we were made for this

rest

2011-04-09T03:50:00.002-04:00

we just got back for a three day retreat just outside of town. when we planned this time away, i had a pretty long "to do" list for dan and me to get done. just before we left a friend of ours challenged us a story of how he had once gone away seeking answers and came away unsatisfied. he said if he had only gone to seek God and let the answers come as God had planned it would have been a great experience. i didn't really like letting go of my "to do" list but in the end it was wonderful. we ended up mostly just resting and spending time together as a family. we enjoyed one another- especially our funny little girl. we took walks, drank tea, sang songs that reminded us of our friends, prayed, went swimming, and read. it was lovely. it was relaxing and energizing. it was just what we needed.

-m

a whole month

2011-04-01T16:11:00.003-04:00

i must apologize to my few readers that it has been over a month since i have posted. while i could like to say that life was just normal, the month did include some "exciting" things.

-our computer stopped reading it's wifi card and spent a week in the shop.

-we took olivia to the clinic at 11pm with a mysterious very high fever. it ended up being roseola and took care of itself.

-olivia has started eating solid foods and loves everything. she even made it through the hot sauce that dan accidentally fed her when he gave her some of her food.

-the peri-urban outreach started it's second year.

-our house mate, claire, got her work-permit extension. we are very happy about this because we like having her around!

-i am co-leading a bible study with a lovely group of ladies on Esther.

i think that is a good summary. otherwise our lives keep going.

-m

different

2011-02-23T07:54:00.002-05:00

last week dan and i went on a date and found ourselves in a new mall in town. as we walked through i noticed that we were turning heads and this conversation followed:

me: everyone is looking at us.

d: yep.

me: not many white people come here do they?

d: i saw one but i think he was just walking through.

sometimes i forget we are different- then i go to town and remember.

-m

"can you pray for my son's school placement?"

2011-02-07T07:22:00.000-05:00

one of the most confusing things for me to attempt to wrap my mind around is the school system. because i didn't go through this system or have a child going through it, understanding of it seems to elude me. this is what i know:

-creche (preschool) is now required for a child to be able to enter into grade 1.

-the levels are grade 1-7 and then form 1-6. grades correspond with the grades in america. forms seem to track with high school but not exactly.

-there are exams all the time. exams are a big deal here because that is what the schools use to pass or fail a student. exams are also used for school placement.

-there are also "O" levels (ordinary) or "A" levels (Advanced) which effect your ability to get into "varsity" (University) or a job. it is common to see job advertisments that say something like, "you must have passed 5 O levels, including english and computers".

-the schools function in 3 month terms with a month holiday at april, august, and december.

-every school has a uniform and a "sport" uniform. the everyday uniform includes: a hat, a shirt, a tie, trousers (for winter), a skirt for girls, shorts for boys, a sweater, socks, and shoes. some also have blazers and bakcpacks that include the school crest.

-there is a fee for every school- rural to city, private to government. some schools also have "top-ups" for the teachers because teachers have a low salary. at boarding schools there is also a donation of groceries.

-no lunch is served at school. the typical day starts between 7:30 and 8am and ends by 12:30 to 1pm. (lunch here is from 1-2pm)

-all school is in english.

i have no idea how one goes about choosing a school but i do know that it is a very important and difficult event in a parent's life. yesterday in bible study my friend, a mother of a 4 year old, asked us to pray for her son's school placement next year! they have already gotten letters stating there is no room for him at that school. immediately after that the lady next to me leaned over and said: "have you put olivia's name on a list for creche yet?" i said, "no, she is 6 months old!" to which she responded, "yes, so you had better do it soon." i just sat there astonished by the thought.

school fees are an issue all in themselves. people are always in need of school fees for their children. i have no idea how much school fees are in town but in the rural areas they are $30 a term, $90 a year (not including books, pens/pencils, paper, and the uniform). at the beginning of each term it never fails to see school children not in school. when you ask why the answer is: we didn't pay school fees yet. my american brain has a hard time understanding such things. it is illegal to not send your children to school in america. here the school sends your child home until you can pay.

our gardener works at our house in the afternoon and works in the morning at a creche in town. he was telling me that the creche is in english so he cannot speak shona to the children at all. this creche has set itself apart by offering lessons in english, gymnastics, swimming, drama and speech. so because everyone wants their child to get ahead they are willing to send them to a school that offers the best programs. but these top schools also come with top prices. this particular creche costs $1300 a term!

so there you have it friends. just one of the many things i have yet to understand.

