Baptism of New Believers!

This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend a baptismal service in an area here in Lilongwe. I was invited by one of my students, who has been going to this area on Saturdays to do evangelism. This is an area where there is not a Baptist church nearby, and this student had the desire to see a church planted. From this evangelism endeavor, six individuals accepted Christ and desired to be baptized!

Not far from this place is a church from another denomination that has a large outdoor baptismal pool. They agreed to allow us to use their facility in order to perform these baptisms. So on Saturday morning, this is what took place.

I arrived in the morning to the house of one of the ladies who was to be baptized. With me were four of my students, who had arranged a time of teaching before the baptisms took place. I spoke a little to the adults about what baptism is and what it is not. At the same time, one of the students taught the children outside. After a time of praying, singing, and teaching, we left the house to walk to the baptismal site. When we arrived, we sang some more and celebrated together what these baptisms symbolized. One of the students baptized these six individuals.

Once everyone had dried off and changed, we walked back to the house for a time of dedicating the children to God. Another student led this time, praying over each of the children. After this came the task of choosing a name for this new gathering of believers, and it was decided to call this group “Redemption Baptist Church.” Please pray for this new group and the one who will lead it. Pray that these students will continue to follow up with this gathering, so that they might be encouraged and boldly share with others.

As I reflect on this day, it gave me great joy not only to witness the public testimony of new followers of Christ, but to see my students taking the lead in building up the church in Malawi. Our role here in Malawi is a 2 Timothy 2:2 type of role. Paul wrote to Timothy, “What you have heard from me, in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these things to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.” We are not so much on the front lines of church planting in Malawi as we are behind the scenes, equipping men and women to lead in building up the church here. We may not always be in this country, and we will never know the language or the people like these students will. But it gives me great joy to see the fruit of our labor and to see these students in action, passionate about sharing the gospel and growing the church, all for God's honor and glory.

Kyle and Elizabeth's wedding!

The entire reason we made our quick trip back to the States this month was to celebrate Joseph's brother's marriage. Back last July when Kyle and Elizabeth got engaged we were so excited for them but at the same time it was bittersweet for us because we were unsure if our whole family would be able to make the trip back for their wedding. Luckily the Lord provided and worked out all the details for Joseph, H and I to make the trip back to celebrate with them in person.

Joseph stood up as his brother's best man, and H got to join in all the wedding fun too, as the ring bearer. I must admit it was very different attending a wedding for the first time as a mother of a toddler and, at that, a toddler who was in the wedding. I spent a majority of time chasing around H in his cute little cowboy boots and fretting that he was going to disturb the ceremony! Luckily he behaved very well and made my job a little easier! He only escaped me once and I don't think the bride or the groom noticed his little rendezvous up to his daddy at the front!

Kyle and Elizabeth got married at a beautiful farm venue in Christiansburg, VA. The weather the day of the wedding was gorgeous! Sunny, but not too hot...we all managed to get sunburned but to be honest I didn't think that when I left Africa that I would need to bring sunscreen back to the States with me! Oh well!

It was a lot of fun celebrating them and enjoying a fun time with family and friends. H was the star of the show (after the bride of course!). I would say the second most stressful thing of the wedding day for me (after H not disturbing the ceremony) was trying to keep track of who had our child! Due to the cuteness of our child and his willingness to love on anyone who will give him attention it was an all day battle to keep track of who had him last. Don't get me wrong, I was loving having a little bit of a break from being hugely pregnant and trying to chase our 16 month old around in heels at a farm! But, I did have a couple minor freak outs the day of the wedding trying to locate our child.

I can also say now I have a new appreciation for pregnant women who attend weddings and spending the reception dancing away! Whew! after one cupid shuffle dance I was done in! I think I underestimated how much energy it takes to get down on the dance floor with a beach ball under my dress! Oh well, it was fun and I loved my one group dance at the wedding. Hopefully the next time I attend a wedding I will not be pregnant and I will be able to cut a rug all night out on the dance floor!

All in all it was a fun and beautiful day spent with friends and family. I couldn't have asked for a  better cap off to our week in the States. We love you Kyle and Elizabeth and are praying for a beautiful start to your marriage. We pray for you guys often and we hope that you guys center your lives around Christ knowing that everything else is second to your individual walks with him!

I hope you enjoy some of these sweet pics from the wedding day!

First dance, to one of my favorite songs "Everything" by Micheal Buble'

Elizabeth and her parents. We are so thankful to have them all in our lives, such a sweet family.

H being pulled down the aisle by Joseph, in a cute wagon
that said "Uncle Kyle here comes your bride"

The cutest ring bearer and the handsome groom!

H styling at the reception. There was a photo booth with lots
of props and he was loving all the hats!

All the Veres men

H with his Uncle and Aunt after the ceremony

Our family after the ceremony. I can't get over how cute H was!

And here he is before the Ceremony displacing decorations!
What a stinker!

