Hooten's Highlights

Memorial for Jimmie Hooten

2012-01-14T05:36:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends and Family,

Yesterday, Friday, January 13th, 2012 was the Memorial Service for Jimmie Hooten. It really was a blessed time. There were so many friends from “yesteryear” that were there.

Missionaries singing "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" in KiSwahili

Every one of the grandchildren and their spouses were there except for our Anna and Derek, who were on the road to Missouri to begin their training with New Tribes.

Our hearts are so full of the love that has been expressed to the Hooten family. The service was a beautiful time of celebrating Jimmie’s (Dad’s) life and focusing on our purpose in life here on earth, which is to glorify our Father in all that we do and say. Strength was given to David’s sisters, Dee Ann and Kathy as they shared briefly their “remembrances” and to David as he spoke on our life’s purpose to live for our Father and glorify Him.

Main Street Baptist Church hosted a meal for everyone present and it was such a sweet time of fellowship with friends we have not seen for years. Thank you so very much to those of you who were able to come and make this time really special for our family.

David and I will be living with Peggy (Mom) in Georgetown, TX and hope to “drag” her around with us from time to time in our travels! J This coming week we will be focusing on getting phones, a car, and just settling in. There are a lot of things on our plate right now, a trip to West Africa, a visit with my sister Annie who is recovering from surgery, preparations for the Summit in Montgomery Alabama the end of February, and just continued plans for our cluster meeting in March! We covet your prayers regarding all of these things that God would guide us in our purchases and planning for the upcoming meetings. We do feel overwhelmed at times, but are so thankful for our Father’s loving hand in our lives, guiding and comforting us and just His presence is known.

Thanks again to all of you who have held our family up to the Father these past weeks. Thanks so much to those of you who have written notes, sent cards, flowers, prayed with us, fed us and just extended God’s love to us in so many ways. You have been such an encouragement.

With love, Janet

Grandma with grandsons

Grandma with grandaughters

Dear friends from Uganda days, Bachu & Mina

2011-12-28T08:28:00.000-08:00

Derek and Anna Homsher

DECEMBER 2011

Visiting afer River Baptism

This month was filled with a mixture of laughter and tears. Our daughter, Anna and her husband, Derek Homsher arrived Dec. 1 It was Derek’s first time to Africa and it was so fun to get to know him better, let him see and experience Anna’s Africa. At the same time we got word of David’s dad taking a turn for the worse with his Alzheimer’s. It was a difficult decision for David to know what to do, but with the urging from his family in the states, he remained here through the Homsher’s visit.

Visiting with dear friends

The family minus Nathaniel....

Time flew by as we visited with friends and colleagues, visited a game park and spent a day snorkeling at the Lake. This time was coupled with the daily updates via skype with David’s mother and sister as to how dad was doing. On Christmas night, we got the call telling us that Dad had passed onto Glory. A seemingly strange way to celebrate Christmas, but at the same time we had a beautiful picture of the hope we have in the salvation that came to us through the birth, life and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. Dad’s passing on Christmas Day is seen as God’s gift to himself!

"You're getting Married?!?!?"

We are so very thankful for the gift of being with Dad this past year at Anna and Derek’s wedding.

I Love you Grandpa!

Our family has so appreciated all of your prayers for us and the many kind notes of encouragement to us this past month as we dealt with David’s dad’s journey through the valley of death. We will be returning to the USA on January 10^th and a memorial for Dad will be held on Jan. 13^th.
JANUARY 2012

We have decided to move our Stateside assignment up beginning mid-January 2012. We just felt it was timely to begin our STAS in January so we can be of support to David’s mother, Peggy. We will be living with Peggy. Our address will be:
703 River Down Road, Georgetown, TX 78664 PH# 512 868-8783

First Baptist Church Round Rock, TX has offered us the use of their “Mission house” beginning April if we need it. We so thankful for God’s provision in this way and trust that He will continue to lead and provide for all that one needs when returning for STAS. Our STAS will be through mid-July, 2012.

Stateside Strategy Leader (SSL)

We have been asked to take on the Stateside Strategy Leadership (SSL) role in Richmond, VA. This role is actually a required “task” for the current Cluster Strategy Leaders to fill. It is a one year assignment working with new missionaries in their orientation preparing to come to Sub-Saharan Africa. This assignment will begin mid-July 2012 through July 2013. There will be a new Cluster Strategy Leader assigned to work with the Zambezi Cluster during our STAS and the year that we will be working as SSL. We are not sure where this will leave us at the end of our SSL role in 2013. We do covet your prayers for clear direction from our Father as to which path he would have us travel after that time.

WE NEED YOUR PRAYERS!

· Please pray for us as we pack up our house here in Malawi and make the transition to USA for 1 ½ years!

· Please pray for the family as we have the memorial service for Dad on January 13^th Please pray that God be glorified in all that is said and done on this day. Jimmie was a wonderful husband, father,and father-in-law, grandpa and friend to so many. He was a wonderful man of God. All these good things are a result of God’s mercy and grace on his life and we want to give God the honor and glory due Him.

· Please pray for us as we continue to work with the missionaries in our cluster through the end of March. We will continue making preparations for our annual Cluster meeting. We look forward to this time of coming together again and pray that it be a time of encouragement and spiritual renewal and vision for our missionaries.

· Finally we ask that you please pray for Anna and Derek Homsher as they begin a new chapter in their lives with New Tribes Missionary training. They will be moving to Missouri mid-January to begin training for about 1 ½ years. They are both excited for this time and look to their Father for guidance and provision in months to come. They do not know “Where” they will be headed until later on in their training time. But they want to be available to go and do whatever God would have for them.

Thank you all again so very much for your prayers, your kind notes to us during the loss of David’s dad, Jimmie Hooten.

More memories made in Mozambique

2011-10-31T12:34:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends and Family,

David and I are in South Africa...again. We were here recently for an Affinity Group Leadership Team meeting and then had one week home before we headed back down here in our car via Mozambique.

One of our favorite part of the Cluster Strategy Leader’s role is being able to visit with our missionaries in their homes, see their areas of ministry, take time praying with them and at times, playing! (Have I written this before?!?) We have several “new” missionary units in Mozambique that we wanted to visit so decided to do this on our way back down to Johannesburg for some training that David is helping to lead this week.

We started our trip with a visit with a South African couple, Keith and Christeen Moller who are working among the Yao in Malawi. We worked indirectly with them when we were in Mozambique. It was good to just listen to their victories and challenges and pray with and for them. Would you please pray for Keith and Christeen Moller and their four young children, Hannah, Michael, Mary and Karen? Praise the Lord with them as they are beginning to see more fruit of their labor. Pray that God would continue to supply all their needs, physically, emotionally and spiritually.

Leaving from the Mollers place, we traveled a long 12 hour day, dirt road all the way, to the city of Nampula. Billy and Sara Turner have come to Mozambique for a two year Logistics Coordinator position. Billy and Sara have such a love for our Father and desire to live and serve in this part of Mozambique. They lived and worked in Mozambique about 5 years ago and now have returned! They have just moved to Nampula to begin their work from there. Would you please pray for Billy and Sara as they begin their work in Northern Mozambique? Pray for them as they seek for the right church family to plug into and people to minister to while they are in Nampula.

NAMPULA

Billy and Sara Turner

Billy's office.....for now!

MOCUBA

Visiting on Oetter's front veranda

Sunday at worship was a hot day!

Jim at the well with his "helpers"

QUELIMANE

From Mocuba, we had an even shorter 21/2 hour trip to the small city of Quelimane. John and Wanne Dina have lived and worked in Quelimane for many years and now have new team members that they are supervising and coaching in their work. They also have taken on the role of providing a well-planned language and orientation program along with mentoring new missionary personnel who are coming to Mozambique. Please pray for John and Wanne as they work with new personnel in language and cultural orientation. Pray for joy, wisdom, patience, discernment and physical and spiritual strength. Pray for them as they continue to work with their national leadership among the peoples of Zambesia.

A well and pump funded through stateside Baptist churches

Wanne and John

In Quelimane there are two Journey-girls. Jessica Riemersma and Sally Hamrick. Jessica is focused on working with high school and university aged girls, mentoring and teaching God’s word to them when she can. She also is involved in teaching out in some rural coastal areas and seeing God move among the Moniga people! Sally is focused on teaching young children to read and helping out with children's Sunday School classes in a church nearby. Sally also will be working with some new MK’s giving them a supplemental education beginning January 2012.

Janet with Sally and Jessica

Would you please pray for these two girls, Sally and Jessica as they continue with their work in Quelimane? Pray that they continue to find real joy and purpose in their work. Pray for their physical and emotional protection.

MAPUTO

Our journey continued for the next two days making our way down to the capital city of Mozambique, Maputo. Presently there are two couples living there, the Jacksons and Brains and another family, the Lechners who are currently stateside.

What a nice setting for a visit!

We had a wonderful visit with Steve and Karla Jackson and their son, Jared. Their three girls are in Kenya attending Rift Valley Academy, so this has been quite an adjustment this year with the girls gone. We got to talking about “fun things” we like to do, and one of those in common is visiting in game reserves. To our surprise, the Jacksons said, “why don’t we just go together to Kruger tomorrow?” (It was on our way to South Africa) So, we got up at 4 a.m. and took off for Kruger National Park and spent the day together having fun! Granted, we couldn’t visit much while driving, but times we stopped for eating and rest breaks were sweet.

We had a sweet encounter with this mama and her little one!

Kruger has many White Rhinos! We haven't seen these for a LONG time in other parks.

We had a great visit together that evening and the next morning. Would you pray for Steve and Karla as they work among the people in the Maputo area? Pray for Karla as she home schools Jared. Pray for their three girls, Christa, Abby and Bethany who are at boarding school in Kenya. Please pray for Jacksons as they carry on the work in Maputo.

Todd and Tia Brain and their two children are Logistics Coordinators and will be leaving Mozambique in January 2012 for their first stateside assignment. Please pray for the Brains as they seek direction as to where to serve in the future.

So…. Another 7 hour trip to Johannesburg that ended this part of our trip. Ten days after driving out of our driveway, we "clocked in" 56 hours of riding in the car and 3,575km! We praise God for safety in travel, a dependable vehicle to drive and for great health. We arrived quite exhausted but just so thankful for God's mercy in our travels. Return trip..., we'll be traveling back through Botwana and Zambia.

Thank you so very much for your continued prayer support for us, our work and travels.

From Nampula, it was a short 5-6 hour ride into the town of Mocuba where we have another precious couple, Jim and Susan Oetter who are seeing ways of growing the Kingdom of Heaven during their two year commitment. They have really struggled with not having running water in the town and have had to draw water from wells just outside town. This has turned out to be a blessing in some ways as there have been great opportunities to sow the seed of the Gospel with those who come to the wells for their own water! Please pray for the Oetters as they seek the best ways to encourage the local town church while at the same time, reaching out to the many small missions in their district. Pray for perseverance, joy and clarity in teaching God's Word to those around them.

Being "Blessed" by Corryton BC, TN

2011-09-14T05:26:00.000-07:00

Beautiful Rainbows at every sight

Corryton Baptist Church has in the past and once again this September, chosen to come to Zimbabwe to “bless” and encourage God’s servants in a very special and unique way.

We, along with about 30 other couples and singles within the Zambezi Cluster and two other clusters in southern Africa, were invited to participate in this year’s couples retreat at Elephant Hills Lodge on the Zambezi River in Zimbabwe. It was a time to get away to enjoy each other and our Father’s creation. It was a time for us to be taught and encouraged. It was a time to challenge us to take a look at our relationships with our spouses and family life.

We are very grateful and indebted to Corryton for their generosity and willingness to give this gift of love to us and so many others within our Cluster.

Battle of wills- McElroy's

We are thankful for Jeff and Debbie McElroy, who are gifted professional marriage and family counselors and offered their listening ears to whoever wanted to talk with them. We are thankful for Pastor Rocky Ramsey and his wife Betsy who encouraged us and our people to remember who we are living and working for, and as we live and work out our calling, we do so “unto Jesus”.

Pastor Rocky Ramsey

We are thankful for Alan and Emmeline Cottrell who led out in worship and Alan with his talented and various character sketches.

Mrs. ?.... Alan?

We are thankful for those that came to cut hair; to teach various exercise techniques; IT specialists; and those who came just to encourage the Saints in whatever way they could.

David and I were able to take a walk and once again, after 15 years, in the Victoria Fall’s Park and see the beautiful, amazing Falls that David Livingstone “discovered” so many years ago. Rainbow after rainbow at each water fall, reminded us of our Father’s amazing love, his powerfulness, his presence and love for mankind.

We were able to white water raft 28 kilometers down the Zambezi River crossing over 19 rapids, of which many were categorized as class 5 rapids. (To some this probably was a foolish activity as it really was quite dangerous, but the rafting was really fun we are glad we did it and probably will never do it again!J)

Starting point for rafting trip

At the base of Falls (750 ft climb down... and later climb back up!)

Our guide, Gorden shouts "GET DOWN!" -David & I are in the back

We also were able to take a nice calm “sunset cruise” down the river with our friends on a large pontoon boat.

Nice visit with Mike and Lindy

We are back home now and preparing for more visits with our missionaries and also some meetings coming up in October and November.

Would you please pray for David as he continues in his role as Cluster Strategy Leader for Zambezi Cluster of Sub-Saharan Africa?

1) Pray for wisdom, perseverance and discernment as David deals with so many issues, often seemingly not related to strategy.

2) Please pray for us as we prepare for an upcoming leadership training that will be held in South Africa. Pray that this would be beneficial to all who attend, a time of encouragement and learning.

3) Pray also for us as we travel by road to visit with our missionary personnel. Pray that we be of encouragement to them. We praise God for how he has helped us through so many miles these past years without breakdowns or accidents. We continue to seek His protection and grace in our travels.

4) Pray for me, Janet, as I serve as Cluster Prayer Advocate. Pray that I know better and effective ways of how to encourage prayer for our personnel. I do want to be a stronger prayer warrior myself, faithful to bring our missionaries, their work, the lost etc… before our Father.

Trip to Isoka

2011-09-07T02:23:00.000-07:00

One part of David’s and my job that we enjoy the most is being able to visit with our missionaries in their homes. It is a time for us to get to know them and their families better; know their area of ministry, meet with their friends and national co-workers. It is a time for them to get to know us better. It is a time in which we try to be of some encouragement to them.

David and I drive to these areas as it gives us a taste of which the missionary has to go through to get to their homes. These trips are long and wearing and we are usually “plowing new ground” but we really enjoy taking in the various and often interesting cultural aspects of those areas and just seeing new things!

We have just returned from a visit with the Kimbrough family who live in the far northeastern part of Zambia in the small town of Isoka. It is about a 12 hour drive on “paved” road from the capital of Lusaka.

Isaac teaching us how to play Mankala

Nice talks after Blake's morning work out!

The Kimbroughs have 4 dear children that we so enjoyed getting to know better and they us. We spent one morning seeing their town and visiting one of their “get-away” places, a waterfall just outside their town.