-m

the vissani visit

2011-01-22T05:16:00.001-05:00

our christmas was extended to more days than we expected because dan's parents came to visit. we knew that we would get to continue celebrating on the 26th but thanks to lost bags our presents slowly arrived over the first 5 days of their visit. thankfully the real reason they came was not to deliever gifts but to spend time with us and their beloved first granddaughter. since dan's mom is a better writer than i am, i will let her share with you her thoughts:

"Fernando and I had the most amazing time in Zimbabwe. Spending time with Dan and Mary and holding and playing with Olivia for the first time were the best gifts we could ask for at Christmastime (or anytime!). Learning about their ministry and meeting so many of their friends and associates warmed our hearts, as we could plainly see how much they are loved and cared for there, and how much their work means to so many. The country is beautiful, as are its people. God is at work, and it is wonderful to see the tapestry of the body of Christ in another land, another culture.

We enjoyed simple home visits as much as we did our "big field trip" to Victoria Falls. We met nationals who are being mentored by Dan and Foundations for Farming, and saw their crop (sometimes maize as tall as seven feet!). The Falls are awesome, and the surrounding community is unique and beautiful. In addition to a tour of Victoria Falls, we enjoyed a river cruise up the Zambezi River (spying hippos along the way) and a wild game ride where we spotted a large herd of elephants, multiple giraffe and zebra, up close and personal.

Precious were the many moments we just hung out at the house, getting to know our little baby girl. She is delightful...so pleasant and fun. And what a trooper -- she tolerated the 11-hour car ride to Victoria Falls as well as any infant could. When she wasn't sleeping or eating, she was mostly smiling and helping her grandparents to enjoy the ride. On our only Sunday morning there, we had the privilege of attending church service at Dan and Mary's home church, and witnessing Olivia's dedication. After the service, a luncheon was held in our honor -- another reflection of respect for Dan and Mary. We wore the African outfits that were made especially for us as a gift from our children."

-m

a new home

2011-01-22T05:01:00.003-05:00

we've moved! we found a house on the other side of town (the side we spend most of our time on). and it is lovely! there are two great parts, other than the location. 1) it has a flat on one side so our friend claire now lives with us! 2) the garden is amazing! now when i saw garden i mean the yard and trees and flowers (which dan often uses to make me beautiful arrangements) and landscaping, not our vegetables. the vegetables haven't found a place to grow yet but we are working on that. here are a few pictures:

-m

sorry for the delay

2011-01-22T05:01:00.001-05:00

it has been pointed out to me that we have not blogged in awhile. i will blame this on very expensive and slow internet. but God, in His mercy, has provided a solution to that problem. you can thank Him for our return to our blog.

-m

Christmas Kumusha

2011-01-22T04:16:00.008-05:00

this year for christmas we decided to be truly zimbabwean and go kumusha (to the rural home). so we asked our co-workers, joseph and vivian if we could join them at vivan's family's rural home for christmas. because of various commitments we could only go from the 23 to 25 dec. but that little time was great. dan had never spent a night in a village so it was very exciting for him to get to experience new things.

christmas morning

bath time!

a little frisbee

fixing the cattle pen: the duty of the son-in-law

mopping the floor in the kitchen

olivia with gogo

with sekuru

-m

Greener Grass

2010-11-11T06:48:00.003-05:00

I'll be honest, I am sometimes jealous of foreigners living in Zimbabwe who are working for multinational aid organizations. They don't raise their own support, but instead just receive handsome paychecks for managing projects. Their projects, as well, seem to enjoy budgets without limit. I'm not the only one who sees this alternate universe, but the Zimbabweans we serve with see it as well. They see that their countrymen working for these organizations enjoy higher pay and benefits like meals, transportation and new equipment such as laptops for all. Everything is provided, so all anyone has to do is show up and get paid--not much in the way of sacrifice is required. But when God graces me with the gift of clear thinking, I'm actually not jealous at all.

