Becky

Monday, August 6, 2012

Some of our MOST team helped us load the totes and suitcases into two SUVs, and we left Dillsburg at about 11:30 and arrived at the Dulles airport uneventfully (if you don’t count that we followed a helicopter riding on a flatbed truck most of the way south on Rt 15!). A very helpful porter with a HUGE dolley took all the totes to the ticketing/bag check-in counter which was only a few feet from the door, so the check-in went very smoothly.

Here’s a few photos Mike Huffnagle took from the few moments before we went through security. You see how excited and full of energy we look?

That all important stop — one more visit to the restrooms!

The happy travelers

Our jet for the next 18 hours

Dear Friends and Family,

We are just days away from flying to Malawi to serve with BICWM at the Evangelical Bible College of Malawi!  We are almost packed and ready to go (and are really looking forward to unpacking and settling in)!  We just wanted to send a quick email to update you on our departure details and to ask for special prayer in the coming days.

Itinerary:  We’ll be flying out from the Dulles, Washington D.C. airport on Monday, August 6th at 5:40pm (two back-to-back 8-hour flights)  to arrive in South Africa at 4:35pm on Tuesday.  After staying overnight in Johannesburg, we’ll take a quick 2 hour flight arriving in  Blantyre, Malawi just after noon on Wednesday (5am for you).  Then we’ll have a short (20 min?) road trip to our new home on EBCoM’s campus!

Please pray for…
1)  A safe, smooth, calm (dare I say…relaxing?), uneventful trip!  We are so happy that our good friend from church, Beth Huffnagle, is able to come along as our travel helper!  The kids already know and love her and she’s happy for an excuse to go to Africa, so it’s a win-win 🙂  She is able to stay with us for a week as we settle in.

2)  Pray that ALL of our luggage will arrive WITH us, intact and that we won’t need to go through any additional security screenings.  

3)  As always, pray for good sleep and health before, during and after the trip as we make this transition.  

4)  For the peace of Christ to enfold us.

We really appreciate all your support and encouragement on this journey!  We will let you know that we have arrived as soon as we are able!


Grace & Peace,
Becky, Jonathan, Micah and Rachel Owen

The Owen family sat for a quick family photo — just a few short days from now they’ll be off to Malwai!

Dear Friends,

Greetings from Colorado!  It has been such a beautiful visit here to see family, receive excellent training and see more of God’s beautiful creation!  We have some more exciting news to share with you and ask you to continue in prayer with us:

Answers to Prayer
– Praise God that our work permit (TEP) has been received in Malawi and it awaits our arrival to finalize.  This allows us to work for 2 years, at which time we will re-apply.

– Praise God for 3 weeks of visiting with Jonathan’s parents and sister’s family.  It was so fun to see the cousins interact and get to know each other beyond pictures in Christmas cards!  It’s good to pick up where we left off with family, even though we don’t get to see each other very often.

– Praise God for an awesome 5 weeks of training at Missionary Training International.  We are privileged to have access to such excellent training in cross-cultural ministry and language acquisition.  The kids both did great in their classes/nursery and the staff were absolutely amazing in caring for our kids and for us as we parent them through many transitions.  We have great respect for their ministry and programming!

– Praise God for relatively good health through our Colorado trip.  Although we are all run down and Micah got a fever the last two days of our training, we are impressed by God’s protection over our bodies and health through many stresses and activities.

– Praise God for a house to stay in between now and our departure!  What a gift from a friend from church…complete with play room and sandbox!  Who could ask for anything more? 🙂

Continue to Pray with us:
– Pray for sleep!  Yes, this is still a prayer request.  All four of us have been staying in the same room together throughout our 5 weeks of training which made for some sleep challenges, but also treasured memories.  As we move back to PA to yet another house, we dearly hope that the kids will settle into good sleep routines, resulting in good sleep for us parents as well! 

– Pray for our move back to PA to settle into another house until our Aug. 6th departure.  We fly out of Denver on Tuesday, June 26th.  

– Pray for our preparations.  We are hoping to do the bulk of our packing from July 11-13th.  Pray hard on these days and leading up to them that we make good decisions, stay calm, respond to each other in love under stress and actually finish what we set out to do.  Hopefully, sleep will be good those nights!  We also have a lot of good-byes ahead of us.  Pray that we say good-bye well and have quality time with friends and family before our departure.  Finally, pray for our commissioning service on July 15th at 10:30am, that it will not only be a time of affirmation and encouragement for us and all who attend, but also a time open to the Spirit’s moving in all of our lives.

– Pray for one or two good language helpers for both of us upon arrival in Malawi.  We have been trained how to learn a new language, but will need help from someone who is patient, who speaks well, who has time to meet with us regularly and who is willing to correct us (repeatedly!).  Pray also for wisdom in determining how much time to commit to language learning and finding childcare for our language learning times.

