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Welcome! Muli Bwanji!?!?! (Hello and how are you!?!)

Hello everyone! As many of you know, my heart spent some of the most challenging and growing two months in Malawi, Africa this summer. I am now back to my community in San Diego, serving with Flood Church and finishing my senior year at UCSD. I am excited to share with you my experiences, thoughts, and feelings as I continue to process myself what God taught me this summer. I would also love for you to share comments, as well as how I might be praying for you and your family. I will be updating posts and pictures as well as sharing with you ways in which you can continue to support and pray for the children and people that I fell in love with this summer!

Thank you so much for your encouragement, love, support, and most of all, prayers...He is Good!

Love In Him,
Rachel

Encouraging Words of Christ

"I pray that from His glorious, unlimited resources He will empower you with inner strength through His Spirit. Then Christ will make His home in your hearts as you trust in Him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Now all glory to God, who is able, through His mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think."

Ephesians 3:16-20

12 July 2008

Arrived and God is good!

Happy July, my wonderful family and friends!!! Today, we are in town at an internet cafe and so I can officially update and say hello to you all! Yay!!!


I hardly know where to begin; the past 18 days here in Malawi have gone so fast and yet it seems like I have been here forever! : ) I apologize for an update being so delayed, but we officially were only allowed to get online after about two weeks, so here I am!

As most of you I hope heard, I arrived safe and well on June 24th, along with an amazing team of interns! We all met up in London and were able to travel together from then on. The relationships that God has grown within our team so far have been AMAZING and so encouraging! Anyways, we arrived in the afternoon, looking and feeling like, well...travelers who had ate, slept, and sat on a plane for 3 days! Hahaa...but in really good attitudes and excitement as we climbed down the stairs out of the plane onto the ground that would be our home for the next two months; the adventure had only just begun! Our arrival day was filled with excitment, bus rides, songs, and a welcome dance and presentation from COTN supported orphans in Chitipi Home that brought most of us to tears! : )

The rest of our first week was full of cultural preparation, team bonding, visiting the village of Mgwayi that is only a minutes walk from our compound, Njewa, and a market challenge day to give us the chance to try and be "true Malawians" for a day and buy enough food on a Malawian's budget and then prepare the meal (complete with live chickens I might
add.) : ) A big highlight of the first week was my birthday being celebrated Malawian style; I hadn't expected anything really, but my team of only a few days showered me with Christ's love; pedicure and foot massage, quality hang out time, and complete with two Malawian style cakes and songs at night! In tradition, I was "named" a Malawian name as well, the group voted Chimwemwe, which means "joy"....all in all, one of my best birthdays so far! : )

The next week and up until now has been full of our ministry teams going full force! : ) I have had a the priviledge of going into the village of Mtsiliza and spending time with the widows and their children multiple times a week for the whole day! The joy and songs of Christ's love that overflows out of these amazing women is truly a testament of His grace!

Ahh, I am running out of time and have SOOOO much I would love to share with you all, but I will leave with this; God is so good and even though there have been struggles and don't get me wrong, there has been...it is amazing to see Him working in not neccessarily the ways we would even expect. One of the Malawian staff shared with us last night from the story of Elijah and how God does not always come in the earthquake and clouds, but in the gentle whisper on our hearts! I pray that you are all doing well and listening to His voice on your heart today!

P.S. The COTN staff will be updating a blog for general activities and pictures more often than I will be able to so if you would like to check it, feel free! It is....
malawi2008interns.blogspot.com

Love in Him, Rachel

1 comments:

Julie said...

I am so excited about this!! Your birthday sounds so exciting!!

Praying for you!!