I think about our small team of Zimbabweans with whom we work. We don't have a lot of fancy things. Minibuses are by far the most common form of transport we use. During our weekly meetings, we reveiw every penny we spent on ministry, making sure it was well-spent and accounted for. We are each aware that our budget is graciously and sacrificially supported by churches and friends. I try to model frugality in ministry by hopping on the bus when it is more efficient to do so. The great thing is, I have actually seen attitudes changing...from assuming that money is endless and any expense is justified to carefully saving our ministry money and actually chipping in a bit themselves. In a country where no good deed goes unpaid, our co-workers are willing to give of their time and resources for God's work. If you think this is insignificant, or even unfortunate (I mean, shouldn't we just be giving poor Africans all our money???), let me assure you that this is a very good direction to be heading in.

No, I'm not really jealous of my big-budget counterparts. For once the grass is greener right here.

-D

olivia's quilt

2010-10-19T06:48:00.000-04:00

i finally finished olivia's quilt! :) thanks the abigail and my mom who helped with material!

-m

a time for everything

2010-10-12T08:31:00.003-04:00

this past weekend we went to another funeral. but this one was different from the rest. before now the only funerals we had been to were at our church because the funeral was replacing the Sunday morning service and we didn't know the deceased or the family.

on friday morning one of our friends from Foundations called and told us his 4 year old son had died the night before. on friday, dan went to visit our friend at the house and mourn with him. on saturday we both went to the house for the wake and then to the burial. it goes without saying that it was incredibly sad. i saw my usually smiling friends with somber faces. i watched women wail and need friends next to them to physically hold them up. for the first time i saw shona people sing but not dance. and every grave in the cemetery was of a child from 5 days to 4 years old. it felt strange to be holding my own child in that moment.

this funeral was different than any other funeral i had been to as well. most people in my life who have died were old. every death could be celebrated for the life they had had and their love for the Lord. but this little boy didn't really have a change to get to know Jesus. he didn't get a full life.

most of our friend's family also don't know Jesus. but the gospel was proclaimed at this funeral and i pray that it fell on soft hearts.

-m

Amos Mutakiwa

2010-10-07T08:20:00.003-04:00

Ministry in Africa is full of joys but also frustrations and roadblocks...and sometimes it seems like the latter predominate. But today, one of my joys:

Amos Mutakiwa is one of my favorite people in Zimbabwe. He goes to our church in Kuwadzana and has a little house in a neighboring community, but spends most of his time on a small farm just outside Harare owned by some relatives of his. He has been interested from the very beginning in what this crazy white guy was saying about farming God's way, and for the past eight months he has been a faithful farmer in our outreach. This means, of course, that he has a group of farmers he has been teaching and mentoring over these months. A few weeks ago I went to visit him with Joseph and Vivian.

...and we were not disappointed in the least. His trainees were as knowledgeable about FfF as he was (a very good sign!) and his pre-rainy-season demo plots were superb. In the photo above he is holding a measuring wire that is a cut above what we are recommending--made to last, and definitely doesn't stretch (can be a problem with measuring ropes). Now the question is--how will his rain-fed crops fare? Unfortunately the relatives he is working for don't necessarily approve of FfF...they think any kind of farming without a plow is doomed to fail. But more unfortunately, that family fails to harvest much more than a fourth of what is possible with FfF. So, Amos is doing what he can. He will grow a small portion of maize the way he believes is best, while following the demands of others on the bulk of the land. We hope and pray that his diligence will prove the merits of FfF to his family, so that next year they can fully experience the benefits. Way to hang in there, Mr. Mutakiwa.

-d

on being a new mom

2010-09-29T09:26:00.006-04:00

being a mom has its fair share of joys and challenges. many things about parenting fall into both the joy and the challenge category- like breastfeeding, napping, showing off our precious little one but my favorite at the moment is unsolicited advice.
here are a few that i have gotten in my first seven weeks:
feed her porridge, she needs a blanket, she needs a hat, where are her socks?, she need lotion, you shouldn't bath her so often, hold her like this, support her neck more, don't sit her up- she needs to lay down, trim her nails, oh she has a rash try _____, and the list goes on. my favorite was the lady in church who came down off the main stage to reposition olivia and didn't even speak a word to me. most of this advice drives me crazy. i realize that many of these ladies giving me advice have more experience than i do but do they not remember what it is like to feel ill-equipped to do the job and have people constantly giving advice?
of course there have been some great bits of advice that i didn't ask for but have come in handy or at least make me laugh. my favorite is from my Kenyan friend, Lorna, "heat rash is better than pneumonia, so wrap her up in another blanket".