On Sunday, we were able to worship with them and their Zambian friends/coworkers in the village of Mupeka. The setting and small group of believers that came together under a shelter reminded us of our sweet, small group meetings we used to have in Mapudje, Mozambique.

Blake talking with Matthew - leader

Later that afternoon, we were able to have such a good time of visiting and prayer with the Kimbroughs. (Their young children were so good and played happily outside in order for us to have that time together- at least a couple of hours!)

Would you please pray for this dear family, Blake and Dawnya Kimbrough and their children Isabel, Abigail, Isaac and Amos?

1) Pray for them as they work hard to learn ciBemba. Pray that their tongues be loosened and ears opened and that they recognize and use the opportunities to use what they are learning.

2) Pray for them as they home school their children.

3) Pray that they continue to find joy and fulfillment in their work and life among the people of Isoka. Pray against feelings of loneliness as they are isolated from other missionaries. Pray for wisdom in working with and teaching in new church starts.

4) Pray for them as they travel back and forth to Lusaka. Having driven that road, there are areas that are very dangerous with treacherous deep potholes and broken shoulders. The road has many commercial trucks traveling at high speeds and evidence of multiple accidents.

5) Pray for them to remain healthy. There is very minimal health care in Isoka and they need wisdom in how to treat themselves when they get ill.

Anna and Derek's Wedding! July 2011

2011-08-04T04:03:00.000-07:00

We're Married!!!

Well, we have just returned to Malawi. It has been a wonderful three weeks of wedding preparation, wedding celebration, and visits with family and friends. We feel so favored by our Father and I want to just recount everything in detail.

We flew into Albany New York on July 11^th. We rented a car and traveled north 2 hours to our Lakeside cabin. It was so wonderful to be able to visit ever so briefly with my brother John and his family before they had to leave and return to their home in NM. They had supper prepared for us and our beds made up and we so appreciated that!

Tuesday, we took to cleaning up the cabin making lists, etc. Our kids, Nathaniel and Anna drove up from VA and surprised us by arriving a couple hours earlier than what we anticipated. How wonderful it was for us to be able to spend several days together before other guests and family arrived for the wedding. We bought and planted more flowers for the area, mowed the lawns, cut brush, cleaned out the “junk-room”, began purchases for the reception. (Thanks to my sister Mertie, there were already flowers planted in the window boxes and in a couple flower beds.) We had some sweet times of prayer, playing, and visiting together and just being family. We were blessed with beautiful weather.

We worshiped at Hague Wesleyan Church and it was nice to reconnect with friends from years past- Pastor Skip and his wife, Janet, George and Cam Brown, Chuck and April Reeder, and others. God is growing this church family and using them to spread the love of Christ in this area of New York. The Church was so gracious to allow us to use some of their chairs and tables for the wedding and reception. One of the members there even offered their pick-up to transport the chairs and tables to the site of the wedding and reception! May God show His favor on these brothers and sisters and continue to use them to grow His Kingdom!

Sunday before the wedding, Derek and his family arrived. How blessed we feel to be connected a family who loves our Father, loves each other and with many similar interests. Gary and Sue Homsher, parents to Derek, were such a blessing and help in preparing for the wedding. Derek’s older sister, Danielle, also was a blessing by helping around the kitchen, picture taking and just being a sweet young lady!

Nathaniel and his sweetie, Courtney

Nathaniel’s girlfriend, Courtney was also up the week prior to the wedding. She was such a help around the cabin, food preparation, and it was a good time to get to know her better and she to know our family. Later that week, several cousins from Michigan arrived and camped out at Rogers Rock campground. It was so special for Anna to have her cousins be a part of this special event. Rachel played a huge role by being the “lead” photographer. What a blessing that was for us. Then the bridal party began to arrive in time for the rehearsal. The Homshers put on a delicious lasagna dinner for all of us that we ate right there on the point.

Rehearsal Dinner with Homshers

Side Note: The week before the wedding, David and Nathaniel were out canoeing and came across a “lost” section of an old wooden dock. It was floating just under the water, and posed danger to any motor boat. They drug the dock into our bay, and then began wondering if it might make a good platform for the wedding ceremony! After much effort, we were able to get it out of the water, let it dry out several days and with the help of other grooms men, were able to put it into place for the wedding! After the wedding we were informed that the dock belonged to my cousin….who had lost their dock earlier this year and they were quite pleased to see that it had been found and brought back home! J

One of our prayers was that God would favor us with clear weather. The night before the wedding the forecast went up to 40% chance of rain… We just prayed and decided not to worry about it, trusting God and his plans. (We did have the Wesleyan Church building as a back-up and it would have been a beautiful setting and perfectly suited. But we did not need them as it turned out to be a beautiful day! Thanks to all of you so much for your prayers.)

Mertie Klinger's beautiful handiwork!

My sister Mertie Klingler was such an amazing help in purchasing things ahead of time for me. She is a member at Costco and was able to find some amazing “special deals”. On top of that, she made the beautiful wedding cake! She was learning and re-learning a lot of techniques and types of frosting to form the flowers and cover the cake….. so many, many hours were put into making the cake and that was her amazing gift to our family! It was beautiful!

Beautiful Queen Ann's Lace and Anna Bella's

The week of the wedding the Queen Ann’s Lace began to bloom wonderfully! The Day Lilly’s were in full bloom, my sister’s in-laws loaned us a bunch of their beautiful hanging petunias to add to the beauty of the lake front yard, dear friend from NC brought up a bunch of ivory colored “Anna Bella’s” that we added to the brides bouquet.

(Anna had some dried flowers that were “significant” to her that we put in her bouquet. Her brides maids bouquets we made from dried flowers, and Queen Anna’s Lace. With the lake in the background, greenery from the trees and grass, together with all the wild flowers, and Anna Bella’s, it was just gorgeous. There were mason jars filled with some pebbles from Lake George, and a few flowers- Queen Ann’s Lace and Anna Bella’s and hung on metal steak- hangers at the end of each row of chairs that Gary Homsher had made. (We kind of liked the “Ann” theme!)

Morning of wedding, brunch for 20!

We had a brunch for the bridal party and family the morning of the wedding. Sue and Gary made some cinnamon rolls and a breakfast casserole. I made sausage swirls, croissants, bran muffins, had 2 different Entmans pastries, coffee, tea, orange juice, and fruit parfaits. Immediately afterwards, we all began setting up the decorations, and the girls began to get ready. Mom and Dad Hooten arrived with Snyders just a little before the wedding began. Anna was so happy that her Grandpa and Grandma Hooten were able to make it to the wedding. There was much prayer that went into their travels and we thank God for helping Grandma especially as they road all the way from Georgetown, TX. Grandpa did quite well and was content most the time and we thank God for that too.

Nathaniel escorting Grandma and Grandpa Hooten

David married Anna and Derek and was able to do it without tears! (We all did our crying the night before at the rehearsal where we all had some special words to share with the bride and groom to be and it was a really sweet time with everyone involved.)

One little “hitch” was when David asked Derek what he had as a sign of his commitment/love to Anna, his best man pulled out the ring…which was a lollipop ring! That stumped David for a second, but he held his own, and eventually the real ring appeared and he was able to continue with the ceremony. J

Two Anna's- friends

Friends of Anna’s and Derek’s came up from VA, Anna Park, school friend from Kenya, came up from PA, other friends and family from PA and a dear friend from Abilene, TX! Randy and Kitty Trail came up from NC. Kittie was such a help in putting flowers together and helping with “protocol” … we didn’t have enough time to finish doing the decorating we had planned, but it was beautiful anyway.

We served shrimp, meat balls, quesadillas, Thai chili chicken kabobs, spinach ravioli, flower basket made from fruit, cheese, crackers, rolls, vegetables and dip , a mozzarella ball and bowtie pasta salad, pineapple banana slush punch and cake.

Anna’s cousin Rachel Snyder was the photographer and we can't wait to get her pictures! As Anna and Derek left, oats, along with some silly string and dried bougainvillea from Malawi were thrown at them. They drove away around 6:30 p.m.

After they left, everyone went down to the lake for a swim which was wonderful! It was a very hot day!

Jerry, Micha, Nathaniel with Derek

Courtney, Savanah, and Ali

I praise God for the physical and emotional strength that He gave me these past three weeks. I praise Him for good health. I praise God for the friends and family who were so helpful in many ways. I praise God for a sweet ceremony that was so Christ centered. We received many sweet words regarding the wedding and we want to give all the glory to God. Thank you Father, for your help and favor on our family these past three weeks.

Our last week was spent with David’s mom and dad and sister and her family from Michigan. Most the bridal party left Saturday evening or Sunday. Nathaniel and Courtney had to leave Monday, Trails left on Tuesday along with the Snyder kids. Mom and dad and Dan and Dee Dee left on Thursday afternoon.

Snyder family

Dear Friends, Randy and Kittie Trail

Anna and Derek came back early from their honeymoon to see grandma and grandpa before they left. We had a nice couple days with Anna and Derek before we returned to Malawi. And now we are back home…… tired but filled with many beautiful memories and pictures! Thank you all for your many prayers and love shown to Anna and Derek!

July- A day in our life

2011-07-08T03:14:00.000-07:00

Well, it has been an interesting day today. We are in the middle of our “winter” and it is a cool cloudy day. Fortunately….(??) we spent 3 hours this morning sitting in our car and were nice and toasty warm…. We are now back in our chilly house enjoying a hot cup of coffee!

BEING SQUEEZED?

Malawi is having some major economic problems lately which is affecting the amount of fuel that is allowed to come into the country. We found a fuel station this a.m. that was going to get diesel “shortly” so we got into cue. We started out at # 10^th car in line. Three hours later and about 25 cars later, we finally were able to get our car filled. J Times like this squeeze us and we must be so careful not to let our human nature take over! We are thankful that God allowed us to get the fuel today and we didn’t have to be in cue any longer! Some folks stay in line for hours and just when they drive up to the pump, the tanks are finished and they cannot get their fuel! Our car is full now and should last us for several weeks- depending on what travels we need to make. Besides the fuel shortages, there has been a lot of power “outages” often 6-12 hours a day.

Thomas Trail enjoying a book by lantern light!

This is just a taste of "a day in our life" and many others who live and work in the Zambezi Cluster. In spite of some of the "inconviences" we face from time to time, we are so very thankful that God allows us to serve him in this part of Africa. Please pray for us to let Jesus love through us when we feel squeezed. Pray that we would recognize the opportunities to share Christ’s love when we are in the long “cues”. Pray for us to continue to recognize and be thankful for the many blessings and good things that He has given us for our comfort and not allow a complaining spirit to take over!

WEDDING!

David and I leave for the USA in just a few days. We are going for 3 weeks, specifically to attend our daughter, Anna Lee’s wedding! We are excited and are praying that this time with our kids, friends and extended family be a blessing and time of encouragement to all. It has been such a blessing to me how others have been so helpful in various aspects of this wedding. I look forward to seeing how it all will come together! I think it is going to be a fun sweet day! Would you please pray specifically that God be honored in all that will be said and done on July 23^rd,the wedding day? We really are hoping for a sunny day as both the ceremony and reception will be outside.

GOOD NEWS!

One last bit of news we would like to share with you is something we just heard the other day! Several years ago when we visited in many of your churches we were asking your prayers regarding the need for a Bible to be written in the Yao language. The Yao have gone all these years without the “written Word” in their language. There have been scripture portions that we used along with the Portuguese Bible. Well, we got word the other day that the Ciyawo New Testament has been completed and is ready for printing! (Yes, we are still lacking the Old Testament – but we do have some portions that we are able to use, ie, Genesis and Exodus.) Thanks for your continued prayers for the Yao in Mozambique, Malawi and Tanzania. They continue to be at the top of our unreached list of peoples in this part of Africa.

With love and prayers, Janet

Hooten's Homegrown

2011-06-11T05:29:00.000-07:00

Coffee bushes

While in Mozambique, we planted a bunch of coffee bushes given to us from missionary friends. When we left Mozambique for Malawi , we decided to bring 7 small coffee bushes with us to see if they would produce anything here. Well, this year we have so far harvested around 2 Kilos of beans! It is quite a process to get the finished product. I thought I would show you some of the stages of this amazing brew! (It would have had more coffee but this morning we discovered the beans David and I just gathered and put out to dry had been eaten by our Great Dane!!!!! What a dumb dog!) That was probably at least pound worth of beans!!!!

Mature beans

Only of the 7 plants survived the transplanting. This year they all are quite laden with beautiful berries. We pick the berries when they are red. Then you squeeze out the seeds – two to a berry. Then we wash the beans as they are covered with a sweet pulp, and put them out in the sun to dry.

After several days of drying, we pound the seeds to break an outer shell that covers the bean and let the chaff fly away with the wind…or the wind you make by blowing on it!

Drying beans

Get the skin off each bean....

Then we roast the beans…. Outside in an iron skillet, stirring the beans constantly! The first time I did this was in my kitchen and the smoke from the roasted beans was horrible. It takes about 10 min. to get them to the right color…. We used beans from another “reputable” coffee to gage this. The next step is to blow the remaining chaff away and store the beans in an air tight container for about 48 hours. This gives the oils in the beans a chance to permeate well or cure.. or something like that! J

Then, we grind the beans and filter hot water through the coffee to make our delicious Hooten’s Homegrown! Mmmmmm! (that is if you like coffee!)

Aww....such a nice aroma..

2011-05-25T07:16:00.000-07:00

Dear All,

It is early morning, the sun has just come up, doves are cooing in the background, and a neighbor’s new born puppies are yapping away begging for their food. We have recently returned from almost a month of participating in our on-field new personnel orientation program coupled with visiting a couple of our missionaries families in Zambia.

Lady cooks taking a break

Ladies preparing for tea with Chief's wife and wife of District Commissioner

4040 lady participants after Tea - Chief's wife, Ruth in brown dress on right

Just visiting in front of dish washing tent....

Getting ready to go for home stay with Zambian Believers

Journey Girls with their home stay host... worn out after a day in the cotton fields and then shucking corn

Participant returning from field with home stay host

Special treat...Tiger fishing and David caught this one....mine got away... :)

Moms enjoying the lake

Sunday worship service under Baobab tree

walking down river to baptismal sight

Participating in leadership training class

As we entered our gate after our long trip back from Zambia, I had an overwhelming sense of gratitude to our Father for so many things. I find it so easy to fall into the attitude of “I deserve this or that” or just not being satisfied with what I have. I am reminded again this morning of how much our Father enjoys a heart of gratitude, praise and contentment. Living in camp with minimum “comforts” for and extended amount of time can really help one to be thankful for the blessings we have that often we take for granted. I began making a list of things that I am so grateful for and I want to share them with you!

First of all, I praise God for safety in so many miles of travel. I praise Him for excellent health this entire month. I praise God for our brothers and sisters who so willingly and sacrificially have given of themselves to lead out in the 4040 program- teaching, taking care of so many little to large details in logistics, cooking, planning, hosting, translating, and the list can go on. I praise God for the new missionary personnel that He has sent to Sub-Saharan Africa. I praise God that even though internet was basically not available, we were able to get/send mail from time to time.

