Our Journey

The days are getting hotter in Malawi and the air is thicker; the rains are coming.  There’s almost always a breeze blowing through the trees and blowing through our windows.  And the city is filled the most beautiful trees full of lavendar-colored blossoms.  I had overlooked the one in our yard until one afternoon I saw the blossoms lying all around the base.  The small purple flowers on the brilliant green grass looked as if a lover had spread them out for a romantic picnic with his love.

The few sprinkles of rain and even the humidity are luring the green out of the grass and gardens.  The transformation from brown to green is startling.  The cabbage and beans are sprouting in our garden.  In personal gardens, city plots, riverbanks and rural farmland, the ground is being prepared for this year’s maize (chimanga) crop.  And it seems the change in weather also brings new creepy-crawling things – large spiders at the window, tiny lizards inside and outside the house, and a BIG beattle found by the kids.

The coffee in my cup tastes slightly sweeet and wonderfully warm going down.  The peanut butter on my toast has been acclaimed by each of my children as “better than American peanut butter”.  We have milk in the fridge that’s fresh from the cow; Moty’s headmistress runs a dairy farm and we’re now getting fresh milk twice a week.  And we ate honest-to-goodness enchiladas this week thanks to a care package from Aunt Jane Ann Smeck!

I can hear the consistent and predictable swish-swish of Wilson’s morning sweeping of the yard and Christina is cooing.  The house is quiet save for the CD playing from GNO, “other hearts in other lands are beating, with hopes and dreams as true and high as mine”.   Soon I will hear the metal-on-metal rumble and clank of the gate sliding open signaling that Jeff is home from dropping the kids off at school.

Then we will begin our day together – a meeting with the Superintendent, Rev. Mhone, about administrative details, an appointment at Queen Elizabeth hospital to talk about a donation of mosquito nets from our home church, St. Joseph UMC in Fort Wayne, a stop at the Assemblies of God Press to get a quotation on printing the first MUMC Quarterly Newsletter, finishing an assignment for the United Methodist Publishing House, and surely a few unexpected meetings and cancellations.

aaah… and there’s the beep and the gate rolling open.  God be with you today and God be in between us as we live, work and play this day.

Prayer Request: Claire Marin leaves in 20 min. (7:30am) for a field trip with her class to Majete Game Park and overnight stay at the Fisherman’s Rest Lodge.  What an exciting two days for her, but we will miss her tonight.