-m

new address

2010-09-27T10:36:00.002-04:00

we have a new address!

so please send all of your fan mail for olivia here:

Vissani
PO Box M83
Mabelreign, Harare
ZIMBABWE

ps. her parents like receiving mail as well.

mcdonalds

2010-09-24T15:00:00.003-04:00

yep! i finally had mcdonalds after 1 year and 20 days! thank you south africa.

pictures of olivia

2010-09-20T12:47:00.001-04:00

can be found here

kumusha

2010-08-26T10:47:00.003-04:00

the months of april, august, and december are school holiday months here. a few things happen during school holidays: 1- everything stops so that people can go on holiday as a family and 2- lots of people go to their musha or rural homes. our neighbor just got back from visiting his gogo (grandmother) at her musha. he hated it because she made him work in the fields and to a 7 year old city kid that isn't exactly fun. but one thing he was excited about was that he came home with a rooster. when i first heard about this i was told it was a chicken. that's great- they will eat a yummy meal of tough (zimbabweans love tough meat) farm raised chicken! but no this was not a chicken it is a rooster. and it was not eaten the next day as i was first told but is still alive 5 days later. so all night and all day i hear that rooster call. good thing i have a little girl who likes to wake up in the night as well and give us something to do or that rooster would just be really annoying.

i guess we don't have to live in the rural areas after all- they will just come to us.

-m

more of olivia

2010-08-14T07:18:00.000-04:00

meet Olivia Marie Chipo Vissani

2010-08-14T02:47:00.003-04:00

my first cry

dad just cut my cord and now i'm free!

my happy family

ambuya and sekuru helms

36 weeks

2010-07-17T10:41:00.001-04:00

you may think i look big but i promise i wish i was bigger. there is just not enough room for this little one inside me!

ashleigh

2010-07-04T13:20:00.000-04:00

my dear friend ashleigh came for a visit last week. she just finished a two year term in kenya with nmsi's project called africahope (you may remember that i was there leading a summer intern team in 2008). we hadn't seen each other in a year and a half and she had never really spent time with dan so it was more than lovely to be together for a few days. i would have taken her for weeks but i don't run the universe and her mother and sister may have fought me if they had to wait longer to see her. it was nice to have a friend visit who wasn't phased by africa but enjoyed the differences in our countries, that understood what we are going through as we adjust to life here and helped us dream about how we can continue in ministry here that would be good for us and hopefully meet needs that we see around us. we didn't take lots of pictures but here are a few.

dan giving ashleigh a tour of the FfF demo plots

Dzivarasekwa

2010-07-02T13:32:00.003-04:00

It’s a mouthful, and it’s one of the communities in which we work with farmers and church leaders. DZ (which is what most people refer to it as) is on the outskirts of Harare, just next to Kuwadzana (which I might talk about a lot). People are packed like sardines inside the suburb, but DZ is surrounded by huge tracts of open land, most of it too swampy or otherwise unattractive to developers. Consequently every little pieces is grabbed and farmed by someone.One of the farmers we work with is Mr. Gaihai, and he has claim to about an acre in this open space. After coming to our meetings for five months now, his field (“munda”) looks quite different from those around it—primarily because of the absence of WEEDS (“masora”). Most fields at this point in the year are teeming with weeds, some of them still green (because, of course, weeds are skilled at finding any available food and water), all of them stealing these valuable resources from future crops and all of them making (or have made) millions of seeds for next season. Anybody weeding this time of year is constantly approached by bewildered passers-by, making for a great opportunity to share about faithfulness and stewardship. Now, Mr. Gaihai is a good model, but not perfect. He has still held on to his old habit of digging trenches and burying crop residue (very common here). We teach that any undecomposed material is much more effective on top of the soil as mulch, whereas decomposed material (e.g. compost) is better suited to be put under the soil, preferable in individual holes (as soil inversion has more minuses than pluses). But he’s only completed that exercise on half his field, so I think he’s going to leave the other half un-dug as a comparison. I’m thrilled about this, because experimentation on a farmer’s part is a great way to effect lasting change. So I had a great day yesterday, visiting him and two other farmers, stopping for tea and bread, meeting people along the paths, and praying together.

Mr. Gaihai's field--can you tell where it ends??

