night, Bible study on Wednesday, Feeding program with Children of the Nations on Thursday and a Bible study at a secondary school today. We will have a barbeque Sunday with some students coming over to our house.

Our hearts rejoice with being able to serve in so many different contexts. Our family has been to a secondary school in the rural area where we will go later this month as the conference speaker. We were able to go to the crisis nursery this week several times and got to help entertain and care for the babies. It was sad though as one of the children died last week. These babies come to the nursery in really rough condition. Many are sick and severely malnourished.

Please pray for my preparation. I will be teaching at conferences two weeks in a row. I long for God’s word to come alive and speak to the students hearts calling them to a deeper sense of his love and call for their lives. I long to see these young men and women become change agents in the church and community God has them in.

Adoption update: Things move slowly here. As I have mentioned before Fuluke (actually spelled Farook I think)is HIV positive. He has been tested and is positive but they do a second test in a month to be sure. His mom died of complications from AIDS. We have learned that the US is allowing adoptions of HIV positive children now but it is unclear if they will from Malawi. We are trying to find that out and are still in process with Farook seeking the Lord’s guidance. We are also looking into another boy, Jackson, who is in the Mzuzu Crisis Nursery. He is 4 months old. We will know more as the social welfare department contacts relatives to see if he is “unattached.”

Please pray for us to clearly hear God’s voice as we continue to follow his leadership. Adopting a boy with HIV will be even more life changing for our whole family, we don’t walk in blinded but also know that without medication Farook will not likely live past the age of two but with medication he can live a healthy life. So we pray and seek the Lord which child He has for us. Please join us.

Thank you for your emails and comments. Please keep them coming. We are encouraged by our friends and family love and support as we try to walk by faith.

Email problems

2009-06-28T08:29:00.000-07:00

Friends, some of you have been trying to get email updates from the student trip and have been getting our family updates instead. This has been fixed but you will need to go to the student blog to sign up again for emails to be sent to you.

One brief update on the team, they have returned from Mzuzu and have many stories so we will update their blog tomorrow. But everyone is a bit tired from the journey back and getting settled in our house.

I am sorry for the confusion and problems.
God bless you all,
Chris

Challenges students face

2009-06-28T08:28:00.000-07:00

I had the chance to counsel and encourage a student this week. I thought I would share her story. She began by saying she hadn’t felt the ability to talk with anyone then she went on to tell about her shame and guilt she carried. She said that her mom had remarried when she was 11 and her brothers and sisters when to live with her grandmother. So when her mom was gone her step-father began to physically abuse her. She told her mother and she said she was lying and that she should be quite and not say such things about her step father. So the abuse continued until she became pregnant at 13. She told her grandmother who is a midwife and she forced her to get an abortion.

She shared how she saw men, the anger she felt toward her mom and grandmother. She wants to forgive them and feels she has but still carries the emotions. She also isn’t sure she can ever find a man she can trust.

We talked about her relationship with Jesus. I apologized as a man and a father that she was so mistreated. We then talked about the long term process of forgiveness and that Jesus would continue to help her totally forgive. I prayed for her to find male friends that would help her to trust men.

I was so impressed with her trust in Jesus and her experience of His love for her. Faith is a journey that isn’t always easy but it is always freeing.

Please pray for her as she continues to heal emotionally and journeys down.

SCOM Awareness Event

2009-06-21T23:37:00.000-07:00

The team joined us Friday. It is great to have them here.

Saturday was the culmination event of SCOM awareness month. It began with about 1000 Secondary and College students marching 2 miles through the busiest part of town sweeping the streets, singing and dancing (complete with a truck with loudspeaker). We got stopped at one intersection, we thought because of traffic, but it turned out that they were waiting on the national TV cameras to get there as they were at the state house covering another event. It was quite a sight, and very fun when the SCOM students would come up and encourage us in our dancing. One told us we need to move our butt more.

