The Goin' Owens

Becky Owen

Hand Outs

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500 Kwacha = $1.52

On one week’s shopping trip in Blantyre, we arrived at the meat store 15 minutes before it opened. While we waited in the truck, we noticed a very nice car parked at a ramp in front of the store.  There was a small Malawian flag perched on the front left side of the hood.

Becky :  Who do you think that is for?  It’s a very nice car.
(as a couple of nicely dressed people put things in the car)

Jonathan: It’s probably the owner of the store.

Becky:  No, I think it’s someone with the government.

A man dressed in fine Muslim clothes came out to the car and people started flocking to him, running from all over the parking lot and reaching to him.

Becky: What’s going on?

Jonathan:  Maybe it’s a Muslim giving alms.

Becky:  Really?  No…

The man slipped into the car and was driven away.  The crowd dispersed, everyone smiling and some laughing at the spectacle of what just happened.  As one man came to his car parked next to us I addressed him from the truck window:

Becky:  What just happened there?!?!

Man: That was —–.  He owns the store (chain) and is a minister of Parliament.

Becky:  Oh…we were both right!

Man:  He was giving out money — 500’s.  It’s not good, though.  Handouts kill people.  They get lazy and can’t do anything for themselves.  Why does he do that?  If he has that much money, why doesn’t he just hire more people?

Well, there we heard it straight from a Malawian!  “Handouts kill people.”  What a powerful statement.  Each time someone begs for food or money we have a decision to make.  Sometimes we give.  Sometimes we don’t.  Sometimes we feel like we’ve been taken advantage of.  Sometimes we feel regret and selfishness.

We don’t have the answers to the problem of poverty or unemployment.  Undoubtedly at times we are part of the problem, even unknowingly.  But we are challenged because Jesus did not directly teach on handouts.  In fact, He gave some himself!  When I felt bad after giving to a beggar at our gate, Jonathan said “I’d rather err on the side of generosity than stinginess.  Jesus said to forgive 70×70…are we to give 70×70 as well?”  Where’s the line?  What’s the balance?  These are difficult questions that have become almost daily for us.

I’m sure we haven’t and won’t respond to each person and situation perfectly, but we pray that God’s light and love will shine through us and that His name will be honored by our actions and inaction…words and silence…Lord, give us the wisdom we need in each moment and the courage to obey.

Online Newsletter Addendum: You Asked!

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*** If you haven’t received our actual newsletter, but would like to, 
please email us at jonathanbeckyowen@gmail.com 
and let us know if you’d like it via email or postal mail ***

A while back I asked people on Facebook what they’d want to hear about in our “1st Anniversary in Malawi” newsletter.  Many good questions resulted, but far less room is found in our newsletter.  So, here is the addendum to that newsletter.  Read on for your own enjoyment and curiosity – and feel free to ask more questions!

Articles in this post include:

Yay & Yuck Ducks: a paradoxical review of our first year
Funniest thing that has happened
Hmm…I don’t think we’re in PA anymore!
What we miss most (other than people)
What does daily life look like?
What do people’s clothes look like in Malawi
What kind of weather are you having there?


Yay and Yuck Ducks:  A Paradoxical Review of our First Year
Unfamiliar with Yay and Yuck Ducks?  Read here where we explained it a bit.
Jonathan teaching his Hebrew class

Yay for the opportunity to teach at EBCoM.  It’s been a good year of growing into the job of instructor to the Bible students studying here.  