His go-the-extra-mile compost pile (and my friend Innocent next to him)

-D

ironic

2010-06-29T10:04:00.003-04:00

we recently heard about a local grocery store that got a shipment of american goods and were selling them at marked up prices so of course we were slow in making our way to see for ourselves. this weekend we finally made it into said grocery store and i finally had the privilege of gawking at the things that now Zimbabweans will characterize Americans by. as i walked in the store, i was greeted with an island of ragu and bertolli pasta sauces, an array of cereal including raisin bran and special K, a large variety of "pasta/rice sides" packets, and plastic containers of country time lemonade and kool-aid. on the next island of American goodies included cookies and crackers. this is where i became slightly more interested. there are a few things that i just can't find here- one of them is graham crackers. i enjoy a graham cracker and i have a few recipes that i love that have a graham cracker crust that i have had to set aside for the time being. these got me a little excited but the kicker was the box of saltine crackers. now i love a saltine cracker. i especially craved them when i was in my first trimester and needing to eat constantly to fight off that nauseous feeling. so when i saw that little square box that said "premium salted tops" i am sure that my face lit up. oh why didn't this shipment come 5 months ago?! then i glanced at the price and i'm sure all brightness from my face disappeared and my jaw dropped. almost $6! maybe a few months ago they would have gotten my money- when i was desperate to find a cracker i liked. in fact i would have bought two boxes because i never trust a store here to have something twice (i learned this the hard way with the crackers). but not now- sorry management.

oh and those gram crackers that got passed up- $7. somethings i'm not so desperate for.

-m

new pictures

2010-06-22T01:18:00.002-04:00

a week and a half

33 weeks!

for grete

2010-06-16T09:26:00.001-04:00

the quinoa growing in our garden and the only fall colors i can seem to find.

-m

"vaenzi"

2010-06-13T02:36:00.004-04:00

(zach--you're in the picture, just in the shadow of the moringa tree--sorry!)

we recently had some friends/family/supporters/vaenzi come and spend some time with us and our church here. it was lovely to have a little taste of home- especially for dan since they were all his long time friends. for me is was amazing to watch dan reconnect with some of his closest friends, play the piano and guitar with them and catch up. i was greatly encouraged by their kind words and prayers.

they came with a variety of talents they used to encourage the church like preaching, singing, drum and guitar lessons, children's work, and medical knowledge to share.

one really exciting thing for us was that dan's uncle came for a few days around a trip to kenya to work with a sister church of his home church. it was really fun to host him and let him see a bit of our lives. he even got to experience a water shortage!

-m

KITTENS!

2010-06-09T10:22:00.006-04:00

we knew they were coming soon. yesterday i sat on the bed watching the cat sleep and i could see the kittens moving in her- much like my own belly. and last night she curled up under our bed and had 5 kittens. they are sooo cute. 1 jet black, 2 black and orange like her, and 2 orange. we are excited! maybe we are a bit like little children and are fighting to not touch them.

i have only had two pets in my life other than fish. when fish have babies it isn't very exciting and they usually die too easily. my dog was a boy and my guinea pig never had babies so this is my first time with animal babies- especially brand new ones. i'm kinda excited. i just need to find a home for the 4 we aren't keeping before our baby comes. i don't think i can handle so many needy small things at once. and let's be honest- our baby wins no matter what.

-m

preggy ladies

2010-05-19T10:33:00.004-04:00

today we went on a tour of the hospital where our baby will be born. they give 2 tours a month so it is important to be there one of those two days and be there on time so you don't miss anything. i didn't expect to be on a tour with 20 other ladies. i'm pretty sure it was the largest crowd of pregnant ladies i have ever seen. we were cute- all at different stages.

the tour was nice. a few funny things about it:

- only one person can be in the delivery room with you. some ladies found this difficult saying they didn't know how they could choose between their mother or their husbands.

- we got to go into the delivery room. we didn't even wash our hands first, just went in and touched anything we wanted.

- after the baby is born and before i go downstairs to my recovery room the following things happen: the baby is cleaned and weight and given to my birthing partner (dan), i am stitched up if necessary, if i am able to stand up i can take a shower, otherwise they will freshen me up, and (my favorite) give me a cup of tea. i haven't ever talked about how important tea is here. maybe i will have to make a whole post about it. but it is important and why i was surprised that a cup of tea will be given to me, i'm not sure but i was. and it made me laugh.

