The school

Mark 10:29-The verse the kept speaking to Jack
Isaiah 54-The verse that told him to build a school
Matthew 25:34-The verse that showed him that the Bible will always teach him something, no matter how many times he reads it.
Joshua 3-The motto

The dorms

The African Bible College that we stayed at was amazing.  The couple who founded and built the school, Jack and Nell Chinchen, also happen to be the parents of my lead pastor at our church, Palmer.


Bodega, a place to study

The background of how Jack and Nell started this school is no less than a God thing. Jack grew up in a wealthy family and had a bright future to take over the family business of pear farming, when he speaks about it, he mentions that this was exactly what he wanted to do with his life. He had no intention to follow God and His mission for him.  Of course that all changed, when Jack met Nell. They met, fell in love, got married and after many years of having herself and her friends pray for Jack, Nell finally bought Jack a Bible, hoping he would start reading it. Her prayers were answered, and Jack started reading, and reading, not truly understanding, one day while out on the farm, Jack knew he heard Gods voice tell him to quit the family business and follow God. Jack says he immediately ran to his house and let everyone know what he was just called to do. Jack was 33 years old. 

He eventually went to seminary school, and while still in school was asked to lead a church, which grew immensely.  But Jack found that this was not what God had in mind. God said that His plans were to go to the places where God is not known, Africa.

Student center, and office of Live Love Malawi

One of the homes of the Chinchens

So Jack and Nell along with their 4 kids went to Africa, they lived in the deep jungles of west Africa for many years, the only way to get to their home/hut, made of bamboo, was by a small plane. Nell, a nurse, opened a clinic, for those many years this what Jack and his family did, but once again Jack was called to grow more, and build a college in Africa, he knew that building a school would help the people of Africa get an education and become leaders in their own country.

Just outside the cafeteria. To the left is a volleyball court and a huge gym.

 

Radio station

 

Jack had doubts about Gods plan to leave and go somewhere else, but he knew it was time to go when his small home made of bamboo burned down.  A friend told him that he could stay at a guest home in a place that Jack describes as 'Shangri-la' in a small village where a Swedish mining company was. Once there he knew this was where he wanted to build the college, but how? He was told to speak to the president of the company.  Jack knew that something big was going to happen, he was barely in this new town and he was already given the name of the president.  When he walked into his office the president was reading his Bible, and Jack knew this was it. He told him why he was there and the president was elated, he asked Jack if he had a car and took him to the window of his office the over looked all the village, and he told Jack to find the best land to put his college. By the end of that day, Jack had the land and him and the president went over the plans.  Once they were done Jack was told to see the President of Liberia William Tolbert Jr. who was able to get him the people he needed and the okay to start building.

 

He needed half a million dollars to build this college, he went back to America to raise money, and was able to raise it in 6 months. In 1978 the first ABC was born, by an old pear farmer, who had never built anything, or taught in a school.

As of 2005 there are 3 ABC colleges.  Jack and Nell still live in Liberia. Their son Paul (Palmers twin brother), and their sister live at the Malawi college, and the third college is in Uganda.

My room

(I did not take too many pictures of the school, even though we were told to look around and explore, there really was no time. The campus is about the size of a standard community college, the staff live on campus and have their own homes.  The campus is on a gated community build of bricks, and there are guards 24/7 to keep out intruders. They have basketball, tennis, volleyball, Frisbee golf and more on the campus, they won the championship in basketball this past year, which is Jack's favorite.)

What God has....

Ephesians 5:1-2

I was reading the verse of the day from You Version.  Ephesians 5:1-2 NLT

"Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children.  Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ, He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God."

What does this verse mean to you?

To me, this verse says that I am to do what God does with people, but how?  God knows things before they happen.  He knew his disciples would deny Him, abandon Him, betray Him, and he still loved them, but He knew that he needed them at that time and He knew that they had free will to do so, because He gave it to them.  How would God have reacted if He was told to just believe without knowing what these men were going to do this?  Would He have continued to love them after they came back and apologized? After He came back from the dead?

Tell me, would it be easier for you to love your neighbors, if you already knew how they were going to be, how they were going to react, how they were going to judge you, how they were going to gossip, how they were going to be the best version of God toward you?

