Category Archives: Deeper Thoughts

Economics

by Rachel

No Money No Friends“No Money No Friends” painted on a truck’s bumper

When we lived in America, economics and the financial condition of the nation were not things that I spent a lot of time thinking about.  Then we moved to Malawi, and I got an immersion course in how the financial condition of a nation affects its people in every day life. Rapid devaluation of the currency, a year-long fuel crisis, a sugar shortage, corruption… It’s that last item – corruption – that is taking center stage now, with tough ramifications for everyone in Malawi. Check out this article on “Cash-gate” and the loss of 40% of Malawi’s national budget to corruption.

Please pray for Malawi. It’s not a matter of better laws or even better morals. It’s a matter of the heart, and only Christ can change the heart.

That’s Cheating

by Rachel

I got a ticket.  A speeding ticket.  I have NEVER gotten a speeding ticket before in my entire life, in any country, ever.  I actually like obeying the speed limit!  But if I had to get a ticket, I’d much rather get one in Malawi than in America.  The traffic cops pull drivers over all the time here, so I’m used to being pulled over here.  Almost every time I drive.  Not that they have cars or sirens or anything – they just stand in the street and wave you to the side of the road.  Usually they just want to check your license and registration tags, but not this time.  I got caught in a speed trap.

Cheating 4

But this speed trap was not supposed to be there.  I was about 2 kilometers (1 mile) outside of town. The traffic laws say that you must drive 50kph (30mph) in town or in a market area, but 100kph (60mph) on the open road.  [But realistically, you can’t ever get up enough momentum to drive faster than about 80kph (50mph) while you try to avoid hitting people, bicycles, goats, cows, pigs, children, pot holes, etc.]

Cheating 2

The traffic cop pulled me over and told me I was clocked going 71kph (43mph).  Not possible.  I was following a slow, small truck packed with about 15 people in the back, so I was hanging back to make sure I didn’t hit anyone who fell out.  I was matching the small truck’s speed and keeping my distance, but the cops didn’t pulled over the truck I was following – just me.  I felt like I was getting a ticket because I was white, since many white people here just pay whatever as long as the cops will leave them alone.  This made me sad, and a little upset at seeing sinfulness and corruption multiply in this country I love.  I realized that sitting in my car being charged with speeding was not the place to argue with sinfulness and corruption, so I just left it.  Besides, there was another issue at play here.  I was on the open road, outside of town, and not near a market. Thus, the speed limit should be 100kph.

Cheating 6

Oh no, he informed me.  Just last month the city had moved the boundaries of town.  Now, town extended all the way to a corner 9 kilometers “outside of town.” I was in the “new part of town” that looked like open road and was still sign-posted as being outside of town.  I looked at him for a couple of seconds, not really believing this was happening.  And then I remembered I was in Africa.  I’m not normally so bold, but to my surprise I blurted out “You can’t give people tickets if you haven’t changed the road signs. That’s cheating!”

“That’s cheating! That’s cheating! That’s cheating Abi!” says Abi, the little myna bird in the back seat.

Cheating 5

Oh dear.  Thankfully, the officer laughed with me.

Cheating 3

I did pay the ticket and go on my way.  However, I will tell you that  everything above this current paragraph was written back in January when this incident actually happened.  I wrote it and set it aside, because I was still frustrated by the whole incident.  I felt like I couldn’t post this on the blog while I was still dealing with it in my heart.  My American sense of justice was irked by the obvious inconsistency and corruption I experienced that day.  But as a believer, I needed to step back and consider what my role really is at times like these.  When I have opportunity, I should do justice (Micah 6:8, Proverbs 21:3).  I am also called to submit to the authority God has placed over me (Romans 13:1-2), including policemen who aren’t practicing justice.  Doing justice feels good.  Submitting to corrupt authority doesn’t feel good.  But I am called to do both.  That’s what I needed to work out in my heart – how to submit to authority, even if they are not treating me justly (as long as they’re not forcing me to sin).  And that’s what I need to remember as I live in a context that frequently puts this dilemma before me.

It’s good for my heart to live here.  Situations like this help me translate my formal theology into godly behavior.

Color Blind

by Rachel

If you’ve been following the blog for a while, you might be thinking to yourself: There are a lot of white people in these pictures – are the Floreens really in Africa? Yes we are.  =)  And yes, there are a lot of white people here.

