central-lutheran.org Blog

It’s Kathy’s birthday on Monday, April 12th.  My daughter Becca made a card for her.  Here is a picture of it. Leave some Birthday comments for Kathy on this “online” Birthday card.

Add some comments to Kathy's online Birthday card

Our Sunday is almost over in Africa. We went to church this morning in a very small, very poor church on the edge of Blantyre. The floor was dirt… the men sat on bricks and the women and children sat on mats or on the floor. The men were on one side and the women on the other. We were greeted as we drove in by a beautiful choir that sang and sang and sang. We were a half hour late which didn’t seem to bother anyone but us, but our drivers are always late! It didn’t matter because the pastor was an hour late! Try that one in America! Rick got to give the sermon and when we were done our driver laughed and said it was the shortest church service in the history of Malawi. We then drove to the beautiful city of Zomba and are staying at a hotel we stayed in 2 years ago. The hotel was the former British Headquarters when Malawi was a British colony. Tomorrow morning we are off to do a clinic in another very poor area of Malawi where eye care is desperately needed. Thank you all for your prayers and your great posts. Everyone is reading them faithfully.

We did our second clinic today in Lower Shire… again, 100+ degrees, but we serve a couple of hundred people and were done in time to drive up out of the beautiful Rift Valley to the cooler temperatures of Blantyre. After a quick shower to clean off the layers of dust and dirt we are enjoying a relaxing meal in our favorite Italian restaurant in Blantyre. Everyone is well, weary and ready for an easier day tomorrow. We will worship in a church on the outskirts of Blantyre and Rick found out today he has to give the sermon! Things are not always planned far in advance in Malawi. After church we will travel to Zomba and spend the afternoon at our hotel sorting glasses, washing out clothes and relaxing… we hope. Then on Monday it is back to work! Even the Lord rested on the Sabbath. Keep praying… it is working!

Hello from Malawi… today was quite a day. We drove to our first clinic in Lower Shire… the temperature all day was over 100 degrees with very high humidity and very little breeze! We arrived at the church to learn that another group was using the building so we had to set up our clinic outside under tarps strung over a make-shift frame. We were blessed to have cases of bottled water and we drank and drank and drank. We served several hundred people and when our day ended we were dirty, very, very tired and very smelly! We loaded up all of our equipment and drove 2 ½ hours back up to Blantyre where are blessed with a clean hotel, warm showers and some rooms have toilet seats.
You can all be very proud of your missionaries. They worked very hard today and the joys overcame the difficulties all day long. The highlight for some was walking across a field at the end of the day to watch and listen to a small choir practicing under the shade of a tree. There was a homemade 3 string guitar, a one string base and full drum set, all made from animal skins, string and who knows what else… but their music was moving as they danced and sang.
One of our folks woke up this morning with an intestinal problem and after a call to a German doctor in Blantyre, whose husband is a pastor, we were told to find a Guava plant, boil the stems, mix in some sugar and have the person drink it. We did all the above and the person felt better by the end of the day.
We are so grateful for your support and prayers and know that you are walking with us each day. Tomorrow morning we are going back to the same church for a second day clinic and are praying that the weather is cooler, but we know we can handle it, because God is good… all the time!

Hello USA!
We were on the road for 8 hours today traveling from our base in Lilongwe through Blantyre to an area called Lower Shire. Lower Shire is located in the Rift Valley, which runs the length, north to south in Africa. We arrived at our hotel in a remote area and lost electricity within 10 minutes! The good news is it came back on a few minutes ago. No hot water, but we have learned to appreciate refreshing cold showers. It is very, very hot and very, very humid here.
In the morning we will travel a short distance to do our first clinic and a little church. We hope everything is ready for our arrival as we are ready to go to work. Jon Turner, from our group shared a table tonight with a young woman from Maine who is working on agricultural projects in Malawi for a year. She has a sister who attends school at Stout. Small world!
Everyone sends their greetings and wants you to know we are well.
God is good… all the time!

We have arrived in Lilongwe, Milawi! We flew through the night from Kenya and cleared customs in the Lilongwe airport. We have checked into our overnight digs at the Lutheran Church of Malawi’s campus and are now sitting at a nice Italian restaurant called Mama Mia’s… we ate here when we were here two years ago. The culture shocks are beginning again!
Thanks to Ken Ginzl (and Jan) for the wonderful home made cookies that kept us fortified on the long flights and the layovers in the airports. There are a few left, but they are going fast.
After eating we are back to the church campus to sort glasses and get everything packed for our first clinic. How productive we will be is uncertain today… people are sitting, waiting for our meal and falling asleep.
P.S. Our lodgings for the night have no electricity and no hot water… as of today. Who knows what tomorrow will bring?

Your Malawi Missionaries

Tired! Flew through the night and arrived in Amsterdam at 3:30 Central Time, or 10:30 a.m. Amsterdam time… needless to say, we are a little sleep deprived. As we write this we are back in the Amsterdam airport waiting for our flight to leave at 9:00 (2:00 p.m. Wis. time) and will again fly through the night to Nairobi, Kenya and after a 2 hour layover will land in Malawi on Wednesday at 9 a.m. (2 a.m. WI time).
We had a great day touring Amsterdam with wonderful hosts… most of us walked through the old part of the city and then took a wonder 2 hour boat ride on the city’s canals… there are literally millions of bikes and few cars.
So now we wait and hope we can sleep on the plane to try to deal with this jet lag so when we land in Malawi we are rested and ready to work!
All are safe and relatively sound… and not too crabby… yet!

Just trying out the blog so I know how it works once we hit the road/air! We will be leaving from Central at 2 this afternoon and driving to the Mpls airport to depart for Amsterdam. We will send a blog entry from Amsterdam, assuming internet access can be obtained. We have a long layover there so we have a guide awaiting us who’s father-in-law is the pastor at Hope Lutheran in Eau Claire. Back to packing…

Rick

Please keep the I Care Malawi Team members in your prayers as they travel to Malawi providing vision. Also remember to pray for their families during this journey.