I think so, I think that if I knew what people were feeling before hand, it would be easier to react toward them. I could change my approach depending on the person, and say things softer or harsher. People have a tendency to be nice on the surface, no matter what they are really thinking. You can ask someone how they are, and they will tell you, 'I'm fine,' when they are not. I personally look angry or upset most of  the time, when I am not, but I also react harshly to situations pretty quickly, and yet I am actually fine, but that is not what it looks like, I also have a hard time showing/expressing my emotions in other areas, try giving me a surprise and watch how I react, most people who know me, know I won't give you anything, I don't mean to look or seem ungrateful, I truly am [grateful], but it's not how I am wired, but give me a surprise that I am aware of, it's a whole different ball game.

God wants us to imitate Him, copy Him.  But He did not give me everything He has, the ability to know what people are thinking, what they are going to do next, what they are going to give me, how they will treat me, He did not give me the ability to walk on water, to make more fish out of a few fish.

Or am I just thinking about this too hard?  I also read a blog post today that told briefly of the Good Samaritan, http://branthansen.com/2014/08/05/  and how God just wants us to stop and be kind and love, no matter what day it is, no matter who the person it is, no matter what you have done in this life, just like He does. Is it that simple? Probably.

The work

Jeremiah 29:11-12
Proverbs 16:3



I call this post the work, because its all the hard work that Live Love has been doing on two different ends of the world. Without one the other would not be as successful.  Live Love in Arizona and all the supporters, has been teaming up with Live Love in Malawi to build a clinic, get medical treatment, get sewing machines to the women, and teach them how to sew, have barefoot Sundays to provide shoes and jobs in Malawi and so much more.  Each and every person that supported us with prayers, shoes, supplies, financially is also apart of this, you all helped in your own way, even if you were not there, and I want to thank you for that.  I personally would like to ask you each to continue to pray for Live Love and the ministry that they provide.  http://whatislivelove.org/vision/.

Two years ago Pastor Paul, Melinda and their four children were in Malawi together. While there they met a lady who was very ill.  What started out as, what we would call a minor cut, turned into an infection, then a bed sores. The village could not afford to take her to a hospital, and by the time Paul and Melinda got there it was too late, her infections spread to the point that all they could do was try to make her comfortable and keep the flies that had already lady hundreds of eggs on her, off.  On the way home from Malawi, Melinda got a call in Texas that the lady had passed away, they had not made it home yet.  This struck a nerve with Melinda and Paul and they decided on that day that they  wanted to do something.  They decided on putting clinic and staff in that village. They did not want someone else to die of something that was very preventable.  I did not know about this story until we were driving to the village.  I only wish I would have taken my camera out to capture the reaction of both Paul and Melinda, and what all the supporters of Live Love helped accomplish.  I've never seen two people more grateful. With God's help, they thought about this clinic, and everyday we drove into the village, they thanked God and all the people who made this dream happen. This was an incredible event to be apart of.  I knew about the clinic, but not the story behind it.  This clinic will provide so much for so many.  If you go to my short video blog, you will see Paul on the roof before it was finished and the excitement on his face. He is like a kid in a candy store. http://zikomomalawiafrica.blogspot.com/2014/07/short-video-of-our-trip.html

The brick on this clinic is made by the villagers. 

Chief Malika and her husband inside the clinic.

Here is the only clinic in this village.  They were 90% done by the time we left.

 



Another thing we did while there was get five, foot pedaled sewing machines to the women of the village, and teach them to use them. Because they do not have electricity the machines and the tables for them were going to cost a lot more than expected.  So our children's ministry pastor, Jen, took this project and never looked back.  She talked to the children from 1st-6th grade and they wanted to help.  What Jen didn't know was that when they started to little project with the children, it blew up (in a good way).  These children raised enough money to buy three of the five sewing machines. Then she found Sandy, a seamstress who has been to Malawi, her husband is one of our elders and she is an amazing teacher, who along with her 18 year old daughter Caryssa, taught these women how to sew.  We used the clinic to teach the women.

This is Sandy showing them how to thread the needle.
Everyone of these women were completely involved, and wanted to learn.

When one woman would try and they completed the task, every one with congratulate them.

Once they understood what they were doing, they would start teaching
each other how to do it.



Once everyone had their turn and they all knew what they were doing,
They started to make fun of each other when they would mess up,
Theses women had a great sense of humor and work ethic.



This is Love, one of our translators/students, who also learned how to sew.
Each of the students that were with us that day, wanted to learn too.

This is Blessings, the Live Love Malawi leader.
Learning to sew, he did great.