 

Baptism at Biedebachs

Lilongwe, where we live, is the capital of Malawi and is definitely an international city. We’re not exactly on the same level as Bombay, London, or Hong Kong, but we do have an international airport and you can get Indian, Chinese, Ethiopian, AND Italian food here. More importantly, as the capital city, Lilongwe is the hub for almost every local and international government, aid, and development organization in the country. Because Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world, there are scores of international organizations here, of every flavor, bringing in aid workers, volunteers, staff, and consultants from their own countries. We see this in our church. In addition to Malawians, we have Nigerians, Indians, Chinese, Koreans, Americans, Brits, Germans, South Africans, Zimbabweans… Some are here for only a few weeks and some have lived here all their lives. Some were born here because their grandfather started a sugar plantation in Rhodesia 80 years ago. Some will stay here only long enough to finish a construction job.

 

But one of the most striking things we have discovered is a forgotten people group: white Africans. A few months ago Matt was asked to officiate at a memorial service for a middle-aged white lady who was born and raised in Malawi, and later married and settled in Scotland. The service in Malawi was mostly for her childhood friends who still live here. Matt asked the sister what songs should be included in the service.  She thought for a minute and declared that none of the friends would know any church songs because “no one comes to Africa to save white people.”

 

Youth Group

Does that make you stop and think? It certainly gave us pause.  I (Rachel) will admit that I had been a little shy of putting too many pictures of white people on the blog.  I felt like for every picture of a white person I had to have at least one, if not two, pictures of “real Africans.” I wanted to make sure that everyone who read our blog knew that we were interacting with “real Africans” and not just hiding away in the ex-pat (foreigners) community.  But many of those white people ARE real Africans.

 

Church View 1

So with ex-pats and white Africans, we have a lot of white people in our church.  They (we) make up almost half of the congregation.

 

Church View 2

Someone once asked our church’s pastoral staff what demographic they were targeting.  Their answer: sinners.  The Malawians who teach a children’s Sunday school class, the white Zambian single mom who is a new believer, the German missionary with financial trouble, and the American Embassy family who are new to town… like us, they all desperately need God’s grace.  Those are the people we love, the people who live in Lilongwe. They are our demographic.

Hobbies

by Rachel

A wise missionary once told us that we should have hobbies. This was at a time when we were all excited about ministry and moving to Malawi within a few months.  We were focused and ready to go, not really thinking about hobbies other than the fact that Matt’s photography business was about to revert to being a hobby.

 

Matts Photography

But then he explained.  Ministry doesn’t stop until heaven.  Until then, there will always be more to be done, more discipleship, more counseling, more serving.  Hobbies are different.  They have a beginning and an end.  One ship built in a glass bottle – done.  One hand-carved toy – done.

 

Hiking

The wisdom we’ve discovered in this is that when we have a hobby that gives us that sense of completion on a small-scale, we’re not making ministry a to-do item that we just want to check off the list.  We can give the time and attention and patience to those relationships and ministries that they really need, without trying to just get it done and move on as quickly as possible.

 

Thanksgiving Turkey

So we have a few hobbies that we like to do on the side.  For Matt, it’s photography.  For Rachel, cooking.  Ironically enough, these both help us in ministry.  Matt’s photos give us (and other missionaries) presentations to explain life and ministry in Africa.  Rachel’s cooking feeds guests in our home every week and, at times, every day.  But these are still our hobbies.  We love to do them, we love to exercise creativity in them, and there’s a sense of completion and satisfaction that goes with them.  They don’t take the place of the ministries that we do here, but they come alongside those ministries, and they ward off discouragement on the days when the road of ministry seems long and dreary.

 

Beef Stroganoff

Matt’s photo of Rachel’s dinner – done and done.  Now back to work.

Guest Blog Post: Raqel Cherry

by Rachel

Raqel is originally from South Africa, so for her coming with the TMC team to Malawi is almost coming home. She encapsulates here much of what the team has been thinking about and doing while they’re here – wrestling with suffering, considering the role of compassion ministries, and loving the church.

(Raqel Cherry) The pace is a lot slower here in Malawi, in everything from the internet connection to tasks we are trying to get done. I found it really easy to feel right at home here, and not just because the Floreen’s have been the most amazing host missionaries, but also because a lot of the culture is very similar to South Africa and there are a lot more familiar sights like rooibos tea, nutticrust biscuits and green cream soda.

