Travel Buddies

Saturday was a hard day for most of us, as we left behind husbands, children and parents, but we knew that we would meet more of our family in Malawi. Thank you to Damien, Stephanie’s husband, for giving us a great send off prayer.

We had some snafus along the way. Our first flight out of Nashville was delayed by 2 hours which would make an impossible connection in Atlanta to Johannesburg. We sent out a prayer request on twitter, and God was good. We were able to get on an earlier flight to Atlanta and had 45 minutes to make our connection, and we did! Scott sat beside someone of Hindu faith and was able to share his story. The flight to Joburg wasn’t as bad as we had expected. We arrived on time. However, we had another snafu. We expected to pick up our bags and store them overnight, but the airline had checked them all the way to Lilongwe. We had a wonderful hotel and a great first dinner together at a quaint little Italian restaurant. We weren’t roughing it yet.


Everyone had okay sleep, and we were off to breakfast at the hotel before heading to the airport. In the shuttle, we met a lady from D.C. who was going to Malawi to work in the healthcare administration. She was very helpful and we appreciated all her insights. Once at the airport, we ran into another snafu. As you know, Jim and Betty had to cancel, last minute, due to him breaking his knee cap. Their airline tickets had to be cancelled and for some reason, South African airways cancelled Suzy, Tucker and Stephanie’s reservations as well. The flight was overbooked and things weren’t looking so good. We said a little prayer, got in line at the ticket counter and worked with the agent. Praise God, we got on the flight. Praise God again!

It was surprising how many people were on the plane who were mission workers of some sort. It’s great to know that Malawi has not been forgotten and that people are coming alongside God to help him love on the people here. Once here, yet another snafu. Everyone’s luggage made it with the exception of Tucker’s personal checked bag. One out of seventeen bags isn’t bad, but for Tucker, not so great. However through our donated items, we were able to help him have some clean clothes and we can still donate those items when we leave. We are still waiting on his bag, as I type this.

Once we passed immigration and picked up our bags, we were honored by a huge welcome committee of CCBC leaders and Pastor Henry. While at the airport we got to see a trace of God’s hand on Malawi.

We got to the Kuka Lodge in good shape.

We organized our donations, gifts, school supplies and crafts. We had a good first dinner in Malawi. The food at the lodge is delicious and they are very generous with their portions. We had a good debriefing time and prayer time. We were blessed to have Jimmy, CCBC’s youth pastor, and his wife, Wazy, join us. We were thankful that Jimmy shared his story with coming to know Christ with us and how he came to serve at CCBC. After dinner, we turned in to bed for what we hoped would be a good night sleep.

Don't forget to follow us on twitter

Packing Night

Tonight, we met as a team to gather and pack all the things that we purchased or that was donated by church members, family and friends. We learned of some sad news tonight, that Jim and Betty will not be making the journey with us in body, but will be with us in spirit. Jim fell and broke his knee cap and will be immobile for 3 weeks.  Betty, his wife, will be staying at home with him. While we will miss them terribly, we know that God has a plan in all of this. Jim and Betty came out help us, Jim with crutches and all.

These are the duffle bags that each one of us will be checking in as our own. We cracked jokes tonight about the normal questions you asked by the agents at the ticket counter, "did you pack your own bags" and "have your bags been in your possession at all times". While the answers may be no, I think we are a pretty trustworthy bunch :)

What's in the bags you ask?

a wall hanging, cotton squares, ribbon, 3 pkg markers, 84 t - shirts, 12 hats, 1 target, 24 rolls of stickers, 13 bean bags, 10 soccer balls, 3 volleyballs, 3 pumps, 53 shorts, 13 dresses , 5 women's skirts, 27 blankets, 8 spiral notebooks, 37 shoes, 19 jeans, 58 shirts, 19 sweatshirt, 67 packs of girls underwear, 55 packs of boys underwear, 25 school bags, 298 pencil pouches, 10 pkgs foam stickers, 19 dresses, 6 skirts, 7 sweatpants, 9 womens underwear, 5 mens underwear, 4 pkgs t-shirts, 3 shorts/shirts sets, 20 flip flops, 6 women's shirts, 3 water bottles and 1 bag of coloring sheets 

One lady (sorry I don't know your name if you are reading) was kind enough to drop by this little playhouse that she made out of PVC pipes.

We leave in less that 48 hours!!!  

