The Week in Review

Hello Friends
In Malawi we have been enjoying our time with SCOM students and staff since we have not had much going on this week. Malawi time is great for unexpected free time! Before heading to Zomba this weekend, we thought it would be awesome to update you on the goings here in Malawi.
Monday we had the day off as it was the independence day of Malawi: Republic Day as they call it here. Our team had a special treat of hotdogs and hamburgers. Very exciting! Sadly, there was no cheese, but having a traditional American meal was nice. Most of the businesses were closed, so our choices for fun and thrilling adventures were also limited. Some of us girls, however, decided to have a little adventure of our own by taking a walk just as the sun was setting. Thankfully, one of us was quick on her feet with directions to return to the house. There was a slight stir when we arrived calling back the brigade who had been dispatched to search for us.
The next day we were back to our less than busy activities. We visited another orphanage, called the House of Peace, sponsored by Children of the Nations. The orphanage had its own farm with rabbits, cows, and Guinea Fowl (a bird like a chicken native to Malawi: we’re not quite sure of the spelling, sorry). A crucial part of raising any children is feeding them! One of the regular food items for Malawians is Nsima, which is made from corn flour. Indirectly, we had an opportunity to feed the kids because some of our group carried corn kernels on their head half a mile to a granary to have the kernels turned into flour to carry back to the House of Peace. Seeing a piano after the hard work, Spencer and Sarah jumped at the chance to play, leading to a group singing while some of the children laughed at our poor musical skills in comparison to theirs.
After the excitement of playing with children, we had the extra pleasure of attending a Malawi national basketball game. Now, the basketball game was not your average NBA spectacle, but was instead more like an intense high school basketball game. The fans had Malawi flags and one dude had a horn. Malawi beat Mozambique 77 to 54.
Wednesday we visited the SCOM office once again meeting with the same secondary school students from last week. No awkward bible study this time (yay!), but we did have singing and a not so well prepared sermon from one of the students. The students have amazing range in their singing. We added to the range while one of the students led in a song we had learned previously in Mzuzu. A general way of praying in Malawi seems to start with singing then everyone breaks out into praying at once, concluded by more singing and one person praying. We very much got to experience the communal culture that day. Spencer and Greg tried to share some of our culture with the children by trying to get them to play American football. The kids could catch the ball well, but didn’t catch the concept of being on separate teams.
Wednesday evening was filled with more kid time as our team had offered our babysitting services to the Swiney family so that the couples could have a night out. Chris and Dudley, and Bonnie and Craig went out for dinner. Deciding on a movie for the kids to watch took years of their life. Two different movies ended up being shown for the indecisive children. Both movies were enjoyed by their counterparts so I would say it was indeed successful.
Moving on to Thursday, there is actually little to note except our dwindling precious store of peanut butter and better luck with exercise of the walking nature. We did however get a chance to visit a bible study with students from the Malawi College of Health Sciences: the same students who had visited our house this past Sunday. Love was the focus of the bible study, specifically loving our brothers and sisters in the Lord who we may not so easily mesh with. A perfect segue into the joys and perils of community living.
All in all this week we have experienced some ups and downs but we still continue to move forward in the love Christ has bestowed upon us. Please be praying for our close proximity and community interaction. We will be spending the weekend in the southern region in Zomba as mentioned earlier. Please be in prayer for that experience. We will be getting the chance once again to partner with students in their outreach ministry.
Thanks for reading and Praise God for his faith and grace,
Amanda Homce and Theresa Steiner 

My Life as Inbetweendence Day

Hello friends! It has been quite some time since we last blogged, so I (Greg!) apologize for that and promise (hopefully) that more frequent, smaller updates will be coming for the duration of our time here. Speaking of that, as of today we are officially halfway through our time in Malawi and Africa! Wow.

So what have we been up to in the last week? We returned from Mzuzu on Sunday and spent Sunday night and Monday relaxing and recovering from our time up north. Tuesday night we went to a worship service at Lilongwe Technical College, where we were greeted enthusiastically. We sang a song and our very own Spencer Boren preached the word (Acts 5:1-11)! My personal favorite part of the night was after Spencer preached when they gave him Sobo (a concentrate juice you mix with water) and he had no idea what to do so sat there awkwardly with it. We eventually figured out he was supposed to drink it. Later that night Spencer and I heroically went to war with a large spider that had come into our room and was making its way towards us menacingly.

On Wednesday we spent the day at the SCOM office. We met some of the staff and did devotions with them. In the afternoon we spent a long time playing soccer with some local kids. This will probably not surprise you, but even young kids from Malawi are WAY better at soccer than us Americans. However, they could not figure out how to throw a frisbee correctly. So there. We also participated in another “secondary school” conference like the ones mentioned in last entry – the students asked us to return on Friday for Bible study with them.