I am so thankful for my household comforts…our bed, running water, …hot running water, electricity, my beautiful yard, our couch, a place to hang my clothes, access to internet, flushing toilets… and the ability to skype our daughter and talk with her about her wedding plans. The list could go on and on. J

Finally and foremost, I am so very thankful that our Father God would take interest in me, such an “insignificant” particle in His great universe! I am awestruck at the thought that this, our Creator God, would do so much for mankind as to “visit” us and give His life for us in order that we can be in relationship with Him!!!! Thank You Father!!! I thank God too for the times of “surgery” that He performs in our hearts to conform us more and more to His image! It is painful at the time and I don’t necessarily like it, but afterwards, there is so much healing and joy. These times of “surgery” tend to take place when we are out of our comfort zones and under pressure. It is at these times the “diseases” of pride and selfishness, anger etc… pop their ugly heads and need to be dealt with! How I thank my Father God for the gentleness and mercy, patience, love and perseverance He extends towards me over and over again!

Well, I just wanted to share these thoughts with you and thank you so very much for your prayers for David and me this past month. May you know your Father’s great love and mercy in days to come! Blessings, Janet

March/April 2011

2011-04-04T06:27:00.000-07:00

How do I begin to write this post with so much that has happened in the past several weeks!!!

What I could not tell you in my last post was the secret that we carried from Lynchburg for 2 weeks. During our three day visit we had the privelage of getting to know our daughter Anna Lee's special friend, Derek Homsher. Derek is from Paradise, PA and will be graduating from Liberty University this May. Derek informed us of his intention to ask Anna to marry him and he wanted our permission/blessing. We had such a nice visit with him at our hotel and gave him our blessing. Derek seems to be a man who truely loves God, and one who really loves our daughter. How happy we are for this and we just know that this is an answer to almost 24 years of prayer for our Anna! They are hoping to be married upstate New York on July 23 this year!

Would you please pray with David and me as we work with Anna and Derek via skype and e-mail on wedding preparations. Please pray that God would help us find some reasonable flight tickets to make the trip from Malawi to New York! Please pray for clarity in communication and that this not be a stressful time for us but one of joy in planning and preparing for the wedding! We are so very happy for these two and are excited about how God is going to use them overseas as they serve Him in career misions in the future. (More on that on another day.)

Answered Prayers:

Kentucky Volunteers

We have just returned from our first Cluster wide meeting with 157 people. Thirteen of these people came from Portor Memorial Baptist Church, Lexington, Kentucky to work with over 50 children rangingn from the ages of several months to 18 years. Their pastor, Dr. Bill Henard, came and blessed us with a study in Ephasians. The team spent themselves on all of us and with such joy and unity. We praise God for safety in travel, good health, finding a lost passport, and just an overwhelming sence of love extended to the Zambezi Cluster. Thank you Father for sending us this team!

Our time with individuals within the Cluster was so good. I believe there was a great sense of appreciation, unity, and encouragement for our people. As always, it is a highlight of our meetings to recognize missionaries with years of service and pray for them. David and I were recognized for our 25 yrs. of service (which will be complete come June this year.) There were a few stomach bugs and colds,but generally, good health. One day we believe that David was passing a kidney stone. The pain was very intense for several hours, but with prayer and some pain meds that people had brought with them, he was able to continue to lead out the rest of the week! Thank you Father for good health this past week!

Recognizing 15 years of service in Angola!

With so many people traveling on difficult roads and flying, there was only one family that encountered some car problems. How sweet it was to see them when they arrived a day late, but with smiles on their faces and praising God for ways he had provided for them and opportunities they had to share with Malawians while waiting on the side of the road! Thank you Father for your help in travels and for sweet attitudes in times of trouble.

One aspect of our meeting was for each team to report to the cluster what God is doing in and among them. Then we all had sweet times of prayer for each other. This was really a blessing to most if not all our people. Thank you Father for our missionaries who love serving you and have a heart to reach the lost around them for your glory!

Some of our Senior High youth just hanging out together

Thank you all so very much for your prayers for us these past couple weeks. We truely depend on your prayers and know what ever good has come from this meeting, it is the Father and we give Him the glory and praise due Him!

Hooten's February/March Travels

2011-03-13T08:37:00.000-07:00

David attended a leadership meeting in Kenya in February and we praise God for a good meeting. He returned to Malawi with a Trustee and his wife who spent a week with us visiting various missionaries and their work in Malawi. The picture above is IMB trustee Jessie and Cecelia Smith standing with a dear pastor/friend of one of our missionaries. That night after their visit, that pastor had a stroke and went to be with the Father the next morning. We praise God for the opportunity to get to know this godly man, his faith in spite of the enemies attacks. We praise God that the missionary was able to spend that last day with his dear friend and mentor. Had it not been for the visit of the Trustee and his wife, the trip would not have been scheduled! Please pray for the work being done by Malawian believers in the Shire River Valley. Pray for courage to preach the Truth and live the Christian life in spite of attacks from the enemy.

Special opportunity: We were invited to participate in a Global Ministries Conference at Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in Atlanta the first week of March. It was a wonderful time of connecting with IMB personnel from all over along with other personnel that were sent out by that church in Atlanta. It was wonderful to see the sense of passion this church family has for reaching the lost. There is a strong eagerness to participate in whatever way they can in our countries of service.

Please pray for wisdom, discernment and vision as we work at finding strategic ways for volunteers to engage the peoples in the Zambezi Cluster.

Would you please pray that God would put it on the hearts of our churches to give more towards sending career personnel who can give of their lives in serving overseas to reaching the lost?

Visit in Lynchburg!

Icing on the cake: One benefit of our visit to JFBC was a side trip that we made to Lynchburg, VA to visit with Anna and Nathaniel . It was just so wonderful to be able to spend a weekend with them. We were able to meet and get to know better their special friends- Derek Homsher and Courtney Vestal. We climbed a mountain the day after our arrival…. I was quite exhausted to say the least…but I did it! J Please pray with us for Anna as she finishes up her studies at Liberty University and prepares for her board exams. She has done so well and we are so proud of her. Also, please continue to pray with us for Nathaniel. He returned from Nepal having his heart touched by the lostness that he encountered. He is presently searching for full time work while holding down two part time jobs. Pray for Nathaniel that he have clear direction in his life as to where and what he should do next…. 

So wonderful to be able to spend a couple days with our kids!

Upon our return to Malawi, both David and I have hit the ground running. We are making the final preparations for our first Cluster Meeting which will be the end of this month. Would you please pray with us for clarity of mind, wisdom, patience and strength to do all that needs to get done prior to the meeting? There is a team of volunteers from Kentucky who will be coming to help out with our children’s program along with the adult worship times. We are so very thankful for their willingness to come and help out in this important meeting.

Sowing seeds....

Just before we went to the USA for the conference, our neighbor lost a young child to some illness. I was able to go over and visit and pray with them. The family are Yao, and therefore are M*****ms. I talked with the mother and those around in broken ciYao and tried to give her the good news of Jesus. Also, one of our night guards is a Yao. His 8 year old son is very sick. We went to visit him in the hospital the other day as he has been waiting for treatment for almost a week now. Doctors in Malawi are on strike due to lack of being paid their salaries. You can only imagine the huge mortality rate at the hospitals as patients go unattended. We prayed with the mother. The next day the father told us that the boy was doing a little better. How we pray that they would recognize any healing is from the Father and that they would give praise to Him!. Would you pray with me for these families and that somehow God would use our faltering lips to bring them to a saving knowledge of Him?

I just had to take the opportunity to make a snowman!

"Hoot" in Travels

2011-02-01T06:46:00.000-08:00

After five days of driving, walking, visiting and surveying, four tired men returned from a trip to northern Mozambique. Last year we had several men from Kentucky who came to help us in our Associate Cluster and Team Strategy Leaders meeting. From that time, Kentucky has begun an 18 month “Initiative” with the hopes of getting their churches more involved with the work in the Zambezi Cluster. The initiative could potentially lead to several levels of involvement – from committing to pray for certain peoples and ministries, teaching in seminaries for a determined amount of time, assisting ministry teams with their strategy to Kentucky Baptists themselves engaging an unreached people within the Zambezi Cluster.

Scott Pittman and Jeff Wallace, both from Kentucky, along with Jeff Polglase (missionary in Malawi) and David went to our “old stompin’ grounds” in northern Mozambique. The purpose for this trip was to give our Kentucky folks a glimpse of Mozambique, see first-hand some of the unreached peoples, and have a better understanding of the layout of the land if it grew to the point of Kentucky Baptist engagement in Mozambique.

One of their objectives was to visit with the handful of believers and just try to encourage them. In order to meet up with one of the leaders, it required a lot of asking around as to where the man’s fields were and eventually a 2 hour hike into the bush. They finally found P. and his wife out in their remote corn field. They were so thrilled for the unexpected visit. After the 2 hour return hike to the car, there was question as to the "success" of that long day out in the bush. However, it was far from a failure or a waste of time. Taking the time and effort to seek out and visit people speaks volumes of sacrificial love that is beyond measuring. It is this type of effort that is needed in these remote unreached places to get the Gospel out and to encourage the saints. We have to be willing to get out and seek the lost, get to where they are…don’t expect them to come to us. It was a difficult day for all with the heat, lack of water, long distance walking, etc…. but one that will never be forgotten by those visited!

Exhausted missionaries, but greatly encouraged believers! It is worth the pain!

Christmas 2010

2010-12-29T06:03:00.000-08:00

How nice to again have my brother, Stanley and his wife Donna from SA along with my niece and her family (Hiltys) here for Christmas! They arrived on the 23rd with a fish they picked up at the river in Zambia. David gave the kids (and Tim) a lesson on how to clean a fish... We doused it with garlic and other fish spices and grilled it. It sure smelt good and looked good, but.... it was total mush....yuck!!! We just could not eat it.

Ireen challenging the Tiger fish!

Sunday after Christmas, we listened to The Messiah. What a special time of remembering why Jesus came to earth to live and die in our place and to reconcile us back to the Father! It was a fun time of fellowship and eating all the goodies prepared during Christmas.

So fun to have kids around. Ireen (6), Ian (almost 3) and baby Tristan.

We had our traditional Christmas eve pajama party! A little warm for flannels, but hey, it is tradition!

Auntie Janet and her kiddos...=)

Both David and I celebrated our birthdays this month....both 53years old! Family decided to stay over an extra day to celebrate with us. We had a nice day of just enjoying the gardens of Four Seasons, and then a visit to the Lilongwe Rehabilitation Sanctuary. Below is a nice gift of roses from Armes' and Hiltys.

So....we have now left 2010 and entered a new year. We give thanks to our Father for his guiding hand of protection over us last year. We praise him for the care and spiritual growth he has given to our two children - Nathaniel and Anna. We praise God for the good health we have had this past year. We praise God for the many new saints who have entered into the Kingdom this past year because of the "beautiful feet" of our missionaries that have carried the Good News to them. We praise God for the many of you who so faithfully have prayed for us and the work we do. Thank you! May you all have a wonderful 2011! May you know your Father's presence, his peace, his joy, and love in the days to come! Happy New Year to all of you!

Fall - 2010

2010-11-20T02:03:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends and family,

These days we are so blessed with the gorgeous display of our Father’s creation in this part of Africa with the many kinds flowering trees. We are surrounded by the beautiful red flame trees (sometimes called the tree of Christmas because of its vivid red blossoms with bright green leaves); the beautiful pink and yellow cassias, and the gorgeous violet jacarandas. At a time of year when the ground is so dry and most every other thing appears dead, these beautiful trees begin to bloom. Thank you Father!

We praise God for journey mercies during all our travels this past year. We have enjoyed visiting our fellow missionaries in their homes and areas of ministry as it gives us a better understanding of who they are and their work. We have some amazing people in the Zambezi cluster and we ask that you pray for these missionaries who often give over and above of their time and energy to be “salt and light” to their people.

We have been home now for a few weeks and have been able to focus on some plans that we have for next year, catch up on administrative stuff and I, Janet, have been able to do some sewing, entertaining of friends, and just enjoy doing some of the “normal” house wife duties.

Of course, my thoughts have drifted toward Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. I am amazed at how many parts of Africa now are decorating their stores so early for Christmas! One of my favorite Christmas decorations in my home are the lights! The lights represent such a special component of the Christian life. Several years ago, I was given a special gift from God. I was feeling a little sorry for myself because we were having solar problems and the prospect of using my Christmas lights was basically nil. After we had gone to bed and all was pitch dark, I saw a fire fly make its way through the tiny hole in our screened window into our bedroom. A few minutes later, another, then another and more came into the room, and flew around for about 30 minutes, never landing. Then one by one, they flew back to the screen and out the window. Thank you God for sending me your special Christmas lights! A nice reminder of how beautiful light is in a dark world. It is my prayer that I let my light shine at all times- even when I don’t feel like it. We never know who is watching and who needs the “Light” of Jesus!

I have been thinking about the many dark corners within the Zambezi Cluster where the Light of Jesus has not shone. Most of these places are found in northern Mozambique where there is very little to no evangelical witness. Would you please pray with us regarding the need for “laborers” to go to northern Mozambique to work among the Mwani, the Yao and the Makonde peoples.

A couple months ago we had the privilege to meet with the President of the SBC, Bryant Wright. He shared with us the challenge that he would like to put forth to all our USA churches as they start their emphasis on missions and giving through the “Lottie Moon Christmas Offering" which is for each of you to pray about giving more than you ever have before. There are people out there ready and willing to go and serve in foreign missions but the lack of finances has been a big barrier and has greatly limited the number of missionaries that can be appointed for our cluster. This is the first time we have ever seen such a cut back in sending missionaries in all our years with the IMB. Many of these young people are looking at sending agencies other than the IMB. A dear friend wrote recently regarding an international missions emphasis week she had attended, and said:

“At the end of (the) missions convocation, the campus pastor asked all the students who knew they were called to missions to come forward and pray with the missionaries who were there. It took about five minutes to get everyone to the front....approx. 800-1000 kids came forward……. It was amazing and awesome. The Lord is truly raising up an army from the next generation.”

It is our heart’s desire that we be able to do all we can to get the Gospel to those who have not had the chance to hear. There are so many who are ready and willing to be an extension of you to get the Light of Christ to the dark regions of this world!

David and I want you to know that we count it a blessing and privilege to have been able to serve our Father this past year in this part of Africa. We thank you so much for the prayers that have gone up to the Father on our behalf. We thank you for financial support that you have given during our years with the IMB. We just pray that we be counted worthy and faithful to the call placed before us. Thank you for praying for our two children, Nathaniel who will be returning from Nepal shortly, and Anna, who is in her last year at Liberty University.

We pray that you all know our Father’s presence, peace, love and the joy of serving him, and being LIGHT where you are…for His glory.