TMC Team Ready to Leave for Mozambique

Our main project here is to help Matt find out what local ministries are around and who is doing them well. Our team has been wrestling through how we can really be helping.  Through team time, conversations with Matt, and a book he’s having us read, I think all of us have a new perspective on many aspects of missions work, and how we can really help without hurting here.  Malawi is a new culture to us, we cannot begin to expect to understand in our short time here.

God is teaching me a lot about His sufficiency, not only for us but for those in great suffering. It is one thing to accept Christ’s love but a grave danger to forget how much we don’t deserve it. The devastating effects of a fallen world became very apparent when you walk into an HIV/AIDS clinic and see the downcast faces of those in true suffering, God’s role as comforter to the broken hearted takes on a whole new depth when you put it in this context. It is incredibly overwhelming to feel helpless in the face of others suffering and so we all feel like we need to make some temporary fix by throwing money or even our time into different ministry efforts. While this may be well and good it can sometimes just be for our own guilt relief and become more selfish than selfless as it may appear.

Raqel in Mozambique

Something I have a deepened respect for since being here is the role of the church and the demand for us to be committed and serving. The church is Christ’s body and the home of the Gospel, which in all reality is what people need more than any life-saving drug or steady supply of food.  It’s hard to say that because even after experiencing salvation from the Gospel and reveling in its depth I still just want to give some kind of relief to anyone I can, but I’ve seen how while this can be a good thing, it isn’t the best thing.

Thank you so much for all of your prayers, we truly appreciate them so much. I pray that God is blessing you, and you are having a joyous summer (or winter in South Africa).

Home

by Rachel

(Rachel) For us, coming back to Malawi last September was coming home. During our summer in the US, we both missed things about Malawi… and were glad to return.

For missionaries, diplomats, and other expatriates, “home” can be hard to define. We make our home in a foreign country that is not our own, but we still have our “home country” where people welcome us every few years.

Which is why the IRS says our home address is Matt’s parent’s house in California. But our water bill goes to Area 47, Sector 5 in Lilongwe.

Making “Area 47” feel like home is something we’ve been working on since even before we moved here in May 2009. Our goal is to help our church grow into a self-sustaining, reproducing group of Christ-loving people – and that doesn’t happen overnight. So we didn’t want to come partially committed, camping out for a couple years or until something else came along. We want to be 100% invested here, with the marathon approach, until we’ve worked ourselves out of a job. To do that, we needed to plan to be in Malawi for a while.

Here’s a few ways we’ve been deliberately making Malawi our home:

1. We call it home. It seems like a small thing, but referring to Malawi as “home” reinforces it in our minds. Our vocabulary need to reflect our values, and it also helps remind us of our values.

Matt Studying at Desk

2. We made our house a place where we actually enjoy living. An experienced missionary advised us to bring our furniture from the States, and we’re glad we listened. (Thanks, Todd!) When you have a hard day and nothing goes the way you planned, sometimes it’s just nice to sit on a comfortable couch while you pray about your attitude. =) And we put pictures up on the walls. We’ve both moved around a lot, and it’s a big thing for us to finally put pictures of our families on the walls and know that they’ll be there for a while. All those things make our home a place where we can truly rest, and where we love inviting people.

3. We’ve made friends. We have people involved in our lives here. We’ve let people see the “real us” and we’ve shared life with them. Similarly, we also work harder to remember people we run into in the course of a day because we’ll likely be seeing them again, for many years to come – the cashier at the grocery store, the guy at the gas station who makes reed baskets, etc.

Ladies in Our Home

4. We make long-term decisions. Given the choice of a quick patch for our water heater or investing in a new one that will last for years to come, we’ll buy a new water heater. Or when we buy plane tickets to the US, they’re round trip flights originating from Malawi. We know that there are no guarantees (especially with water heaters!), but in general, we try to make decisions based on the assumption that we’ll be here for a long time.

5. We accept difficulties as challenges. We make a conscious determination that we won’t complain about the place that we live, as it’s our home now. It can be a struggle to find the best way to deal with corrupt government officials, what happens if one of our neighbors has a funeral, and how to live in a country that has malaria. But those are real issues our Malawian friends struggle with too, and we embrace those challenges as part of life here.