Some of the kids from Sunday School

  

Yay for the opportunity (for Becky) to teach Sunday School (ages 4-8) to the children at our regular church.  There are four teachers who rotate on a weekly basis, so Micah doesn’t only get Mommy as a teacher 🙂

Yay for the good days of adjustment, especially as the kids show signs of settling in a bit better.   Like when Micah actually uses Chichewa greetings or wants to go out and play with the kids on our alley.
Yuck for the days of “speed bumps” in adjustment, especially when the kids respond negatively to Malawians or when we’re homesick.  It’s just no fun.
Yay for electricity!
Yuck for unreliable electricity!  When I turn on the stove or oven, the fridge and freezer turns off for lack of enough wattage.  Huge surges and low dips turn off our appliances (they’re protected by high and low volt guards so they don’t break).  It took me at around 5 hours to do a load of laundry because the machine kept turning off and on.  Planned power outages are welcome!  We can know what to expect and plan accordingly, but having a transformer slowly die isn’t very fun!  Thankfully, after a month, it’s fixed now.
catching water during water
shortage (thankfully, it was
during rainy season!)

Yay for running water!  It’s amazingly convenient!
Yuck for 26 days of little to no running water earlier this year.  It does push you to use water differently and appreciate it when you can take a shower with water falling on your head, rather than dunking in a bucket to wash your hair 🙂
Yay for a beautiful house in which to live with a great yard for (attempting to) garden and play with the kids.  We have a neat view of “the village” down the hill from us. 
 

Our house and terraced lawn
(avocado and papaya trees too!)

The view from our house (before the garden was planted last year)

Yuck for all the noise (music, speakers, choruses of howling dogs, alarms, etc.) we hear from the city-village during all hours of the day and night, depending on the events going on. 

Yay for fresh mangos, bananas, papayas, pineapples and many veggies!

The mangoes you see here cost us K850 = $2.66 at the time! 
They are kinda like Malawian zucchini in how plentiful
they are in season 🙂
Yay for new friends.  I (Becky) have gotten to know our closest neighbors here on campus.  One has taught me how to cook Malawian food and I have taught the other one how to bake bread using an electric oven (she had one, but didn’t know how to use it – it is not very common for a Malawian family to have an oven).  I’ve also engaged with other expatriate mothers and children in various capacities.  It takes a while to form new friendships, but we’re getting there.
YUCK for being far from family and friends back home.  It is so painful not to be able to have grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins come over for a meal and to play with the kids.  We mourn the loss of a closer connection/relationship with family, especially with young children.  This is by far the biggest yuck duck of them all. 

Funniest thing that has happened

 Note: we’re never good at answering this type of question:
In language lessons, when I was describing what I had cooked for dinner as “tacos,” I was told that was the word for one’s rear end.
  

We just thought this “promise” was funny…
“We manufacture, you do the farming”
Gee, thanks!

Hmm….I don’t think we’re in PA anymore

  • You go to a filling station (aka gas station) to pay for electricity credits.  You take a password home, punch it into your meter and then you will have electricity to use!  If you run out, the lights (and everything else) turn off!

  • You don’t have cell phone plans here.  You buy a phone.  You buy air time from a store, or more likely, a guy on the side of the street who sells air time cards.  You buy some, scratch off the code, enter into your phone and you can talk or text or use data!  If it runs out mid-conversation, it cuts you off.  Texting costs less than talking!
  • Although there are robots (traffic lights) at some intersections, there are more often roundabouts (after all, this was a British Protectorate).  And of course, we drive on the left side of the road and shift with the left hand.  It’s not as difficult as it might first seem.

  • Most stores, including grocery stores, close by 5pm — 7pm at the latest!  Because many people do not have electricity and streets (outside downtown Blantyre) do not have street lights, most people stay in at home in the evenings for security and practical reasons.   

  • We have a vegetable woman come to our house twice a week to sell us veggies and fruits! 
  • Surges and dips in electricity that turn off our appliances.   When I’d go to make something on the stove or preheat the oven, the fridge and freezer would turn off!  We’re very thankful for volt guards here that turn off an appliance if the voltage is too high or low – otherwise, the appliance may not last more than two years!!!
  •  We have scheduled power outages 2-3 times a week around 6-8pm.  Power outs aren’t so bad when they’re planned…it’s the unpredictable unscheduled ones that are a bit harder to work around.  The power company’s slogan is “Towards Power All Day, Every Day”…that’s right, you read towards.  
  • When coming to Malawi, we assumed we’d be learning a lot about Malawian culture.  In actuality, we’ve been learning about Malawian, British, German and Australian cultures with the prospect of Korean and Muslim cultures!
  • Evening entertainment = watching the gecko on the wall slowly creep up to the huge fly-like-insect and catch it for dinner!