With Love and appreciation,

Janet and David

September/October Travels

2010-10-18T05:22:00.000-07:00

Maputo, Mozambique

Supper out with Jackson family

David and Charlie doing "MAP"

Three day trip from Malawi to Maputo. (September 19-23.) Early mornings, long travel days. Praise God for hassle free border crossings and no mechanical breakdowns. (Rats had chewed on some wires that messed up our turn signals and we prayed that we would not be fined because of this.) When we got to Maputo, one of the first things David was able to do was to fine the wires and fix them with Charlie's help. We had a great visit with two families in Maputo. Stayed with the Jackson family, enjoyed their children so much. Participated with Youth Bible Study Club at school, Ladies Bible study, and just time visiting with each family. Praising God for young couple who have come to help out at the Christian Academy in Maputo. Praising God for the growing vision of national believers in the Mahotas Baptist Church. Sweet story of one blind leader who gave his testimony to a group about his life before coming to know Jesus and how Jesus has changed his life. This blind man states, “I once was blind but now I can clearly see!”

We left Maputo early the next a.m. for Johannesberg with hopes of getting tires and begin working on the car. Got to Joberg and found out it was a holiday and stores were all closed. (National Braai day) Missionaries at BIMS were all having a braai and invited us to join them…nice.

Luanda, Angola

Scot & Leslie McHaney- at one of the nicer parts of Luanda

Interesting motorbike with trailer! Common in Luanda

Leslie helping out with BGR's preschool "snack" project

McHaney's neighborhood market...about 5-10 min. walk from their gate...

Ladies Meeting at a Baptist Church, Luanda

After almost a year of trying to get a visa to enter Angola our trip became a reality. We had to send off for a second passport in order to send it to the USA to apply for a visa. After months of working on this with the help of a dear man in Houston, Texas, many letters, scanned in copies of “what-what”, payment, …we got our visa’s only to find out that they did not give us the dates we had asked for! We had to start over again and reapply and pay for second visas for the correct dates! We got the visas and passports just a few days before we left for our trip south.

Luanda, the capital city of Angola has mile after of mile of sprawling crowded neighborhoods/slums. Because of the past war, the citizens have moved into the city for security reasons. Our impressions were that Luanda is much like the “normal” crowded city in our countries, but to a much greater scale. The number of crowded housing, trash in the “neighborhoods”, busy traffic etc… are all just much more than we have in the cities in our part of Africa. The post- war Marxist way of doing things still lingers in this now "democratic" country. There have been definite improvements and that country can only get better with time. It was good to visit with our missionaries there who are presently the only IMB representatives in Angola. It was good to meet the National Baptist Leadership with whom the McHaney's work alongside and hear their heart for reaching Angola for Christ. It was good to meet friends of the McHaney’s and see some of their areas of ministry in Luanda.

Affinity Group Leadership Team Meeting, Johannesburg, South Africa

Nice to visit with sister Annie and brother in-law Tim during meeting! First time in over a year.

Upon our return to South Africa, we prepared for our meeting with the other Cluster Leaders and our Affinity Global Strategist. We had the privilege of meeting and visiting with Bryant Wright, (new SBC President) and his wife, Ann and team-mates Ricky and Cindy Wheeler and IMB Media person, Bill Bangham. (They were returning to USA from a volunteer/missions trip to Botswana). Dr. Wright shared his vision for mobilizing US churches in mission awareness. One challenge that he would like to put out to all of our churches is to “give more than they ever have before to missions” this year. He asks that we pray regarding two main things…1) That he remain totally in love and committed to the Lord Jesus and 2) that he and Ann remain close in their relationship to each other.

It was good for the CSL’s to meet together and be able to discuss face to face issues that are difficult to discuss over phone/skype etc.. It was good for the wives to have the opportunity to get to know each other a little better and spend time praying together.

Bryant and Ann Wright sharing their vision for SBC churches.

Trip Back to Malawi

KEYS: We left about 5:15 a.m. and started down the road when I realized that I didn’t have my purse! WE had already put the keys in the drop slot at the office door and we just didn’t want to wake the Guest House Manager up! Fortunately, David was able to reach down into the drop box and recover our room keys! We got the purse and camera and were back on the road by 5:20.

"PULA":
It took about 5 hours to get to the boarder of Botswana. We got our passports stamped and went to pay roll tax but were told the computer was down and we needed to go over to the commercial office and pay there. After about 45 min. we got to the front of the line to pay, we were told that they would not accept our "Pula" notes... they only accepted new Pula notes! After some time, we were able to pay with our visa card. Poor people behind us were so patient. We were told that we could exchange the money at a bank. So… first bank said we could only exchange the old pula at First Bank of Botswana and there were only two banks in the country…one in Gaborone and the other in Francistown- about a days drive from each other. We were headed towards Francistown, but when we arrived, the bank had just closed! There was no other place in Botswana that we would be able to change out the old notes. I knew that if we didn’t exchange the money on this trip, we would never be able to exchange. So, while David was filling the car up with fuel, went into the Toyota dealers next door and began asking if there was any way someone would be able to exchange the money for me since we would not be back any time soon. Initially I was told no way, then I asked if I could talk with the manager who then called the cashier who told him that they still accept old bills and would be willing to exchange my Pula! Thank you Father for that!

ANIMALS: We saw all kinds of wildlife from the road: Kudu, bush buck, stienbuck, springbok, ostrich, warthog, ground horn bills, elephants, baboons, tsesebe, impala.

We stopped at a camp for breakfast, David's favorite thing to do...eating with animals in background!

Viewing animals from a boat one late afternoon after days travel.

Elephants are quite prevalent in this area of Botswana. They were all around one camp trying to get water and have caused quite a bit of destruction around the camp. They are in search for water and have found the swimming pool, emptied it, breaking into the camps little fish pond and destroyed their plants there! Sad for the camp owners as their property is being really destroyed, trees being torn down. Sad for the Elephants as they are just sooo thirsty. Funny watching one bull elephant suctioning water from the water jet spout on the side of the pool to get what little water he could from the pipes.

TEAM STRATEGY LEADERS: Third day we got up early again and drove to Lusaka Zambia. We praise God for His favor towards us while crossing the ferry between Botswana and Zambia. Usually that is such a horrible place to cross- total disorganization, much corruption, etc…. but today, even though it still took us 3 hours to cross, it was calm and we had no difficulty! On the way to Lusaka, we were able to stop and visit with the Team Strategy Leader (TSL) for the Tonga people, Wes and Laurie Wilcox. We were also able to meet with the Greater Lusaka Area Team leader, Troy and Tracy Lewis that evening in Lusaka. Please pray for our TSL’s (18 of them in the Zambezi Cluster)who carry a much heavier role than in the past. Besides doing the work that they have been called to reach their people group, they are responsible for keeping their team members strategically focused, putting forth a vision for their teams, encouraging team members, writing up monthly statistical and work related reports and yearly personnel accountability assessments. We have amazing team leaders in the Zambezi Cluster who are doing an amazing job, but not without burdened hearts.

HOME AGAIN, HOME AGAIN jiggidy-jog....Early the next morning we made our way back to Lilongwe, Malawi. It was another full day trip, but ohhh so good to get back home! After about 30 days and 6,000kms on road, flight to and from Angola, entering and exiting 7 different boarders, five separate visits with our missionaries, and an Affinity Leadership team meeting, we are back home. Our hearts a full of thankfulness to our Father for the good trip(s) and visits that he gave us this past month. We are thankful for good health; strong backs; a “healthy” vehicle, safety on the road from accident; hassle free border crossings; timely visits with personnel; and a good team meeting. We are very exhausted but truly feel blessed and favored these days. Thank you all for your continued prayers!

September Surprise!

2010-09-06T06:13:00.000-07:00

When we left Mozambique in 2008, we packed up books and other ministry materials with the hopes that maybe someday we would be able to use them again. We stored these boxes in a container outside the house. Well, we knew that there were termites and cock roaches in that container and tried to get rid of them, but didn't know to what extent the damage they were up to!!! Today I decided to do some cleaning there and several boxes were so totally eaten up by termites. What surprised me when cleaning out one box was of all the books, magazines, etc... that were in that one box, everything was eaten on to some extent EXCEPT these three Portuguese New Testaments! They were as clean as could be! We lost about half of what we had in that box! Other books were questionably "salvageable"!

During lunch today we had a nice view from our front deck of a Lilac Breasted Roller. They are such beautiful birds but make such an awful ruckus. They come around a lot this time of year, often seen chasing the crows away. We are so thankful to be able to enjoy so many beautiful birds and plants in our front yard.

July/August 2010

2010-08-06T13:09:00.000-07:00

We are grateful for being asked to participate in the survival/personal safety training in Idaho this past month. Thankful for several reasons. 1) We did learn a LOT and we hope to be able to pass some of what we learned to others in our cluster in the near future. The training was well worth it and we would recommend it to anyone working and traveling to places of high risk around the world. 2) We have made new friends from around the globe, and we have a better knowledge of how to pray for our brothers and sisters who are living and working in difficult places. 3) We have a much better understanding and appreciation for what others have had to go through for their faith and for what many do to get the Good News to others in spite of various oppositions. I think my prayer life has been deepened by this training. 4) Not related to the training, but because of it, we were able to take time before the training to spend some days with our children and after the training, we have been with David’s family in Texas. It has been such a blessing to us to be with family and we thank God for this.

We arrive in Malawi only to have one day at home before we travel by road to Zambia for the Baptist Fellowship of Zambia’s annual meeting. Following the meeting we hope to visit with a couple of our missionary families to see where they live and work and hopefully be of some encouragement to them. Please pray with us as we travel, attend the meeting and then make the visits. We will be back in Malawi later in the month.

I am going ahead and posting this... I can't for some reason remember how to work with these pictures and I just don't have the time right now!! We love and appreciate you all so much for your prayers.

Please pray with us for Nathaniel as he does his Hand’s On work in Nepal. He has a Blog site that he updates from time to time that you might be interested in reading. He has listed several prayer requests on his latest blog. It is: www.travelingsoulja.blogspot.com He and we are so thankful for this opportunity to serve the Father, learn from others and see for himself the Father’s work in other parts of the world other than Africa.

We praise the Lord for what he is doing in Anna’s life. WE praise Him for providing a badly needed job. (It is part time…) We praise Him for providing a house for her to move into with several other young ladies for this coming year. We praise God for how he is just growing her faith and commitment to Him. We praise God for the friends he has put into Anna’s and Nathaniel’s lives and just pray God’s blessings on them as they are a blessing to us too!

June's Josselings

2010-06-21T01:19:00.000-07:00

What a privilege it was for David and me to visit with our personnel in Northern Mozambique this past week. The Harrells live on the cost and work with a group of people who have had very little to any exposure to the Good News of Jesus Christ. Inland, there are small groups of believers from a similar people who gathered for a weekend of training, teaching, and baptism.

Below is Dillon getting a bird's eye view of the baptism.

Camping with 4 little ones can be quite a challenge. Auntie Janet had a special treat to end the day with....roasting marshmallows over a cooker and making smores!

Bath time also creates challenges while camping! (Nice shorts Micha is wearing!)

Fun visiting together!

The kids played so hard with their Mozambican friends....Bato, Bato, galinha....(revised version of "duck, duck, goose...") ... dodge ball and tag.... wore the boys out! Andrew is getting his "Sabbath rest"....

David enjoying visiting with the various church leaders who came for the weekend.

The road between Cuamba and Nampula is spectacular with so many beautiful rock outcroppings. (This one actually is just outside Nampula.)The road had it's speed controls in place this day...market, wonderful weathered spots, and just a lot of "washboard". Needless to say our bodies were somewhat tired after traveling over 1500 of these types of roads. (about 950 miles!) We made a visit up to Lichinga and Sanga district. Had a nice visit with our missionary in Lichinga, with Pastor Eugenio and Fatima, and then out at Mapudje, with the chief, and other friends from that village. We spent the night camping in the yard of our former house. Had a nice visit with our friend Hussein. Praying for God to restore broken relationship, to thwart the false accusations of the Enemy, and to encourage the believers in this area. Continuing to pray for the chief, above, who was so very happy go see David. (He had already had his brew for the day and was somewhat drunk when we visited with him.)

May 2010

2010-05-31T04:30:00.000-07:00

This is what I call "OVERLOAD"!! These two cars were seen as we were nearing the boarder between Zambia and Malawi! Sometimes after being in a communal type of living for weeks at a time, I feel somewhat overloaded and must avoid crowds for a few days to regain my composure. I understand in a new way why Jesus just needed to get away from the crowds and even his own disciples from time to time just to regroup and get refocused.

At the end of our 4040 bush camp we all normally eat our last meal out at a restaurant so to facilitate packing up and cleaning up before departure. Well, the Zambian cooks have made it into a banqueting time! Janet Lawrence, middle, was helped by her staff to dress appropriately. The rest of us scrounged up what we could to dress up some by borrowing, buying and just using what we had on hand. I dressed up a chiteje with an $8.00 top with necklace..=}... We praise God for a great 4040 experience. There was minimal health issues, great attitudes and just an exceptional group of participants going all over eastern and southern African countries. Thank you for your prayers!

After our time with the new missionaries, we made a trip to visit our missionaries, Daniel and Grace Kim up in the Copperbelt of Zambia. It was such a pleasure to be in their home, being around such grateful and passionate people. Both Daniel and Grace speak well the language of ChiBemba, and have a real passion for teaching/training their leadership to know well who they are in Christ and to pass that onto their own people. The church is growing in that area and it was exciting to see how because of one leaders faithfulness in sharing his testimony to others, they in turn have accepted Christ and are doing likewise and starting new churches!

We had a nice day visit in Solwezi and visiting with Webbie.

Grace and Daniel visiting with leaders at new Church start- Filando

Demonstration of base instrument...=) and David taking a try at the Oil Can guitar.....

Northwestern part of Zambia was a surprise to us. There are copper mines that dominate that area, lots of industry and beautiful towns.

Pebane, Mozambique

2010-04-12T00:45:00.000-07:00

An abandoned Fort

Mozambique is not a country that westerners are flocking to. It is hard driving, hot weather, foreign languages, war torn and has a strong residual effect of the Communism that ruled for over a decade. There have been requests for new missionaries to come to Mozambique for some time but with little results. We continue to pray that God would touch the hearts of some who are working in more evangelized and reached areas to come to the more unevangelized and unreached areas of our cluster. Mozambique contains so many groups of people who are unreached/ unevangelized/ and even some unengaged peoples.

Picnicking on the side of the road! It was hot, hot, hot!

We recently came back from a trip to the far end of the Lomwe people of whom one of our missionaries are presently working with in Malawi. The Brownfields have sensed for some time now the need to go to where the Lomwe have not had the opportunity to hear the gospel and have identified that "unreached-ness" in the far eastern side of where the Lomwe live, which is just off the coast of Mozambique. There are large areas where one would not see any visible evidence of an evangelical presence. I***m is very present and the number of mosques are numerous.

