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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

20 July 2008

A Small Glimpse

Hello Everyone!!! The internet is pretty slow and sketchy so I can only post a few pictures from my time here so far, but they will give you a little glimpse of my life for the past four weeks! : ) 

Picture 1: This is me and Ega, a girl from the village of Mgwayi, that we visit atleast three times a week. I met her the very first day in the village and she has come back ever since! She is full of pure joy and loves rides on my shoulders...just one of the many many precious children of God that I have grown close to though... : )


Picture 2: This is a picture of the front of the "compound" we stay in and the offices of COTN. It's kinda crazy because it looks like, well, a compound with barbed wire and everything, but really we are quite safe. : ) Oh, and I should mention, this is a rare occasion that I am actually in pants.....no floor length skirt in this picture. : )


Picture 3: This picture is at the COTN Widow's ministry that I visit every Tuesday and Thursday, all day. We spend time at the widows' homes learning Malawian chores like re-mudding the floors : ) as well as time in their program learning Chichewa, helping with the items they sell for income, and pouring Christ's love into them as much as we can! The woman on the left is Mary and the woman on the right is Wezzie. I have gotten to know Wezzie very well and she has an amazing heart as well as a love for singing and dancing. She leads most of the dancing that we end up doing a lot of the days! : )


Well, that is all I can do for now, but I hope you enjoy getting to see a little bit of what is going on here in Malawi. God is SO good and time here continues to challenge and encourage me in new and unplanned ways. My only prayer requests would be for myself and the team to continue to see how and where God wants us for the next half of this trip. Also, for health, because I seem to be falling apart at the seams. : ) Just kidding, not anything bad, but my finger is infected, and I can't seem to shake a cold and cough I have had for about 2 weeks. I still feel great, but prayer for healing so I can feel more strengthened to be used would be great! Thanks for reading and all your prayers, I appreciate it SO much! Have a wonderful week encountering God in new ways!

In His Love, Rachel

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rachel! You look great and I love reading all about your times there! God is really using all of you to provide for these people right now and I can't even imagine how loving they all are! I hope you have stayed well and can't wait to read more :)

Anonymous said...

Rachel,
Thank you so much for your post! I loved hearing from you. Wow it truly sounds like you are enjoying every bit of your trip! Promise me next time you will take me. God is SO good and I love hearing you say that as you walk with these women and children who have had such challenging times. I love you and can't wait to talk with you and experience your trip through photos when you return! Can't wait to read your next blog. Love Nicole

Anonymous said...

Aww Chach, i'm sooooo excited fur ya ;) !!!!! It's so weird to hear stories of my big sis over in africa! craziness i tell you ;)anyways, we're going to need to have a little fam time when you get back, i'm thinking peter pan style, us all sitting in a circle smoking pipes and ohhing and ahhing over you're tales of adventure ;)

Anonymous said...

hi rachel! your photos are so precious. i can see the genuine relationships you're forming, and i'm so estatically happy for you. can't wait to hear more, and see more photos of you when you return!! miss you.

love, mai. :]