- for an extra $250 i can have my own room instead of sharing (as long as there is room). otherwise my delivery and 2 -3-day-stay will be $405 ($5 is the booking fee).

it is strange to think about this baby actually coming out of me and then having to take care of it. everyone tells me that you never really feel ready and even afterwards you never really feel like you are qualified but the Lord gets you through each day. :) i'll just rest in that truth.

-m

blessings

2010-05-11T06:38:00.004-04:00

being pregnant far from friends, family, and the familiar has had it's challenges. one of these is trying to find things for me or this coming baby. maternity clothes have proven quite difficult to find. but lately God, being perfect, has supplied for my needs just in time. until last week i was still able to fit into my normal trousers (pants- but i am training myself in this new vocabulary because pants mean something else here and it is awkward to talk about in public). my friend misty had sent me two pairs of trousers but since it is getting warm in the states all she could find to send me were short or thin and short-sleeved tops. and God knew that while these were helpful it is getting cooler and cooler here and i would need something to keep me a bit warmer. so a lady from my bible study showed up with two bags of maternity clothes from her daughters- thankfully mostly long trousers and long sleeved tops! wow. i hadn't even shared my need and God was providing for me.

last week we also received news that we were receiving a cloth diaper grant from Cotton Babies. they are providing us with half of the cloth diapers we will need! it is such a gift from the Lord to have things supplied and we just praise Him for His generosity towards us.

-m

sneezing my head off

2010-05-10T14:20:00.004-04:00

Today turned out nothing like we expected. First, some background: this month we’ll be demonstrating how to make high-quality thermal compost as a sustainable alternative to chemical fertilizer. We tasked all of our trainees with gathering the needed materials, which are (for the most part) green plant matter, dry plant matter and manure. The manure was proving difficult/costly for most churches, so we thought of a way to help without continuing the long legacy of handouts. We (us and Joseph and Vivian) decided last-minute to go to a chicken farm, buy manure in bulk, and sell it to the participating churches at cost. Well, actually a little bit above cost to cover fuel, but still way below the price on the street. We left the demo farm at 11:30 and headed toward the farm. First, of course, we had to find a place to leave Joseph's motorbike that is on the way to the farm but also on the way from the farm to our first dropoff spot. Not a problem, really, it's just that stopping anywhere entails greetings, small talk, and goodbyes. So it chewed up 30 minutes. But again, not a problem--this is Africa.

We "pitched up" at the farm (as they say) at 12:30, which we thought was a reasonable time to expect service, since lunch time here is a strict 1pm. But it turns out these workers take lunch at 12, meaning there was no one there to shovel manure into our truck. Oh, and there also wasn't any high quality manure left, just the low quality stuff. Hmm. As is often the case here, if you stand around and talk and insist long enough, somebody thinks of another idea. So we eventually hopped in the truck with a guy from accounting who took us to this manure pile, then another, then another, and finally to an enormous pile of decent manure. Somehow this pile didn't make it into the original calculation. Rather than wait for the manure-shovelers (and have to pay them), we thought it reasonable to do it ourselves. With one shovel between us. You know how some things seem way easier before you do them? I forgot to mention that the manure was dry and dusty.

Anyway, we shovel and scoop by hand for 30 minutes, after which we, and our truck, are covered in manure dust. I wasn't sneezing that much at the time, but after a few hours, after the dust had worked its way in....I was a mess, which only claritin and tylenol PM could solve. I wasn't that worried, because I've gotten loads of dust in my lungs before, wheezed for a night, and been better the next day. This time, I wouldn't say I was all better the next day, but certainly by day #3. But back to the truck....we drove to three churches to unload the manure (again by shovel/hand). Home by 6pm isn't so bad, I figure. But I have no regrets--we rescued three compost demos, the pastors were grateful for a good deal, and we experienced the delightful bewilderment of a day in Africa that went nothing like planned.

And we get to do it again next week...this time with an extra shovel.

loading up a sack by hand!

unloading at a church

-D

the wedding of the year

2010-05-06T02:35:00.007-04:00

Weddings (Christian weddings, or "church weddings," as opposed to "traditional" marriages) are a big deal here. More people go into debt, it seems, to throw an extravagant wedding celebration than for any other reason. Weddings here are an interesting blend of Shona and western culture, and no two are alike. We've been to three weddings so far and the one last weekend was definitely my favorite (our pastor's only son, Tendai, was the lucky guy).