What we miss most (other than people)
  • The seasons of Pennsylvania.
  •  Libraries!!!  It’s hard not being able to check out 10 new and different books each week or so from the public library for the kids!  But, we have found a couple good used bookstores.  The books are in rough shape, but the price is right and they still serve the purpose of reading, learning and inspiring the imagination and creativity!  The only thing is, once you get the books, you own them whether you like them or not.  Public libraries allow room for error in this department.
  • Moms Together – the group of moms that meets together at Grantham BIC every other week with childcare provided!  I reallymiss you all and the opportunity to step away from our jobs as moms to discuss, share, evaluate, reimagine how we can better parent our little ones and take care of ourselves and spouses.
  • Sing ‘n Play – also at Grantham BIC – a fun time of playing with kids at different stations around the gym and connecting with moms every Friday morning.
  • Taize worship services
  • Small group Bible study/fellowship
  • Lower stress shopping – not having vendors waiting at your door as you park at a store to sell you their produce, mops, thumb drives, windshield wipers, belts, etc.  “No thanks” doesn’t cut it for these guys!  There are also often beggars roaming the streets or waiting at red lights or parking areas to ask for money.  There are just a lot more decisions being asked of you when you go shopping, it seems – and not all are easy to make.
  • Semi-sweet chocolate chips.  No chocolate chips can be found here, and most other chocolate is milk chocolate.
  • U.S. money and using credit or debit cards.  For a typical trip to the grocery store the bills we pay with pile up to be around an inch thick!  Kinda crazy…and they certainly don’t fit in my wallet!  Some stores do take credit, but we haven’t done that much as there is always a conversion fee. 

What does daily life look like?
For Jonathan – get up by 5:30am to dismiss the night guard.  Then come in to a usually awake Micah who wants to snuggle on the couch for a while before breakfast and getting ready for the day.  Before breakfast, he needs to get ready for the day because right after eating, he needs to get out the door to campus devotions at 7am.  Then, if he isn’t teaching a class, he’s back to the office (in our house, past the kids who, of course want him to play instead of work) to do course prep, technology work, emailing or sermon prep.  On their respective days, he attends chapel, college prayers or counseling groups.  By lunchtime, classes are over, but each afternoon holds different activities, sometimes including instructors like the once a semester students vs. staff football (soccer) game.  On Tuesdays and Fridays we take Chichewa lessons together for an hour. 
Weekends vary with preaching assignments at BIC churches across the country (mostly southern region).  Jonathan has traveled with BIC leaders to many churches to preach as well as encourage congregations.  At least half the time he attends church with Becky and the kids here in Blantyre.
Our “marble chute” made of Duplos and
using wooden beads to roll down!

For Becky – the average day varies as any stay-at-home mother will know.  Rise with the kids (earlier than desired), play, read books, prep meals, wash dishes, do the laundry, potty train, build absolutely anything out of Duplos….well, you get the idea.  This year we’ve begun some casual preschool homeschooling which has amounted to lots of quality story reading, curiosity-driven learning and continuing to answer countless questions about this world we live in from a 4-year-old’s perspective!

Our house helper comes two mornings  a week to help out with the dishes and cleaning which has really helped us keep our heads above water as well as practice our Chichewa and ask random cultural questions.  Sometimes we’ll get out to visit friends or visit one of the handful of playgrounds we’ve found around this area. 


What do people’s clothes look like in Malawi?
Mostly, Malawian clothes look just like what you’re used to seeing.   A lot of the clothes here come from “you” when you donate to Salvation Army or similar organization.  So, Gap, Old Navy, Nike and the Limited are spotted on a daily basis!  Most people purchase used clothing in the market rather than new garments at stores.


