This is a test of YouTube videos.
Joy
Naomi Joy is living up to her name! Â She’s such a sweet, happy baby, and at 6 months old now, she’s a lot of fun!
She’s our Malawian baby! Â Yes, she’s an American citizen, but she hasn’t been there yet!
Teething? Â Maybe? Â Or just playing with whatever comes her way.
She’s a great passenger, sleeping and playing quietly by herself, or laughing at her big sister.
Not too many serious moments, but even if she’s just hanging out in Dad’s office playing with her doll, she’s a sweetheart!
Pumpkin Season
I have had the WORST time cutting pumpkins here in Malawi.  They are SO tough.  I would poke a knife in the top, hammer it in with a meat mallet, and then smack the whole pumpkin on the ground until I could get the knife through.  Whew.  Blood, sweat, and tears.  Then I asked a Malawian friend how she cuts open a pumpkin.  She said – throw it on the ground.  Really??… OK.  So I tried it.
Ha! Â Look at that! Â It split in half perfectly, ready to roast! Â And after my previous experiences with pumpkin here, throwing one on the ground with all my might felt very satisfying! Â =)
FBC Team and Easter Church Camp
For the third year in a row we have THOROUGHLY enjoyed having a team from Faith Bible Church in south Orange County come and run our Church Family Camp over Easter weekend. Â This is a labor love, and this year we have 8 great people come and love our church: Rachel, Kalei, Jackie, Hannah, John, Stephen, Beth, and Curstin. Â
This crew was just fantastic. Â They came early so that they could go to church with us the week before camp, and then they spent the next 4 days doing anything and everything – prison ministry, doing skits for village ministry, painting a dining room for an orphan feeding program – they kept busy! Â They even…
Helped paint Naomi’s room!
Naomi now sleeps in a jungle of trees, vines, monkeys, and a few other friends like a giraffe, a lion, and a zebra. Â So cute, and such a sweet extra for us!
But the real reason they came was to help with camp. Â Pastor John Koh preached a 4-part series on discipleship for us, while the others on the team helped with music and ran a full VBS program for all the kids!
The kids all loved their new teachers! Â And all the regular teachers enjoyed just getting to listen to the message and fellowship with the rest of the church. Â It was so wonderful and refreshing to be served by this team!
And just for the record, Abigail loves living in dirty, fun Africa! Â She pretty much looked like this all through camp. Â Sometimes she was even sporting a side ponytail as in 2 pictures above. Â =) Â You only get to be 3 once in your life!
We got almost everyone in a group photo (there were some who came just for the day on Sunday who aren’t pictured), but the total count this year was 111! Â What a blessing to have a church body who love spending time together and desire to grow both in the Word and in unity! Â Praise the Lord!
Weather Report
Abi is learning about the weather, so every day she checks outside and posts our expected weather for the day.
Apparently we can expect sunny with a chance of monkeys!
Rumors
We just heard the rumor that there will be little or no water from tomorrow (23 April) until 15 May.  Yikes!  Our previous record was 4 days, but 22 days… oh boy.  We also heard that some of the higher ups don’t like this idea as it’s right before a major presidential election (20 May), so it may not be so bad as the original rumor suggested.  But it sounds like SOMETHING is coming down the pipes…. er, rather, NOT coming down the pipes.
So here’s what we’re doing tonight:
Mountains of laundry. Â We just got back from church camp, and we have all the bedding from the FBC team of 8 who had been staying with us until this morning. Â Mountains. Â Rachel’s tapping out at midnight, so we’ll get 4 loads in and we’ll see how it goes for the rest of Mt Laundry.
Stocking up. Â Matt (and Samson) are filling every available container with water. Â We hear that they will send water bowsers around to neighborhoods periodically, but we’ll start with a stockpile and see how it goes.
Off to take a shower. Â And flush the toilets one last time…
Crocodile for Dinner
We’re usually up for a good adventure, and tonight it was crocodile… for dinner.
We’ve had crocodile at a restaurant before and it was so-so.  We were pleasantly surprised tonight, and actually enjoyed fixing and eating it at home!  It kind of has the taste and texture of a pork chop.  Two tips in case you ever find yourself cooking up some crocodile: cook it from frozen and use a fruity marinade, like a peach and apricot chutney.
This is one of the very few crocodile experiences we’d be happy to repeat!
“Real Missionaries”
This May we’ll round out a full 5 years as missionaries in Malawi.  And it’s starting to show.  =)  You know all those weird things you hear about missionaries… they’re starting to happen to us.  I re-use tea bags now, we don’t really have any idea what current fashion trends are in America, our daughter’s favorite animal is an impala and she has no idea what an escalator is, and we’ve started glueing our shoes back together.
Literally glueing them together. Â Matt ran the soles off his shoes. Â Not the tread, the soles. Â We don’t go on furlough for another 3.5 months, so they’ll have to do for now.