 



The foot pedal on the machines.



There is really no way to describe both of these days, but to say you had to be there.  And hopefully someone reading this will want to go with us next year.  Yes, I hope to go again next year, its all in God's hands though. I would love to see what they finish in a years time. Live Love is not just in Malawi, they are also in Thailand (partnered with The Exodus Road http://www.theexodusroad.com/) helping to end child sex slavery, Liberia, Haiti, just finished building a new church after the hurricane a few years ago and Chandler, AZ.  So what you see is not the only place your prayers are going to, it is going to so much more.  Zikomo.

The beauty

Psalm 145

Ecclesiastes 3:11

This is Pastor Paul in his element.

Eating sugar cane.

 

 

Pastor Paul knows that when you take people out of their element and make them uncomfortable, you should also make them comfortable.  He knows that not everyone can handle being where we were and doing what we were doing, on a daily basis.  So in the mist of poverty and pain, he wanted to show us beauty.  The other beauty of Malawi.  Don't get me wrong, for Paul and many others, including myself, where we were was beautiful, amazing, generous, unimaginable, selfless, and exhausting.  I truly did not need to go on a safari to see some spectacular, but it was a once in a life time opportunity, and with 59 people, some of them were home sick, missing their families, the food, the luxury that they were used to, and no one can blame them. Paul made sure that for 8 months before we left, at every meeting we went to he wanted us to be as uncomfortable about where we were going as possible. I found this idea brilliant.  One Sunday meeting, Paul put all of the chairs as close as possible to symbolize our seats on the plane. We were not to move the chairs for the whole meeting and proceeded to tell us about some of the stranger stories he has had on these long flights.  This day alone got at least 15 people who decided they did not want to travel for 25-30 hours in such a small confined space with others.  Another time he reminded us once again that we would be going to the lavatory in a hole in the ground.  We already knew this from previous meetings, but I guess some people forgot, and walked out immediately.  When we originally got together on our first initial meeting there were over 120 people who were in the room. Over half dropped out before we left. I'm sure not all of them were because of Paul, but I am sure a lot of them were.

Pastor Paul was a big reason why I was not surprised about any situation the happened, but also I personally have been reading a lot of missionary books over the years before going on this trip. 
Books likes Kisses from Katie by Katie Davis, an amazing 18 year old girl who started off by wanting to go to Uganda to do a mission before starting college, and eventually ended up staying in Uganda, starting her own organization; Amazima, and she adopted 13 Ugandan children of her own. Her book helped me understand a lot of what I was going to see in Malawi.

Bruchko, by: Bruce Olson, his story about, at 19, living with the Motilone Indians in Venezuela for 26 years and eventually getting captured and held hostage by guerrilla terrorists, and tortured for nine months.  He ended up leading many of the guerrilla terrorists and Motilone Indians to God. His book helped me understand the danger I could potentially be in, but never was.

In the end we were brought to an incredibly fantastic place in Malawi, the MVUU safari. Probably a 5 star place. Beautiful huts, animals, food, people, and stars.

There were hippos everywhere in the water. There were so many hippos.

I never knew there were so many hippos.

The lake went on for hundreds of miles.



The land safari was incredible too.  One of the elephants we found,

 charged us for a few minutes while our driver tried to drive as fast as he could. 

 It was pretty intimidating, even the driver was scared.

And incredible sunsets.

 

I didn't need to go on safari, there was beauty everywhere, but this didn't hurt.

 

 

Sprained ankle....worth it.

 

 

The Children

Philippians 4:8-9

 



 

 

This is Ellen. She was posing for every camera, while

 the women's conference was going on.

 

 

If you watched the video I sent, it is no exaggeration that hundreds of children were everywhere every time we drove up, and they were chanting 'azungu'.  A-ZUN-GU, A-ZUN-GU!!  The children would surround the door that opened to each of our buses, to get their own azungu.  There were hundreds of them, and only 59 of us, so we got no less than two.  They would immediately ask up dzina lako ndani?  Which means What is your name?  And then you would tell them, and they would continue to say your name over and over to get it right.  Every time we got out of the buses, our 'kids' would find us and remember our names. Even the people who have gone on this trip before, the kids they had a year prior would remember them.  My name is pronounced DAh-knee-KA. I felt bad having such a hard name for them to remember.  Don't get me wrong not all of them have easy names, but my kids names were Evelyn, and Yvette.  Then some days I had Nicole, or Ellen. I never got a hard name.

