His terms.

Hello all! I'm in an internet cafe in the city of Kasungu right now. The internet is so slow...but hey, atleast it's technology! To get here we had to take a bike taxi--there is a padded seat on the back of a bike that you sit in. It's about a 25 minute ride down here. Scary at first but a lot of fun!

Wow. 2 weeks. I still can’t believe I’m here. I’d love to say that since I’ve gotten to Africa, everything has been amazing, but that would be a lie. God has stretched me so much already and this is definitely the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Now onto the details…

After arriving in Malawi on Sunday, June 21st, we went over to Njewa. It’s COTN’s mission center in Lilongwe. We spent the first 3 days at Njewa getting to know each other and more about COTN and Malawi. I love all the interns and those first couple of days were so much fun. We went to Chitipi on Sunday after we arrived. Chitipi is a children’s home and farm by Njewa. The kids there welcomed us with song and dance and we got a tour. It was our first introduction to COTN, and it was a really good one at that. One day we went into the market in Lilongwe for a scavenger hunt. We had to find and buy items on a list that are used in a Malawian meal. We also went to another village to help with the feeding program and see the widows ministry.

As I mentioned in previous posts, I am interning at Chiwengo Village. I am interning with 5 other girls (Katie, Anna, Tammy, McKenna, and Sarah). Katie and Tammy are juniors at Georgie. McKenna and Anna go to South Carolina, and Sarah goes to We left for Chiwengo Wednesday afternoon (June 24). It was bittersweet. I was sad to leave all the other interns, but excited to get this shindig underway. So the 6 of us girls and our 2 intern leaders packed up and drove the 2 hours to Chiwengo. Let’s just say that when we arrived, we were completely overwhelmed. You see, Chiwengo is a bit intense. Most of the times we do not have running water. We have to go to a borehole, a pump, that’s about a football field distance away from the house. We take buckets of water to fill and then we have to carry them back. Pumping the water gets tiring, but carrying it back is the worst part. We feel really weak a lot of the times because little kids can carry more than we can (and even do it on their heads). When we actually get running water (which is a rarity and usually in the middle of the night…that means we have to wake up), we all rush to the bathroom tubs to fill up the buckets. We love when the water comes because that means less trips to the borehole! Since we don’t have running water, we take bucket baths. First, you have to boil water to heat it up and kill germs. Then you put it in a bucket with cooler water to dilute it. After that, you sponge bathe it up. Since bathing is such an ordeal, we only do it once every 2, 3, or 4 days, but you have to wash your feet everyday or you’ll get parasites. In addition to the pain of taking a bath, flushing the toilet isn’t easy as well. If you want to flush, you have to fill the tank with water. We have to cook all our meals and hand wash all our dishes. We have teams of 3 people that rotate on cooking—so you end up cooking 4 times a week. At the end of the summer, I will be an expert on cooking Malawi style but I will still stink with cooking back home. The power goes out usually everyday around 6 for 2 or so hours –it’s something the government does. If the power goes out while we are cooking dinner, we have to go outside and cook it over the fire. So let’s just say that nothing at Chiwengo is easy and that it’s one heck of a party. All of this completely overwhelmed all of us upon arrival, and I ended up breaking down and crying as soon as we arrived. As soon as I started, we formed a circle and just prayed it up. It was actually really cool. The other girls are amazing; we all get along really well and I’m lucky that I was placed with such a great team. In addition to the interns from the States, there are 6 national interns (5 girls, 1 boy). They are Malawians who intern with COTN for the summer.

I’m still settling in and trying to figure Chiwengo out. The past two weeks have been the hardest weeks of my life. There was a lot of questioning God as to why I am here and why He placed me where I did. I had to continually rely on Him and trust in His good intentions.

Each morning we wake up around 5:30 to go to the children’s homes to wake the kids up at 6. We do morning devotions with them and other random chores the Aunties or Uncles want us to do. Monday through Wednesday we tutor kids in the afternoon. I tutor standard 6, and it’s crazy how far behind kids here are. I’m teaching them their multiplication tables—that’s something I did in 3rd grade. Thursday and Friday we walk to local villages and do outreach to kids. We sing, play games, and give a message. This is my favorite. This is where you get to see the real Malawi. The kids just are so loving and so needing of love. In addition to tutoring and outreach, we also just hang out with the kids and play with them. At night we go into their homes and do devotions. We’re usually in bed by 9 or 10 and ready to start the next day.

I have learned that Malawian faith is not very deep. These kids know so much about the Bible, but they don’t have that strong of a personal relationship. That’s how it is with most people. They can literally say that God saved them, but that’s the extent of it.

Well I think that’s it for now. I wish I could write everything that I’ve learned, but I think that will have to do. God is stretching me and breaking me. He is teaching me to rely on Him and to serve Him on His terms and not mine…and that is a very tough thing to learn. And Chiwengo is definitely His terms.

Oh also check out the COTN malawi blog. It has more regular updates from the team.

Well Happy 4th. Have a hot dog for me.

religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world-james 1:27