A village mosque

We made this trip to see where the Brownfields have felt led to work. We wanted to know their area and some of the people they will be interacting with. We hoped that this trip would be an encouragement to them. While there we discovered a couple possibilities for renting so that was an answer to prayer. There were times of prayer together and as we traveled the long dusty/bumpy roads.

Not my favorite type of campsite in the back of a school yard...but we got to visit with a lot of people!!

Women selling bread....hmmm from whom should I buy?!?!

Here are some specific prayer requests that we would like to ask that you pray with us about:

1) Pray that a house would be found for the Brownfields to be able to rent.

2) Pray regarding the logistics involved in making a move from Malawi to Mozambique

3) Pray regarding relationships that are being developed among the Mozambicans that they grow stronger.

4) Pray for patience, perseverance and discernment for the Brownfields as they begin their new work in this area of Mozambique among the Lomwe.

5) Pray for the Brownfields as they continue their Portuguese language learning - they have come a long way for not having lived in Mozambique among Portuguese speakers, but have a way yet to go to be able to communicate well with the Mozambicans.

March Morsells

2010-04-02T01:33:00.001-07:00

GOOD FRIDAY- Passover Cake......

March has ended up hosting various meals at our home and being "guests" in other's homes. Tonight, is Good Friday. We will be participating in a Seder Supper together with other missionaries. Looking forward to that!

I was asked to prepare a Passover Cake... "if I was up to the challenge..." I thought to myself, "what's the big challenge in making a sponge cake?" and agreed to make it for this supper. Well, I started putting ingredients together when I realized that it called for 1/3rd cup of sherry or sweet wine. Hmmmm... Well, I decided that I would go look for some at a local store. To begin with, I really didn't know what I was looking for as we don't consume either or cook with either! I began in the drinks section looking for a "small" bottle, but there were none....only LARGE bottles... I couldn't get myself to buy a $20 bottle of something that I probably wouldn't use again any time in the near future! And, they don't stock "cooking wine" in the store. I decided to come home and look online to see if there were suggestions for "sherry or sweet wine substitutes"....and there was! Pineapple juice! Well, then I had to have 8 eggs - separate the white from the yoke.... I got 4 good ones, but then proceeded to break 5 bad eggs in a row!!! (fortunately out of habit, I broke them in a separate dish before adding to the other ingredients!) I was worried that I would run out of eggs!!! I did just have enough and was able to proceed making the cake without going to the store again! The cake came out fine, I left it in the tube pan to cool off while we went out for supper. When I came back, there were ANTS ALL OVER THE CAKE!!!!!! Grrrr! They had crawled onto the counter, up the unopened coke bottle, and all over the tube pan and cake!!! After about 30 minutes, I was able to get most of them off and the cake in a Tupperware saver!

What would we do without DOOM?!?!?!?

We have just returned from a Strategy Team Leader meeting. David and I were responsible for organizing and leading out in a week long training. This is the first time that the Zambezi Cluster (although not in it's entirety) has had the opportunity to get together....some members meeting each other for the first time! The meeting was intense and we struggled to keep within our time allotments. The first two days were filled with a LOT administrative information... off load? - down load? - or maybe "overload" with CPPI, Expense Reporting, Accountability etc.. The remaining time was spent at our various tables discussing how the teams in the Zambezi Cluster are working through the Affinity Group's main Objectives in Prayer, Evangelism, Training, Human needs, etc...

Thank you Father for a good meeting, safety in travel and just that we were able to meet with these team leaders in spite of all the budget cuts this year. It is our prayer that next year the entire Zambezi Cluster be able to come together for our annual missionary training as we have always done in the past.

Thank you so much Jeff Wallace, Dan Summerland, and Mark Swadley for coming from Lone Oak, Paducah, Kentucky who came to lead in worship and Bible study. Dan taught from various past leader's examples: Nehemiah-leadership, Abraham-obedience, Joshua-faith, and Elijah-power and in the evenings, various parables. Very encouraging. Thank you!

Yes, the men talked as much if not more than the ladies!!

A privilege that David has is that of recognizing various missionaries for their years of service. Here Lloyd and Betty Farmer are receiving their 20 year pins. Browns are at their sides to pray for them...and tell stories on them!

15 year pinning for Wes and Laurie Wilcox, team leaders for the Zambezi Valley, Tonga team.

Blake, had his team leader worried when he resorted to a lady's head scarf to help keep himself warm!

Lucy still could produce a smile after trying to explain CPPI and hearing all of our frustrating questions and comments......

We ladies did enjoy each others company... tea times.. and night swimming!

Our hippo friend from long ago..still is on the front veranda of the meeting room. Made me nostalgic for all our children who love to climb all over this thing!

Mark Swadley, from Lone Oak led out worship in song. The power outages didn't phase him...he was prepared with his "cyclops eye" and battery powered keyboard!

Dear friend, Claudia, trying to extract some ivory from this life size hippo outside our meeting room.....

Discussions between various teams at our tables. (Daniel and Grace Kim and Lloyd Farmer)

We returned from this meeting, sent our volunteer team on their way back to the USA, other leadership personnel back to South Africa and Kenya, then that evening had a large Graduation supper for one of our MK's who will be leaving Africa this year coupled with honoring two other units for years of service.... We take the opportunities when we can to recognize folks! Then next three nights in a row I was asleep by or soon after 8:00 p.m!!!!

February-March

2010-03-14T01:31:00.001-08:00

Well, while David was gone to Kenya, I had a wonderful time alone. I was able to get to some much needed reading and some personal studies on mentoring done. David returned after one week, stayed at home for two days, and had another 4 day trip to Zambia. I am able to "enjoy" just so much time alone before I get to feeling to alone and don't like it!

We are busy preparing for the upcoming Team Strategy Leader meeting and are just praying that it be very helpful to all those involved. We regret so much that we cannot have our annual missionary training meeting and have the entire Zambezi Cluster together with wives and children. (Several wives are not able to participate in this TSL meeting because they have children at home.) We do pray that we will be able to have an entire Cluster meeting next year as it is such a good time of encouragement to so many!

David and I went to our place of venue for the meeting and were well received by the hotel manager. We were able to see the rooms that we hope to occupy, talk about various logistics and hopefully they will be ready to receive us on the 21st! We then drove to a cottage on Lake Malawi and spent a day and a half with several friends and colleagues. The lake water was so wonderful and the swimming was very relaxing. We did complete one Jig-saw puzzle, looked at a lot of magazines, ate delicious food, played Mexican Train domino's, and listened to good music. We did manage to come away with a little sunburn on our shoulders...that didn't get enough sunscreen and were exposed during our morning swim...

Visit to Lichinga and Mapudje

2010-02-10T06:09:00.000-08:00

The end of January, David and I made a trip back to our ol' stomping grounds in Mozambique. We had our Director of Personnel who lives in South Africa come with us to see a different part of Africa and visit with some of our missionaries who live in Mozambique and Malawi.

We were able to meet up with our long time friends, Fatima and Carlos Eugenio- Mozambican missionary/pastor of the Lichinga church. Pastor Eugenio had gone through a terrible bicycle accident last October and had to have surgery on his brain to remove some fluids that had built up and were causing memory loss and impairing his speech. He recently returned to Lichinga and we were able to visit with him, pray with them and it was just a wonderful reunion. We praise God for sparing Pastor's life and for the healing that he has brought to him. Please pray that he regain his strength completely and be able to return to the ministry.

We also were able to visit with our two missionary units, Nancy Carley and the Gray family. We had a good time of "catching up" on the going on's there in that part of Mozambique. Please pray for Nancy as she is the Team Strategy Leader for the Y team. We continue to ask that you pray for the church family in Lichinga. There has not been anyone from within the church willing to come forward to carry on that work when the time comes for Pastor to retire. Please pray that God would raise up leaders with a vision to reach Lichinga and its surrounding villages for Christ.

We enjoyed of course our visit to Mapudje village, visiting with the Gray family. The Grays are in the midst of another transition so we do ask that you please pray for them and all that is involved with this.

David also was able to make a trip north with three other men to the isolated village we had begun to work in before we were asked to take on the role as Strategy Associate in 2007. The village was abandoned as most everyone had gone to their fields to hoe out weeds. There were two old ladies alone in the overgrown village. The men were able to witness to these ladies and minister to them for a short time before their return to Mapudje that evening. Our visits with our close friends, Hussein and Laika were special. We came away feeling though, that there is a real spiritual struggle going on and we just ask that you please pray for their marriage, their personal walk with the Lord Jesus- that it be pure and blameless. Pray for the Y believers that they grow in their love for God and obedience. Pray for fruit to come from their efforts to witness to their own people. We did notice in Mapudje and all along the roads, a stronger presence of I**am and more permanent places for them to worship.

We also had the opportunity to visit a little with some other missionary friends with a different organization. It is exciting to see their perseverance and commitment to learn the local language and get the gospel to the lost. Please pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ who have the same calling and goals to reach the Y for Christ Jesus. Pray against discouragement. Pray that God would be able to grow His kingdom in this part of Africa!

Visit to Tete - Feb. 2010

2010-02-10T04:58:00.000-08:00

Visiting in the driveway.

One of our responsibilities is to try to get around and visit our missionaries at their homes and in their ministries. What an encouraging trip we just made to Tete to visit with Chris and Katie Nalls. They have just completed their first year as career missionaries to Mozambique. Chris and Katie had two years as journeymen in Mozambique which has helped them get ahead with their Portuguese. They are using Portuguese very fluently and are just now beginning to learn the heart language of the people that they are working with, chiNyanja. Chris and the leaders involved in the Seminar

Visiting with the "cooks" for the Seminar

David enjoyed participating with Chris as he taught in a seminar "Understanding your Faith" to a group of church leaders . It is not uncommon to find men who take on Church leadership responsibilities who really do not have a personal relationship with Jesus. At least one man came to the point after sharing his "testimony" to understand that he was not in Christ and he made his heart right with God last week!

Katie wondering who next to pass this sweet baby!

We also had the pleasure of attending a baby dedication/celebration. The parents invited many in the church to come to their home where some scripture was read, prayers were made for the child and parents, and then there was a lot of singing and dancing. At one point the women were dancing with much exuberance while holding the 3 week old child up in the air, swinging her from side to side, passing her from one lady to another. (I kept on saying to myself.."poor baby!") but she survived! I also got my chance to dance with the baby, but my dance was much more of a calm "waltz"! At one point when I had received the child a second time, she went off to sleep with me doing my little dance! =) It was fun to see the ladies celebrate together like this. It was a real blessing to see Katie interact so well with the women and see the friends that she has made.

Sunday worship...resting in the Lord...

Sunday David and I, the Nalls and two of the men going through the seminar, visited a small church in an area called Moatize. It was nice to see what seemed to be an adopted verse from I Cor. 3:9 as their theme, which says, "For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building." So often here in Africa and probably all over the world, the "church" is confused with the building and we forget that we people are the church, God's building. Abigail helping braid friends hair....
Little 2yr old Abigail kept happy the entire time of Bible study and worship. David was asked to preach which he enjoys so much. After the worship service we were offered a delicious meal of shima/ugadi/maca and fish and Cokes. It was nice to see such generosity among the believers.

On our short drive to worship we passed the "train that dropped". There could be an interesting story here! It obviously has been around for many years and had large ant hills growing inside the conductors room!

David and I love the visits that we make and just pray that we can be of encouragement to those we visit! I must admit that there is always a little "twang" in our hearts as we come away from our visits as we reminisce our past years of similar ministries!

December-January 2010!

2010-01-16T03:56:00.000-08:00

Well, it has been awhile since I last entered a post! Let me share with you some of what we have been doing these past few weeks.

We had the most wonderful gift this Christmas with the visit of Stan and Donna Armes (Janet’s brother) and their daughter and her family, Tim and Andrea Hilty. The Armes were in Zambia visiting the Hiltys and we suggested that they come over for a quick visit as it was only a 10 hr. drive. They wrote back asking if Dec. 21-26 would be ok for their visit! We were so happy to have family from Janet’s side to come visit us! (My mom had a couple visits before her passing, but this is the first time in all our 24 years as missionaries any of my 7 siblings have been able to make a visit to where we live and work overseas! – Thank you Stan and Donna and Hiltys!) Two obedient and happy little Angels who stayed in our home for 5 days without any fuss or fighting!!!

Soon after Christmas, we headed down to Johannesburg, South Africa for a prayer retreat with our missionaries from Mozambique, Angola, and Indian Ocean Islands. It was a good time for reflection on our “Messiah”. It was a good time to catch up with friends who we have not seen for quite some time. While we were at prayer retreat, the older children participated in an annual MK camp and younger MK’s participate in a volunteer led Bible school. We are so thankful for these two “get- togethers” that for so many years IMB has supported. Many missionaries live in isolated places and their children do not have the contact with other Christian children. This coming together once a year for concerted prayer and spiritual enrichment has been a source of great encouragement to both the missionaries and their children. Unfortunately for 2010, both these events- along with our annual missionary training meeting, have been canceled because of limited budget that Sub-Saharan Africa has been given. It is our prayer that our missionaries would not become disillusioned with this, but rather seek ways that they can perhaps find this encouragement with other GCC missionaries and from their National partners in the areas where they live and work.

We recently made a visit with one of our missionary couples in the southern part of Malawi. It is always so encouraging to us to be able to visit with them, see their work, friends, and spend time just praying with them about their work, family and life. We pray that our visits would be an encouragement to them also.

On this particular visit, I, Janet was able to visit with a young man who is just so on fire for the Lord Jesus and is what some would call a “super spreader” when it comes to witnessing and bringing others to Christ. This particular young man has had to drop out of school because of various health issues, and which are now beginning to keep him much closer to home. There are times he struggles so much emotionally because of the pain he suffers daily and our Enemy uses these times to plant seeds of doubt, despair, suicide and a sense of being totally alone. I just want to ask you all to please pray for “Modzi”. Pray that he be able to discipline his thoughts and truly focus on the Lord Jesus Christ. Pray that he be able to find some activity at home to keep him from loneliness. Pray that perhaps he could start discipling new believers on a regular basis from his home. Pray for healing from the severe pain he constantly experiences in his legs.

Recently David made a visit to a nearby village of Kauma. There are a lot of Yao residents there. It is our prayer that we may be able to build some relationships there and begin a “semi-regular” time of visiting and sharing God’s Word with those people. We have had to cut our travel budget that we use to visit our missionaries along with some meetings and foresee more time spent here in Lilongwe this year. Please pray that God would direct us to the right homes and provide us with a “person of peace” in this village and that we would find the time to share God’s Word on a more regular basis. Pray that God would bring the Yao of Kauma village to Himself!

Our Kids....

Nathaniel and Anna spent Christmas alone in Lynchburg, VA. They had several invitations to spend Christmas with friends away from Lynchburg, but they really wanted time to settle into their new homes/apartments and not travel a whole lot during their break. Nathaniel has now graduated with a degree in Mission Aviation. We ask that you please pray for Nathaniel as he begins a new chapter in his life. For the first time in many years, he is not going to school! He will “walk” or graduate in May this year. We just praise God for the way he has cared for Nathaniel throughout the years and how he has grown so much in his love for the Lord Jesus. He really has a heart to serve overseas as a missionary. He is now looking for a job that will support him for the time being. Please pray with us that he would find a job that would provide him with the monies that he needs just to live.