 

These girls were showing us how to shuck corn.  After 30 minutes our hands were sore

or starting to bleed, so they would start the hardest part and give us the end to finish.

 

 

These girls were from a different village and did not really know what our phones were,

but figured them out quickly/

 

 

 

They love to play, they love to smile, they love to hold your hand(s), they love to dance, and dance for you, they love to pet your weird hair, and white skin. They do all this while walking bare foot through a rough ground, and lots of them are carrying another child with them, on their hip or back. They help each other out just like the women do.  If one was tired of carrying a baby another little girl would be right there to help carry them. If a child was crying, they were right there to console them. If you were doing something they have never seen, they wanted to know how. I taught one little girl how to hand sew, while a bunch of us were sitting under a tree and sewing clothes with holes.  If you were dirty, they would clean you off, if a bunch of ants were on you they would pick them off of you. (this actually happened a lot, what I found odd though was, no one was bit by an ant not once, we all had them on us at some point, I assume that the ants in Malawi did not evolve to biting, since they are not killed with poison, like they are in America, so they had no need to adapt). By the second week, if there were ants on me I didn't even care, one, cause they weren't going to bite me, and two, because a child that was with me would find it and take it off, usually before I noticed.

 

All these girls got in a line and were clapping, dancing and singing. They would go down the line and dance for us.

 

 

 

One of the biggest things they love is getting their picture taken.  And to take pictures with your phone.  And they all know how to use the camera on your phone, they know how to swipe to look at the next picture, they know how to flip the camera so they can see themselves.  This was fun for us and them, it could also get a little heated, sometimes you had to put the phone away cause they would start fighting over who was getting their picture taken next.

 

This little girl had some spunk.  She wanted to show off and she did.

 

 

 

 

The women

You know this quote?  This quote is the epitome of the village we were in. This is their life quote, and they have never even heard it before.   

DANCE like no one is watching

LOVE like you have never been hurt

SING like no one can hear you

LIVE like heaven is on earth

The women of the village, sing, they sing ALL THE TIME. They dance, they dance while they sing, and it's choreographed. You know those cheesy teenage movies, where even though the different groups (e.g. jocks, nerds, beauty queens) don't get along, they all know the same song and choreographed dance to the song, and as you are watching it you think, 'there is no way everyone in the WHOLE school knows this, and even by the end they still don't get along.  Well, that was this village, (except they got along) and every woman knew the song and dance, eventually, we found out that the men, children and even the students/translators knew these songs/dances.  And it was wonderful, their voices were angelic and cohesive.  They didn't miss a beat.  I was only able to get a couple of videos because I would be in such 'awe' that I would forget to tape them, and even when I did start taping them, they wanted us to learn the song and dance with them.  And I did, we learn one full song, that we sang every night at worship after dinner, but I was able to learn the dances a lot easier,(probably something to do with the language barrier of the songs) but I did learn some of them.

On our second day there, the women's group that I was in went to 6 widows homes to give each of them a gift, to pray for them, and what they wanted us to pray for, and to ask them if we could come back and help them with their day to day chores.  These women were so appreciative of what we were doing and giving, every one of them told us that they could not believe that we would travel so far to give them a gift.  One of them told us that she was going to commit suicide the day she found out that we were coming and that because she knows that Live Love helps her and loves her, she knew that God was telling her not to.  When we walked to the first widows home, we only had 7 or 8 women who were following us to the home, but as we went on to each of the homes, we gathered, or rather acquired more women, as we would leave a home there would be more women waiting to take us to the next home, and they would sing in between each home.  We found out that they actually made up a song about us and Live Love, and it was incredible. By the time we were done with each widow home, we had more than 40 women with us, singing and dancing, and even as our day was coming to an end and we were leaving the village to get to the buses, the women would sing to us all the way to the buses.

As we drove away that night I thought about what it would be like to start singing and dancing in our neighborhood, just because I was happy and felt Gods presence.  To have no inhibitions about what people thought, and what if my neighbors joined in and we had a cul-de-sac dance. Then I thought, 'that's a quick way to get to know the local police officers, cause my neighbors would call the cops for disturbing the peace'.  Have you heard me sing, not pretty, God did not gift me in that area.

These women ARE: Love God, Love your neighbor, Dance, Sing, and Live, and even though in comparison they had nothing, in reality, they had EVERYTHING.

