So very many people working in their gardens greeted us to the warm heart of Africa! The first rains since March were just welcomed with so much excitement. Their dependency on the rains is evident in their appreciation! “Rains” mean seeding can occur, rains mean growth, but most of all rains equal hope. Hope for another growing season, hope for a harvest. This year the hope came earlier then the last few years… will that equal a long and good growing season? Or might the rains stop and any new growth whither away? Only time will tell and many people will show their dependency by praying daily for the rain to continue.

This year the international board meetings were held in November instead of July. This change has occurred to accommodate schedules in both Malawi and the donor countries. It was wonderful to see Malawi in a different season. People were busy everywhere, tilling any and every bit of soil that can be used to plant a few seeds. Old and young alike could be seen working diligently!

Our official meeting days were Wednesday to Friday, so we planned our trip with a few extra days to accomplish some extracurricular items! This time my parents were able to travel with me (so special for each of us!) and Seth Vander Boon from Timotheos USA also aligned his travels with ours! Diane Slingerland was scheduled to arrive with us as well but unfortunately experienced some delays and had to spend a night in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

On our first day in Malawi, we spent some time with a young man named Isaac. He is an alumni of the Timotheos program and is currently a teacher. We spent a day with him travelling to all the meaningful places of his childhood and youth! It was incredible to see his home village, meet his sisters and spend time with him and his wife! Without giving away too many details I can share that Diane Slingerland, his sponsor mother while in the Timotheos program, is working hard on a project to highlight his life! Keep your eyes out for details!

On Monday and Tuesday, we travelled to the lower Shire with Bep Klok to visit the Chigumukire and Nyamithuthu child care centres. Bep was scheduled to conduct classroom visits to evaluate the teachers giving Bible stories. Aside from a two-and-a-half-hour delay in an immigration office (a whole different Malawian experience!) and a torrential downpour, our travels went smoothly. The delay meant we could only sit in one class of Bible story instruction the first day and three the second day, but we were very thankful we could watch Bep do her monitoring work. She is passionate about empowering the leaders and teachers at our centres and this is very evident in the time and energy she puts into guiding and instructing them.

Sitting in her evaluation meetings with the teachers was one of my favourite things on the trip! Witnessing the Reformed doctrine being taught to the teachers and through them to the children leaves an impression. They utilize five pictures to portray TULIP through images to the children. The teachers are encouraged to use them each Bible story lesson and apply the meaning of the story on a personal level to the children.

We also spent some time in the foster home at Chigumukire and met with some of our sponsor children again! Always so special! The foster mother at Chigumukire is a special lady and is currently taking care of 19 children. Thankfully she has an assistant mother to help with some of the tasks! Their singing is incredibly special to witness, and we treasure the time spent in their home.

After visiting each classroom in Nyamithuthu and hearing them practice for their Christmas program, we took a short walk through the village to visit the home of one of our beneficiary families. It also so happened to be a family that benefitted from a concrete foundation after the last tropical storm. This means they were one of the motivated families that created bricks sufficient to build their house and then the foundation was laid for them. Currently the three boys live with their grandmother and are collecting grass to complete their house roof every day after school. We enjoyed a lunch of nsima with soya pieces and tomato cabbage relish and then trekked back to Blantyre!