One of Nathaniel’s main prayer concerns is that he was not able to complete his aviation degree to include his commercial rating. Before any pilot is able to fly for income, they must complete this rating. It involves about 6 months of flight instruction and maneuvers. Nathaniel has estimated that it will cost him a minimum of $15,000 to complete these requirements. He is not able to get any grant/scholarship monies to cover for this training as it involves mainly flight costs and not tuition. We know that with God everything is possible, even somehow making it possible for him to get his commercial rating without having to go into debt! I believe that this is a time that God wants Nathaniel to really trust Him with his job, and his future. Many people go through the US Armed Forces to get help with these costs, but long ago Nathaniel did not feel this was the way he was to proceed. He felt and continues to feel called to overseas mission work and doesn’t want to be tied down to the Armed Forces. Anyway, please pray with us about Nathaniel’s desire to serve on the mission field, his need for a job, and his need to complete his commercial rating.

Anna Lee continues with her Athletic Training studies at Liberty. She also continues to grow in her love and knowledge of our Lord Jesus. We are just constantly amazed at her maturity and focus. She is such an amazing daughter and we are just so thankful for her! Anna has recently moved off campus and is living in her first apartment along with several other young ladies. This has been a big thing for her and she just loves being a little more independent. She has the opportunity to cook more and loves inviting others over for food and fellowship. She told us that she went “dumpster” savaging recently and found a bed frame and several other things to outfit her apartment! She went to Goodwill and was able to buy a few dishes and kitchen items to use in her “new” home. I am so thankful that our kids are willing to use and buy things that others may consider obsolete. They both are learning to appreciate more to be thankful with what little they have and not to spend their monies on things they really cannot afford! Please pray with us for Anna as she continues with her studies. She hopes to complete her training by May 2011. Her clinical hours are very demanding – over 24hrs a week with no pay. Because of her clinical work, she just doesn’t have the time for outside work. She is however, seeing how God is providing for her fuel and food little by little. We also praise God for the friends that He is putting into her life and just continue to pray that He be honored in these.

I want to include Nathaniel and Anna’s e-mail and PO addresses just in case anyone would like to drop them a word of encouragement.

Nathaniel Hooten 23 Ryan Dr.
Eveington, VA 24550
njhooten@liberty.edu

Anna Hooten
108 Montview Forest Drive
Lynchburg, VA 24502
ahooten@liberty.edu

David and I are doing well physically and emotionally. =) We have seen the Lord’s guidance and felt his presence with us so much. We have felt his council while dealing with some very important issues. We know this is a result of your prayers for us and we thank you so much. Please continue to pray with us for wisdom, patience, discernment, and perseverance. We have a wonderful Father who knows what we need and we just want to keep our eyes on Him and trust Him in every situation!

End of 2009

2009-12-04T05:39:00.000-08:00

A nice "reunion" with dear friends and colleagues -Randolphs and Trails

This year seems to have just flown by so quickly….well, at least the last six months! Thanksgiving has come and gone and now everyone is preparing for Christmas! David and I had several days of feasting and fellowship leading up to Thanksgiving Day with missionaries in Zambia. We traveled back to our home in Malawi on Thanksgiving Day. Looking over this past year, we have so many things of which we are thankful to have been a part of. Let me name a few:

-Trip to Turkey (Feb)
-Completion of two more 4040’s (First term missionary on field orientation program) without major incident! (April-May and Oct.-Nov.)
-Two separate but wonderful AMTM’s (mission meeting) with our missionaries in the Zambezi Cluster (March and July)
-Prayer retreats with our missionaries in the Zambezi Cluster- Focus on Fervent and Persistent prayer
-A wonderful vacation/trip to Namibia… got to see and experience a whole new part of Africa for the first time!
-Much needed and successful disc replacement surgery for David
-An unexpected medical trip to the USA for Janet which also provided the opportunity to visit some with our kids and David’s parents!
-Personal home visits with some of our missionaries in the Zambezi Cluster
-Love and support/affirmation from so many of our friends and family
-Sense of being settled in our home in Malawi.

Please pray with us regarding the following:

-Nathaniel will be graduating this December from Liberty University with a degree in Aeronautical Science with an emphasis on Missions. (He will walk in May, 2010). Please pray that he find a job. We are very proud of him and just ask that you continue to pray for him as he starts this new chapter in his life.

-Anna has made some great friends and continues to work towards her degree in Athletic Training. Please pray for Anna as she moves into an apartment this month and continues her studies at Liberty University. Please pray for both Nathaniel and Anna as they will be spending Christmas break in Lynchburg, VA away from immediate family- their first Christmas alone! (it may be harder for mom and dad than for them!)

Northern Mozambique

2009-10-29T02:32:00.001-07:00

Beverley and her helper/friend, "Y"
There is nothing like getting an instant tan, body massage and just plain physical work out as we traveled over 3000km in Northern Mozambique this past October! (Well, the tan just washed off with water each night! And the body massage…well, that is thanks to the washboard roads!) We really did need to visit a masseuse after our trip, but we are without that luxury!

We began our trip by first visiting with our oldest missionary, Beverly who recently moved to live and work with the Yao in Malawi. Presently she is studying the language of chiyao, and visiting in various villages with her helper “Y”. He is a believer and has a passion to reach his people for Jesus. He has been able to introduce Beverly to various villages. Some of the chiefs of these villages are believers due to the seeds that were sown years ago by those who have come before her. She is working with “Y” teaching him God’s Word chronologically where he then goes with her to tell the stories to a group of ladies in a nearby village. It was so encouraging to see such a passion in the heart of this 72 year old widow. She chose to leave a more comfortable home and lifestyle and transfer to work with the Yao. Pray for Beverly as she studies the language and works with the Yao in Malawi.

It was strange entering Mozambique as a “tourist” for the first time in about 14 years. We drove for about 10 hours on bumpy dirt roads before we arrived in the city of Nampula. We were with Eddie and Janice. Eddie is the Associate Cluster Strategy Leader for the northern Mozambique teams. We praise God for this couple as they continue to serve in difficult living conditions. They had been in Angola for about 8 years before transferring into Mozambique about three/four years ago. One of Eddie’s responsibilities is to help locate and survey unreached peoples in Northern Mozambique. The number one priority request for a career missionary is to live and work among the Makonde of Northern Mozambique. There are numerous groups of people in Northern Mozambique who like the Makonde, remain very un- evangelized…the Mwani, the Nahara, Meetto, Shirima, Moniga, Makhwana, and Yao to name just a few! Folks, there is great lostness in this country. Having traveled many kilometers through Mozambique, we saw very little evidence where Christ Jesus has been made known. There where just a handful of evangelical “m’s” from other organizations are crying out for help. Living conditions according to our standards are basically none existent. Water is difficult to find in some places. “Cousins” are everywhere. Our hearts are truly burdened from what we were able to observe with our own eyes and hear the cry of our other “m’s” for help.

A lot of rebuilding and preparing for future rains being done.

People are unreached up north for a reason. It could be due to the religions we would encounter, the lack of a comfortable home, difficult roads to travel, isolation from support, harshness of the weather, etc… It will take a true call from our Father for harvesters to join in the work in that field in northern Mozambique. Please pray with us for "hardy and committed harvesters" to be willing to work among such great lostness.

Happy 24th Birthday Nathaniel!

2009-10-10T07:28:00.000-07:00

"I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth." 3 John vs 4

It took about 5 years before God gave us Nathaniel - October 24, 1985. Nathaniel means "gift of God". We gave him the middle name of "James" but were concerned about the meaning being "deceitful". Soon after deciding on the names, we read in John 1:45-51 where Jesus saw Nathanael from a distance and remarked to his disciples that "there was a man in whom there was no deceit" and we just claimed that for our son. We praise our Father for giving us a son whose heart has been tender towards Him and "one in whom there has been no deceit"! Nathaniel was such a happy baby and such a joy to his mom and dad!In France, Nathaniel had his share of baguettes! He has been and is a great older brother to his sister, Anna.

Nathaniel would consider growing up in Africa a privilege. He made very close friends among the people we lived and served. One of his favorite things to do was sit out by the guards fire at night with roasted corn, just visiting with Hussein.

Another favorite thing to do in Mozambique was to take his dad's motor bike out on site seeing trips. He often took pictures and videos of the beautiful mountains and scenery around him.

Nathaniel is now finishing up his studies at Liberty University. He will be graduating with a degree in Aeronautical Science with an emphasis on Mission Aviation. His heart is set on serving his Father overseas among a people who have yet to hear of Jesus and the gift of salvation that He has to offer.

We are so thankful for the 24 years that God has given Nathaniel to us. We are proud of him and believe that God is going to use him in a great way for His glory! Thank you Father for Nathaniel and for what you have done and will continue to do in his life.

Please pray for Nathaniel today:

1) That he continue to live completely for his Father's glory.

2) That he have clear direction as to what to do after graduation.

3) That he would find work in his field of training.

4) That he would glorify his Father in his various relationships.

5) That he would grow in his love and obedience to his Father.

Quick Trip to USA!

2009-10-01T08:03:00.000-07:00

Enjoying a game with Dad Hooten! Fun to see him laughing so! Mom and Dad came up to Richmond to see me and visit with their 3 grandchildren at Liberty University. Such a nice visit!

Nathaniel hopes to graduate this Christmas!...(We are hoping too!)

Anna worried sick over a couple important tests she had to take. She "about" aced them! (not quite but did really well!) She gives glory to her Father who really helped her recall things that were taught.

Thank you Father for such a wonderful gift You have given to us in Nathaniel and Anna!

Liberty University campus... new Snowflex ski slope in background. Quite nice to say the least!

Surgeries! First David’s lower back disc replacement – (Aug.) then my Moh’s surgery to remove invasive BCC on my nose! (Sept.) Recovery…time, exercise, patience, separation, reunion.
Visit with friends and Nathaniel and Anna at Liberty. Visit with parent’s in-law. Football games, shopping, Panera’s, Applebee’s, rain, hotel stays, clean clean America!!!!
Field Day of the Past….tractor pulls, chittlen’s, home made ice cream, kettle corn, old cars and farm equipment, horse show, etc….

I am so thankful for God’s favor that has been given me these past two months. I was able to go be with David during his surgery and recovery in South Africa which went really well along with great recovery. I then had the most amazing flight schedule to and from the USA for my surgery. I had wonderful friends (Kittie and Randy Trail) who opened up their home to me to stay during my time there! Kittie worked so hard to get my surgery appointment set up so all I had to do was show up! She stayed with me the entire day while I had my surgery. I had use of their car. I didn’t have to have a drastic nose repair job…although a lot of tissue was removed and I had to have a skin graft. I was able to visit our children and meet their friends and some of their professors. In spite of a little complication with my graft “taking”, I was still released to return as scheduled. I praise God for all the above. A little chorus was taught us last July. It says…

“I will put my trust in you, in you; I will put my trust in you, in you. For you alone, know my need, I will put my trust in you.” “I will put my eyes on you… and I will trust in you always…. For you alone, know my need…”

This little chorus has helped me to just give each and every step of my journey these past two months to my Father confessing that he does know what I need and if this or that does or doesn’t work out…he knows what I need and I will trust Him. Thank you Father!

To Jo-berg and back!

2009-08-26T02:55:00.000-07:00

As of just over two weeks ago, my hubby is several millimeters taller! For real! He underwent disc replacement in his lower back and is recovering nicely. Thanks for your prayers. We are now home and just hoping for complete recovery and a stronger David! In South Africa, one spends his/her time in the "theater" during surgery....hmmm!

While in Johannesburg, I was driving to the hospital to visit David during his recovery. In front of me was another car with three ladies with really curly long hair - two with white-white hair and one jet black. They were riding in the back seat swaying with the movement of the car. After a bit, one of the ladies turned her head and I realized that they weren't ladies at all, rather three large poodles being chauffeured...somewhere! (maybe to get a haircut?...) =)

Anna and Nathaniel are both back at Liberty for their fall semester. Thanks for your prayers for Anna as she drove all alone from Georgetown, TX to Lynchburg, VA! She said that she felt God's presence with her the entire trip! Nathaniel is in his last semester before graduating in December! He is presently looking into what his possibilities are for his near future. Please pray with him about this. He really would like to work with Flying Mission but is lacking in flying hours and needs his multi engine rating. He is discouraged because the flying fees are so high and it has taken him so long to get the hours of flying that he has already. He really is dead set against getting further into debt with loans and is just trusting God to provide if this is what He wants him to pursue.

I praise God that there was someone in Jo-berg who was able to work on my computer and get it going again. I did end up buying a new hard drive, but was able to recover all my "stuff". Apparently in other regions with IMB they have had an IT missionary assigned to help out with their computer problems. Now we have a missionary who does this work in Jo-berg! How thankful we are for this service!

2009-08-05T00:56:00.000-07:00

Oh my! It has been over a month since I last wrote! Sorry! We have been home, catching up on "stuff" and also we had a wonderful week together with our missionaries from Mozambique and Malawi. We praise God for safety in travel and good health these past weeks. We are thankful for the changing weather...it is getting warmer. (I am sure in a few months we will be yearning for the cooler days and nights! But right now it is a beautiful time of year weather wise.)

Several things you can pray about with us are:

1) Please pray for the young "Church" where we lived and worked in Mozambique. Pray for the believers to grow and be strong in their faith. Pray for those who are struggling with coming away from their old way of life. Pray that the believers would have a unified vision for reaching their people for Jesus.

2) Please pray for David and me as we are dealing with some medical issues this month. With the organizational changes, there have also been policy changes which really affect us all. Please pray for wisdom and discernment for those who enforce policies. Pray for our hearts to remain humble and that we would really trust that God knows what is best for us and that he will work accordingly.

3) Please pray for some missionary friends of ours (J&E) as they return to the USA for a short visit with family. They are dealing with a dying brother, aged mother, surgeries for their son, grandsons going overseas in the Military...along with various other issues. Please pray for physical, emotional and spiritual strength for these your brother and sister during this difficult time in their lives.

4) Please pray for Nathaniel and Anna as they prepare for their Fall semester at Liberty. Nathaniel hopes to finish his Mission Aviation degree this December! Please pray for him as he looks into options for him to commit to after school.

Thanks to all of you who do pray for us

To Namibia Coast and back to Malawi!

2009-07-01T02:54:00.000-07:00

We began our trip to Namibia on June 10th. We went through Lusaka, Zambia, onto the Caprivi Strip in northeastern Namibia. We spent most of our nights camping in order to remain within our budget! =) We had many an evening and early morning sitting and drinking coffee over a nice fire...many thanks to my dear husband David!

The pictures of the landscape in Namibia just don't give justice to what was actually there! It was so beautiful!

There were so many oryx...such beautiful animals. I have rarely seen them anywhere else...maybe in Kenya while growing up!

