you name it

The man at the immigration office knows us by now. Every now and then, Cees goes there to fill the forms, talk with the agents etc… trying to pursue a work permit for us here in Malawi. Finally the man asked his question. “Why do you actually want to move from Zambia to Malawi? Everyone knows Zambia is doing much better than we do. I don’t understand!” True, Malawi is not doing well at all in different aspects, but that can never be a reason to neglect a country from mission work. Some think missionaries should not go to area’s with malaria, but can that be a responsible vision for mission work? Malaria and Aids, poverty and neglect, economic crisis, shortages of many resources – it’s all prevalent around us here. That doesn’t keep us from doing what God calls us to do! We pray the Lord for extra grace and patience to work and live here and we thank Him for the blessings we are receiving.

Last Saturday we went to Zambia to fill up on Diesel and try to extend our visa at the border, with the whole family. It was good to be in Zambia again and we met with some of our ‘old friends’ and were able to bring one of Cov.Coll. students with us to go home. It was wonderful to receive a phone call from Nelson Banda, Covenant College cook. His wife Ida delivered a healthy baby boy.  It was so funny how the name giving went. Months ago, when they told us about the pregnancy, they shared with us their wish to name the baby after one of us. When the boy arrived, Nelson went to tell Marjanne (colleague) that little Cees was born… Meanwhile we received the news and when Cees heard it was a boy he worried about the name. “They cannot give the poor child my name, in case, I will suggest them to call him Moses” (Ida and our little Moses have always been very close, he still calls for her sometimes) So, Cees sent Ida a message and when Marjanne went to the Banda house to see little Cees, she got to see little Moses instead… Nelson looked puzzled and Ida explained that Reverend Cees sent a message to call the baby not Cees but Moses (which is a common name in Zambia, the name Cees always put smiles on the Zambian faces and nobody ever told us the truth why).

Our research is progressing. There are many good options and visions and we just pray for God’s guidance. Also for us and the church to have a shared vision about the way we can minister best to this country. We also pray for generous hearts of God’s people to support the work of God’s kingdom in this poor nation. We would love and be willing to commit ourselves to God’s calling, training and equipping people to carry out God’s Word, even to the unreached in the remote villages around us. But without financial means we won’t be able to complete this task. Some people tell us to make known the needs to develop and realize His work. Maybe it’s soon time to do so. For now, we ask your honest prayers. Friends, this is a crucial time for us as a family and church, we need the Holy Spirit to follow the Lord. Thanks!

Indoors camping

It rained! Wednesday, when we were moving from our temporary apartment
to our own rental home Moses was sweating so much. I wondered what was
going on… maybe malaria? He looked fine, jumping like a kangaroo, his
favorite thing to do. Then it started to smell as it only smells in
Africa when rain is coming close. Yes, an hour later the sky turned
black and we received the first rains of the coming season. How
refreshing! The dust of the dry season which fills your nose, throat,
and cupboards all the time, settled – and turned into mud. But first
it will be dry and extremely hot before the real rains come from
Nov-Feb. These first rains are like a promise from our Creator; be
prepared, water will come to quench the dry fields.

We are camping now in the new home. Our stuff is still in Zambia
because we didn't receive our work permit yet and cannot take the
stuff across the border. However, Cees has visited Covenant College
twice and was able to take a few boxes so we do have some basic items
like bed sheets, some pots, toys and folding chairs. He even got the
washing machine which is very helpful for me. The house we rent is in
a real Malawian neighborhood, just a few miles out of the real city.
Each house is marked by high brick walls. Every morning some sales men
pass by, shouting what they are selling in a very funny voice. Obed
and Moses started copying them, calling to me "Onioni-Tomatooooo!".
There was also a wedding at one of our neighbors so we had lots of
singing and drumming in the air. I have to get used to the wandering
dogs at night, howling and crying so awfully! Our dog Lassie is such a
good dog. She doesn't join them but watches our house very well. Most
people here hire watchmen but we hope to just get a second dog. Most
watchmen fall asleep, dogs smell and sense danger before they can
actually see it.

The house we built in Zambia had screened windows but we could not
find even one house here with that. These house all have exiting
windows so it is a more complicated job to screen these windows, it
will take about 2 weeks to do it; another opportunity for Cees to
prove his carpentry skills. For now, we just had the outside of the
house sprayed, especially the septic tanks, and all of a sudden
hundreds of cockroaches and ants are trying to find a better place…
now I know a bit what it was like for the Egyptians during the ten
plagues. I try to be careful with poison though, having two little
boys around.

During Cees' visit at CC he attended the graduation of our CC
students. You can imagine how wonderful and special that was for both
him and the students. He also had to travel all the way to Lusaka to
get his personal police clearance and export clearance for our
vehicle. Because he is gone quite often, either to be in the offices,
have meetings with church leaders and search for all kinds of
necessities in town, using the car, we decided to buy a second
vehicle. An interesting job in its own but Cees found a 17 years old
Toyota Corolla for me to get the kids to and from school and do other
activities like women bible study, shopping etc. Here you can only pay
everything cash, so you can imagine the feeling when you have to pay
$2,500 cash when the biggest bill is only worth $2.00 (he carried it
in a bag). You would be surprised what a little old car he got for
that price! Vehicles are so scarce here, a friend recently sold the
car for more than he bought it for seven years ago in South Africa. So
even this little car maybe a good investment… With high fuel prices,
the heavy Lancruiser is just not economic enough.

Of course, I made my first mistakes as well… In Zambia I never ever
wore trousers, because that would be culturally inappropriate for
Christians. Here, being in town and very busy moving I was wearing
trousers just that one day… hoping to be anonymous. Now, living
without a fridge means I have to buy fresh vegetables more often. That
moving day, I quickly had to buy some veggies, was on the way, jumped
out of the car into the market. What a mistake! I heard them saying
behind my back: 'She speaks our language, she must be a missionary,
but what about the trousers…' I won't do it again, you can be sure of
that!

Well, we will hopefully be able to organize internet in our home next
week and be able to have more two-way communication. For now, I wish
you God's blessings for the coming week. One thing on my to-do list
this week is sewing curtains for the whole house.

We had a good Sunday morning with Bible study and good preaching for
which we thank the Lord.