Thursday we went to Children of the Nations, a feeding center and also orphanage operating in/near Lilongwe (city limits are not exactly clear here). They provide free breakfast and lunch to kids from the surrounding villages and also house teenagers who need it. We got a tour of the facility and to help with the feeding program (and play with the kids a little – again I was embarrassed by their soccer skills). On a personal note, though sad, it was encouraging to me on Thursday (as it has been all trip) to see the good works already going on in Malawi. As a team our desire is not to do a new, American thing but to “enter in” to what God is already doing in Malawi and humbly partner with his followers here. Thursday night we played an all-trip 15-person game of Mafia, which I colorfully narrated. The highlight of the game was when Lydia was the doctor and saved 4 people in one round (including 3 in a row).

Friday we returned to the SCOM offices and participated in Bible study with the same students from Wednesday. It was a little awkward because they were working through a booklet called “Sex and Sexuality” and we were expecting something in the book of Luke...silly us! But it was interesting to hear another culture's perspective on marriage and abstinence and share some of our own. I just asked if we did anything interesting Friday night, and Sarah wants me to mention that she went to bed at 8:00. That's about it. Malawi is an early-bed-early-rise culture. Sometimes I tell students that we stay up until 2 or 3 in the states “doing homework” and they are shocked!

Exciting story! Duncan's (the SCOM staff in charge of our time here. He is awesome) wife Linda had an abdomen lump which doctors had previously told her was a fat deposit and nothing serious. She went in to the African Bible College clinic to double check and the doctor there (volunteering from South Africa) suggested they pray for healing before starting the appointment. When they finished praying and checked on Linda, her lump was completely gone (confirmed by further testing)! Yay Jesus (or as we said in my youth group days, MAD PROPS!)!

Saturday was Independence Day! Though we didn't have fireworks we still celebrated with a very American day. After eating delicious chili for lunch we tried to play a game of Ultimate Frisbee. That lasted about 20 minutes and then ended after we threw the disc over a high wall of a neighbor...twice. We ended the day eating star marshmallows (provided by Lydia) and watching “Independence Day” with Will Smith. What a great movie. “Welcome to Earth!”

Monday is also Malawi's version of Independence Day so Craig coined Sunday “Inbetweendence Day.” We went to Duncan's church in the morning and in the afternoon had the pleasure of returning some of the Malawi hospitality we've enjoyed by having a bunch of students over to “our house” to barbecue. There was a ton of meat, potato salad, and fruit salad. Yum! We all ate very well and enjoyed a (long) time of talking to and/or playing Uno with the students. Now we are relaxing at night. Some of the girls are doing yoga and I believe practicing for the choir they've promised me and Spencer.

Since I know you're all anxious to hear: we DID get a fridge this week and are able to enjoy our first cold drinks in two weeks (longer for the Swineys). Also, the plumber came, and there have been varying reports about if the water is hot or not now. I honestly don't know who to believe. The boy house (the MANsion) has a shower that doesn't even have a hot water knob. So what do I know?

Some prayer requests!

-We're halfway through! Pray for continuing energy, enthusiasm, and a good time of reflection on what God has already been doing in our lives. Pray also for the next two weeks of our time here!

-Pray for the team – our unity, our team dynamics, our relationships, and our morning devotions/prayer times.

Alright, this is Gregory signing off! Hopefully future posts will be shorter as we update more regularly. God bless friends and families, and we will see you in three weeks.

-Greg Chimitris

Braai

Here is a photo from our Braai today. (for those in the US its a barbeque)
More to come tomorrow.
Thank you for praying.

Mzuzu University Report

Mwadzuka Bwanji =P (Good morning!)

We have returned to Lilongwe and are enjoying being “home” with the Swiney's. We spent a week at Mzuzu University, which is in the Northern Region of Malawi. Our team stayed in the hostels and homes of SCOM Uni students. They were so welcoming, offering us their beds, sharing food with us, and teaching us about college life in Malawi.

It was their Evangelism week on campus, so we had the wonderful opportunity to participate in contact evangelism with SCOM students. It was a challenging experience for us- trying to overcome language barriers while immersing ourselves in a style of evangelism very foreign to us all. As the week went on, with encouragement from Duncan the SCOM-University and College Section Director, we learned how to better blend our style of evangelism with theirs.