Pre-teen to adult aged women generally wear skirts with a chitenji wrapped over it.  A chitenji is essentially a 2 yard cut of (really neat Malawian designed) fabric wrapped around them as a layer used as an apron.  Traditional dress is seen more frequently on Sundays at church or worn by governmental officials (like the president, who is a woman).  

One thing that surprised us is how you can see a man step out of a mud brick house with a grass roof in a three piece suit, “dressed to impress!”  

What kind of weather are you having there?
We learned about how things like weather/seasons and the direction the toilet flushes are opposite in the southern hemisphere back in grade school, but now we actually know it to be true! 
When we got here last August it was starting to warm up quite a bit as we entered the really dry season and Malawian summer from September to October.  October is the hottest month of the year, waking up to 80°F and getting up to at least 100°F during the day, sometimes by 10am.
Often, an early morning temp reading…we keep the freezer
stocked with homemade papaya/banana/strawberry/mango
popsickles and get out the kiddie pool periodically!

The rainy season starts around November with much needed relief from the heat, but also bringing in mold-inducing humidity.  We’ve found mold on our wooden rolling pin, in closets, covering the car seats, on the high chair and of course on food.  “Rainy” does not convey the awesome magnitude of a downpour here.  It is amazing to watch, hear and even feel the heavy rain pound the ground and rush down the gutters (which are on the ground to catch rain from the roof and channel rain on the ground).  You can usually hear it coming across the landscape.  A downpour may last a few minutes or a few hours.
We are currently experiencing winter which runs from May through August.  It’s cool and dry with an occasional shower and cloud cover.  We didn’t believe if before coming but we do wear long sleeves, jackets, fleeces, long pants and sometimes, wool socks!  It’s that cold…er, rather, our bodies feel it as much colder than you’d think, since we’re getting used to the heat here.  “Cold” is around 55-69°F, particularly with no heating system in houses here.  We layer on the blankets at night and soak in the sun during the day! 

We have MANY friendly lizards living in our terrace walls!
They’re sorta fun to have around :o)

Homesick

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One big part of our first year in Malawi has been homesickness.  It can hit at any moment without notice and through the strangest things.  But mostly, it crops up as we’re enjoying our children’s squeals as they chase each other up and down the hallway or say something cute at the dinner table or do something new.  It hits the hardest, curiously enough, during the good times.  You might think the opposite would be true, that we’d be the most homesick when we were annoyed at how things are done differently here or when particularly challenging situations come up.  Homesickness can show its face then too. 

Sundays are the hardest.  I (Becky) am not sure why.  Maybe it’s the more relaxed pace or the familiar meals we’d always have on Sundays growing up:  toasted cheese, tomato soup, popcorn and something sweet.  We try to have these comfort foods here as well, but bake our own bread, buy cheese (shred it to make it stretch longer since all cheese is expensive here!), make tomato soup from scratch and bake sweets from scratch.  But it’s worth it!

Today was no different.  I was making dinner and it hit me.  The tears welled up.  The lump grew in my throat.  I missed having family nearby to call or visit…I began mixing up one of my “homesick foods” — brownies.

“Now I could really go for a big glass of Pennsylvania milk!” — Jonathan
Long-life boxed milks and even fresh milk just don’t taste the same.

Often, when I’m homesick, I turn to “stress baking.”  This is not always wise.  Not that we consume that many sweets as a result, but when you’re stressed, you’re not always thinking straight.  So, the delightful, warm, comforting food you set out to make ends up burning, too tough, too crunchy…not quite what you had in mind, which makes you more stressed.  But, tonight, the brownies overcame all odds and turned out great!  They even got done before the power went out, as it often does on Sunday nights for a few hours.