We drove away on our buses to head home.  And I could not help but have a huge smile on my face, I wanted those women to come home with us and sing. To come home to America sing, I would not be opposed to either. Singing wasn't just at this village, I came to find out quickly that singing is Malawi. The students/translators that were with us would sing on the bus too.  Everywhere we went.  Our buses did not have a radio, but we had something even better.

Here are a few pictures of a few widows. 

These are some of the widows we visited.

Each one of them would bring out a large mat that was made our of corn

husks and have us sit on them so we would not get dirty.

They would sit on the dirt ground.

To not sit on the mat was an insult. These women have known for weeks that we were coming

and on the day that we did our visit,s some of them waited all day for us.

This beautiful lady, whom, might I add could not take a bad picture if you tried.

She was the one who was going to commit suicide before she found out we were coming.

The Travel

Psalm 1:2-3

Thank you all for the amazing responses, and continued support, it means so much to me that you all helped me and believe in me.

I finally finished downloading all my pictures, and of course want to share some with you all.  I also want to share some more about what I/we all did in Malawi. 

Not only did we have 59 suitcases that we had to keep track of, we also had 59, backpacks and 52, 50lb. boxes that we put a ton of supplies in to get to Malawi.  Some of the things that we put inside of these boxes were medical supplies, toiletries, kitchen things (silverware, plates, bowls), shoes, lots of shoes (this did not include the shoes for Barefoot Sunday that were donated, those shoes came on a huge container) (speaking of barefoot Sunday, that should be coming up in October, if anyone wants to donate their new/used shoes, I will add them to the bunch), we also had lots of clothes, soccet balls (this will be explained soon), soccer balls, Frisbees, two sewing machines, blankets, soap, and many more.  My pastor Paul, has been doing this for awhile and knows that there is a chance that we will lose our luggage and the boxes.  So he made sure we put a little bit of everything in different boxes, so if we lose a box or many boxes, we will still have some from another box that made it. This was an excellent idea, however, we did not lose ANY boxes or luggage!!  How amazing is that.

Side note: Grandma and Grandpa, thank you for the bright green suitcase(s), Mine stood out so well that I never had to grab my own bag, people just knew it was mine and got it.  No one had one like it.

We went to a couple different markets while we were in Malawi, these markets have A LOT of people, the first one we went to was huge, outside and hand made, each of the places that was selling things were in a area space no bigger that maybe a 5ft X 5ft space, and to walk in the 'walkways' the space was maybe 2 feet wide.  We were always smashed against people, the ground had huge holes, and feces, and everyone spoke Chichewa.  When we went to this particular market, we were not allowed to go anywhere without one of the students/translators, we had to leave before dark, and we were to barter for the prices, of three things that our pastor gave to us.  He gave us a challenge and a certain amount of money(Kwacha), to see which group did the best. This place was fun to be at because it was different, and new, and I don't think reality of being in a different country had hit us yet (we went to this market about an two hours after we landed).  In retrospect, we were in a very dangerous place and getting lost in the crowd would be very bad. We were to have a student in front of our group and in the back of the group. The people in this market were not friendly, they definitely took advantage of us 'azungu' which is white spirit in Chichewa.  They charged us to use the bathroom and yelled at the students that were with us for being traitors. The people would purposely walk by several times while running in to us and try to get us apart from each other.  We were not liked, but this was the only time we were taken to such an angry place, and it was a learning experience. I do not have any pictures of this place, my camera was dead.  By the way, my group won the contest!!!!

The ABC grounds were pretty fantastic.  This is where we stayed.  We had dorms and huts, the dorms were a pretty good size and you could have up to three people stay in them.  I had one roommate, and two others shared a bathroom between us.  This bathroom had a shower and a regular toilet.  I know what you're all thinking, 'I thought you had to go to the bathroom in a hole in the ground?'  We/I did, these bathrooms were at the village, and throughout Malawi.  And they were nice actually, and not as bad as everyone made them out to be, basically we squatted in an enclosed place with a hole in the ground, instead of behind a bush, and they were better than port a' potties. I do have pics, I will share. Anyways, because we had so many people in the dorms/huts, if you wanted hot water, or water pressure to take a shower, then you would have to take a shower at a certain time.  I apparently liked little water pressure and cold water, to each their own I guess.  Also, we found that flushing the toilet was not done very often, as the toilet bowls did not fill up very fast. We got to know each other pretty well on this trip.