Arrival

Hey Everyone!  This time next week, we will be landing in South Africa. It will be here before we know it.  Our student team just returned and Shelia, one of the adults that went on the trip, was so kind to share her photo albums and first thoughts with Facebook friends. I asked if it would be okay to share them with our readers and our team. She said absolutely. Here they are...

First Thoughts

Photo Album 1

Photo Album 2

Thanks for letting us share Shelia!  

Praise and Prayers

Suitcases are being packed. Toiletries and other necessities are being purchased. Underwear, blankets and clothes for the people of Malawi are pouring in. 

Next Thursday, our team is meeting at the church to bring together all the items that we have purchased or had donated to the church for the people of Malawi. As mentioned in the previous post, they had a wish list of underwear for boys and girls, blankets and clothes.  That we know of, we have 29 blankets and somewhere between 100-120 underwear for the boys and girls each. We have secured several duffles that we can pack these items in. Someone mentioned that Delta may waive the fees on these if we tell them our situation and that we will not be returning home with them, hopefully someone has called. If not, I am willing to get on the phone. Any money we save, is money that can go towards supplies and gifts to love on the people of Malawi. Can we get an AMEN!

As we get closer to our departure date, we need prayer more and more. Here are a few things, our leader, Richard, sent out in an email to the team. The more people we have praying for our team and for God's will, the better. Wouldn't you say? 

Please continue to ask the Lord to give us:
* wisdom for packing and supplies to take;
* continued health as we prepare to leave, travel, and while in Malawi;
* travel mercies as we depart from Nashville on Saturday, July 11;
* divine encounters as we travel and while there;
* changed lives in Malawi and in us; and
* laughter (Mary's favorite prayer request)

While we are in Malawi, we will try and update the People's Church global outreach twitter account. This account is used by various mission teams and hopefully if we have internet access, we will use it as well. Click here to go to the twitter account and mark it as one of your favorites.

3 weeks, 21 days or 30,240 minutes

However you want to look at it, our depature to the warm heart of Africa, is coming up fast. This time, in 3 weeks, we will be on our way to South Africa via Atlanta. 

Tonight, we had our final team meeting. Richard and Mary, our leaders, were our gracious hosts. They opened up their home, and with our families, we shared a meal with each other. It was a great time of fellowship, as well as informational. We discussed our itinerary, what to pack, prayed, etc. We were honored to have, in our presence, 3 people who have made the same journey that we are about to embark on. Thank you to Eric, Ruthann and Karen for coming to the meeting, answering our questions and sharing scripture and stories of inspiration. We will take all of it to heart. Thank you. 

listening 

reviewing

Richard, our host & leader (aka Grill master) & Betty (cheesing it up, the hamburgers that is)

Prayer warriors, please continue to lift the people of Malawi and our team up in prayers. We know that there is an amazing journey ahead of us and we pray that we experience it the way God wants us to. Pray that Satan is bound. We know that he has plans to, but we know our Father is greater than he. 

Also, we are wanting to take some things to the children that were on their needs list. We will be taking these things with us, but if you feel led to help us accumulate these things, please contact one of us. If you don't have our contact info, please leave a comment with your email and we will contact you. The items needed are:

• underwear for children: boys and girls all sizes
  
• blankets
  
• shorts/shirts for boys (with elastic waist band much like athletic shorts. Old soccer uniforms work great)
  
• dresses for the girls
  

Jeremiah 29:11 - For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

A tourist's insight

A friend sent an interesting article on the tourism of Malawi. Thought it was an interesting read to share with everyone. Not too found of the idea of not many crocs being around Lake Malawi anymore. I am thinking there better not be any.  

Click here to read

Ouch!

Tonight, most of the team went to the Global Outreach clinic to get vaccinations. A few of the team had to get all of them, while the others only had to get one.  Most, needed 5 shots: 

- Adult MMR

- Adult Polio booster

- DTaP

- Typhoid

- Hep A

Since it was first come, first serve, we tried to get there ASAP to get in and out as there are larger numbers of missionaries in the summer time, thus longer lines. 

Yes, I was cruel enough to take pictures.  Unfortunately, I didn't get pics of Richard and Scott as they were further back in the line, and I had to get back home.  

Suzy advising everyone how many she shots she had to get.

Nurses are the worst patients

Tucker's a better patient than his mom.
Betty taking it like a champ

Jim asking is this what you call a shot?