We went to Walvis Bay, south of Swakopmund and took a boat ride in the Atlantic. "Robby" the seal was quite an attraction! He just jumped up on the boat and let us touch him, etc...as long as our guide fed him fish! His counterpart, "Sally" would surf behind our boat when we were going about 30 kmp! We saw a huge colony of seals, some dolphins swimming, a sea turtle... We ate oysters...yep, a bunch of lemon juice, Tabasco sauce and pepper really helps give those things a "taste"! They really were not bad at all, I ate 3 of them! I don't think I will order them at a restaurant though!

One of our friends, Eddie, loves to race cars. He had been to Swakopmund before and had gone quading on the dunes. He talked all of us into doing it and it was the most fun thing I have done in a LONG time! We laughed soooo much! All of us are 51+ and we just had so much fun!

The group of Quaders! Hey, there really is life after 51! =)

We really looked quite funny!

We camped and we had hippo, elephants and who knows what else coming through our various campsites! "They" (whoever they are) said that 3 leopards came through our camp in South Luangwa in the middle of the night...hmmmm!

Enjoying the Baobabs!

So many beautiful sunsets. Pictures just can't tell the whole story!

We had the most amazing 2 days in South Luangwa, Zambia. We saw 4 of the big 5- Lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo! Awesome viewings. The leopard walked right out in front of our vehicle and just posed for us for about 20 minutes! It was awesome.

Etosha National Park, in Namibia was quite amazing too! Such a different place. So open, lots of animals, an amazing place! We did see two rhino at the water hole at night...sorry no pictures of that!

We are so thankful to our Father for the privilege that we had to be able to make this trip. We are thankful for safety in travel and for good health. We are thankful for dear friends who took this trip with us. Folks, if you are wondering where to visit next, consider Namibia...the coast and northwest!

Block Party Update

2009-07-01T01:36:00.000-07:00

Thanks to all of you who prayed for Nathaniel and his friends who hosted a block party in the inner city of Lynchburg, VA. on June 19th. Nathaniel said that in spite of several threatening obstacles, they were able to host the event and it all went really well. Nathaniel said that as he and his friends were buying meat and foods for the "braai" - or cookout, it began to really rain. But that ended quickly and it remained nice for the remainder of the day. Several Christian rap groups came and provided entertainment, free of charge, others donated a jumping castle for the day, and other things like that. Several churches participated with them in visiting and witnessing to the people on that block. Nathaniel reported that there is one Christian girl who has joined their team specifically to try to reach the girls in that block area- so that is an answer to prayer also! Some of the "boys" that they visit regularly were not there and that was a little disappointing, but their "papa" was there. Please pray for "P" who is the gang leader/papa.

There was no one that day who made a profession of faith, but the people are wanting the visits to continue every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. This ministry involves the guys walking to the homes of various gang leaders and just talking to them about Jesus and what he has to offer them. Please continue to pray for Nathaniel and his friends as they try to sow the seed of Jesus Christ among this difficult "people- group". Please continue to pray God's angels around these guys to protect them from hidden danger. Pray for "fertile soil" and that these people would see their need for a Savior and give their lives to Jesus.

"Going out to the roads...so my house may be full."

2009-06-08T01:53:00.000-07:00

I had a nice talk with Nathaniel, our son, last night regarding the ministry that he and several of his friends are involved in downtown Lynchburg, VA. I asked him if I could share these requests with you and he said, “please do!”

Nathaniel, along with Mike, Pete, Zack and Josh have begun a ministry in the inner city area of Lynchburg. They go visiting on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons among various gangs and “drug crews”. Over the past several months, God has opened a door for them to be able to talk/hang out with some of these men and women. He feels that they are building a level of trust so that they are able to meet and talk about God with one certain key leader – “P”, of these gangs… This summer they have spent some time and monies in helping fix up the home of “P’s” mother. (He is like a papa to a group of about 12 young men..)

On June 19th, 2009, they will be hosting a “Block Party”. They have invited several Christian Rap groups who will come and perform and assist in trying to share the Gospel on that day. Nathaniel has asked that we pray for the following in the days to come:

1) Pray for good planning for the block party and that he and his friends be prepared to not only share their faith with others but be used by God to bring others to Himself.

2) Pray that God would prepare the hearts of the people he and his friends have been visiting with, to accept Christ!

3) Pray that there would be good follow-up for those who do make decisions to follow Christ. Nathaniel would really like to begin cell group studies with new believers and help them form themselves into a church within the inner city. He is wanting to do Chronological Bible Storying as an evangelism tool, and also as a discipleship tool.

4) Pray that this Block Party would help open doors for more witnessing – access to these people!

5) Pray for surrounding churches to catch the vision and be willing to reach out to these people.

6) Please pray that God would put it on the hearts of several Christian girls to reach the girls who are part of these gangs.

7) (This is a prayer request from mom…) That God would please shield Nathaniel and his friends from harm as they minister in a very dangerous arena. Pray that Nathaniel would be able to witness and teach God’s Word with courage, strength and power - that is Christ in him.

ANNA LEE - "a Bibi"

2009-05-29T01:05:00.000-07:00

Twenty two years ago God gave us a most special gift- Anna Lee! She was born in France and has lived in 5 different African Countries!

Anna, our little Sunshine! She was given the name "a-Bibi" by her Yao friends last year in Mozambique. This name is one that is given to the Paramount Chief's wife, a very respected, honored woman. It is our prayer that Anna continue to be a woman of integrity and honor for years to come!

Anna loves life, loves Africa and it's people. She loves the Lord Jesus with all her heart. She loves her family, and her friends. Thank you Father for giving us Anna for these past 22 years!

"I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth." 3 John 4

Bush Camp 40-40 Style!

2009-05-27T01:02:00.000-07:00

Two kinds of "relief areas....which is better? Hiding behind a capulana/chitenje or braving the "bat-house"?!?!

A morning view of 40-40 bush camp. To some, we were camping in luxury, to others, it was quite rustic camping! We drew our own water from the well and heated it over an open fire for bathing, hired local ladies from surrounding villages wash our clothes, ate together in meeting hall or under a tent.

David's work follows him wherever, even at bush camp! Bluetooth cell phone worked... sometimes!

Men learning the secret knots of tying down loads while some ladies learned to drive a stick-shift/or manual truck for the first time. Some learned how to kill their first chicken!

The 40-40 ladies received the DC's wife, Nisi and Chief Kalindawalo's wife for a morning tea, songs, words of encouragement and lunch.

40-40 ladies learning "Mwamba, mwamba..." to sing to our quests.

40-40 May 2009 has come to an end. We praise God for answered prayer regarding good health (although there were a few upset stomachs and some insect bites!), a wonderful spirit of unity and teachable-ness. All 71 participants and their children have now returned to their various countries of service.

Please pray for these families as they delve into language study, wait for housing, and adjust to the various cultures they will be working in. Pray for patience, perseverance, and a real focus on why they are out here in the first place!

PRAISES and PRAYER FOR 40-40

2009-05-02T07:35:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to share a few answers to prayers!

1) Everyone arrived safely in Lusaka on the 22nd of April.
2) With 71 participants, 20 translators, and about 20 staff we all have been fairly healthy! There has been minimal flu symptoms and we just praise God for that!!!
3) Attitudes have been so amazing. There is a great spirit of teachable-ness and unity. Praise God!
4) There were numerous decisions to follow Jesus Christ during yesterdays assignment to share "Creation to Christ". Please pray that these decisions are genuine and that they grow in their new found faith in Jesus!

Please continue to Pray:

1) Travel on Monday, May 4th...about a 5 hour drive to bush camp.
2) For continued good health among the participants along with teachable hearts and a spirit of unity.
3) For a Zambian pastor, "M" who was in an accident two nights ago which left him unconscious and in very critical condition. This pastor had been helping out with translation for one of our teams during their urban field assignments these past two weeks.

What is 40-40??

2009-04-18T06:14:00.000-07:00

40-40 is here again!

Hauling water for shower at bush camp!

Time has come once again for 40-40. This is an on field orientation program for new personnel in Eastern and Southern Africa: career missionaries, journeymen, and ISC. This will be the 8th (I think) session, 4th year that this program has been provided for new missionaries. The program is led by missionary to Zambia, Kevin Rodgers in conjunction with Zambian pastors.

Meeting room for teaching and debriefing field assignment.

About 80 missionaries will be traveling to Lusaka, Zambia this week to take part in this 4-5 week program. This is double the normal number of participants so we do ask for your concerted prayers for this program!

The first two weeks of 40-40 are in the capital city, Lusaka. The second two weeks are in a more rural setting where we are camping and learning about rural living. The program then ends with several days of reflection back at more comfortable place north of Lusaka. Daily field assignments are given, experienced and debriefed. The DFA's involve seeking out answers to questions like: What is a missionary? How do Africans/Zambians deal with sickness and death? What is life like for the African living in a urban versus a rural area? What are their hardships? What are the different ways the religious community has affected their worship style and understanding of who God is? What are things we need to know about the importance of various life cycles of Africans...birth, youth, marriage, death...? What are some best ways to share our faith and God's love to Africans? Participants are coupled with Zambian translators who will take them to various places in the city and country to seek out answers to these questions. They will visit people in hospitals, markets, homes, government offices, places of business, etc...

Times to get to know each other

40-40 is a very special time given to our new personnel to learn by experience in a controlled setting, cultural things that have taken some of us many years to learn. It is a time for them to prepare for how they will enter their new cultures and begin working with their people. It is a time for them to learn some of the "right" questions to ask, and hopefully avoid some of the blundering mistakes some of us have made in the past!

PLEASE PRAY!

For travel safety on April 22 (to Lusaka); May 4th (to bush camp); May 18 (Return to Lusaka) and May 22( Participants return to countries of service.)

For good health. (Often there is a stomach flu epidemic that spreads during the initial weeks.)

For teachable hearts.

For a spirit of unity and patience for each other as we live in stressful living conditions.

AMTM- Annual Missionary Training Meeting

2009-04-15T01:43:00.000-07:00

TACKY MISSIONARIES!

AMTM is a time for missionaries to come together for a 4-5 day training. April and July are when we meet with missionaries in our particular section. In the past, AMTM is organized by the Strategy leader in conjunction with others help and volunteers are invited from the USA to help out with worship, Bible study, and doing a VBS with children of all ages. It provides time for David to have his many “mini” meetings. We recently met with the Zambia teams for their AMTM. We met at a hotel on Lake Kariba. Dan Carson led out with worship with Rex Jones and new missionary to Zambia, James Langston. Jeff Gibson, from Wynne, Arkansas taught from the book of Ezra and 2 Timothy which was really encouraging as we face so many changes in administration in the IMB these days.

Zambia’s AMTM consisted of times with IMB administration, team strategy discussions, prayer, and of course fun and fellowship! The end of the week culminated with a “cruise” on Lake Kariba

and a “Tacky” evening of fun.

David and I appreciate so much the opportunity to spend some time with families that we have not known very well and get to know the new personnel.

Please pray for the “harvesters” in Zambia. Pray that their passion for reaching the lost would only grow and become more urgent. Pray against discouragement, loneliness, and apathy. Pray for the many new missionaries who have come as they try to learn their various languages. Pray for perseverance. Pray for an abundant harvest of souls in Zambia!

Easter Blessing

2009-04-12T07:17:00.000-07:00

I prayed this morning that God would speak to me in a special way as I read through parts of Leviticus. It being Easter, I wanted more from my devotions than just reading about all the various sacrifices and laws that were required in order for one to approach God. As I read about all the barriers that prohibited man from being able to approach our Holy God because of sin and imperfections, I then compared that with what was written about Jesus in Philippians 2. Jesus, even though he was with God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped. He humbled himself and became a man...and was obedient...even unto death...on the cross! Jesus in his perfection, came and lived among, interacted, touched, forgave and healed those who were so sinful and imperfect! Jesus touched the blind, the lame, demon possessed, adulterous women, diseased, etc... (these were things strictly forbidden for the High priests in Leviticus! Any contact with these imperfections made him unclean and unable to approach God on behalf of others!) However, Jesus took on all our imperfections and then became our sacrificial lamb. I am made clean and beautiful because of his willingness to take on my impurities! I am able to approach God because of His blood that was shed for me! Thank you Jesus for your blood that covers my imperfections, ugliness, sin and making it possible for me to approach God! Thank you so very much! My morning devotions from Leviticus combined with Philippians 2 have been a blessing to me all day!

Another week has come and gone!

2009-03-29T02:13:00.000-07:00

This past week has been a full week, but fun. It began with a "formal" Italian Bistro-themed Birthday party for one of our J-girls and a friend. It was nice to see our men dressed in nicer than "normal" clothing. David and I were discussing what he should wear to this dinner. With it being quite warm still, I said, "oh, just wear a tie and no jacket". The following night we were visiting with some friends and they too got in the discussion about what her husband should wear. She suggested to her husband, "oh just wear a jacket and no tie..." =) .....We went to the party and waited for the honored guests to arrive. We weren't there 10 minutes and the electricity went off. We were able to light up the house with candles before they arrived and the party was a great success in spite of there being no electricity all evening!

We had several good visits from missionary friends from Mozambique. It has been such a blessing to visit and pray with them regarding their work. It also stirs up the emotions and memories of what we have been called away from ...for now. Please continue to pray for the young growing church in Northern Mozambique among the Yao. Pray for needed personnel to come and work in northern Mozambique as logistic coordinators. Pray for workers to come and be willing to give up some of the comforts of life to get the Gospel to difficult places in Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Angola, and Southeast Congo.

This weekend brought several families with students attending Rift Valley Academy here to pick them up for their March/April break. It is always such a nice reunion for both parents and their kids! How we wish our kids were coming home!!!!

Next week we will be traveling to Zambia to participate in their annual week of missionary training. Please pray for the many who will be traveling over difficult roads next week. Pray for us as we interact with our missionary family. Pray that we be used of God for His glory and be and encouragement to others. Pray for a spirit of humility and teachable-ness for all of us.

Visit to Maputo, 3/09

2009-03-21T00:17:00.000-07:00

How nice it was to be able to make a quick visit with our colleagues/friends, the Lechner family who live and work in Maputo, Mozambique this past week. We did get a good "Mozambican welcome"...when one evening we were driving back from a restaurant and were stopped by the police. David and I did not have our seat belts on (in the back seat) and the police decided he needed to give Charlie a 1.000.000,00 MTS multa! We felt so badly and with a lot of prayer and begging for forgiveness, the police forgave the infraction and let us go! (None of us have ever seen this law and for all we know, it may exist!)

Aside from that welcome, we were able to have a wonderful visit with the Lechners and to see some of the ministries that they are involved in. Charlie Lechner is the acting Strategy Facilitators for the southern cluster of Mozambique. He oversees missionaries strategies for reaching the peoples where they work and how those plans are enacted. Their role involves mentoring and encouraging new missionaries. Also the role involves seeking out new areas of work and requesting personnel to be placed in those strategic places. Please pray for Charlie as he has a "full plate". Southern Mozambique has so much potential to grow, there are many places were the Gospel has not reached and he needs wisdom to identify those places and to request personnel for those places. It will involve him traveling and being away from family and this will not be easy.