Whirlwind trip to the States!

We are back home in Malawi now after a wonderful 8 days back in America. We were so lucky to have the chance to all go back for Joseph's brothers wedding. We didn't know if we would all be able to go back due to finances (a round trip plane ticket from Lilongwe to DC is around $1,400 pp) but our Lord is so good and He listens to His children and answers our prayers. We were able to find plane tickets out of Lusaka, Zambia (a 10-11 hr car ride away from us) for less than $700 pp round trip! Say what!?!? We are still in awe of how cheap the tickets were! Although going this route added some extra travel time to our trip, it was so worth it to all be able to return back home!

The Lord blessed us with a wonderful little traveler in H. That kid did so well with our 30+hours of airplane/airport travels one way! I also was thankful that I was able to stay fairly comfortable this late in my pregnancy with all the travel!

We arrived in DC on Sunday the 17th and were greeted by Joseph's  parents. It was so good to walk out those double doors to the luggage carousels and see their smiling faces! It didn't take Hudson long to warm right up to Grandpa and Grandma and before all our luggage had come off the carousel he was busy letting Grandma chase him around the airport, to which I was very thankful because this prego mommy didn't have much energy left at that point!

Our week was full of running around Lynchburg doing errands, doctor appointments, eating lots of yummy food but most importantly cherishing sweet time with our families.

I amazed at how much the Lord answered our prayers about this trip. I spent weeks worrying and over analyzing how we were going to get everything accomplished that we needed to plus be able to spend quality and equal times with our families. And of course managing to do all of that in 8 days while trying to recover from jet lag and not know what H's sleeping schedule would be like. Well can I just say...It was so silly of me to waste so much time worrying! Everything worked out so smoothly. We accomplished everything on our to do list, managed to have awesome quality time with our families and we all converted to our normal sleep schedules day one! If that isn't the power of our Lord on display I don't know what is!!!

Highlights of the trip for me include pedicures with my mom, family pictures with Josephs family, a great OB appointment, fresh milk, a yummy brunch with close friends and spending quality time with my dad and brother at the wedding.

I think one of my favorite overall memories of the trip is just the sweetness of seeing H interact with all of his Grandparents. It was as if we never left and he has always been around them. It made the week so much more enjoyable seeing all of his Grandparents love on him and him being sweet to them.

We just want to say Thank-You to our families and friends who sacrificed to help make our week incredible. Everyone's hospitality and generosity was very overwhelming. We know that we wouldn't be where we are with out everyone's love and support and it was so special to spend a week with you all!

Enjoy some snapshots of our week. Of course the are mainly of H...but that's what everyone wants anyways ;)

H keeping entertained with the large screens on our 13.5hr flight to DC

H got his first hair cut and did so well! Isn't he handsome!

Swinging with Grandpa Jackson

Enjoying snack time with Grandpa Jackson

Grandpa and Nana Jackson spoiled H to fun car rides at the mall.
He loved it!

Nana Jackson swinging with H

Family picture with my parents

My dad, brother Andrew and I

Joseph, Andrew and I

H sharing his Chic Fil A with Grandpa Veres

H enjoying snuggle time with Grandma Veres

H being sweet with his Uncle Kyle

We had the opportunity to get formal family pictures done with
Joseph's side of the family and it was so much fun.
Great Job Kari Sprinkle Photography!

Literacy class

For the past month I (Lily) have had the opportunity to join one of my IMB colleagues and attend the literacy class she teaches out in a village outside of Lilongwe. Our class consists of mainly women but occasionally a gentleman or two shows up. We meet for about 1.5hrs-2hrs. My colleague teaches the lesson which consists of reviewing the vocab words from the previous session and then working on reading 3-4 new words.

To be honest it is quite humbling for me because I am learning alongside of the class in learning how to read Chichewa. Nothing is more humbling from walking into a little church out in the village as a college educated women who had a career in the States as an RN to becoming a beginner reader again!

When then lesson is completed the women then work on writing. There are 4-5 sentences for them to write that include their new vocab words and then they write down the scripture verse for the day. This is where I jump in and help. I review with the ladies that are the more skilled readers and have them read their sentences aloud to me. I also check their work to make sure they have spelled everything correctly. I learned by trial and error that they like to have their papers graded with red pen. Apparently it is not as official looking if it doesn't have a red check mark next to the correct answer! I also leaner that they want big check marks... Not any little ones! I had two students this week hand me back their books so I could make bigger check marks. Apparently my first go around at check their papers was not satisfactory for them! I happily obliged though and made there check marks much more grandiose!

I enjoy the opportunity to go into the village every week and meet with these ladies although my communication with them is very limited we manage to figure things out together. This is also a great oppurtunity to share Christ with these women. every week my colleague shares a story from Creation to Christ and we talk about the story. My prayer is that not only will these women benefit from leaning how to read ( or read better) but that they would also grow in their relationship with Jesus or choose to trust in him.