It ended at the Commuinity center which had a soccer field with large grand stand. After a long wait, the students were fed a roll and a soda. They actually ran our of rolls, but more came and hour later. There was alot of singing and dancing, then we heard from some speakers. First was SCOM's General Secreatry and then Malawi's Attorney General encouraging the students to set some big goals and go after them. The final speaker was an evangleist (in the true sense of the word) who implored the students to live pure lives and run away from sexual sin. You could tell from the crowd's engagement and loud cheering that it was exactly what this student group needed to hear.

"How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to Your word" Ps. 119:9

Many students responded to the call to live lives of purity. Hundreds went forward for prayer and a few committed their lives to Jesus for the first time.. Praise God.

Health update:
Jacob's arm: He is ready to have the cast off. It itches and can be hard to sleep. We plan to remove it on Wednesday.
My Face: On Friday 3 weeks movement began to return. It is not fully restored but it is much better. I still have some discomfort as the nerves regenerate. Praise God for progress.

What is happening this week:
The team heads to Mzuzu tomorrow. I will be working the Patrick the SCOM General Secretary this week on several projects in the office. Dudley will be doing some computer repair (with slow internet she needs your prayers)

Prayer requests:
Safety for the team as they travel and live with college students.
Evangelistic fruit as they join in the evangelism week on campus at Mzuzu University.
Our adoption process as we begin to expand the search for other children that can be adopted.

Heart breaking

2009-06-19T01:21:00.000-07:00

You can hear about many things and intellectually understand them but do they really sink in? When you are thick headed like me (Chris) the answer is no.

Wednesday I spent the morning at the SCOM office leading a Bible Study and then traveling to campuses around Lilongwe to set up our trip. I then returned home in the early afternoon to help clean other areas of the house that we haven’t got to yet as the team arrives Friday.

Then we went to the crisis nursery to help with the children and see Fuluke. We have been trying to get information on his uncle so we can contact him about getting approval and release for the adoption, but the uncle didn’t really leave any contact information. The other disheartening news was that we have discovered that Fuluke has been tested for HIV and is thought to be positive. Regardless of adoption, the brokenness of our world that a 10 month old carries a virus that will kill him in the next few years is just awful. It looks like his mom died from AIDS and passed the virus to her son.

We knew with the HIV/AIDS pandemic that children with HIV would be a reality but when seeing these beautiful children it is hard to believe. There are over 1 million people that are HIV positive here in Malawi and over 2 million children orphaned. Fuluke is just one of them. Our hearts are heavy as we see the results of the fall and sin. God help us.

Even with heavy hearts, we cling to hope. God has us here to be a source of love, encouragement and grace. We pray that we may be a blessing to our friends here. We continue to persevere and will still seek for the child we think God has for us. Where do we go from here? We will keep praying, looking, serving and waiting. Please continue to join us in prayer.

Supreme Court Ruling

2009-06-13T04:18:00.001-07:00

This weekend the Supreme Court ruled that they would allow Madonna's adoption to go through. The ruling says that each adoption should be looked at individually, as to what is in the best interest of the child. They said that the 18 mo. residency issue is not a requirement, more of a suggestion. This is exciting news for us though we don't fully know what it means for us yet. But it shows that they are more open to international adoptions. I didn't think I would be praising God for Madonna yet I am.

We celebrated Joseph's 8th birthday with a few pastries this morning and soda for dinner. We are splurging :O we spent some time at the crisis nursery today as that was Joe's request. He is getting really attached to Fuluke as we all are. It is hard not to. He is a sweet little guy. We have had a great time helping at the crisis nursery. The kids recognise us now. Those that are mobile will come right up to us. They love the attention. We are choosing not to post a picture of Fuluke because we have heard of others getting in trouble (not allowed to adopt from other countries) for doing so. Trust me, he is cute and very small for a 10 month old.