So, as with weddings in the states, they require a lot of coordination. But, unlike the States, transportation is scarce here, so offering to help with transportation is a big deal...and that's what we did. Honestly, I thought I would just be carrying chairs and people from the ceremony at the church to the reception a few miles away. But the night before the wedding I got a call from Tendai's "transportation manager" asking me to drive to the mother-in-law's house (about 30 miles away) to pick up people and gifts at 6:30am. Not so bad, really, but there's more. So I drove first to the "tm's" house and then in a caravan to the mining village where mom-in-law lives. All in all, we were two pick-ups, two cars, and two minibuses...and by the time we left they were all packed. So back to Harare we go.

Zimbabweans have this great tradition of honking their horns incessantly as they approach the site of the wedding, to let everyone in the neighborhood know that he and she will soon be off the market. Actually we did the same thing as we were leaving the wife's village as well. It's kind of obnoxious when you're an innocent bystander but behind the wheel it was kind of fun. :) Every moment, from the donning of the dress to the after-party, is caught on video. To that end, I had a video man standing in the bed of my truck so he could capture the caravan as we drove through town. When the bride finally reaches church and disembarks, she is not allowed to step on the ground. Instead, women take turns laying their "zambias"--cloths which are usually wrapped around their waists as an extra layer--down in front of her. This energetic game of leapfrog continues all the way to the front of the church!

The ceremony itself is pretty standard--vows, rings, sermon, pronouncement. [As a side note, this was the only wedding of the three we've been to that was done in Shona (the others in English), which I was so pleased with. I know, English is the cool, modern, cosmopolitan way to go here, but vows in a second language?] Then, strangely, the cakes come out (well, they were there all along). Instead of the wedding cake(s) being a much-anticipated dessert for the guests, it is conscripted into service of the Shona custom of honoring your in-laws. So, everyone watches while the groom gets on his knees in front of all his in-laws and offers them a tasty morsel, and then the bride does the same. Finally, the rest of the cake is cut up into marble-sized pieces and distributed to the guests right there in the church. After three weddings, I still find myself saying, "that's all I get??" But then again the Shona aren't really dessert people :) So after much ululating, dancing, arm-waving and whistling, we all leave the church and go to the reception. Food, and lots of it, flows freely. The Shona are not shy about saying (from the pulpit even) that a celebration isn't a celebration unless everybody is fed. Now, of course there is music and a DJ. I'm sure that every wedding I go to boasts larger loudspeakers than the one before. I mean, these were size of small house. And loud. If there's one thing I really don't like about the culture here, it's that bigger is always better, no questions asked. We sat as far away from the speakers as culturally acceptable, and with any luck our baby will have working eardrums. So after speeches, dances, presentation of gifts (which are announced and celebrated, one by one), it was time to take the mother-in-law back to the village. So off we go, with a truck bed full of gifts. Some people were worried about theft of the gifts at stoplights, so I tried not to stop at them. We unloaded the truck in the dark, said our goodbyes, and I got home around 7:30... So weddings are a big deal here...and being a part of the madness made for a good day :)

a few pictures

2010-04-26T14:05:00.006-04:00

ok so i have been holding out on posting preggy (as they say here in zim) pictures but here are a few. sorry they are all of me and few include dan but someone has to take the photo!

today: the pregnant ladies of the house (we think the cat is pregnant at least.)
today: so much goodness for $1!
april 11 in the "i'm so glad i brought this green dress last year"
april 16 at kariba dam with claire and julie
after our Easter date!

-m

holiday at Kariba

2010-04-23T17:09:00.005-04:00

this past weekend was independence day in zim and therefore a three day weekend. we took this opportunity to head north to lake kariba. lake kariba is a huge man made lake (250km long!--google it!) which formed 50 years ago when the dam wall was finished. we were excited to see the dam and even more excited that the sluice gates were open while we were there making the view simply amazing.

we rented a house with two other ladies- our friend julie and one of her friends claire who has quickly become one of our favorite people in zim. it was nice to be with other missionaries- talking about the trials that we find as foreign workers here and enjoying God as we rested from our work. the house also came with a jolly man who was the cook/guy who takes care of everything while you are there. thankfully he is shona so we got to practice our shona and learn new things about zim from him. since none of us are used to having constant house help we didn't utilize him as much as other guests- he often told us that we weren't giving him enough work to do. i can't really describe it well so i will just let a few pictures do the talking.