Also, we were able to partner with the Northern Region SCOM Secondary Schools and their director Jacob. Each day we would visit one or two secondary schools (high schools with students ages 13-22) where we gave a one hour presentation. We would sing English and Chichewa songs, share the purpose and aims of SCOM, give personal testimonies, encourage the students in the studies, and share Scripture.

Along with evangelism, we joined in other weekly activities with the SCOM student. One of these was 5am devotionals and worship. Despite our sleepy eyes, we danced and sang out giving praise to God. At the end of singing, we would pray out loud in unison our petitions and thanks. It was uplifting to see the passion and love that each student has for Jesus.

Not only did we begin the day in prayer, but we also ended the day by coming together to offer up intercessions. It was very similar to morning prayer, but we were just more awake =P.

Their Large Group took place on Thursday evening. Our team was asked to sing, and thankfully they are a very hospitable and encouraging culture. Their Praise Choir lead group worship, individuals shared their voices for praise, and a group put on a dance. Duncan gave the message from John 5.
Even when a blackout occurred, it didn't prevent them from continuing. There is definitely something simple and beautiful about hearing the word of God in the dark while surrounded by brothers and sisters from another culture.

As with most Christian Fellowships, they have fun activities together. CHRISCO!! A Christ-centered disco that took place Friday night. We must have forgot our dancing shoes, because they were able to dance with energy and enthusiasm far longer than us. It was enjoyable to try dancing Malawian style as well as see them try our crazy dancing styles (dancing Cotton-eye Joe style and doing the hokey pokey for example). They also served Obama, which was very delicious...Obama is a type of bread. They also have Bin Laden. Hehe.

The week concluded with a Mock Wedding to raise money for worship equipment. The main hall was decked out and students were dressed in their best. They held the reception part of a Malawian Wedding , welcoming the bridal party and newly weds as they entered the hall. The enthusiastic MC would have “family” of the bride and groom stand up to speak in honor of the newly weds. BUT! Before they could speak, friends and guests had to dance up to the front and give money offerings that would bless the newlyweds. Money would fly as they showered the speakers. The “family” actually consisted of students who posed as mothers,father, uncles, and the pastor of the bride and groom.

It was a week full of surprises, both enjoyable and frustrating. We are all grateful for a day of rest – catching up on laundry, processing, and recuperating.

Some prayer requests!
Team Health and Unity (and that the plumber will come bearing hot water)
Mzuzu University SCOM: students as they prepare for upcoming finals, follow-up with individuals we met during evangelism, and their personal spiritual growth
Our visits to more schools in Lilongwe in the upcoming weeks

Zikomo! (Thank You) And God Bless!

-Sarah Fuller and Arica Baer =]

Email Problems

Hi everyone,

As many of you know there has been a problem with the email subscription for our student blog. We believe it is fixed now yet you will have to sign up again, So if you would like to receive the blogs updates by email you can now put your email in the feed burner subscription and you should be set to go. We are sorry for the problems.

One brief note on the team, they arrived back in Lilongwe from Mzuzu late this afternoon and are settling in for the night. They had a great trip and will update the blog tomorrow. Thank you for your prayers and support of the team.

God bless.

SCOM Awareness Day and next week

Greetings from all of us in Malawi. We had a very full day yesterday celebrating the work SCOM has been doing in the high schools here in Lilongwe. The team marched in a parade full of singing and dancing youth who were also sweeping the streets to show the local people and the government their care for the environment. Many of the team members ended up with one or two Malawian students with whom they spent most of the day. The parade was over a mile long with many pauses and regrouping along the way. At one point in the parade we all stood for 45 min waiting for the national television stations camera crews to show up. The truck that led the parade had speakers on it that played the Christian music the children were dancing to. The celebration lasted over four hours with different schools singing and three different speakers, including the Attorney General of Malawi and the president of SCOM. We left the house around 8:15 and did not return to the house until around 5, needless to say we were all pretty exhausted. Some of the exhausted-ness came from the culture shock that each of us is experiencing in our own way, along with working to hurtle the language barrier with the students who had a variety of English skills.

Tomorrow we head to Mzuzu university for a week of staying with students and celebrating their outreach week with them. Thanks for your continued prayer and thoughts. Please pray for safe travel (we have a 5 hour ride), that the Lord would be teaching us, and good relationships with the students we will be staying with. We'll be out of internet availability for the next week.

We have arrived

Craig is on his way to the internet café, so hopefully, this will get sent! We have arrived in Malawi safely. All our luggage made it and the flight was uneventful. We are excited to be here and were warmly welcomed by the SCOM staff. We will write more as we get settled and get our bearings! Everyone is healthy and morale is high. We are having a great time together and the students are enjoying getting to know one another. Thanks for praying and keep it up!