Please pray for:
our hearts not to be broken in this process.
wisdom to know how much to keep doing and when to wait and see.
the process to move quickly for our adoption.
Jacob’s arm and my face to heal.
wisdom to know where to spend our time as the options grow to serve.

Crisis Nursery & Orphanages

2009-06-13T04:18:00.000-07:00

This week we spent moving into our new house and getting things started on our adoption. Our house is beautiful and very large. It has been neglected for sometime so has required a lot of time this week in cleaning and debugging. The previous inhabitants cooked with a lot of grease, so I spent a day scraping grease off the counters and walls. But it is plenty big enough for the team to join us in a week.

Last Friday we put our application in with Social Welfare requesting an adoption. They have very limited resources which makes them a little difficult to work with. In our perspective they move very slowly. And by Wednesday they couldn't find our application. Every trip to that office is very discouraging.

After the first meeting at Social Welfare we thought it best if we didn't leave the part of locating a child entirely up to them. Chris made a trip to the crisis nursery and an orphanage this week with little progress. On Monday all the infants at the crisis nursery were "attached" to some family member. When he went in on Tuesday there was a young man in their relinquishing his rights to his 10 month old nephew, Fuluke. You could tell that he loved him very much but since the boy's mother died on Saturday, he is not able to care for him. He is an adorable little boy and would be very pleased to accept a miracle from God if Social Welfare would match us with him.

We spent some time this week volunteering at the Crisis Nursery, feeding and playing with the babies. The whole family enjoyed it, even Isaac said he enjoyed it more than he wanted too. He feed 2 boys their bottles and read them some books. Grace really enjoyed playing with Fuluke and he smiled and laughed a lot for her. She is ready to be a big sister. The caregivers kept bringing more and more babies out for us to play with till there was 10 or 11. Grace said we needed more adults as we would hand babies off to our kids to pick up the fussy one.

Please pray:
- that we would not become discouraged when facing roadblocks in the adoption
- for Fuluke to find a good home (with us :) or somewhere else)
- safe trip for the team as they travel this week

Our weekend

2009-06-08T01:34:00.000-07:00

This weekend was full. I (Chris) went to a stakeholders meeting with key spiritual leaders in the country. The Student Christian Organization (SCOM) presented the issues facing teenagers in Malawi and the challenges to them performing well or even finishing high school.

Here are a couple of issues. Many students have to walk over an hour to school each day. That means they leave home very early and arrive at school tired. This doesn’t help them perform well at school. Another challenge is that in a study done of 4000 students in 2007 - 31% of students were orphaned and struggled to come up with school fees. Some girls are forced to sell their bodies to come up with their school fees.

One story from the conferences in May, a young girl said her “boyfriend” had helped her pay her school fees and now was pressuring her to have intercourse by threatening to beat her up unless she paid him back. A SCOM counselor asked her how much would it cost to pay him back what he had given so she could be free. She did some figuring and said 2850 kwatcha. (That is less than $20.) It was heart breaking to hear!!! This situation is one of thousand of similar situations.

Yet SCOM is in the middle of it trying to save these young women from difficult situation.

Family update:
Jake’s arm is getting better. He was using it to much while we traveled so it was quite swollen when we arrived. We have been keeping in his sling and his swelling has gone down significantly.
My face is still paralyzed on the right side. My speech is challenged so I have to make sure I speak clearly to be understood. I had the opportunity to share with the gathering Saturday and felt I was clear enough. I have been experiencing some pain in the area as it seems the nerves are regenerating. (I think that is what you call it.) Who knows but God. He is in control and we are trusting in Him. He can use us even in our weakness.

2 Corinthians 12
9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

We have arrived

2009-06-05T02:40:00.000-07:00

Well it took us two days but we are here. We slept (all of us for 12 hours- Dudley corrected me - I slept for 12 hours and everyone else slept 14 - 16 hours) last night. We have secured housing and will be working to get everything together this weekend. (The house is large but quite dirty.)

