Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Jesus Loves Malawi Video

Here is a short video that briefly introduces ourselves and the country of Malawi. It was professionally produced for us by Beth Franklin, a very good friend of ours from Deep River. She had some help from a friend named Jake who traveled all the way from North Bay one day to help with the videography. Beth then produced the video, and she did such a wonderful job that we thought we should share it here with all of you. Thank you Beth and Jake for using your gifts and blessing us with such a great video.

Friday, September 4, 2009

Where are we at?

“Where are you at?” is an often asked question in recent e-mails. By this, many people don’t just wonder where we are physically, but also where we are in our preparations to go to Malawi.
Physically, we will still be on the road for a few days. After travelling to different camps and churches this Summer, we had a nice family vacation and are now on our way to Maple Grove, where we will do a presentation at the 49+ retreat. After that, we’ll go home to Deep River. Since the end of June we have only been home for about 1 ½ weeks, so it will be good to be back. Unfortunately it won’t be home much longer as the parsonage has been sold and we need to move out by Nov. 2nd. Repair work will already be underway on the outside before then, so it will likely be an extremely busy and noisy time as we try to pack up our belongings and figure out where to move. We are considering staying in Deep River (which would be an easier and cheaper move, plus we and our kids already have friends there), or we could move further South to be more centrally located for speaking engagements, or move closer to our sending church to build more relationships there. Since we will be living on a limited budget rental fees will play a major part in our considerations. Besides, we will be on the road a lot so it wouldn't make sense to pay high rent. We would really appreciate your prayers that God will lead us to the right place.
Where we are in our preparations for Malawi is a broad question: our employment in Deep River has officially ended, and preparing for missions, moving, speaking engagements, etc. together with occasional part-time jobs will now fill our calendar. We have speaking engagements every weekend in September, a few bookings in October and November, and already some next year. A lot of planning still needs to be fine tuned and we would appreciate your prayers for that as well - that we will be able to set the right priorities and that the timing of various events will fall into place. Once the move is completed we plan to begin learning Chichewa. And in the Spring or Summer we need to take a missions prep course.

At this point, our goal is to arrive in Malawi by August 2010. The Willsons, missionaries in Malawi whom we’ll be working with, will have returned from their home assignment by then and will be able to help us get oriented. One of the first things we hope to do is to travel to the three different Annual Conferences in Malawi, where we will have a chance to be introduced to many pastors, which will help us lay a foundation for future ministry.
So, overall, things are progressing nicely, but we would appreciate your prayers for the many details that remain. Thank you for your faithful support and encouragement.