I found this recipe several months ago and it hasn’t let me down once!  It’s worth sharing, because we’re not the only people that get homesick OR stressed – you may need this from time to time as well :o)

Best Brownie Recipe

Strangely enough, we haven’t heard many others talk about their homesickness here.  A few have.  Surely more people are homesick than let on, but then again, I’m realizing why I’m so very homesick.  I have roots.  Deep roots.  I grew up in the same town, moving only once, and that only being about a mile away.  I went to the same church from birth to the day I left for college.  The same family pastored that church that entire time.  My parents love me.  My brother and I have “always” gotten along (being a parent of toddlers, I know there were inevitably occasional fights!).  Even after getting married, I’ve lived within a few hours from most of my extended family.  Jonathan and I have always liked the idea of setting down roots.  It’s one of the things we “gave up” when answering “yes” to God calling us to Malawi.

Over this first year, we’ve begun to let our roots grow a little deeper here, but they are still young, shallow and even fragile.  It takes time and energy to engage a new place and people.  Do we risk building friendships with others who may leave in another year or two?  Do we dare set ourselves up for additional loss?  The expatriate community is quite transient in nature, most being committed to a two or three year term, some even shorter than that.  We’re in the same boat.  We don’t know if we’ll be here longer than our three year term, but we could be here for a lifetime.  Either way, we engage and befriend in hopes of sharing God’s love with others while we know them and while they’re close by.  At the same time, we let others serve us, befriending us, filling in a space that is hard to fill – not by replacing our family or friends back home, but by coming along side us as new, additional “family” and friends here.

Do I want to overcome homesickness?

No, not really.  Not that I enjoy breaking down in tears or missing out on family gatherings and happenings, but that each time I’m homesick, I remember how much I love and am loved.  A brief search online about missionary homesickness gave me advice to work more, avoid reading letters from home more than once, avoid looking at pictures from home and then work, work, work to avoid homesickness.  I do not like this advice.  I will not take it.  I am thankful for my home, my family, my friends.  I am also thankful for being able to serve in Malawi, build new friendships, and experience new things.  I did find some useful advice here: missionary homesick advice

Do I want to book a flight on the next plane home when I am homesick?  

No, I want those I love to book a flight on the next plane to come here!  I want them to see where we live, where we worship, where Jonathan teaches, where the kids play, meet the people we know and even the places we shop.  I want to share this new place, not leave it. 

So, we take it one day at a time.  We look forward to the visitors who will come and the Skype dates we are able to have.  We miss you, our family, friends, and churches who have been our support both near and far.  Thank you, we love you.

August 8th: One Year in Malawi!

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Today marks the day we stepped off the plane,
setting foot in Malawi one year ago!  
What a year it has been!  
 
August 2012

Thank you to all who have prayed for us as we prepared to come, as we navigated moving across the world and living in a new-to-us culture, not to mention job transitioning into Jonathan’s first year of teaching!  Thank you to all who have supported us financially – we are reminded of your generosity each paycheck we receive and of God’s faithful provision in every area of life. 

August 2013
 It has been a 
stretching-fulfilling-difficult-exciting-fun-stressful-interesting year 
 full of blessings from our heavenly Father who knows us and our needs and our gifts the best.  
We are being changed by this experience and have seen God at work around us at EBCoM and among the BIC church of Malawi.
All praise be given to God!
 
A Malawian wood carving we have
in the center of our dining room table
reminding us of our family of 4, on this
journey together, with our focus on Christ,
our Light and Salvation!

 

Missionary Mommy Blog

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You may have noticed that I (Becky) do a lot of the writing on this blog.  For that reason, it has turned into a sort of “missionary mommy blog” where you get the perspective of the wife of the missionary doing the “mission” work.  As the blog turned into this, rather than a mode of frequently updating you on Jonathan’s work at EBCoM, we both started to see the value in this perspective.  Many times, the missionary’s work is seen as spreading the Gospel message of Christ through telling people groups about Jesus who have never heard about Him before.  In our case, Jonathan is building up the existing church through training pastors and lay leaders in Biblical knowledge, history and application.  He also preaches at BIC churches, often accompanied by church leaders to encourage more remote congregations.  But, there is another side to missions. 

