The Travel

The Travel:  Some of you have already done this trip and so this post might be boring.  I know that last year I didn't really think too much of the plane ride and how long it was going to take, in anticipation of what was ahead for me/us.

I did end up spending extra time thinking about the travel this time around. I thought I knew what to expect when we got to Africa, since I had already been, so that was off my mind. I remember thinking that I was even more nervous about going this time. because I wasn't last year. We only had 27 people this time around and so we only had 27 boxes to keep track of and 27 backpacks. This is in comparison to the 59 we had last year.

Our first lay over was in JFK, this is the only time I have ever been in New York, and was excited cause this is where my mom was born. Although I don't really consider this 'being in' New York as I did not step outside of the airport. Our second stop was London. This is amazing, because our lay over is long enough that we get to actually leave the airport and travel a little.  Our pastor has done this trip so many times he has a route he takes us through London. This year we skipped going through Hyde Park and took an extra tunnel from Paddington station to Buckingham Palace. From there we saw St. James Park, Westminster Abby, and Big Ben. From Big Ben you can see The Eye, which is my favorite thing to see, mainly because they blow it up in every movie. 


Buckingham Palace
 

THE EYE
 

We had two more planes til we got to our destination. I love plane rides, even when I hear about a crash it doesn't seem to bother me.  I love to look out the window and see that we are hovering over land or ocean. I even like the feel of turbulence.  The loooooooong flights don't bother me either. They are relaxing and I have time to think. The only thing that bothers me is that I have a hard time sleeping, and so with the 36 hours on the way there I had 1 hour of sleep, exhausting.  Once we get to Malawi, depending on the time, Pastor Paul wants us to stay awake until 10-11pm, so that we can be ready for the next day and potentially not have too much jet lag, but we landed at 930am, so we had a long day ahead of us.

Our traveling throughout Malawi and Zambia is in a bus/truck, and 12 seat van, although the van broke down the second week, so we had to, in the words of Blessings, 'figure it out' and we did. We went from the ABC campus to the village everyday, and on the way back we went to a place called ShopRite. This was their new mall that was built between the time we left last year and was recently finished when we got their this year and is right next door to the campus. Last year we went to 7/11

The Beginning....again

First, I want to thank God for all that He has done in my life.
Second, I want to thank everyone who supported me, who helped me get to Malawi, and who prayed for me and the wonderful people I went with, while I was there. I will be going back every year.

What did we do:
-27 people went
-2 weeks
-4 airplanes there: 36 hours
-4 airplanes back: 40 hours
-London: The Eye, Buckingham Palace, double decker bus, traffic, pounds
-1 bus we drove for two weeks, 1 van that broke down in the second week
-1 amazing driver Suzio




our amazing driver Suzgo

-Sooooo, many children

-billions of stars
-2 safari's in Zambia: one in the AM, one in the PM
-1 guy waking us up at 5 am
-4 extra stamps in my passport for going to Zambia
-Painting the almost COMPLETELY finished clinic
-1 solar panel on the clinic
-ELECTRICITY and outlets in the clinic
-a futbol tournament
-a first-ever Azungu team (white spirit), (meaning us)in the netball tournament.
-11 wonderful widows
-2 conference's: women's and a chief conference
-36 chiefs
-clinics
-a tumor
-Malaria
-A WEDDING
-live goat/dead goat
-live chickens/dead chickens
-goat intestine
-A FEAST
-singing
-dancing
-Live Love

Third,  This is the same blog that I wrote about my trip from last year, feel free to read last years too. Also, the title of this blog is zikomo-Malawi, Africa, for those that do not know zikomo in Chichewa is thank you. Chichewa is the language they speak in the villages that we go in to.
I have been back for a week now and I feel like I left my family in Malawi, and a piece of myself. It has taken me longer to 'recover' this time around.  Last year I knew that I was going to go back to Malawi, but I thought I would wait a year, maybe go on a different missions trip. But God had another plan for me, and even though I did not know why He was asking me to go back this year I did. I was able to spend more time with the ABC students, and get to know Fiki (one of the three who run Live Love Malawi), who happened to be my roommate for the two weeks. One of the reasons I did not start this blog right away, is mostly because of all the emotions, but also because I realized that it is harder to write this time. I have to make sure that I talk about a lot of the same things that I wrote last year, as there are many people who supported me this time around that did not hear or read about my experience last year, and so when I was trying to think of what to write, it was feeling redundant of last year, but I have to be.

Fourth, for those who keep asking me how my trip was, and I don't give them much, it is because I know myself and if I keep telling long stories of my trip to many different people then I won't be able to write in detail to those who I don't get to see and hear the stories first hand. Basically, I will slack in my posts. These posts are my thank you to all who helped me and prayed for me and I want to make sure that everyone gets to hear about it.