We had devotions in the student center or cafeteria every morning and evening.  The cafeteria was huge (no pics)  and we were cooked pretty decent food.  Everyone kept saying that they thought they were going to lose weight on this trip, I believe we all gained weight. The basic foods we ate were, eggs, a weird sausage, Nsima-which tastes exactly like a thick sticky cream of wheat, it is also a staple food for Malawi and the village we were in, collard greens, chicken, cabbage, and rice.  We did go out for pizza a few times, as on one day, we had cabbage and this weird sandwich that was basically cottage cheese with tomato sauce, three times in one day, so our pastor decided he was 'tired' of cabbage and pizza would suffice. (the pizza was made different and was good). The students are obsessed with salt, because they don't have it, but since they can buy it at the local 7/11, almost all of the students on hand, even when we would go to the village, and they would pour it on.

There were also quite a few rats in the ceiling.  Every night we could hear the running around and scratching, or falling, on several occasions we saw them come out and then run away, some people said that the weird sausage thing we had was the rats. It was interesting how different our perception was in Malawi, we knew that these were rats, and that they could probably, or did, defecate on our plates/cups/food, but we all ate the food anyway.  But once we were back in the states or even Paris, we would freak our if we saw a hair in our food.

The ABC campus was just that, a college campus, the homes of the teachers and founders (Nell and Jack Chinchen-also my lead pastors mom and dad) were around the student center, they had a huge gymnasium, tennis courts, basketball courts, Frisbee golf, classrooms, it was about the size of our average community college.  And it was green, green grass, trees, plants, it was beautiful, I know if you are reading this and you live in Arizona, you are probably trying to figure out what this green color I am speaking of.  Sorry, I guess you had to be there.

This is the basis of where I stayed for two week, not including the two days at the safari place. We sent very little time here, and I really had almost no time to look around, let alone sleep. I might have a few pics but I didn't really take any.

 

 

 

This is chief Malika

(everyone in this village takes pics like this, they are all beautiful)

This is the inside of one of the two toilets, this one had a double stall.

 

This is the outside of the double stall toilet.  Chief Malika built this just before we got there, especially for us.

I did learn that having the top open and not enclosed was the best, I went into a few closed spaces, and WOW!!

Lets just say there is A LOT of years of smells.

The bricks you see on this picture and hand made by every village, everywhere we went in Malawi had piles and piles of bricks, the process takes about two weeks to make, but almost two years to set completely.

 

Write soon.

 

short video of our trip

Below is a short video of our trip.  Paul, our pastor, hired a guy to come along with us and take pictures and video of the trip and experience.  Pastor Paul has never done this before, and it turned out to be pretty great.  Daniel Kim was our photographer/videographer, he did an amazing job and will be providing us with more videos/photos soon.  He told us on our last day that he did not expect to have any emotional attachment on this trip, that normally he can detach himself from what ever project he is doing, so that his focus was on his job. But then Africa happened and he too was affected. 


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RBnmWeZ3ZzY&feature=youtu.be

The Beginning

Hello everyone,

First, I want to thank God for everything that He has done for me in the last year, this includes having each and everyone of you as a huge support system for me. 

Second,

-59 people went to Africa with me

-2 weeks

-4 airplanes to Africa, (Phoenix, Chicago, London (yes, we did get to tour a little of London), Lusaka, Africa, Malawi, Africa

-3 questionable buses we rode around on for the two weeks

-2 safari's, one night boat ride, 1 morning jeep tour

-billions of stars

-1000's of children

-100's of women and widows

-35 chiefs

-many projects

-lots of dirt

-many bathrooms, that were just holes in the ground

-my wreaked heart

-loving and living

-1 injury, me

-100's of pictures

-1 new language, with many new words learned

-82 new friends

-11 soccett balls

-7/11

-30 hours and 5 airplanes back (Malawi, Africa, Lusaka, Africa, Paris, France(we did not tour or see France), Miami, Florida, Phoenix.

And so much more...

Third, I know I thought I was going to be able to write an e-mail while I was in Africa, but internet was very hard to get, and for me it was obsolete, I couldn't even let anyone one know that I was okay getting to Africa until I was back from Africa.