When we became missionaries, we didn’t cease being husband and wife OR parents.  In fact, what I came to do is to continue my role of supporting Jonathan and my role as the mother of our children by raising them at home, just like when we were home in PA.  This is not how every missionary does it – we’re all different – but this is how we have decided to do it in this season. 

In my daily missionary work, I am spreading the Gospel through the way I act, the words I sing, the things I do or don’t do with my children, the way I discipline myself and my children, the books I read, the pictures I draw, the imaginary worlds I enter into, the dancing and wrestling I participate in, the giggles I share, and the hugs and kisses I give.  I rarely get to engage with Malawians beyond friendly greetings and buying vegetables.  I don’t lead any Bible studies, although I do teach kids Sunday School once a month.  I don’t translate the Bible into other languages – I’m struggling just to learn Chichewa, the local language here.  So, many days it is easy to feel a sense of defeat.  How can I call myself a missionary?!?!

I’ve felt called for as long as I can remember to be a teacher, a missionary and a mom.  I’ve been all three of these things already in different forms, but as I dig deeper into the calling of being a mom and missionary, I’m starting to see how calling can have phases and chapters in our lives as well.  Just because I feel called to all three of these things does not mean I need to do each one at maximum strength all my life long!  Each role has many ways of playing out in life, well beyond what immediately comes to mind when you hear “teacher,” “missionary,” and “mom.” 
Over the past 9 months I’ve really wrestled with this.  I want to engage with other Malawians more deeply.  I want to really learn Chichewa to better communicate with others.  I want to connect with the kids in the preschool on campus and the women in the wives’ program.  I want to translate children’s books and read them in Chichewa.  I want to….well, the daydreams go on and on.  As I have expressed this longing to do more and feeling of defeat when I can’t seem to reach out much further than my own children, I have gotten very consistent feedback from past and present missionaries and moms. 
Give yourself a break.  Give your kids a break. 
Your children ARE your first mission field.
Spreading the Gospel as a mom starts with my own children.  If they are neglected, much more harm can be done.  A friend recently told me of a missionary kid’s plea “How many African souls were worth mine?”  In training, another missionary kid’s struggle with his dad was shared, “Would you love me if I were African?”  Missionaries can be so engrossed in their own work that they neglect their own family.  This does not reflect the Gospel well to their children nor to those to whom they are preaching! 

So, as I snuggle up with my kiddos to read another book…

or run inside to get a pair of pants so Micah can wear them on his head to be a turtle (!)…
or answer continuous questions of “why”…
or teach my kids how to share…again…
or coax “just three more bites” into a reluctant mouth…
or join in the spontaneous pint-sized dancing going on in the living room…
or simply play with my kids as they attempt to make sense of the world around them…
I am loving my kids.
And that love opens their ears and eyes and hearts to what I do and say and believe.

My little “turtle” :o)

My cutie-pie

And I believe in God the Father Almighty,
Who sent His love to us through Jesus,
Who opened the door for us to come back to God, forgiven. 
God, who wants to snuggle up with us, His children, and tell us how much He loves us
and wants to be in our lives. 

And as my kids see that and believe that and live that out too, that’s called discipleship. 

Letting the kids splash in the puddles
because rainy season only comes
but once a year!

So, I guess I amspreading the Gospel.  And I want other missionary moms to be liberated in their role of being moms, too.

There very well may be other chapters coming where I exercise other roles and talents in my life in different ways than I am able to now.  One missionary recently commented how she’s lived longer than she ever imagined she would and has had time for many different ministries after her years of raising little ones.  This gives me hope and encouragement.

So, for now, I’m discovering this chapter.  In this freedom to discover, I find challenge, joy and delight in my children.  I think God delights in that, too.

