Author Archives: Rachel
A Full House!
We have visitors! Â The Taglieres and Vances came to stay with us on Saturday, and we love having them in our home!
It’s been a trip full of the unexpected for them, so we’re glad to give them a place to stay and use as home base while they figure things out and get to see a bit of Malawi.  You can read about what brought them here on Laura’s blog, and then please keep them in your prayers as they make decisions and arrangements about when to head back to the States.
An added bonus of these great visitors – Abigail is soaking up the grandmothering while she can!
That Rings a Bell
We’ve needed a bell for church. Â We have tea time before church, and it’s difficult to get everyone moving into church on time, so we started looking for a bell. Â The only one we could find was about $40, and we decided that was a bit much for a small bell for tea time. Â Who knew it could be so hard to find a bell? Â Then our friends the Taglieres found this beauty for us:
Isn’t that great?! Â It’s the top half of a wine bottle, and the clapper is the very top part of a soda bottle. Â Add a string, a cork, and a little bit of wax to hold it all together, and you have a bell! Â We’ll try it this Sunday!
Sunday School is going… to the turkeys!
When we arrived at the African Bible College student center to set up for the adult Sunday School a couple weeks ago, we had to chase an unexpected visitor out of the building before we could start.
From our Sunday School to your dining room table – Happy Thanksgiving!
Out with the Old Geyser, in with the New
First of all, it’s pronounced “geezer,” like the disparaging name for an old man. Â And secondly, most of you will know it as a water heater… though what you see here probably in no way resembles the water heater you have in your house!
That’s right, it’s a metal box. Â This is our brand new geyser, just waiting to be installed. Â It’s to replace the old geyser, which our plumber made by himself – it was 5 sheets of metal welded together. Â But this one… it’s state of the art!
It even has insulation! Â I kind of feel bad calling this one a geyser now. Â The old water heater deserved its nickname, but this one is so nice and new, and it works so well!
It lives in our roof (gravity =Â water pressure) and I just wish I could have been fast enough with the camera to capture the plumber and his assistant raising it to the roof outside Abigail’s room. Â They didn’t bring a rope, so instead they borrowed the most “rope-like” item in our yard to hoist it up – the garden hose.
Evidence
I walked into Abigail’s bathroom a few days ago and saw this on the top of the water reservoir for the toilet. Â Can you tell what happened here?
A Big Change to Our Blog
We’ve decided to entirely change how we do the blog and our newsletters. Here’s what we’re going to try: The blog and the newsletter will now cover the same things. We’ll try to blog more frequently, on a wider variety of topics: latest news, picture of the day, day-in-the-life, stuff we’re learning, prayer requests, etc. Then, we’ll still email out a newsletter about every other month, which will encapsulate everything that’s gone up on the blog since the last newsletter. The idea is that the newsletter will be a digest covering all the headlines, with summaries of the recent blog posts, and links to the full story. In other words:
Blog = Random collection of up-to the minute content.
Email Newsletters = Periodic summary of all blog content.
So, unless you want to read the same thing twice, you probably want to follow either our blog OR our newsletter.
Don’t have a lot of time to read stuff online? Prefer your news condensed and organized in your inbox? If so, you want our newsletter.  You can subscribe to it here.
Want your news in bite-sized snippets throughout the week? Prefer to read the whole story, when it happens? If so, you should follow our blog.  We’d suggest subscribing to our blog by using an RSS reader (like Google Reader) if you haven’t already done so.
Some of you have been receiving the blog posts in your email inbox. Â With these new changes to our blog and newsletter, we’ll no longer be sending out blog update emails. Â We’d suggest an RSS reader for you too. Â If you’re not familiar with RSS readers, Google has a very informative video about their reader. Â Once your reader is set up, you’ll want to subscribe to http://www.testing.africastories.com.
Can’t decide? Not sure which one is best? If so, you should probably subscribe to our newsletter for now. We’ll be sending it to your email, and if you find that you always end up at the blog anyway, you can change later.
And by the way, let us know if you have suggestions for our new newsletter or blog! If there’s something you love about the way we do things now, or something you’ve always wished we did more of, click comment below and let us know. We’d love your ideas!
Whichever way you follow along, we’re looking forward to sharing with you more of our lives and ministry here in Malawi! We’re thankful for each one of you, your interest in our lives and service, and for the encouragement you give us to keep on going.
A Passport for Abigail
In our latest newsletter, we introduced everyone to little Abigail Elizabeth, and asked you all to pray that we would be able to get her birth certificate and passport quickly so that we can return to Malawi on the 15th. Â God is answering your prayers! Â We were able to pick up Abigail’s birth certificate early last week, and on Tuesday of this week we had our appointment at the Federal Building to get her passport expedited. Â They said it would be ready Friday and they’ll overnight it to us, so we should have it in hand by Monday at the latest. Â Yay! Â The Lord has been very kind to us and it appears we won’t have to change the dates of our return tickets. Â Everything is on schedule for us to fly out next Wednesday! Â Thanks for your prayers!
She was mostly awake and alert for her passport photo…
but the passport interview put her to sleep!
Waiting for Baby Floreen
As we get closer to Baby Floreen’s due date (August 21) and to the GMI missionary conference (August 15-21), we’re starting to think that it would be nice if Baby Floreen showed up soon. Â Today would be good. Â Tomorrow is the next best option… Â So we’re giving her motivational talks now. Â And actions speak louder than words.
Oh yes she did. Â Though jumping on the trampoline was a lot of fun, Rachel’s not convinced that Baby Floreen got the point. Â No progress yet, so maybe we’ll just take another long walk.
We got a good laugh at the sermon title yesterday at Placerita Baptist Church. Â We feel like we’re not the only ones who think that something should be happening any time now! Â And thanks for the special music note too – very hopeful!
Meanwhile, we got another chance to practice our parenting skills on the new nephews. Â Silas and Titus are just adorable! Â They weighed in last week at 6 1/2 and 7 pounds – a reality check for us, because Baby Floreen is probably about that size!
So if you want to give us any name suggestions, you should do it soon!
Family Time
One of the great things about being in the States for a couple months is that we get to spend time with our families. Â We stayed with the Floreens for the first few weeks we were here, and last week we drove up to Mount Hermon, CA, to spend a couple weeks with the Smiths.
The day before we drove out, the Floreens took us to Getty Villa, a beautiful place to explore and a great time to spend as a family.
On the way up to Mount Hermon, we took the “road less traveled,” taking time to stop and enjoy what we saw along the way – like the Old Hawaii Honors Stand, where we bought a couple avocados.
We also stopped in Santa Barbara, where we took a little tour of the courthouse (including the bell tower) and perused the reference section of the library. Â Yah, we’re a little nerdy, but we loved it!
The day after we got to Mount Hermon, the Smiths took us to lunch at the Santa Cruz harbor, and we went out to explore the lighthouse. Â What a beautiful place!
We’re also getting a chance while we’re up here to spend time with some of the members of First Baptist Church of San Lorenzo Valley. Â We’re really enjoying this church and the opportunity we have to get to know many of them better!
And that’s all the pictures we have, at least for a while. Â Matt and Rachel’s Dad went kayaking, took some great pictures on the trip, and then somewhere between the kayak and the car the camera disappeared. Â We’ve contact the company, and even gone back to look, but it seems that Rachel might be getting a new camera in the next few days!
Our blog is a collection of the unique and amusing things that fill our lives in Malawi. Â For a more holistic look at what we’re doing in Malawi, check out our newsletters – the July newsletter is coming soon!