The Lechner children (4) attend a small Christian school which is made up of children and staff from all over the world. Many of the children come from Christian families, but not all. They have an awesome opportunity to be an example to their peers as to how to live out their Christian life.

Angie is very involved in teaching guitar lessons twice a week and also leading a Bible Study on Wednesday afternoons for about 15 students. Please pray for her as she continues with these activities, that she have wisdom from above and take the opportunities God puts before her to share the Gospel with the lost who come across her path. Pray for Angie as she mentors new missionaries, and as she tries to be an encouragement to other missionaries who have lived in Maputo longer than she has. Pray for the family as they will have times of separation because of Charlie's job.

Prayer Retreat- 2

2009-03-12T02:19:00.001-07:00

We just got back from a weekend prayer retreat that was held down on Lake Malawi. What a beautiful spot to come together with our missionaries and just spend time praying with and for each other. We are so thankful that our churches in the USA make it possible for us to have these annual prayer retreats to come together to pray and worship in our own language and also to find a little time to play!

One of the privileges that David has is to recognize missionaries years of service on the field. In the picture above, the couple (Brown, in the middle) is being recognized for 25 years of service! They have been such an inspiration to so many in persevering through very difficult times of war, health, emotional trauma, loss of friends, separation from their children, multiple languages, such a love and passion for reaching the lost and the list could go on. We praise God for such wonderful examples as these!

Please remember to pray for your missionaries. Pray that they persevere in trials, that they be patient in suffering, that they work with a vision, a sense of urgency and passion, a boldness, and because of the "joy set before them" that they run the race with endurance that God has put them in!

Prayer Retreat

2009-03-05T06:24:00.000-08:00

IMB Missionaries in the Greater Malawi Cluster will be getting together this weekend for a time of prayer. One of the areas that we will be looking at comes from James 5:13-16 which addresses praying with and for the saints, confessing sin, and the (fervent) prayer of the righteous man is powerful and effective. Please pray for David and me as we lead in this particular study on Saturday. The scripture speaks often of how God opposes the proud, hates a prideful heart, etc.. I believe that pride is the umbrella which keeps our prayers blocked to God. God's rays or showers of blessings are blocked by the umbrella of pride that we carry with us every day! I wonder how many missed opportunities I have had to see God working wonders among the lost and in my own life because of pride?! Who am I to expect a Holy God to attend to my prayers when there is even a hint of pride rearing it's ugly face to God?!?! Please pray for David and me to be God's humble servants in all that we do and say at home and with the saints! Please pray that our fellow missionaries will come away from this prayer retreat having met with God, encouraged, and emboldened to serve their Father with a sense of urgency!

Journeyman Program

2009-03-02T04:36:00.000-08:00

The International Mission Board has a wonderful program for recent college graduates called the “Journeyman Program”. It is a missions opportunity for young adults to come to the field for 2-3 years and work in various capacities with a supervising missionary. Often these young adults are seeking God’s guidance into career mission work, and eventually end up on the field as career missionaries. For more information on the Journeyman program, you can look it up at: http://www.goingimb.org/ . Check it out!

Malawi is privileged to have two of the greatest Journey girls one could ask for. Johanna and Kym came to Malawi just over a year ago and have been teaching in various schools. As they are permitted, they also teach True Love Waits during the student’s free hours. Recently they have been invited into a private international school and have just started up a Bible club! They have had many opportunities to make friends with many young people of different nationalities and faiths.

We ask that you pray for Kym and Johanna as they be a light in a dark world. Pray that they continue to be bold in their sharing of their faith. Pray for wisdom and boldness in sharing God’s plan for salvation, a new life in Christ, and for Christian young adults to keep themselves sexually pure. Sexual promiscuity is very prevalent in this country as is all over the world. Unless Christ changes the lives of the young people, it will only continue. Along with this, is the increase of AIDS or (SIDA). Please pray for the Christian young people in Malawi to be strong in their faith and to be examples of how to live sexually pure lives.

Turkey visit

2009-02-28T05:47:00.001-08:00

One aspect of David's job is attending various meetings in our section. Recently we both were privileged to attend a meeting in Turkey. We were able to meet many M's who work all over the world in difficult places. We felt honored and even humbled to be amongst so many believers who are willing to serve for the sake of Jesus Christ. It was a good meeting which involved sharing some "best practices" in our areas of work and being encouraged to persevere in spite of little visible results as is the case in some regions. We strongly believe there are many places in this world where the "the soil has been prepared", "seed has been sown", and we are just waiting for the abundant "harvest" to come! It was an opportunity to encourage Christian workers all over the world to work with great expectation, boldness in sharing their faith with a sense of urgency as we never know when our time will be up! Our understanding of worlds where the Gospel witness is greatly suppressed was definately enlarged.

*Pray for your Christian brothers and sisters who have left their homes in order to get the Gospel to difficult places all over this world.

*Pray for the new believers that they boldly share their new found faith in Jesus Christ with their family and friends. Pray that they be encouraged and that God would grow His kingdom in their own villages, towns, and cities!

While in Turkey, we were able to tour Ephesus. That was really an awesome experience!! In spite of the cloudy, drizzely, cold days, we were able to visit the ancient city with a guide. It just amazed us what all the Romans were able to do way back in their day! It was a neat feeling that we were walking on the same streets; standing in the same theaters; and visiting the same library, etc... where the apostle Paul and many other's had been so many years ago! We also toured Istanbul and that too was quite awesome. I would reccomend Turkey for anyone! Not only for the history that the country holds, but also the beautiful people, mountians and terrain.

2009-02-18T22:44:00.000-08:00

Hands On (www.hands-on-africa.com)

Hands On is a volunteer project for college students and recent college graduates. Initially Hands On began in CESA and has now expanded to all regions as of January 2009. It is a 4-12 month long program where students who are active members of Southern Baptist churches and/or in Baptist Collegiate Ministry come to the field and are involved in missions. The purpose of Hands On is to help create an interest in overseas missions with the current generation by offering opportunities to share Christ through various volunteer projects/platforms. These projects will usually follow the USA college semester system.

Students raise their own transport costs, visas, and insurance (a total of $2600) and once they are on the field, they will have housing, transport and communication costs covered along with a monthly food allowance. Folks, this is an amazing opportunity for our young people! We just pray the program will continue in spite of the poor economy!

This January, there were over 100 students who have gone throughout the world for the next 4-5 months. CESA has 29 of these students! Malawi has just received their first five Hands On students. Three (2 young ladies and 1 young man) are working with missionaries who are south of us in the town of Thyolo, and there are two young men are here in Lilongwe with one of our missionaries who work with students. We are excited to have these young people who are showing an interest in missions, wanting to know more and seeking God’s will for their lives in the future.

Steve and Bryce will be traveling with an interpreter to various villages and camping there during the week with the hopes of sharing their faith, addressing AIDS and giving God’s guidelines for His people to obtain from premarital sex through True Love Waits program, and showing the Jesus film. This will be a challenge as promiscuity is abundant in this part of Africa and generally not challenged.

Please pray for Steve and Bryce who are here in Lilongwe. Pray that they remain healthy. Pray that they remain focused on the task set before them. Pray that God would grow their faith and love for their Father in the weeks to come. Please pray for teachable hearts and that many young people will come to Jesus as a result of their efforts.

Back in Lilongwe...for a few days

2009-02-03T00:20:00.000-08:00

Well, we are back home again in Lilongwe. We had a good three weeks of Church Planting training for Strategy Leaders for our section along with the Southern Section South. We are thankful for good health and for the good fellowship we had with the participants. We just pray that they have gone away more focused and encouraged in their plans to reach the various people that they are working with. here was a lot of rain and much cooler than I anticipated.... I will learn someday to aways bring a jacket with me even if it is 100 degrees where I am coming from!

It is good to be back home. The place has really transformed into a beautiful Eden of flowers as you can see some of the pictures I have added. We are so thankful for this place that we can enjoy when we are home!

God has given us a wonderful man to work in and around our home. His name is Esau. He is a believer, married with two little girls. Esau is a deacon for his church, also assistant treasure. He will be training the new treasure and requests prayer that this work could be done with integrity. Pray for Esau and his family to grow in their faith and to be a light for Jesus in this community.

Recently our daughter, Anna, who is attending Liberty, sent us some prayer requests that she said I could post. She is again leading a prayer/Bible study group in her dorm of girls.

Anna writes:

"I have been so filled with a spirit of joy for the past few days and it has been so wonderful. It's like God captures me in His Greatness and I can't get out of constant amazement and awe of His holiness. Praise the Lord... He really is so wonderful. I have been reading this book for one of my classes and I LOVE it. It is called "Pleasures Evermore" it's by a man named: Sam Storms. It is SUCH a GOOD book. I would most definitely suggest you guys reading it. It just talks about how much pleasure is found in falling in love with our Christ Jesus. And how to reach others who have rejected Christ by presenting our relationship with Him as the most pleasurable experience in the world. Who could reject that???? Isn't that what we all look for in life? Comfort, love, significance and pleasure? We come to realized that through our relationship with Christ, He is the MOST pleasurable experience we will ever have and ever long for. He covers every sin, all guilt with His abounding love and satisfies every desire we could ever have. "

A few prayer requests from Anna:
1. M1. a girl in my prayer group who does not have a relationship with Christ, she is close but cannot bring herself to accept that such a "wonderful" God would allow such horrible things to happen. She was severely abused as a child by her "M" father, she lost a sister to illness, and only has a young sister left. She is constantly worried about her sister... afraid something might happen to her. She is so bound by fear that is controls her. Pray for FREEDOM in Christ for her. May she break free from her bondage and find restoration in Christ Jesus. She never grew up with "religion" or anything else being offered to her, so when the first person came along... happening to be Mormons, she accepted their kindness and has fallen into their lies, she is realizing the deception of the cult and is rejecting it... Pray she never finds comfort in this world, but only in Christ. She has been on my heart since the first day I met her and now I am her prayer leader. Pray God will give me wisdom in how to reach out to her and present Christ as the greatest pleasure and comfort.
2. M2.. another girl in my prayer group. She has struggled with addictions since she was very young. She is a new believer and is trying to overcome her addiction to smoking. She is strong in her walk with the Lord and loves Him so much. She is just trying to defeat something that is probably one of the hardest things to beat. Pray for strength and perseverance. Pray that I might be able to keep her accountable.
3. My schooling... I am in some tough classes and rarely find time to study for them. I am so busy it is hard to be on top of everything. Pray that I might keep my schedule orderly and that Christ will ALWAYS come first... second being school. **TIME MANAGEMENT** Pray I keep my focus and strive for the ultimate goal in life: "My effort for His Kingdom"
4. Praise the Lord, I have been so blessed. School tuition has been reduced $540.00 for next semester due to the economic crisis. Liberty is doing better than it ever has, financially, so they have been so gracious to reduce tuition fees for the Fall of '09. ;) That's $540.00 my family doesn't have to come up with. Haha
5. Pray for my friend E.V. she has denounced her faith and turned for our Loving Father. She is DEEP into worldly things and pray that I might be used by God to reach out to her and restore a dwindled friendship.
6. Praise the Lord, I have found a church family. I am praying about joining so pray with me about that.

2009-01-22T07:40:00.000-08:00

Praise!
I just wanted to let you all know that we are about to finish our second week of Church Planting/ Strategy leader training in South Africa. We have a great group of missionaries and feel that God is blessing. We will be here until the end of January. Thanks so much for your prayers for this meeting. There has been pretty good health and a great spirit of unity among all participants and the training seems to be well received. We praise God for this!

Nathaniel and Anna
We have been able to talk with our kids several times and we just praise God for what he is doing in their lives. Both are happy and growing in their faith. Nathaniel was able to return to Liberty with God’s provision for the tuition fees that he needed to come up with. He has moved to an apartment as it is a little cheaper,….and of course, he doesn’t mind being off campus at all! Anna is leading another prayer group this semester and is very excited about that. Please continue to pray for them as they face daily challenges to live out their faith in obedience to God’s Word. I don’t know how much Nathaniel is able to fly these days, but he is trusting God to provide for him in order to complete his flying requirements. He does have a part time job and that is helping with housing fees and some flight fees. We are thankful that God has provided this job.

New Assignment
As many of you are aware, the International Mission Board is undergoing a lot of organizational changes. Included in these changes was the administrative structure of how we are set up on the field. We came into the role of Strategy Associate July 2007. We moved from our home in Mozambique to Lilongwe, Malawi in September to be more accessible to others and travel. Just before we moved, we were informed that the Strategy Associate position would be dissolved. Of course this was somewhat unsettling, but we just trusted that God knows what was going on and that He had something for us. In December, David was asked to pray about taking on a similar job as Cluster Strategy Leader for basically the same area that he is presently overseeing. Last week, he told the new Affinity Group Strategist for Sub-Saharan Africa that he would take on this new position.

We ask that you please continue to pray for David as he takes on this new role. It will be very similar to what he is already doing, with a few additions/changes in responsibilities and perhaps some change in the geographical area that he will oversee. Please pray for Godly wisdom, for discernment, boldness, and a real passion in this work. Pray that we both always remember that we cannot do this job in our own strength. It is only through the help of the Holy Spirit that we will be able to do the job. We are humbled again in our weakness and wonder at why God would choose to use us in this position. We don’t want to do this job because we MUST, but rather because we are WILLING and want to be obedient to what we know God has put on our plate for now. We don’t see ourselves in this job forever, but as someone put it, we are in it “forever.. today.”

Prayer and Praises

2009-01-18T06:11:00.000-08:00

Praise God for a good first week of Leadership training for Team Strategy leaders. We are in Johannesburg, South Africa and have two weeks left in the training. There has been such a sweet spirit among participants and receptivity. We are studying some practical church planting strategies. Please continue to pray for teachable hearts and for unity. Pray for the presenters to be clear in how they communicate various aspects of planting new churches and training new believers to be trainers of others.

Praise God for the 26 young college students that arrived last week for "Hands On" ministry. This is a semester long exposure and experiential program for college students beginning to look into the possibility of foreign missions. They will be living and working with missionaries in Uganda, Botswana, Malawi, and South Africa. Please pray for these young people as they begin their journey in missions. Pray for a focus and perseverance in times of separation from family and friends in the next five months.

Please continue to pray regarding all the re-organization of the IMB and it's administrative structure. Pray that God would guide our leaders in all the decisions that they must make in the months to come. Pray for wisdom in putting leadership in place.

New Begining! Janet's first post!

2009-01-18T05:28:00.000-08:00

Well, folks, I have decided to stretch my technical skills a little and try starting a Blog! Thanks to a dear friend, co-missionary from a much younger generation who is actually having fun teaching me how to do this! She says that I can always add to this so I will start with these two sentences for now!

Picture of Anna and Nathaniel saying goodbye to Chief Nampanda at his garden. (Aug. 2008)