Fourth, I have been back for three days now and I have yet to have a chance to really take in all that I/we did in the last two weeks. Also, I severely sprained my ankle last Wednesday night, after the night boat Safari, (my pastor always wants to make sure that when he takes us to a place of poverty, he wants us to see the beauty of the country we are in too) unfortunately we were 7 hours away from where we were staying, so there was no way for me to take care of my ankle the way I should, then I did the morning Safari in a very bumpy Jeep (awesome and Pain), and right after that we drove back to the ABC campus (African Bible Campus in Malawi, for those who didn't know or who want to look it up, our lead pastors dad founded these campuses), in one of our rickety buses, so my ankle really got worse, instead of better.  Then Friday was the last day before we left for the airport on Saturday, and I refused to stay still, because I wanted to take in the last day with the village and the people, who were amazing and I knew if I stayed still (like I was told to by two doctors) I would miss something.  Saturday and Sunday we were flying from Africa, to Paris, to the U.S., 30 hours and 5 airplanes later, there really was no time to rest this ankle. So I spent Monday, resting my ankle, and most of Tuesday. It still hurts pretty bad, and I probably have a hair line fracture by now.

 

Fifth, I tell you the above things for a couple reasons, to let you know a little why I have not written about Africa, and also, to say HOW MANY PEOPLE CAN SAY THEY SPRAINED THEIR ANKLE ON AN AFRICAN SAFARI, I feel that that sentence can sound pretentious, and I really don't mean for it to, but even though it hurts, it will heal, don't feel sorry for me, I SPRAINED MY ANKLE ON AN AFRICAN SAFARI!!!! I had several people that came on the missions trip with me that said I should make up a really good story about how I sprained my ankle, and I told them I don't have to, cause the real reason is pretty fantastic, although how it happened, not so amazing.  Basically, I was walking out of the hut we were staying in to go look at the stars (they turn out all the lights and we are in pitch black, and the stars are amazing).  I made sure I down loaded an app that would work without internet, before I left the states, so that I could see constellations that you can't see in Arizona. I stepped off the last step while looking up and the walkway below my steps was not finished and my foot thought 'hey I should step there and get twisted' and so, since my left foot has a mind of its own it decided to twist almost 180 degrees, and made a really loud pop, I fell to the ground, went on my back, and laid there. One of my roommates, saw the whole thing.  I stayed on the ground for a little bit,  and decided that since I was already on the ground I would continue to look at the stars, which were bright and illuminating, and there were sooooo many.  I took my camera, but I don't have the right lens to see the stars. Anyway, my roommate made me get up off the ground, in all my pain, because we were told earlier that we should not be on the ground without an escort/employee, cause that's when the Hippos and crocodiles and other animals come out, and they are not people friendly, so there was potential of getting mauled by and wild animals.  So, I am sticking with, I sprained my ankle on an African Safari, cause yea.

I have a bunch of pictures that I have yet to go through, but will be adding to the e-mail(s) I will be sending. I also took my printer for my camera, which was like gold in Africa.  I was able to take pictures of the widows, and chiefs, and then get them a picture of themselves the next day. None of these widows and chiefs have ever seen themselves, either in a picture or in a mirror.  My only regret, was I didn't have enough paper or ink for more pictures, which is something I will be investing in for next year. The smile and elation on the faces of each and everyone of them when giving a picture was amazing, I even took pictures of them getting the pictures, which gives me chills thinking about.  Also, the reverse camera feature on a phone is nothing but joy for the children.

We did so much in the last two weeks, that I feel like I was there for two months.  My pastor Paul and his wife Melinda, have their own non-profit organization along with my church The Grove, called Live Love. (whatislivelove.org) It comes from Paul's life verse 1John3:18 'Dear children, let us not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions' (my pastor would say in laments terms 'shut your pie hole and do something'). A lot of you know that one of my fears of going to Africa was that being so new to church and God and the Bible that I was not going to be a good teacher/leader in the Word. But I learned so much about my pastors organization and how he likes to share the Word, that I did not know about before. Live Love means exactly that, to Live in a way that shows God and Love in a way that God would. This was exactly the way I wanted to go on a mission, and god answered my prayers about my fear. So, we stayed in the village with the people and we cooked and cleaned with them and we played with the thousands of kids, and we helped build the clinic, spoke at 3 different prisons, had a medical team that treated over 1000 people, and so much more.

Here are just a few things that we did.  I will try and update another e-mail as soon as I have had time to heal a little more and absorb everything that has happened,  and hopefully I will have some pictures for you all.

Thank you all for your patience, and especially all of your support,

God has been so good to me and I am extremely blessed.