Last, here we go...My church The Grove goes on a missions trip for two weeks to Malawi, Africa every year (not nearly long enough). We stay at the (ABC) African Bible College in Malawi. http://zikomomalawiafrica.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-school.html (my post last year about the school and a little background. Also some pics) It was founded and built by Jack and Nell Chinchen, who are the parents of Palmer Chinchen our lead pastor. (He is not the one who takes us on this trip). Paul Chinchen is the president of the college and also happens to be Palmer's identical twin brother. We get to see him while we are there and it is very strange to see someone who looks exactly like the guy who just prayed for your groups trip 36 hours prior, who you are pretty sure did not just do this exhausting and fun trip with you. We stay in the dorms at the school.  We are actually very spoiled to stay in this amazing place. Each door to the rooms had their own skeleton key (I love skeleton keys, my mom used to collect them.) The rooms are bigger than most regular-sized homes guest bedroom. Each room has 2-3 beds. There are hand made wooden bed frames each with a bed, which I describe as a wrestling mat, that a full size fitted sheet fits on. The mats are about 2 inches thick. Each bed has a mosquito net above them. Fiki gave me many tutorials on how I was supposed to have the mosquito net around me and tucked under my bed, I was not very good at it. The rooms have a connecting bathroom. The sink is very small, and our counter was a long piece of wood about 4 X 1, which is funny cause there is plenty of room in this area for a regular counter, the toilet and shower are behind another door, we have an actual toilet and the shower is a stand up, no tub, some days you got hot or cold water and great pressure, and some days you got cold or hot water and scarce droplets, there is no way to control what you get, you just turn it on and wait in an anticlimactic awe. There were two nights where we did not have any water. We had to figure out what we could do. The campus had two different(for lack of a better word) water companies. One was controlled by a company, that gave water to the whole town, so we were not the only ones without water, this one also only controlled part of the campus, the other part was controlled by a well. Some people opted to take bucket bath/showers, others, myself included, were able to find a place that I would describe as a high school locker room shower/bathroom. The place was in the guy's dorm. Me and two other women went here. There were three showers, but we only used one of them, as we were told that if we used more that one, we would not get water pressure, and possibly no hot water,(not like this would be different than our own shower) we took a shower one by one, while the other two waited, behind a wall. We talked and laughed and got to know each other really well. This was one of my favorite nights on campus, because of something as trivial as not having any water, me and the two other women had a great night, we joked the rest of the trip about when 'our next shower would be'.

The campus had the most amazing landscape, grass, and trees and flowers.(click on the above link about the school to see pics of my room, and some of the school). We ate in the cafeteria, which is huge and had breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. They remodeled the cafeteria and kitchen from last year, they had brand new sinks, and they built a wall to separate the kitchen from the tables, and there were no rats in the ceiling, which I personally found quite comforting last year, it was super quite without them. We got to tour the campus this time around, so I was able to see where many things were, the church, the classes, the on-site clinic, basketball court, gym, the radio station, and the people who dj. There was also a garden on campus, for the life of me I cannot remember what the name of it was. The garden is named after a former student of the college to passed away after getting (sorry, this is graphic) burned alive while doing a play. Very sad. and very beautiful garden in her name.

Paul Gunther Jr. is the pastor who takes us on our missions trips he is our Serve the world pastor A.K.A. Pastor of Adventures. He, like Palmer, are missionary children. Paul and his wife Melinda started an organization called Live Love named for 1 John 3:18- Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.  Paul would simply say, 'shut your pie hole and do something' http://whatislivelove.com/ (go here to learn more about Live Love in chandler, az)  and Paul and Melinda brought it to Malawi. There are 3 people who help run Live Love Malawi, Blessings, Richard and Fiki http://www.livelovemalawi.com/contact go here if you want to know more about the organization and see what these three amazing people look like.

We did, even more, this year than we did last year, which says a lot since we had half the people. We had conferences, went to 3 or 4 clinics, found that a bunch of people had Malaria, we painted the clinic and added a solar panel, we added lighting, and outlets. We dug a HUGE hole for a new toilet, we played futbol, and had our first azungu (white spirit) netball team, and we did really well. We saw widows, and we told our testimonies, we played with so many children, and bonded with the ABC students that love to be in the village to help us learn and translate for us, we saw a sea of brand new t-shirts running down a huge hill, we watched as the former town drunk is now saved and holding the keys to the clinic, we listened to beautiful singing while driving, and walking, and eating. We cooked and learned new recipes. We got new stamps in our passports when we went on a safari in Zambia. We listened to our pastor preach in the villages church on a Sunday morning, while he tried to make Richard laugh. We saw lions and giraffes. We learned how Malawi lives and loves.

Thank you all again for the support.

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.