Malawi, Africa 2017

Psalm 34:18-(MSG)

If your heart is broken, you’ll find God right there;

if you’re kicked in the gut, he’ll help you catch your breath.

Another year has come and gone in Malawi, Africa. And once again I am so very thankful for everyone who has supported me and my passion for this country and the people. I am in love with everything about it.

I apologize for taking so long to write my blog updates on what we did this year. I have not gotten in touch with anyone really and to be completely transparent, I had a very hard time coming back this year. I had a hard time being there as well. My bearded dragon died on the 4th of July, (three days after I got back and it was very tragic). It has been hard for me to get back to 'normal'. Thank you for your patience.

I usually come back and want to talk to anyone who will listen to me and write on this blog, this year was different. Every year I go, I get a little more deep into the culture, the poverty, the family and the love, and every year it gets to me in hard and amazing ways (I am very bi-polar with my emotions when I am there). Every year the students that are helping me are more comfortable with talking to me about the things we don't see and every year the friends I have made and continue speaking to while I am in the states, they get more comfortable and honest with showing me what we do not know and explaining more matter-of-fact, and I love it, I feel like I am learning about my home. You see when we go, we do see a lot of poverty and we see things that are upsetting, but we are with students as well as locals who make sure we are comfortable and translate the best way they know how, and when we ask them questions they always tell us what we need to know, but also how we need to hear it. And this is a good thing, when you go to a third world country it is not easy, and it shouldn't be. 
That being said, this year, even though it was harder than I am used to, I know that God was behind it all, He was opening my eyes and ears and heart to this place I love so much. He helped me get back to my second family that I also love so dearly. I believe He was showing me EVERYTHING this year, and He had two weeks to do it.  This was the year I was going to find out if I will ever be going back to Malawi, Africa again.

Here is my annual mini re-cap of what we did this year:

-36 hour trip, one plane ride was 17 hours
-Over night stay in Ethiopia
-84 missionaries
        *51 people from The Grove and 33 people from Mosaic church
-5 buses to travel on throughout the week
-49 students
-7 Live Love Malawi employees AKA former students
-1 safari at Marula in Zambia
-no day with no water (sorry for anyone reading this who went this year and had no water, we had water, water pressure and it was hot, several people took a shower in our bathroom)
-2 more new Mosaic songs in Chichewa as well as the songs they came up with last year
-1 play
-1 movie
-1 surprise American wedding in the chapel
-1 roommate, who got married
-1 surprise renewal of vows
-So many questions 
-1 sprained ankle, 3 times. ugh
-1 long bridge
-1 African Bible College- (-13.963673, 33.742247) coordinates
-1 epic day at the Bingu futbol stadium(coordinates -13.944057, 33.753090  This place is huge and was built by the Chinese, look up the coordinates provided it is amazing, also look up directions to African Bible college and you can see how far away it is from where we were staying)
-1 chiefs conference, lead by Malawian men (115 chiefs attended, that's 37 more than last year)
-1 large women's conference  (with 3 villages)
-1 womens leadership meeting
-1 Futbol tournament
-More new students, and several students who graduated this year
-My completely Wreaked heart, mind and soul
-My new perspective, love and growing friendship
-1 Big decision to make
-Several Teams

     -Women and Widows team

     -VBS-kids team

     -High School team

     -Medical team

     -Justice team

     -Music team
     -Survey Team (new)

-1 Feast of Epic Proportions

This is all I can think of right now, I am sure I am missing so much, but it is a start. Thank you again to everyone who supports me, our teams and our churches, and everything we do on these trips. It means the world to us.