I will fill in more in a couple of days.

Thank you for your prayers.

Chris

off to the airport

2009-06-02T16:24:00.000-07:00

Well we are finally in Chicago and on our way to the airport.
1 broken arm - check.
1 paralyzed side of face - check.
4 kids - check.
2 parents - check.
4 bags and 6 back packs - check.
6 passports - check.

Malawi here we come.

Thank you for praying
Chris

Prayer Request

2009-06-01T20:32:00.000-07:00

It has been a good and rough few days. Jacob our #2 son broke his arm on Wednesday. He is in a cast and fine.

Friday at dinner I started having twitches on the right side of my face and by Saturday morning I lost movement on the right side of my face. Well the short of it is that I have come down with Bell's Palsy, a condition that causes the facial muscles to weaken or become paralyzed.

It hasn't helped my looks but little could :) Drinking is a bit of a challenge as well as keeping my eye moist (can't blink or close it completely.)

As you can imagine, it isn't the best timing as we leave tomorrow for Malawi. Saturday morning I was reading Phillipians chapter 3 & 4. 4:12 stood out to me.
^4:12I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.

It seems this is a good opportunity to give God praise and learn about contentment. I do ask that you would pray for healing. My speech has been affected since half of my mouth doesn't work at this point. I would love to be able to speak clearly as I have opportunity to preach God's word in Malawi this summer. God knows what is best so would you seek His good and perfect will for us.

Our journey begins Tuesday June 2 at 12:30pm. Malawi here we come. Praise God!!!
Chris

Here we go

2009-05-20T14:31:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone,

I can't believe it but we (Swiney Clan) leave in less than two weeks for Malawi.
We will be keeping up this blog again this year and would love your prayers.

So we leave June 2 and return September 4th. (yes that is over 3 months.)
What will we do? we will be partnering again this year with the Student Christian Organization of Malawi (SCOM) as well as looking to build some other partnerships with other organizations.

As we were there last year in the crisis nursery and realized the challenges those little ones would face our hearts broke for them. It is now estimated that there are over 2 million orphans in Malawi a country of 12 million people. So as we have prayed this year we have felt led to try a crazy impossible thing. We hope to adopt while we are there. God knows if it will happen. We feel led to try and let God take care of the impossible if that is His will.

The adventure has begun. Please join us for this journey and seek the Lord on our behalf.
God bless you
Chris Swiney

P.S. On the bottom of your feedburner email is a place to unsubscribe if you wish to do so.

A highlight video

2008-09-09T16:54:00.000-07:00

We have put a video on you tube and we thought you might want to see it.

Here is the link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_52mNMyGeE

If it doesn't work then go to You Tube and search for Malawi & ivcls.

Thank you again for your prayers for our summer.
Chris Swiney

Arrived in London

2008-07-31T02:20:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-28T02:10:00.001-07:00

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

2008-07-24T08:12:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-23T09:19:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-21T03:38:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-07-20T10:25:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-18T06:59:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-17T06:32:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-13T02:35:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-07-12T07:44:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-08T23:38:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-07T02:44:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-04T02:26:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-02T08:59:00.000-07:00

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

In Malawi

2008-06-29T02:53:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-25T23:08:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-24T23:04:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-22T10:48:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-06-19T20:28:00.000-07:00

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

Malawi 08 Team

2008-05-08T22:31:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our summer trip blog. We leave on June 22 and will be returning on July 31.

Prayer Requests

2008-05-08T20:20:00.000-07:00

We can use your prayer for the logistics of our trip.

Our housing is not yet set. Please pray for that to be figured out in the next 2 weeks.
Students fund raising and preparation for the trip. (Many will be going through training this week at Chapter Focus Week.)
The kids get their shots next on May 19 & 21. They are a bit nervous.
I will have a lot of preparation for our training for their staff and students and for our team times. Please pray for focus and for God to speak to me during my study.