A World Lit Only by Fire

We temper all these things with the knowledge that this world is not our home and everything about life here could be taken from us at any moment. Africa has a way of reminding you of the uncertainty of this life. Our friends the Pretoriuses help us remember this. They were farmers in Zimbabwe and they had their farm taken from them by the government. They were given mere hours to gather up personal belongings and leave the property where they had invested everything. And this happened to them twice. Today, they have a farm an hour outside of town, with a cosy house and a beautiful garden. One day I asked Rene how she feels about investing time in the garden when she knows that it could be gone in an instant. She said that she can’t live in fear of being deported. Instead, she’ll do what she can to make their home a place where they can comfortably host people until they move, by their choice or the choice of another. Like the Pretoriuses, we hold this concept of home in an open hand.

We do plan to be in Malawi for as long as we can be useful here. And the end goal is not our comfort, but to be better servants. We long for our eternal home, the better city, where all things are made new and we see our Savior face to face. And yet, those eternal desires manifest themselves in earthly ways – like buying a big dinner table and a 4×4. We’re so thankful for the house, neighborhood, and friends the Lord has given us as a platform from which to serve. It’s good to be home.

Living Deliberately

by Matt

We were having dinner with Beck and Marley Evans the other night, and Beck said something that helped solidify my thoughts on living in Malawi. He used the word “deliberately,” and it made me think about all of our experiences here in Malawi to this point, and what people had told us to expect over the coming weeks and months. Grocery shopping, driving across town, building a relationship, having my personal time of Bible study… all of these things are slower than we experienced them in the US, and they take more intentional thought and planning. You have to be deliberate about them, and I like that.

I have never wanted to be someone who just does the next thing without thinking about it. There is a depth and richness to living deliberately, particularly for the Christian. Rather than being caught up in materialism, self-centeredness, or peer-presure, the Christian has the responsibility to live in deliberate obedience to Christ, who has made life rich with meaning and purpose. Living deliberately as a Christian makes me stop and see God at work around me, and makes me carefully consider my walk before Him and my testimony before others.

So I’m thankful for this slow, deliberate life in Africa. It makes me stop and consider my obedience to Christ, as well as the wonderful meaning and purpose Christ has given my life.

praying mantis

Rest and Plans

by Matt

As we hit the end-of-the-year holiday season, we find ourselves – along with everyone we know – very busy. It’s a good sort of busy – people, parties, gifts… and plans for Malawi. We’re both quitting our jobs at the end of this month, so between now and then, we’re training replacements and trying to tie up projects. And then there are moving plans. We’re shipping some things, so we’re looking for a good shipping company and trying to estimate when we need to get that in process. We’re also catching up on things like dentist appointments. Last month we both visited the dentist – Matt got away with just a teeth cleaning, and I had two small cavities filled and a crown. Not only that, but I get to go back this coming Thursday to have 2 wisdom teeth pulled. After that, I’m not going back for at least 2 years… maybe 4 years.

Dentist 1

In the midst of all this, we had a great conversation with some new friends, Aren and Trina. We met this couple for dinner just before Thanksgiving and had such an encouraging time with them. Among many other things, we talked about rest. Here are a few thoughts I’ve had in light of that conversation and other conversations Matt and I have had:

  • We’re really looking forward to a slower pace of life in Africa!
  • Frequently (at least for us), rest comes when we are humble. If we think it all depends on us, we don’t ever rest.
  • Rest doesn’t mean doing nothing.
  • Rest is essential, for our bodies, our minds, and our spirits.
  • Matt needs more sleep than I do.
  • I need more sleep than I think I do.
  • We can do things to help one another rest.
  • Rest is a gift of grace.

As we go through these busy times, we’re also trying to rest. We know we have more busy days to come, but God has given us the opportunity to function within the framework of time, and with bodies that need rest. As we try to steward this rest now, I do have to say that I’m looking forward to the day when time is no more and our bodies don’t need rest! But until then, we’ll run hard and sleep well.

Dentist 3

Church Members

by Matt

Certainly the highlight of our trip to Malawi last month was the opportunity to connect with people. Over the course of the week that we were there, we were able to go to church twice, to attend a mid-week Bible study, to have lunch with a couple different families, to hang out with the church youth one night, to go to a community potluck dinner, and I got to go to 2 women’s Bible studies. We were soaking it all in as we went, so tried to interact as much as possible without being awkward and overly talkative. =)

Church members 1
Kondi and Patricia. Kondi has been a friend of Matt’s since 2001. Matt even went to take pictures of their wedding last December.

