Hello ALL! As most of you know our July and August were very busy with planning and going on a trip to Malawi. We saw a facebook status posting requesting a team to lead the "kids program" at the July SIM Malawi Spiritual Life Conference in late April. We quickly decided we should persue this opportunity. It took several weeks for us to put together a team, but by the beginning of May we had a group of 5 people willing to go. That left us a very short amount of time to raise the funds needed to get us there! God is good, and many of you have helped us raise the monies needed. THANK YOU! We left July 21 for Malawi. After over 20 hours in a plane and one overnight in Johannessberg, we arrived in Lilongwe, Malawi on July 23rd. We were hosted by missionaries for 2 nights, and shown many ministries in the capital city that the missionaries are involved in. We were able to meet and get to know some amazing people while we were there! Brenda Jansen was our "guide" and was a fantastic at making sure we all had places to sleep, eat, and see. We toured two different clinics, a Children of the Nations feeding place (for orphans), and the Crisis Care Nursery (for abandoned babies). We also spent a full week at the Kamuzu Academy a few hours north of the city. This was the location of the Spiritual Life Conference. Each year all the SIM missionaries for Malawi meet to recharge and connect. During the mornings sessions, the missionary kids were in our kids program, which is pretty much a VBS. We had a great time with the 24 kids we had. In addition to our team of 5, we also had 3 others helping us. So, in all there were 8 leaders and 24 kids (ranging in age from 22 months - 13 yrs). On the way back from the conference we stopped by Lake Malawi for the afternoon. It's gorgeous, and was a great relaxing way to end the week! On our last Sunday in Malawi we attend an African Evangelical Church (AEC), where Bryan preached. There was an English Service and a Chichewa service. He also taught the Sunday School. We had a great lunch at the home of the Young's (who live on the AEC grounds). After, we went back to the church to check out the fund raiser they were having. It was lots of fun. Basically you give money to hear a certain choir sing, or to join them, or to have them sing something else, or to have them stop singing. Diane Young made sure we all got the chance to join in. The day was wrapped up with a short visit to the zoo in town and dinner with the Fielder family (more missionaries).
We returned home on Tuesday, August 4th. Kathleen, who had taken care of the children while we were gone, was waiting for us with an awesome dinner! We were happy to be back in our own beds! The rest of the week was busy with a bible study, mid-week church service, wedding rehersal & wedding service. Then Bryan left on Sunday for a full week in Michigan. He went with a group of teens and leaders to run a VBS in Cedar River, and then on to Watersmeet to lead a 2 day VBS and a 2 Night Youth Rally. He just got home this Sunday. We are ALL glad to have him back. It seems this summer has zoomed past, but, what an exciting summer it's been. Soon the kids will be back in school. We are going to a new school this year, and the kids are so excited. Winter will be starting 3rd grade and Creedon is going into kindergarten. :) It will be a bit quiet around the house this September, but I'm sure the quiet won't last - it never does in the Faltynski house!
6 years ago