Lent turning to Easter

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Lenten Journey 
The last time we posted, it was the beginning of Lent.  As it turns out, a lot happened in Lent which resulted in an unintentional fast from blog posting!  We’ll try to make up for that now as there’s so much to update you on!
The biggest challenge of Lent was another unintentional fast – 26 days without reliable running water.  To be fair, for the first week, the water would come on at night around 6pm and go out by 7am the next morning, so it wasn’t that much of a hardship.  We’d fill up when there was water and live off of it and runoff rain water the rest of the time.  But then, there was no running water at all and very infrequent rain.  So, we had to go get water in our jerry cans from the tap on campus or sometimes from our neighbors.  This proved to be a “yay” and “yuck” duck experience. 

[For those of you who aren’t familiar with our “yay” and “yuck” ducks, here they are….


It’s a pair-of-ducks….par-a-dox…paradox.  There is the good and the bad in situations.  You can just side with one and be an optimist or the other and be a pessimist, or you can hold both in tension at the same time in paradox.  It’s hard to do, but it’s an important skill to master in a well-balanced life and perspective.  The ducks are a way to make it a fun and approachable concept for kids.]
YUCK – Walking the 5 minutes (I know, it could be much farther) up to the tap/faucet on campus to wait in line to fill a container with water and then carry it back home (often with both kids along) was not my idea of a great time. 
YAY – While waiting in line, I got to practice my Chichewa and learn some new words like kuseka= to laugh.  Of course, I asked for this word because the children in line were laughing at me, but hey, it’s okay…I’m different!   We were also very thankful for our house helper who did a lot of water carrying for us!
The problem ended up being a broken pump which got fixed on day 26 which resulted in much rejoicing across campus!  Not having water in our faucets for that long even changed my expectation.  I didn’t even try the faucet most times.  I’ve heard before that when you do something for three weeks, it makes a habit.  It’s true – after 2-3 weeks, the way I lived my life changed – the way I did the dishes, bathed, gave the kids baths, cleaned the house…my routines changed and I adjusted.  No big deal, right? 
Well, then there were the days when the power went out, too.  On these days, we often turn to eating PB&J sandwiches and fruit.  We cook dinner on our propane stove and we strive not to open the fridge or freezer at all since we have no idea how long until power returns.  No big deal, right?
No, these didn’t seem like big deals, but after a while of dealing with them, even with a good attitude, they start wearing on you without you realizing it and you get worn out.  
Lent is a time many people seek to identify with Jesus’ 40 days in the desert.  It was a trying time for him, but His true colors, so to speak, showed through as he remained faithful to God and remained true to His calling.  Going without water for 26 days turned out to be a desert experience for me, plunging me deeper into self-reflection and reliance on God.  It is often in these times of challenge that I find the most satisfying refreshment and rejuvenation in Scripture, prayer and journaling.  It was also when Jonathan and I (and even the kids, it seemed) experienced our “6 month slump” in culture adjustment.  That’s when all the challenges that haven’t seemed all that bad up until that point join forces and discourage, slow you down and sometimes even depress.  Not a real fun time, but at least “slump” implies that you came from a higher place and return to it, right?  And we do feel that we’ve come out of that slump for the most part.  It’s just really interesting that all these things were part of our Lenten journey this year.
Holy Week
As we turned to Holy Week, I wanted to make it special for the kids and meaningful for our whole family. Yes, the kids are young (4 and 1 1/2), but that just means that we’ll either start building some great family spiritual life memories, or I’ll figure out some ideas that don’t work and can do even better ones when they’ll remember it even more! 🙂 
On Palm Sunday, we cut palms from our own property to take to church (how cool is that?!).  I was teaching Sunday School for the kids that day, so it was a lot of fun to reenact Jesus riding a donkey into Jerusalem with the crowd laying clothes and palm branches as a carpet for Jesus the King to ride on!  The children sang “Hosanna, hosanna, praise the King!”
On Maundy Thursday night we set up the living room to reenact foot washing at the Last Supper.  The coffee table is the right height for the kids’ lawn chairs and Jonathan and I “reclined at the table” on the couch cushions.  We had tortillas that night, which I thought made for good unleavened bread and cherry plum SOBO (SOuthern BOttling Co.) soda for our “wine.”  The kids were immediate fans of this activity once they got to have soda!
 First we washed the kids’ feet and then Micah asked to wash Daddy’s feet, which was really special.
I did Rachel’s twice because she just wanted to play in the water longer. 
  