The variety of forums in which we got to interact with all the people – in International Bible Fellowship and in the community – reminded us of why it is so important for us to join the ministry there as soon as possible. While we were there, Brian preached in church, preached in chapel at African Bible College, taught 2 college classes on homiletics, led youth group, led the mid-week Bible study, spent time preparing for all these, and spent good and intentional time with his family. I was tired just watching him! But he loves it. He loves to preach and to teach. Matt and I are so excited to jump in and help with some of the practical, administrative, and discipleship aspects of this ministry, and to spend our time encouraging and training others in the church to be active in the ministry.

IMG_1540_2
Brian preaching on Sunday morning

And it’s all about people – the church is all about people loving Jesus more and more each day, spurring one another on to love and good deeds, learning to serve and minister to one another, and doing it in the context of biblical community. We got to meet these people! We got to see their love for the Lord and their desire to learn of Him and grow in their understanding of Him and commitment to Him.

Church members 2
This pic I swiped from the Biedebach’s blog. =) Click on the pic to see their blog.

I was speaking with one sweet lady, and she is just in the beginning of this journey. She was telling us that she has learned so much in the 3 months she’s been at the church, and that the Bible has the answers! God tells us things in the Bible! And we can read it – it’s right here! Her enthusiasm warmed my heart, made me want to love her and help her in any way the Lord would allow, and at the same time, made me want to cling to the truths that she had stated. This is ministry, being able to walk with people like this.

I am excited about many things about Malawi, but the people I met there are at the top of the list. I’ve been praying that the Lord would stir my heart to love them more each day, to pray for them, and that He would prepare me for whatever role He would have me play in their lives – whether that’s speaking the truth of God’s Word into their lives or encouraging their heart with a note on a heavy day. God is the orchestrator of all these things. I just want to be available and ready to go with whatever He has planned.

Africa: More Than Just Flannelgraphs

by Rachel

We’re moving to Malawi! It’s a small country in Africa, but to many of us, Africa is one big country. Everybody has their own zebra, and they live in small huts on the edge of a vast desert. I’m quickly learning that this is not true. I think my perceptions of Africa are largely based on VBS missionary stories that were told with large colorful flannelgraph pictures. I figured I wasn’t going there, so I didn’t need to spend a lot of time making sure my mental image of Africa was accurate.

And here we are. We have plans to move to Malawi in the spring, and we’re going to visit – my first time to Africa! – in about 2 1/2 weeks. I’ll tell you a few things I know – or I think I know – about Malawi.

It’s green! That’s what I hear, and what I’ve seen in Matt’s pictures. Trees, fields, crops… it looks beautiful! Lake Malawi boarders most of the eastern edge of the country, which would explain the green.

Matt posted a lot of pictures of Malawi on his site – click on the picture below to see more.
malawi-022-2
It’s not always green, but they do have a rainy season and the lake, so it’s a lot more green than I thought it would be. There’s plenty of browns and reds too, especially in the bricks of the mud huts.

It is poor. I was just looking online to make sure I had the right info. Matt and I had been telling everyone that we had heard it was the 4th poorest country in the world, so I figured I’d check the stats before making any declarations in writing. I found several sites that said that Malawi was the poorest country. And then several commentators who said that those sites were all wrong. One thing they agree on: at a GDP of $800 per person, Malawi is definitely in the bottom ten.

The people of Malawi are happy. Happiness has nothing to do with money. The country is stable, they are able to survive from day to day.
malawi-242-2
Matt was so struck by this that he took a series of pictures of the people of Malawi that he entitled African Joy. It’s a separate set of pictures from the ones we linked above, so click on this picture to see even more of Malawi!

The last thing I’ve learned about Malawi that I’ll mention here is that a lot of people have heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, but there has been little training in what to do with the gospel – how to teach the Word of God to others, how to apply the gospel to their lives as growing and learning Christians. That is what pierces my heart. I want to go. I want to give my life and my energies to helping them learn what this precious gift of the gospel is, how it can give them true life, hope, and joy.

The gospel is there. This reminds me that we are stepping into a great heritage of those who love the gospel and love Africa. Our desire is to be good stewards of this gospel, to encourage the church in Malawi, and to be a faithful brother and sister to the believers there who desire to learn and grow in truth.

Thanks for reading through the first blog post. We’re excited to have you join us as we start out on this journey. The next six months will be full of getting things ready to go, and I hope to share with you the funny stories and the random deep thoughts that fill our days.

“I have seen, at different times, the smoke of a thousand villages – villages whose people are without Christ, without God, and without hope in the world.”
– Robert Moffat, Scottish missionary to South Africa, son-in-law of David Livingstone