Jesus Loves Malawi June Newsletter

Dear friends, It has been a long time since youve heard from us and you may be wondering what we have been up to. Well, we have been busy (dont we say that every time?). Just for fun, though, let us walk you through a typical day: Our day starts by waking up early under a mosquito net.... and waking up is also where anything typical about our day ends!!! Life here is full of surprises. You see, we may be waking up in a village mud hut, where we shared the room with some chickens, or we may have slept in our tent in the village, or in our cottage on the Bible School campus. Sometimes we even enjoy the comforts of our own home. We have a very nice place to live, but in the last couple of months we have been unusually busy and spent more time on the road than at home. Even when we are home we may wake up and find that we dont have water and/or electricity, making simple things like taking a shower or fixing coffee a little more challenging. (And as I write this, the power just came back on again. Hurray!!!) So, waking up is when our adventures start! And they usually dont end till we go to bed. We love living here! But what do we do all day? Well, in general we try to have private Chichewa lessons 5 days a week (a real challenge with all our travel), from 7:30 - 9:00 am. And then we spend about 2-3 days a week in the villages, teaching, preaching, showing the Jesus Film and trying to help and encourage the pastors in whatever way we can. On the days that we are home Steffi will homeschool the kids after our language lessons and Dean often finds himself doing office work, such as calling pastors, administration, preparing for weekend teaching, or a course at the Bible School, etc. Of course, we also try to make time to actually study our Chichewa and do our homework. Another extremely time consuming thing is simply getting settled in Africa. Yes, we are still getting things set up. Would you believe that it took 3 months and many, many visits to Road Traffic Control before we finally got a learners permit? Then we had to wait for 30 days before we could apply (and pay for) the driving test which they dont require us to take! (Since were converting our existing licenses). I finally got that accomplished today. It was delayed because their network is often down, so nothing gets done. After paying for the test we still have to go back again to apply for a permanent licence (and stand in the same three lines in two different offices just to make a payment and get a printout)! Or would you believe us if we told you that we opened a bank account in December, but did not receive our ATM card till April? Then it took even longer to get our PIN number just so that we could use the card. Yes, things take a long time in Africa and you can spend a lot of time running from office to office, waiting in line, and have very little to show for it at the end of All set up for the Jesus Film. the day. Things are improving, though. It all may sound a little crazy, and, I guess, life in Africa is crazy, but then, so are we. So we figure its a good fit ;) Well, let us share about our last few weeks. Mid May we travelled to our Bible School in Lilongwe where Dean was privileged to teach a 2 week intensive course on the Gospels. The students did very well and learned a lot. On our way back home from Lilongwe we stopped in a village (as we had done on the drive there) to do some lay leader training and show the Jesus Film. Things went extremely well. After the

film MANY people came forward to pray and people continued praying and worshipping God till the generator ran out of fuel around midnight. They then went inside the church building and continued praising God in the dark for what He had done (there is no electricity in the villages). At that point Dean decided to join the rest of the family who were in the tent, and get some rest before preaching the next morning. It was good to lie down, and even though we didnt sleep much we got a better rest that the congregation who stayed up ALL night worshipping with singing, clapping, and drums. They stopped around 6:00 am to go home, wash up, have breakfast, and where back at church at 10:00 am! We are praising God that in the last several months we were able to show the Jesus Film to thousands of people, and hundreds have responded! One of the reasons we love living here is that people are so hungry for Gods Word, and there are so many ministry opportunities! But there is a great shortage here of trained Bible teachers, in a culture where most people either cant read, or dont own a Bible. Shortly after coming home from that village, Dean headed out again to celebrate something quite different. Many people in Malawi do not have access to clean drinking water, and often people spend a good part of the day Enjoying clean, clear water at one of the four taps walking to the water hole, standing in of the Mulanje Water Project line, then walking back, carrying the bucket on their heads and hoping that their children dont get sick from the water. On a couple of occasions now we have had the privilege to dedicate a well or help a church fix a well with money provided from Christians in North America. This past Thursday we had a ceremony for a very special project that will supply 2000 people surrounding four villages with fresh drinking water. Water is collected from a mountain spring, flows through a series of four sedimentation tanks, and then is piped to four taps further down the mountain. As far as we know, nothing like it has ever been done in Malawi, and the project grew out of the fact that the drilling rig couldnt make it to a mountain village, so a different approach was needed. Now four villages have clean water, not just one. The press and several government officials were all there to celebrate this life changing event. Many more villages still need safe water, however. At one church Dean visited, when the mountain stream dries up in dry season, the people have to walk about three kilometres down to the lake, then struggle back up the steep hill with the water. Normally this task is done by the women. But in this village the men have stepped in because it is such hard work. At least they have water, however. In many places the water source (which may be several kilometers away) slows to a trickle in dry season, resulting in dirty water, and long lines in the hot sun. If you would like to contribute to drilling more wells at some of our village churches, U.S. donors can send gifts to Free Methodist World Missions to provide clean water through Clear Blue Water Project, a Free Methodist Charity working with F.M. Missions to drill wells in villages where we have a Free Methodist Church. Write your check to: Free Methodist World Missions, PO Box 535002, Indianapolis, IN 46253-5002. IMPORTANT: Be sure to write Global Water Project - Malawi in the memo line. And check out Clear Blue Water Project on the web. For Canadian donors, we hope to be able give instructions when the proper permissions are granted by the government. On a personal note, we are praising God for miraculously providing for us. One of the hardest things about leaving Canada for our children was saying goodbye to Esther, our Golden Retriever. Knowing

that guard dogs are a necessary part of life here we promised them we would try to get another dog. But finding a good dog here in Malawi is easier said than done, especially since we didnt just want a mean guard dog, but a family dog - big enough to bark and scare away thieves (Malawians are generally afraid of any large dog - weve even been asked if they might be part lion), but friendly enough to have around children and visitors. After searching for eight months and failing to find the right dog, we decided to earnestly ask God for just the right dog. He provided us with not just one, but two beautiful dogs imported by their former owners from South Africa, because these dogs are not bred here. When his business moved them to Taiwan, they decided to give us their dogs. And guess what!? They are pure bred Golden Retrievers! We gave up one pet, and God blessed us with two, even of the same breed! (and suitable as guard dogs as well, because of their size and their loud but friendly bark ;). Isnt that just like God? As always, thank you for your ongoing prayers. Please pray that we will always be Spirit led, that God will bring a great harvest here and for good discipleship to happen, for Christ centered change to come to Malawi and that impoverished Malawians will be able to improve their lives, and that God will keep us all safe and healthy. Mulungu Akudalitseni (May God bless you). With Love,

Dean and Stephanie Babcock

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Jonathan, Sarah, and Christopher with their new pet lions.