While Jonathan washed my feet, the kids wrestled on the cushions…do you think the disciples ever wrestled?  Probably not THAT night!  
Don’t worry, she can hold her own!

On Good Friday we didn’t do a Tenebrae service at home, but I greatly missed having one.  It was really neat to hear Micah remembering our foot washing “service” in the days and weeks following.  Acting things out really helps a kid think through the events and what they mean.  It also provides a great opportunity for us as parents to talk about it with our kids! 

On Holy Saturday, it was always a tradition in my family to dye Easter eggs.  Our eggs are brown here, so I wasn’t sure how they would dye (now people tell me they’re even better than white eggs!), so I thought we’d get creative with avocados.   

Our avocado tree has produced hundreds of avos throughout Lent, most of which we sold to our house helper to then resell in the market for her family.  I decided that taking a dozen avocados to paint for Easter was a good, contextual (for where we live) idea.  

 This way, we could have something for an egg hunt on Easter.  After all, no one seems to have heard of plastic Easter eggs around here (except Americans), so obviously they don’t sell them here.  Micah and Rachel really enjoyed painting their “eggs” and hunting for them throughout the yard on Sunday.   
 We also used sidewalk chalk to decorate a rock in our backyard that resembles an egg :-).
Easter Sunday
Our Easter centerpiece
No one is on the cross…
No one is in the grave…
Christ is Risen!  He is Risen Indeed!
Three candles symbolize the Father, Son and Holy Spirit
  On Easter Sunday (and the days leading up to it), we had quite a lot of lengthy power outages.  This made preparing Easter meal a bit tricky.  Let’s just say I’m really thankful for our propane stove…and if you ever wondered what happens to jello if you mix it up and don’t put it in the fridge until 7 hours later, it still gels!!!  Who knew?!?!?

Jonathan preached at Maone BIC church on Easter Sunday.  I found myself mourning the loss of having Micah and Rachel hear songs they know where we usually go (in English) and Micah getting to go to Sunday School to have the Easter story and craft, but at the same time, it was special being in a totally different place for this high, holy day of the Christian year – worshiping and rejoicing with our Malawian brothers and sisters in Christ!  It made it easier not to be at home with all the familiar things and people I expect at Easter because I didn’t even expect much to be familiar.  The kids did well in the service until partway through the sermon, so I took them outside (where at least half the other moms and children were) and read Arch Bible storybooks to them.  The Malawian kids seemed to like them, and even though they probably couldn’t hear me reading in a hushed voice, we left room for them to see the pictures and they leafed through the books we weren’t currently reading.  Having books is pretty rare for a lot of Malawian families.  I was happy to have some small books with neat pictures of Bible stories to be able to “share” with them for the day. 

We got a care package from the Grantham Church a few days before Easter (sent just after Christmas!) which included Easter stickers, so I took them along and gave them out to the kids after church.  They loved them, but they all put them on their skin (hand, forehead) rather than their clothes!  Very interesting…
 
  I missed my family a lot on Easter and wish we could have just popped over to their place for dinner.  In some ways it’s nice to be here to really shape our family traditions as the kids grow up in ways we may not have taken the time to do when involved in a church full of programs (Yay duck).  But at the same time, I do really miss some of those programs as well (Yuck duck).  I grieve the loss of having family close by, especially on holidays (Yuck duck), but I’m also so thankful for this time where I can see our kids growing and asking questions they wouldn’t be asking in PA, most likely (Yay duck).  The “yay” and “yuck” ducks are so strong some days, I’m glad they taught us about holding both of them at the same time and allowing them to be what they are.  It’s so painful at times, though.  

Our avocado “egg” hunt