Arrival in Malawi, The Warm Heart of Africa!

Have you ever been flooded with emotions - good or bad?  We were when we landed in Malawi, The Warm Heart of Africa!

One emotion was that of surprise when we got off our plane and saw the plane sitting next to us.  It was a Zimbabwean airliner with four flat tires!  We found out that the day before, the plane had tried to take off - only to have a few blowouts along the way.  It is always good to be on solid terra firma!

We were greeted by our missionary colleagues, John & Cheryl Easter and Bill & Sharon Johnston.  Customs cleared, and luggage in hand, we were off to our new temporary home.  We will move into our permanent, temporary home after June 3.  Presently, we are staying in a guest house on the missions compound in Lilongwe.

Shortly after arrival we were welcomed to a semi-regular event - a power outage!  Several nights a week the electricity goes off about 6 PM and stays off for a couple of hours.  At first the event was extremely annoying!  After all, how could one do what he was supposed to be doing when there was no electricity?  It wasn't long until I began to look forward to this event.  You go into forced shut-down for a couple of hours.  If you roll with the punches, it can be quite nice - a little R&R without the guilt of being lazy.  So... let the lights go out!

We have been extremely busy since our arrival.  Not much time to take a breathe, except when the lights are out.  We have visited two national churches, hosted two different groups of partners from the USA, been in several meetings with national officials, and traveled to one of the crusade sites in the northern part of the country.  You might say that we have hit the ground running!