Moving Forward

We continue to plan for our trip. The checklist is growing... tickets, medications, arrangements for our time in Lilongwe at Children of the Nations. We have a very rough draft of what that VBS program will look like. Now we need to fill in the spaces and find crafts, skits, activities to make it happen. We will be having the older children act as "shepherds." That works great for the VBS camp that Lakeside hosts. It has already been arranged that some of the extra t-shirts from our Lakeside program will be sent with us to give to the little leaders. They will be so excited!
A team of two ladies just returned from Malawi where they helped with the Easter outreach and distributing 10,000 books and crayons to the children there. It was a huge success with so many great stories of healing and hope. If you want to see more pictures of that, check out Maribeth & Kelsey's blogs (linked below).
I have started accumulating items for the garage sale that we will be having in June here in Folsom.
Please continue to pray for Pam and I as we prepare for this trip.
God Bless!

Can You Believe It?

I am so excited to be planning another trip back to Malawi! I am already thinking of those beautiful children. My dear friend Pam and I are headed back to Malawi to support Kelsey who is doing a year long mission trip to Blantyre, Malawi. She has been working alongside Maribeth - who is coming home for awhile over the summer. We are going over to give her some moral encouragement, see all of the great things that God has been at work on in Blantyre, as well as help with a program for the street kids. Kind of a VBS, but not really because these kids aren't in school... you get the drift, tho! It will be very fun, and quite the challenge. Kelsey and Maribeth have been working with a church over there, and we will partner with them to put this on.
Right now we are just working on getting our flights and coming up with ideas for the program. When Lakeside Church sends teams out, we are required to have Share Partners - people to pray for us and stand beside us - so Pam and I are busy working to get our letters out. We will start our training meetings soon.

Home to California

Well, we all made it home safely from Malawi. What an incredible experience. Every day I think of something else that happened that made it so special. God was definately at work thruout our trip, keeping us safe.

After we left COTN in Lilongwe, we journeyed on to see Maribeth at Acts III in Blantyre. It was so great to see where she has lived for the last year. She has done such incredible things with the Malawi Montessori School and the leadership training that she has done with teachers. Her heart is so huge, and her passion is so contagious. We stayed with her at the ActsIII facility, right on the edge of the village in Ndrande. I was most amazed by the amount of human noise that echoed out of that village. We spent a lot of time with Maribeth touring orphanages and seeing what she has been doing. I was impressed by the number of contacts that she has and the impact that she is making on the village there. We got to paint ABC murals on several walls in the orphanages. It was truly a blessing for us to be able to do that and so see how a little paint makes such a difference. The teachers at the schools (all volunteers) were so happy to be able to grab a paint brush and help.

I was so blessed to travel with such an incredible team. We had a lot of fun getting to know each other. It was so great for me to see everyone stretch out of their comfort zones to serve God and his children in whatever way they needed.

Thanks to all who were praying for us. I felt safe and protected, covered in your prayers.

God Bless!

Mark's Thoughts : Part 7 plus visuals

I thought it would be a good idea to see why we went to Africa in the first place. The children there are so happy and they are always eager to have their picture taken. Here are just some of the precious faces we were blessed to hang out with. God is doing some amazing things with these kids. They truly are the future of not only Malawi, but whatever worldly plan God has for them. The impact they have made on all our hearts is indescribable. God is good!

Mark's Thoughts: Part 6

I survived!!!! I made it through two intensive weeks with five women. They actually were not that intensive. I had a great time with my team of ladies. The Lord's hand covered us the whole trip. Thank you Jesus!!!! Now that we are home and have time to reflect on our trip I know I will have more to say about our incredible experiences. It was an awesome trip. Our time in Malawi was packed with so many activities that it will take time tell them all. Thank you for all your prayers and support. We definitely felt them thousands of miles away. Praise God!
More thoughts to come...

Final nite in Lilongwe

We have finished our time at COTN. This is our last night here. We had a great time in Chiwengo Village. We were able to put new screens on three of the houses, they were so excited to be able to sleep with their windows open. We also donated three laptops to them and provided basic lessons. They were so excited to have the ability to use a computer. It was wonderful to be able to bless them with those items. We went to the village to say farewell to the widows.
Tomorrow we are off to visit Maribeth at Acts III in Blantyre. It will be great to see what is going on in that ministry, and to connect with her.
More later!!

Bless you!

Made it!

It is so great to be back in Malawi. We were greeting so warmly at the airport by widows and several people that we had made connections with last year. They always make you feel like you are home again. We have spend the last two days with the widows and children. Monday we went with the widows to their homes so they could show us the life of a Malawian woman – how they cook, clean, chop wood, carry water. We all had the opportunity to learn to do these things. Even though we all know how to sweep, it is a little different to be sweeping and mopping dirt!! It provides great entertainment for them. The children are so beautiful. We were greeting all through the village with cherry smiles and waves. They love to walk with us and hold our hands.
We spent Tuesday morning with the widows, doing a little Bible teaching and making beaded bracelets with them They were so excited to have us there with them. We will be heading back on Wednesday morning to bless them with all of the fabric and yarn that was so generously donated. They are going to be so excited when we show up with 3 full suitcases of materials just for them. They use those materials to make items to sell to generate income. Thanks to all who donated items for these beautiful women.
Yesterday we had the chance to meet with the children that we have sponsored individually. It was great to have lunch with them, and just have a chance to get to know a little more about them.
We went to the Children’s Crisis Nursery on Tuesday afternoon and had such a wonderful time holding little ones. They have 14 babies there at the present time, so you can just go in and pick one up to cuddle. I was in heaven. They had little 5 day old baby twins that were so sweet…
We are off this afternoon to head up to another village up north. In this area, COTN has several houses where 8-10 children live. While there, we will put new screens on their homes. We will spend two nights up there. I can’t wait to see what God has in store for us up there.
We covet your prayers!!
Will write more when I get a chance!
God Bless You!