Sleepover

So my neighbor wrote me a letter and told me she loved me very much and she would like me to be her mom. Now I have received many letters, but was not quite sure about this one and exactly what that meant. So I met Chisomo one day at the gate and asked her what she meant. She told me she would like to come and stay the night. Who knew? So if you ask someone to be your mother, it really means that you would like to come over to sleep. So she planned on coming 2 weeks later. I decided to invite Vetu to come as well (she is Mat and Janet's house helper's daughter)Sweet girl. So the day is set, I go to pick up Vetu and her brother is crying and is very sad that he does not get to come, so I tell him he can and then call another couple in our mission and see if their son and daughter would like to come so that Gome is not the only boy. So we know have Gome, Vetu, Anya, Ethan and Chisomo, but Chisomo brings her little brother as well. So Annie and I went from having 2 girls to 6 kids. Here is the picture of them all brushing their teeth. It was precious. Gome had never used an electric toothbrush, so I let him use mine. He thought it was the coolest. I had so much fun!!!

children of the Nation in Chitipi

I am teaching right now at Children of the Nation. The kids would be in the 9th and 10th grade in America. Children of the Nation has orphanages all throughout Malawi and one of the homes is in Chitipi. I have been to Chitipi twice now and you cant help but fall for these kids!! This is one of my favorite action shots from our water balloon fight. I mean really, how fun does that look? Times it by a few and that is how much fun we had! Then there are some girls playing bowa, which is kind of like Mancala if you have played that before, and we have Stevie posing for us, and then there is sweet sweet little Esnart! And if you are wondering, we gave them some stickers.. and sure enough they put them all over their face! fun!!

Explorers of Tomorrow

Just before Karen came to visit, Lauren and I went to Explorers of tomorrow to visit and see how the students were doing. While Karen was here we had the opportunity of going back to Explorers of tomorrow. This was the very first school that Johanna and I taught at. When we arrived, they were having closing ceremonies and we were surrounded by tons of kids. Among the students that came was Mercy. Johanna and I had her in our Standard 8 class. She had grown probably another 6 inches. This picture does not give her justice because I am standing on a huge step. =)

Samuel and his family had us over for lunch. Samuel is the director of the school and him and his wife have 7 children. He is passionate about the students and the school is growing more and more. It was so cool to see how much it had developed.

CPET: Church Planting Evangelism Team

This is the youth team that I work with on a regular basis! They are so sweet and amazing. They are all holding certificates from a True Love Waits training. I am truly truly blessed to say that they are not only my friends by my family. We joke around and just really enjoy each others company. Here are all theirs names from left to right.

Anita, Majudo, Leiter, Dalitso, Phenneley, Japhet, and Peter. The second row is Sibisiso, Melify, me and little Lean (who belongs to Leiter and Anita).

What an super group!!!

Last Tuesday with Johanna

This is our Tuesday dedicated to Johanna. It included an awesome video that Lisa made. So great! We had about 2 weeks of lunches and goodbyes. I was truly blessed to have Johanna as my teammate. She is a great friend! love you lady. Included in the this picture is: Top Row, Cheryl, Me, Annie, Lisa and Jessica. Second row is: Johanna, Kat, and Edith. Let me just tell you a little about these ladies. They are amazing and I love that the Lord put us together.

Cheryl: She grew up here in Malawi. She has dual citizenship with Canada and the US. She is an amazing lady who happens to be one of the coolest Mks ever. She works at one of the schools here as the accountant. and does many other things as well!

Annie: She works for Children of the Nation (COTN). Works with about 15 orphanages, helps get them started and their education grounded. There are about 15 orphanges that she helps out with. Wow!

Lisa: she is a teacher at ABC (African Bible College). She teaches 6th grade and is an amazing teacher! I have seen her in the action!! She brings out all the energy in us! Love it!

Jessica: She is a nurse here for Partners in Hope. As well as working in the clinic, she goes out villages as well to check on the wellbeing of others. She also is my walking buddy, I wouldn't be at all healthy if I didnt have Jess!

Kat: She works with special needs students here in Malawi and has been here quite a while now. And I have to give a shout out to the UK, she would kill me if I didnt. I just love to listen to her talk!


Edith: She is a Navigator, that is she does college student ministry. She gets our humor and still wants to hang out with us. =)

All these ladies are super awesome and are here working for the Lord in many different areas!! Im truly truly blessed to have them in my life! Just thought you would like to see who I get to spend most Tuesday nights with!! And Jo, you arent in here, you left right before the picture. I love you too!

Johanna...we miss you already!!!

Zambian home visit

Johanna and I are back in Zambia for the next month. We have a much smaller group of kids this time. They are very sweet and funToday as a field trip the students went to visit a Zambian home. In this home Bambo taught us about Zambian games and also gave us a Zambian snack. The children really enjoyed themselves!!

South Luangwa Park

So before we arrived for duty in Lusaka,Zambia..we stopped at a game park. It was quite nice. Some interesting things... it took about 5 hours to get there from Malawi and about 2 and an half hours of that was on a washboard board.. ugh. I was greeted by 4 baboons one morning while going to the bathroom in my tent. The elephants were so close that I didn't even have to get out of tent to touch one of them. And.. drumroll. We saw at least 21 lions. They had attacked a momma and baby buffalo and were chowing down when we arrived. =) AMAZING!!