Don’t use an axe to do embroidery.

(Malawian Proverb)

First Blog. Ha, I wonder if anyone will bother to read this. I don’t think blogs will ever catch on. When I set this one up, the hosting site wanted me to buy the premium version. One reason for paying for this is I’ll make more money. Well, don’t send me any money. If you want to support the work we’ll be doing, please support the Presbyterian Church in Canada.

Donate

Nora and I have been getting ready for a year or so. Since mid September, we moved to Toronto – East York – as an interim step on our way to Malawi. In Toronto, we’ve been filling in time, mostly. We’ve walked around the neighbourhood to get some exercise. We’re trying to eat our way through our groceries so we don’t have too much left over to throw away. Our chief concern while in Woodstock was packing the right things to take with us and conversely, the right things to leave behind.

A highlight so far this fall was our trip to London on the Thanksgiving weekend. We visited Nora’s surgeon who pronounced Nora fit to travel. Her brain surgery was a complete success, as far as the surgeon could tell and she can engage in any activity she likes. We also visited with Nora’s sister and we were able to drop our car off in storage in Woodstock. Now we can look out of our window and see the traffic snarled along Eglinton Avenue and practice saying Schadenfreude. (Nora’s pronounciation is pretty good). I dream now about buying cars and having to get a car repaired, but it feels pretty good to wake up.

We are also studying some Chichewa, the most common local language in Malawi. We are following an APP that gives us a bunch of words each day to memorise. We also have an ebook that takes us through some useful phrases. I’m at 575 words, about. We’ll find out if I can come up with these words when needed.

Well, that was entry one. I still don’t think blogs will catch on. But, I thought that a lot of things wouldn’t catch on: SUVs, conservative politics, CB radios, lotteries, on line gambling, selfies, pet rocks, poutine, … Next I should talk about what Nora and I will be doing in Malawi. Or maybe I can write about our holiday in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe in the weeks leading up to the beginning of our assignment.

We are a retired couple, hoping to make a small difference in the world.

The Presbyterian Church has given us an assignment in Malawi. The Canadian church has been working alongside the Malawian Presbyterian Church with prison inmates. We have been asked to teach high school – level subjects in the Chichiri prison in Blantyre.

We left Canada on November 22nd. After spending a couple of weeks in Malawi, getting ready for our assignment, we vacationed for four weeks in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe.

• Pictures to come.
• Stories to relate.

On January 2, 2020, I had emergency eye surgery and after a recovery period, we both started work. Nora was first since she could fly while I was told to stay put. We hope you find our experiences worth reading about.

Maybe you’d like to visit us while we’re in Africa?

• Pray for us
• Pray for the inmates with whom we’ll be working. I’ll share some of their conditions.
• Pray for the country of Malawi. It’s a very poor country. I’ll share some of the conditions that everyone lives in here.
• Whether or not you come to visit, Nora and I hope we can see many people when we come home and share face-to-face.

Send no money to us, but the Presbyterian Church in Canada has many projects throughout Malawi. Those projects can use your support.

Here’s one project, although it’s not specific to Malawi. https://www.gifttool.com/shop/ShopProductDetails?ID=2034&VER=1&LNG=EN&PID=56225&DID=1229