– Pray that God will prepare us for the new relationships we will form when we arrive in Malawi — particularly those with Malawians.


Grace and Peace,
Jonathan and Becky (and Micah and Rachel)

Dear Prayer Supporters,

This is the first of our (roughly) monthly prayer updates to all of you who have said you’re willing to faithfully pray for us!  Thank you – we often feel the need for your prayers, and we have some exciting praises to share with you as a result of what our God has done! 

– Praise God that Jonathan’s Temporary Employment Permit (TEP) application was approved today!  This allows us to be in Malawi for 2 years (at which time we will re-apply).
– Pray for our co-workers in Malawi as they pay the required fee to obtain the TEP paper for us and that all will go smoothly when we get to immigration in Malawi

– Praise God that we are now up to 86.5% financial support!  
– Pray that remaining 13.5% ($14,654) to come in!  We also still need 65 more prayer supporters to reach our goal of 200.

– Praise God for some upcoming opportunities to speak about our journey and ministry at churches – we are encouraged when we can talk with people face-to-face.
– Pray for God’s protection in travel, health and spirit. As each speaking engagement approaches, it seems something goes wrong, we are discouraged or just plain sleep deprived going in.  We know that Satan likes to bring us down when we want to lift up the name and work of Jesus.  Pray for strength and focus.

Our Itinerary
This Sunday 3/25 Emmanuel E.C. (Becky’s home church in Hatfield).  Traveling Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon.
April 1st – off 
April 8th – Jonathan’s preaching at Lisburn Church of God (not about Malawi, but you can still pray!)
April 11th – World Prayer Team at Grantham BIC Church
April 15 –  Morning Hour Chapel, BIC
April 22 – Jonathan’s preaching at Lisburn Church of God
April 25th – Dillsburg BIC Prayer Meeting
Thereafter, we’ll be in Colorado till the end of June.

– Praise God that Jonathan has had a really great place to work the last 9 years and has been blessed with great co-workers as well (who are very sad he’s leaving).
– Pray that Jonathan will finish his job well (last day is March 29th) and manage the transition to working on final preparations at home with Becky.  Also pray for him on March 28th at 11am when he goes in for his oral exam to receive his ministerial license.


Grace and Peace,
Jonathan and Becky Owen

Dear Prayer Supporters,

A lot has happened since we last updated you in March!  Thank you for all your prayers – they were certainly needed and felt!

Answered Prayers:

– Praise God that we are now just OVER 100% financial and prayer support!  
– Praise God for six encouraging speaking engagements throughout March and April.  We really enjoyed reconnecting with many of you and meeting new friends while we shared our testimony and plans for future ministry in Malawi.  Micah and Rachel fared very well, too!
– Praise God for continued good health for all four of us!  This seems somewhat miraculous because of how busy and demanding our schedule has been.
– Praise God for a smooth transition for Jonathan as he ended working at the bank and came home to many details and preparations (and potty training Micah).  
– Praise God that Jonathan received his ministerial license with the BIC church after passing his oral exam.
– Praise God for the sale of both of our cars and our washer/dryer (worth more than Becky’s car)!
– Praise God for a smooth trip to Colorado.  Micah and Rachel both enjoyed the air travel and endured many hours in the car pretty well 🙂  


Continue to Pray with us:
– Pray for God’s continued protection in travel, health and spirit. We are enjoying some down time with family in Colorado right now, but then will enter 5 weeks of training where both kids will be in childcare.  Becky has been feeling especially exhausted after weeks and months of many details, planning and preparations combined with some possible altitude sickness.  Ask God for physical strength/recovery, mental clarity and spiritual energizing and peace.

– Pray for sleep!  Both kids are getting up a lot in the night since we’ve arrived in Colorado which interrupts our sleep a lot (hourly, at times).  We all need some good, solid sleep (as we hear Rachel crying in the background for the second time this evening, poor girl).

– Pray for each of us as we respond to each transition in our own way.  Micah, in particular, is making sense of “home”.  He asks to go home, but has also begun to express that this (Grandparents’ house in Colorado) is his home for now because this is where we are right now.  So, he is beginning to catch on that we move a lot.  We have brought some of his familiar/favorite toys and books to help with a sense of “home” and stability.  We’ll also be baking our “new house cake” in the coming days here.  Being three years old, though, his confusion and stress tends to come out in the form of tantrums (impressively few, so far).  Pray for us as we discern how to respond to and love him in these times.  

– Pray for continued stability in Malawi following the recent sudden death of their president and the peaceful transition of power to the vice president.  Pray for economic stability as Malawi’s government strives to improve relations with foreign governments.

– Pray that God will prepare us for the new relationships we will form when we arrive in Malawi — students, coworkers, fellow missionaries, friends, and others.