If all those weird missionary things are the price we have to pay the privilege of living and working in ministry in Malawi, we’ll take it!
Seasons
Malawi is in the tropical zone. For comparison, we’re at the same latitude (13° S) as central Brazil and northern Australia. And Lilongwe is about the same distance south of the equator as cities in Thailand, Honduras, and India are to the north of the equator.
We definitely don’t get the distinct summer-fall-winter-spring seasons like I (Matt) grew up with in Washington and Canada. But don’t think that means it’s the same all year-round. Here are a few Malawian seasons we’ve grown to expect every year.
The Dry Season
June to December
By the second half of the year, the rains are finished and the maize has turned brown for harvest. One color dominates the landscape: brown. Our neighbor’s roof will change from green to tan as a layer of dust coats everything.
Advantages of the dry season: harvest time is a happy time in Malawi. And many dirt roads in Malawi are only passable during the dry season!
The Smokey Season
May to September
During the dry season, the city gets very smokey. Wood fires are the main method of cooking in Malawi, but as the weather gets a bit colder (60°s), people also make small fires for warmth at night. Also, after the crops are harvested, the easiest way to clear the fields for next year is to burn them.
Our bedroom one morning
This isn’t our favorite time of year. All this smoke makes it difficult to do some things–like breathe. But it’s not all bad: the smokey air makes for spectacular sunsets, and it’s a sign that the rains are almost here!
…and sunrises…
The Rainy Season
December to April
 
It’s the rainy season now. And we love it!
Within a couple of weeks, the color palette of the whole country changes. From pale browns to vivid greens: everything is transformed.
This is especially significant in a country where millions of people grow their own food. The rains wash away (legitimate) fears of starvation, and represent the hope of God’s provision for yet another year.
The ditch under our driveway. This day, the water was going over too.
The rainy season brings its own challenges, though. Our roof can’t keep up with the biggest downpours. During heavy rains, you’ll find us distributing buckets throughout the house to catch water leaking through in new places. But we’re thankful to have a roof. I just saw a nearby police house which had its roof ripped off by the abrupt thunderstorm winds.
This IS the road.
Another power outage…
But this is my favorite time of year. There’s a tangible sense of gratitude for God’s provision of rain.  I love the dramatic clouds, the lightning storms, and the rich colors.
Another treat in the rainy season.
The Termite Season
December or January
You know those tall termite mounds you see in the movies about Africa? Yeah, we’ve got those. In town, the mounds don’t usually get very big (especially because the mud is sought after to make bricks). But termites like that are one of our most persistent garden pests. Usually, they do what you expect termites to do: creep. But for one or two nights every year, right after the early rains, the termites take to the sky.
Millions of them pour out of their underground lairs in a frenzy of termite colonization. They find ways into every room of every house, fluttering around until they’re trapped. Then they drop their wings off and move off on foot, finding a place to burrow. They’re like the insect version of the Green Berets.Â
I remember the first morning that I saw a floor covered with thousands of tiny wings. I imagined an army of chameleons had snatched the insects out of the air during the night, leaving the wings behind. I’d never seen an insect drop its own wings off!
But that doesn’t mean termites don’t get eaten. In fact, Malawians treat ngumbi like manna from heaven, sautéing them, and eating them as a garnish. They taste a little like corn flakes. I especially recommend them with cajun seasoning.
We may not get snow at Christmas, but we’re thankful to live in a place with such interesting variety throughout the year. And just in case you’re still feeling sorry for us because we don’t get autumn colors, here’s a picture with some unexpected color from Mount Mulanje last September:
IBF Christmas Parties – Year 5!
Yep, these were our 5th Annual IBF Christmas Parties! Â With a new baby in the house, we weren’t sure if we could host the parties this year, but Rachel’s parents came to help out and we knew we could do it with their help. Â And we’re so glad we did. Â We love these parties, and more importantly we’ve seen over the years the importance of these times together as a church body in fellowship, worship, and fun.
The photo booth is always popular for a little fun. Â It’s a good memory too, as we try to print off a bunch of the photos people have taken and then hand them out at church.
We always have a game for the adults as well – this year’s game was 4 on a Couch. Â The group at Wednesday night’s party was very competitive, with the women finally pulling off a win in something like quadruple overtime. And then at Friday night’s party, the men pulled off a nice, clean win.
Good times of singing some favorite Christmas hymns.  “Hail the heav’n-born Prince of Peace! Hail the Sun of Righteousness! Light and life to all He brings, ris’n with healing in His wings. Mild He lays His glory by, born that man no more may die, born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth.”  What amazing truths to sing and celebrate together as a church family!
Matt shared this year from Philippians 2 on the humility of Christ in the incarnation.
It was a great time of celebrating together, and now we are looking forward to celebrating Christ’s resurrection together at Family Camp over Easter!