Feb 15, 2009

I have started this blog three times now and every time we have had a blackout so I stopped.

Yes, we are ok. I’ll bet you have been wondering what we have been up to. Well………..Dr. Kathy & David have been here for the last couple of weeks to help with some issues and we were busy with them. So busy that both my mother and my kids called to make sure we were alright since they had not heard from us in a while. We were just really busy while they were here. God is good. He showed his faithfulness again and allowed us to work through some of the major hurdles while Dr. Kathy & David were here.

When we went to the airport to pick up Dr. Kathy and David, there was a mid to late twenties guy at the airport with a Nebraska shirt on. We spoke with him and found out he is from Grand Island and had been working in Blantyre at the hospital for the past several months. He was leaving to return home. It was nice to connect with someone from our home state here in Malawi, even if he was leaving.

We also have become friends with a pastor from Michigan who has been living here for thirteen years. She has helped us through some tough times and it is great to have an American Christian friend on the ground that we can talk to who understands this culture better than we do. She has shed light on some things for us.

We have registered more new kids at the orphanage. Sixteen new kids arrived on or about Feb 1 and we are now up to 71 kids. A pastor arrived today with a request to take back some of the children who went home on “holiday” so there will be some more children arriving within the next couple of days. This pastor has about 14 additional children that he wants to bring here, that would be new to the orphanage. We’ll have to see how many are accepted.

We found a restaurant that serves Diet Pepsi!! We purchased four cans and brought them home with us. When you find something you like, you need to purchase a quantity of them because they probably won’t be t here the next time you look for them. This is the first time we have seen it and the owner said he did not know where they got it. His brother-in-law purchased it somewhere. The can is really cool. It is written in Arabic and has a pull tab. It tastes like Diet Pepsi, although I had to adjust my mouth to it again since I haven’t even seen one since we arrived in September. So, I am happy – sitting here writing this blog and drinking a Diet Pepsi. I am really glad that I broke my Diet Pepsi addiction before we arrived here because it would have been a long six months without one if I hadn’t. ;-)

It is still the rainy season and everything here is green. Even the brick fence in front of our house is green – green from moss growing on it. Your skin does not get dry this time of year. It is very humid and hot. The evenings are cool though so it is great to sleep. However, we still have to sleep with a fan on us because it is much warmer inside the mosquito net and with all the rain, the mosquitoes are thick!!
The Lord has hugely blessed us by allowing us to serve in this country. But, we have scheduled our first trip back to the U.S. We are leaving Malawi on March 11 and will be back in Omaha from March 12 to April 27. At that time, we will return to Malawi and hope to continue where we left off – working with the orphans.

We hope to see everyone during our trip back!