Malawi, week one

Can't believe we've been in Malawi now for one week. The days are absolutely flying - with our heads spinning from morning til night. It has taken us a few days to get internet situated, so we've been a bit delayed in sending out an update. I will try to give you a quick overview of all that's happened during this last week.

Traveling was MUCH better than we could ever have anticipated. Thank you to all of you who were praying specifically for Ruthie during our 30+ hours in transit. The Lord answered our prayers with much grace. She slept for almost 10 straight hours on our longest flight from D.C. to South Africa (16 hours). We were more than thankful. We didn't even feel like we were in "survival mode". We really had a fun time - the older children thought every aspect was fascinating - Ford particularly loved "blast off."

Many of you were also praying for Sam's transition, as he had been particularly apprehensive about this huge move away from our families. Again, God has been more than gracious. After being at our house for about ten minutes the children were outside exploring their new surroundings with much excitement, jumping on our neighbor's trampoline, becoming thoroughly filthy in a freshly dug ditch (for much needed water pipes - more about that later) and playing with lots of neighbor children that have become fast friends. Sam ran into the house after about two hours and exclaimed, "This is AWESOME!!) Music to his parents' ears. Some of their favorite discoveries thus far include the papaya tree in our backyard, rocks containing most valuable crystals (ie. an excuse to crush huge rocks into millions of tiny pieces), TERMITE MOUNDS - endless fun, trying to teach some neighboring chickens how to ride a skateboard, rats-on-a-stick (yes, rats, not chicken), and rat shaped marshmallows at the grocery. They have absolutely never been so dirty from morning until night - and loving every minute!! School starts for Sam and Ford next week. Can't wait to meet their classmates and find out where they are all from. Sam's teacher is from the U.K. and sounds like she is going to be great.

Needless to say, we are all experiencing new adventures at every turn. Just the everyday things that are required for a family to function remain quite the adventure at this point - finding groceries, filtering all our water, taking showers before the water (not just hot water, all water at times) runs out (at 8 AM one morning), and making sure you have enough for the day, being mindful of cultural differences, sleeping under mosquito nets, driving on the opposite side of the road in a city where nobody obeys the traffic laws and pedestrians are EVERYWHERE, and trying to remember why we are here at the same time. We are experiencing God's blessings in many ways and are very thankful to be here. We are excited about new friendships, the children are absolutely having a blast, and we are loving learning about the Malawian people and and seeing all that African Bible College is about.

John spent his first afternoon in the clinic today, and diagnosed his first case of HIV. He has TONS to learn about practicing medicine here and is excited to be getting started.

We would love to hear from you. Feel free to forward the link to our blog. We will try to be fairly consistent in keeping you guys posted on things here in Lilongwe. Much love!!