Author Archives: Rachel

TMS Team

by Rachel


TMS Team Group with Matt

We’ve so enjoyed having the TMS team with us this past week.  They’ve been busy teaching classes and seminars all day and through the evening, but we got to hang out with them over meals.  We’re thankful for their ministry to so many people here as they teach God’s Word clearly and faithfully.  Please pray for these guys and for several others who are considering coming to join us long-term to help start the seminary here.  We’re excited to see whom the Lord will bring!

 

And now… we’re off to youth camp!

The Next Few Months

by Rachel

We’ve just been through another period of no-internet, but we’ve been so busy that we’ve hardly noticed.  We have some crazy months coming up, and this is our last week to get ready before the busyness begins.  Here’s what’s coming…

TMS Team: 7 guys from The Master’s Seminary coming to consider joining us here in Lilongwe to help with the seminary that’s in the plans.  They’re all staying at our house and Rachel’s cooking for them.

The Kopps: Some friends of ours from southern California are adopting from Ethiopia and “stopping by on the way.”  It’s a quick visit, but they’re jumping right in and Matt Kopp is going to teach a session at youth camp while they’re here!

Youth Camp: Matt’s the main speaker at our church’s youth camp again this year, so we’re all going out to the Lake for 3 nights to spend some time with the 13-18 year old crowd.

TMC Team: 7 college students from The Master’s College coming to help scout other ministries in Lilongwe so that we can make a list of credible, helpful resources, organizations with whom we can partner and to whom we can refer people.  We’re also going to take them to Mozambique to spend some time helping a missionary that our church supports there.  They’re all staying at our house and Rachel’s cooking for them.

The Floreens: Matt’s parents are coming to visit us for 2 1/2 weeks.  We’ll put them to work a little bit, but we’re also going to take some time away with them.

Grace Church Team: 28 high schoolers and leaders from Grace Community Church coming to help with construction projects related to the upcoming seminary.  And yes, they’re all staying at our house and Rachel’s cooking for them.

MABC Classes: Matt’s taking his first full year of classes pursuing his MA in Biblical Counseling.  He’s doing pre-session work from now through June, we’ll all be traveling to California in July for 3 weeks of classes, and then he’ll do post-session work through October.

Whew!  These things aren’t all at the same time, but they do all overlap, so it’s going to be pretty busy around here.  And it starts this coming Saturday with the TMS Team!  We’ll post as we go and try to keep you updated on all these things.

We Love What We Do – Part 2

by Rachel

(Rachel)  Previously, I shared a bit about our ladies’ Bible study in the book of Ezra.  Another major women’s event at our church is a Biblical counseling series I’ve been teaching on Thursday evenings.  We just finished a series on the philosophy and methodology of Biblical counseling, wrapping it up by looking at 2 specific topics, Marriage Problems and Eating Issues – Anorexia, Bulimia, and Over-Eating.  We did this series a couple times last year too, and looked at the topics Worry, Fear, and Anxiety, and Abuse.

Rachel and Jen

My goal with this series is not that the ladies will be able to go out and set up shop as counselors, but rather that they would be better equipped to care for one another right where they are.  As women, we talk with one another about a lot of things, and we do counsel one another, for good or bad! My hope is that these series would help the ladies to turn to Scripture as all-sufficient for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3), and that the conversations we have with one another would be edifying, encouraging, and wise.  This is the third time I’ve done this counseling series, so the base of women who understand these concepts is growing! Pray for these ladies who are encountering new truths about themselves and God’s Word, that they would apply what they’ve learned in their relationships with others. Pray for us as we make plans for the next series – at least 6 more ladies are interested!  And pray for me also as I prepare two new topics, that God would make my study of these topics profitable in my own life, and that He would grant me the ability to communicate with the ladies clearly and accurately.

How to Take a Baby on Safari

by Rachel

We had a great little family vacation last month!  Ever wonder how to go on safari with a 6 month old?  Here’s how we did it…

Matt and Abigail at Ntchisi ForestWe went.  Sometimes with a baby it’s tempting to just stay home and keep a routine.  But we just went.  Babies are amazingly flexible.  We gave her naps and food at all the right times, but we WENT.

Rachel and Abigail in the mirrorMake sure the baby is good around cameras.  In our case, no problem.  She’s fine around cameras.  Mom, however, is not so good at juggling baby and camera… It’s got to be one or the other, so mom let dad take all the really good pictures.

Matt and Abigail look at flowersSet your expectations.  We planned to bring Abigail on as many things as we could, but knew that we’d have to go a bit slower, stop and enjoy things with her, and maybe cut a few things short.  We also knew that at times there would be things that one of us could do while the other stayed back with her.  Thinking through those things ahead of time made every experience more enjoyable.

Surf on rough roadTeach your baby to sleep on rough roads.  We had about 11 hours of rough roads on this trip, and Abigail just slept right through it.  She actually woke up if we stopped or the road was suddenly smooth!

