Meet Maggie!

Okay everyone...Meet Maggie!

 

Maggie also is a very talented hair stylist....and she really wanted to try her skills on some mzungu hair.

 

Whaddya think? Just so you know..that mug hurts! I feel for you Dana when you get your hair done. Ouch!

 

I wore my hair like this for church the next day. I got a lot more looks than I normally do. 

Christmas in July!

I went to Lilongwe this past week with the 4 Laffoons kids for a "Soul Care." This mission group from Norfolk, VA ( I told them all about you Uncle Stew!) came to do a Ladies Retreat and also a VBS for the kids. So Eric and Lisa decided to stay in Mzuzu, and I took the kids down with me.

It is a 4 1/2 hour drive down to the city.
Did you know there are over 90 speed bumps (little tiny ones) on the way?
Also, there are 14 bridges that you cross over.
Plus, tons of road kill, and a couple of bricks tied to a tree (Why you may ask? Well, to keep them from falling off.)
So, as you can see, we learned to entertain ourselves on the way down.

Anyway, it was a great time. I got lots of fun treats and candy and hang out with some people my age. One of the guys even graduated from Bob Jones! We had a good talk about that. :)

BUUT, one of the best parts...I got 3 packages!! WOOT! Lots of candy and fun stuff from America. I tell you...its like Christmas when you get a package!

Thanks Mom!! Really happy that the package that got sent to Malaysia finally reached Malawi. ha.
Thanks Clayton and Mrs. Mostinger!! You guys are sooo sweet! What a great gift for a teacher to be able to keep in touch with her students! Miss you and thank you for thinking of me!
Thanks Mr. Chuck!! They tried to charge me $80 because the customs slip said it had a voice recorder in it, but I charmed my way out of it. :) Thanks for the candy and the mixes! We were REALLY excited about the cheesecake mix.

A sad part of coming to Lilongwe was to say bye to Kym. She was the journeyman that I stayed with when I first came to Malawi. Well, her term is over and she is headed back to America on Aug 1. Also, another Baptist Missionary couple that I really have spent a lot of time with is having to leave for good for medical reasons. That happened very quickly. We learned about that the first week of July, and they are flying out at the end of July. So sad. Plus, another couple is leaving for their Stateside Assignment.

I now am the only Journeyman in Malawi! Wow!

26!...It rounds to 30.

The hotel where I do my internet has been down since the 2nd of July. This means no updates for June, no happy birthday emails, no reports, no personal emails that have been trapped in my outbox of Mac Mail have been able to be sent out.

That also means no video skyping for my birthday week. Pity party for myself. :)

But I did have one awesome birthday on Monday. We went out to the lake for the day called Chintechi Inn. WOW! I felt like I was in the bahamas! White white sand...blue green water...little thatch roof huts sprinkled along the beach, and no one around. It was glorious!

We saw baboons on our way there, drove through the rubber plantation, and ended the night with birthday cake, chili for dinner, and a little Jane Austen, Emma. A super birthday.

Maybe when I get my internet back I can put up pictures.

So thanks everyone for all of the birthday wishes. I needed to hear from people back home so badly. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

And a special Happy Birthday to Paul Hart, Megan Griffith, and Bethany Crescenzi who all have birthdays with me. Wish I could be with you guys! Love you!!

Also, thanks mom for the birthday package that I got a day after my birthday. I cried like a baby as I read all the cards. There's something about seeing your family's handwriting that is very precious, and I've never cherished it until now. I love you!!

Dear Maggie,

 It was exactly a year ago yesterday that I was excitingly opening a letter saying that I had been officially accepted to be a journeyman in Mzuzu, Malawi.

So, I believe I can say that I have been praying for you for a year now. I started immediately praying for a friend in Mzuzu, whether another white person or a Malawian.

I have to admit, I thought that God had given me a "no" for an answer many time over the past 6 months. I had cried, wailed, pleaded, begged, and finally accepted that these two years was going to be a lonely season in my life.

Then, when I wasn't looking for it, you showed up. You sought me out...and not because you wanted a white person be your friend, but because you heard I was doing children's ministry and you have a huge heart for it.

I did think at first that this was another failed attempted at a friendship when we didn't talk for 2 weeks after meeting each other. But then, when I came to the orphange this week, and they had forgotten to plan for my visit, I was sure I had driven out there and just wasted gas. I think its pretty cool that right as I sat down on a random sidewalk, you walked out of your house. Providential? I think so.

Sharing with you in your house and hearing your heart for children was so humbling. You took great care to pull out the few children's evangelistic materials you have saved over the past few years. You were so excited to show them to me! I admit I felt so spoiled...most of them were the "toss-off" materials of old sunday school guides. You told me how you were saving up your money so you could photocopy a children's bible story book you borrow from a friend. You were so amazed at how they put the Bible stories with pictures and into kid's language and you knew it would be such an asset to your sunday school class. I was so humbled.

When I learned that you were the only Christian in your family, my admiration for you just grew. Your mother and sister didn't understand why you thought you needed "Jesus" and why their old Catholism ways and their works weren't good enough to go to heaven. I could tell that you were so burdened for them.

Sharing that afternoon with you listening to our favorite worship songs, talking about our lives, you teaching me how to make chips, and just sharing our hearts was so wonderful.

So, thanks Maggie.
Thanks for being willing to follow Jesus.
Thanks for being willing to be friends with a Mzungu (white person) because I know its not always easy.

You are an answer to a lot of prayers.

Love,
Lauren

Dear Maggie,

Pleasantly Surprised.

A while ago, I wrote a blog about struggling when to give money and who to give money to. That blog came out of the frustration and heaviness I felt of the responsibility of being the "rich" person around these people I came to minister too.

My night guard, who is in his 60's and a very sweet man, came to me the afternoon I wrote that blog. His wife had been in the hospital with some very serious problems and now they were sending her home. Except, his bill was 10,000 kwatcha and they would not let her leave until  he paid at least half of that.

Let me put this situation in perspective for you...My night guard makes 14 cents an hour. Yes. $1.68 a day. So his monthly salary is $44. This is the standard across the country.

The hospital bill was $70. That is almost double his monthly salary. So you can see why he came to me in a panic.

When he showed me the amount, I didn't know what to do. I struggled and wrestled with what I should give him. I have been told countless times that you can't give to everyone, and that you should never give out large sums of money. At first, i was just going to give him the 5,000 Kwatcha so she could at least leave the hospital. You see, I was down to my last $100 myself. 

I finally talked myself into giving him 8,000. Surely they could eventually come up with 2,000 Kwatcha later. After I gave him the 8,000, I was immediately convicted. "Lauren, why have I blessed you with money? To hoard it? Who's money is it anyway? Give him all of the money."

Uggg. I ran and stopped him at the gate and I gave him the rest of the 10,000. He smiled at me and just kept saying, "yewo, yewo mama." (Thank you, ma'am)

At that point, I wasn't sure if the money was even going to a hospital bill. Sometimes you just don't know. People coming up with heartbreaking stories to pull on the purse strings of white people is so common here. But, I knew in my heart I had done what God told me to do.



So, that was back in April.

Fast forward to tonight. This is the first time I have been around to pay my nightguard his salary. I went out to give him his 6,600 he receives each month. He just looks at me and says,

"Mama, you gave me the money to get my wife out of the hospital. Take back 1,000. Keep 1,000 each month until I pay you back for what you did. You are such a good madam."

I just stood there speechless as tears came to my eyes. Do you realize the sacrifice he just made? He gave up many days worth of food so that he could pay me back. I never asked him to repay the money and never expected him to.

Wow. Just wow.