Zikomo and a mini-cap

1 John 3:18-Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but

with actions and in truth. Live Love

Some of you may know this verse, others may not. This verse is the basis of what we do in Malawi, it is the reason Live Love Chandler and Live Love Malawi exist. To understand this is to understand where it came from. 

My pastor and his wife were living in Guatemala, and one day while my pastor was walking down the street two people were shot and killed right in front of him. This day made him question his faith, his trust in God and his work as a pastor. He started searching through the Bible and this verse is what God showed him. He wanted to put into action, not just love people by his words, but show them. Here is a link to the Live Love Chandler, if you want to know more about it. http://whatislivelove.com/

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Lilongwe, Malawi

I am back from Malawi, Lilongwe, Africa, and I would not have made it without each and every one of you, and I want to Thank You all.  To say that this trip was amazing, exciting, emotional, frustrating, sad, happy, slow, fast, brilliant, fun, lots of laughs, would be an understatement.  As of right now I can honestly say, that I have not emotionally wrapped my head around any of the 2 weeks that I was gone, and I am struggling to find myself right now.

I do have pictures that I will be sharing, but have not had time to get them off of my camera or my cell phone yet. I basically got off the plane and hit the ground running. 

Here is a re-cap mini-cap of it all:

-33-hour plane/layover to Malawi
      AZ, Chicago, London, Kenya, Malawi

-37-hour plane/layover back

      Malawi, Blantyre, Kenya, Paris, Chicago, AZ

-4 more stamps on my passport!!!!

-148 missionaries 

   -118 from The Grove (my church)

   -30 from Mosaic Church (LA)

-52 African Bible students/translators, to travel to each place with us

     These students are the heart and soul of Malawi's future.

-200 missionaries in all.

-6 buses (not school buses. These break down and have jump seats)

-2 vans

-1 truck

-1 Malawi driving ticket, our pastor received

-2 safaris

     -Marula in Zambia (The Grove)-(-13.100031, 31.792253) coordinates

     -MVUU in Malawi (Mosaic)-(-14.851029, 35295295) coordinates

-1 day at Lake Malawi (the students/translators)

-several days with no water

-1 African Bible College-(-13.963673, 33.742247) coordinates

-1200 people at the Grove concert

-1 major Malawian pop star

-2 new Mosaic songs, in Chichewa (official language in the village that we were at)

-1 play

-1 movie

-1 men/chief conference

-1 amazing woman chief making a difference

-78 chiefs
-61 women and widows
-my wreaked heart
-lots of pictures

-1 John Lott

-1 Jay Feely

-Several Teams

     -Women and Widows team

     -VBS-kids team

     -High School team

     -Medical team

     -Justice team

     -Music team

     -Construction team

     -Agriculture team

-1 Feast of Epic Proportions

This is just what I can think of at the top of my head, stay tuned....

Even though you could not be with us, the help of each and every person who supported me and everyone else on this mission was more than we could ask for. You do not need to go on a mission or to another country to Live Love. 

-14.014865.33, 33.644793-coordinates to the village

These coordinates should be right on top of the clinic that was built in memory of Kalinde (that's another story). The area where there is a bundle of trees is a cemetery and where witch doctors perform rituals and other horrible acts on women and children, this is the only place we are forbidden to enter. These are at every village, thankfully the chief of this village wants to end this in his village, and he has drastically changed how many/often this happens since Live Love started coming 9 years ago.

Zikomo means thank you in Chichewa.