Lake Malawi with dug out canoesGo places that you know YOU will like.  Do you remember when your parents took you to Disneyland when you were 2?  Of course you don’t.  The point: don’t plan your vacation around your baby.  Plan your vacation, then figure out how to do it with a baby.  We went to Ntchisi National (Rain) Forest, Lake Malawi, and Nyika National Park.  None of these places had a playground or even a toy box, but Abigail couldn’t have cared less.  She smiled and played with her 5 toys, and we loved all the beauty and variety we were able to enjoy.

fuel gaugeHave enough diesel so you don’t get stuck on the side of the road.  This is good advice even if you’re not taking a baby on safari.  We didn’t get stuck on the side of the road, but we did use every bit of diesel we had!

road side diesel refillEven the jerry cans we had stocked up on!  When we got to the furthest northern point of our travels, we drove in to the lodge with the fuel light on, 20 litres of diesel remaining in the jerry can, and the knowledge that we had a 5 hour drive before we would reach the next gas station.  But we made it!

zebrasGet to know the locals.  In our case, that meant the wildlife.  We walked up to a herd of zebras…

leopard.. spotted leopards!  …

Abigail with bushbucks…and let Abigail sing songs to the bushbucks off our room’s little balcony.

Abigail in Land RoverBe the only family booked at the lodge.  This one recommendation, though entirely out of our control, might get the most “Amen!”s in our home.  The lodge at Nyika National Park was running a “green season” special because it’s the tourist off-season and it’s rainy which makes it difficult to get around.  So we knew we’d gotten a good package deal, but we didn’t know until we arrived that we were the ONLY people at the lodge.  They treated us like royalty, washing our laundry, babysitting Abigail during dinner, and taking a chatterbox 6 month old on safari.

Rachel and Abigail in Land Rover

We didn’t mind if she was shrieking in delight at the elands, but a nice older bird-watching couple might not have appreciated her joy the way we did.  Thankfully we didn’t have to figure that out, and we went gleefully shrieking at the animals all over the park, from the sunrise safari to the nighttime safari.

LLW km markerEnjoy it and go home refreshed.  We’re busy these days, as we’re starting to describe in our We Love What We Do series, and we’re about to get busier with the summer and short-term teams.  We needed to get away, just for a bit, but on the last day of vacation we realized that we were ready to go home, to do more of what we love.  The vacation had fulfilled its purpose, and we had learned how to take a baby on safari.

We Love What We Do – Part 1

by Rachel

(Rachel)  I love spending time with the ladies of our church. I like getting together with them for tea, or chatting with them after the service on Sunday, but most of all I like studying the Bible with them. I feel like I’m sounding over-spiritual when I say that, but here’s what I mean: I believe that the Bible is true and that it changes my life as I study it. It’s full of deep, thought-provoking, soul-challenging truth. When I study it with other ladies, we share the experience of God’s Word and His Spirit changing our lives. We learn things together and help one another know how to apply what we’ve learned. It’s a group context, but what happens is deeply personal. The ladies I study the Bible with are the ones who know me, and I know them. I laugh more readily with them, and I cry more readily with them, because I know their hearts.

These past couple months I have had 2 opportunities every week to study the Bible with the ladies from International Bible Fellowship Church. I’ll just talk about one of them today: our regular Tuesday morning Bible study.  We’re about to finish a study of the book of Ezra.  This study is pretty intense with lessons and homework that involves lots of searching through the Bible to understand what’s happening in the book and what God is doing in the grand scheme of history at the time this book takes place. When the ladies showed up at our house a couple weeks ago, I thought they were going to mutiny!

“Do you think I went to theological school?!”

“Rachel, this is hard!”

And you know what? They’re right. It is hard. But by the end of the morning, the comments were a little different.

“This is good for us.”

“We need to get our mushy brains going!”

“Vacation is over; we have to study now!”

I’m so thankful for these ladies and that they’re willing to work hard to understand the rich truths of God’s Word!  Please be praying for us that we’ll be faithful to study diligently so that we can present ourselves to God as “workwomen” who do not need to be ashamed, rightly handing the Word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15).

Have Diesel, Will Travel

by Rachel

We’re going on vacation tomorrow!  After our trip to Zomba last February, we decided that we need to get away for a few days once a year.  There’s a lot of Malawi that we haven’t seen yet, so we’re headed north this time: a rain forest, a lakeshore stop, and the best national park in Malawi.

There was only one problem.  Diesel.  We’re in the middle of a fuel shortage again, and without diesel, we weren’t going anywhere.  So this morning, Rachel woke up determined to get fuel.

The search started at 7:15am.  No diesel anywhere along the main road through town.  By 10:20, we’d gotten a tip that cars were starting to line up outside one of the gas stations on our side of town.  Matt was busy studying to teach in Sunday School, so Rachel grabbed Abigail and they took off for the diesel adventure.

This cute little munchkin waited so patiently!  We parked our car in line and sat in the shade in front of the BP convenience store, and she played for about an hour and a half, then fell asleep for about an hour.

Finally!  The fuel truck pulls in.  Unfortunately there were so many cars waiting to get fuel that the fuel truck couldn’t get through the parking lot!  That took a bit of sorting out…

And we don’t have a picture of actually getting fuel, because Rachel and Abigail were rescued by our friend Kondi who traded us cars so that Abigail could finish her nap in her own bed.  He waiting another hour and a half while the fuel truck unloaded and the cars in front of us filled up.  What a friend!

So we’re off on vacation!  We have a full tank of diesel and a full 30 liter jerry can as backup.  We don’t know if we’ll find fuel up north, but we’re going to try and see how far we can get!