a very Zimbabwe day

2010-04-10T11:21:00.006-04:00

Last Saturday reminded me of many things I love about Africa--hospitality, simplicity, are-you-kidding?-roads, communal living, and that attitude that says to the persistent problem, "I bet this will work..." Joseph, Vivian and four other relatives stayed at our house Friday night, to give us a head start the next morning. We left only 30 minutes later than scheduled, due to underestimating the time it takes for four adults to take a bath. It's a beautiful drive from Harare to Mutare, and that went off without a hitch. We passed through Mutare town and about an hour later turned off the road on to a manageable dirt path which led us to Joseph's parents' home, their "musha." I so enjoyed their homestead--fields of sorghum, a hot spring, countless baobab trees, a river, livestock, and quietness. Oh, and watermelons--who would have thought watermelons thrive in their hot, arid climate--but thrive they do. Three of us went through half a dozen--just splitting them open, reaching in and grabbing bites. After a while you can just drink out of them like giant cups.

The watermelons added to the guinea fowl eggs and bread made for a fine lunch in my opinion, but of course we were expected to stay for a real meal--sadza. Joseph kindly reminded his mother that we still had to trek three more hours to Vivian's musha that day, and she kindly let us leave. (I know it's so un-African to stay only 4 hours, but something has to give when someone's "oh, and while we're in that part of the country..." consumes 4 extra hours.) So off we go to Vivian's rural home, in Rusape. Her parents live much farther down a much-less-defined dirt path. The rainy season had taken its toll, meaning we drove very slowly to straddle gullies and dance around uneven ground. Finally we arrived, although it was within a few minutes of our ETA back in Harare (hmmm..). They were happy to see us and understood that this was just a drop off (I was only returning with Joseph-the rest of them stayed). Still, they quickly made a small pot of sadza and we nearly burned our fingers eating it as quickly as possible. Not that we were trying to be rude, but driving in the dark poses huge problems....as we were about to be reminded.

Just out of eyeshot, I drove a little too close to a peg in the road (nobody knows what it was doing there) and slashed open my right rear tire. I immediately knew this was going to be a long night. Being in a village, we were quickly surrounded by people trying to be helpful. Some were helpful, and some had been drinking (it was a holiday weekend, after all). The first delay was caused by one helpful guy grinding the sides of my allen key in the process of removing a stuck screw. After an hour, we finally got the spare on and inflated (thankfully someone had a hand pump). After 5 seconds of driving on it, the tire separated from the wheel, and so we were back at square one. Eventually someone volunteered to walk to his home (about 20 mins away) and get a not-so-bad wheel from his "scotch cart," which is a cart usually pulled by cows or donkeys. Why not? I said. Anyway, he got the wheel, we put it on, we started driving, and it lasted all the way to Harare. Actual arrival: 1am.

-d

maneta here?

2010-04-05T12:03:00.000-04:00

that means "are you tired?" to which i always respond, "ndaneta (i'm tired)". this most often happens at church after i have stood to try to sing and sat back down 6 times, sat through a sermon constantly changing positions on my hard chair, and getting through about half of the line of people to shake my hand after church. (everyone shakes everyone's hand forming a big circle as we end church- about 200 people.)

this sunday, i got the same question and after i answered the lady asked if something was wrong. i replied no, just tired. then she asked, "is it the stomach? because it is getting bigger?" and i said yes, it is the stomach getting bigger. :) only a few people openly talk about my pregnancy at church- the rest just comment on my stomach getting bigger.

we did get to share with our close friends that we are having a GIRL and we got lots of smiles, hollers, and high fives. :)

-m

holding the beautiful and sad at the same time

2010-03-23T12:01:00.006-04:00

for a week now i have been wrestling with how/what to write. last wednesday, dan and i got the news that caleb, the son our of our friends matt and kylee was born. he was a bit early because kylee had eclampsia and was taken to the hospital that morning. normally the best way to stop eclampsia is to take the baby out and then the mother's blood pressure normalizes. so we went to bed praising God for a new life and our amazing friends- the boden family. on thursday, we were awakened by the news that kylee did not wake up from the anesthesia and died after seizures and bleeding in her brain. this was shocking and difficult news to hear. this isn't how the story is supposed to go. but it is how the story goes- it is how our loving, perfect Father willed this story.

i told you about kylee a few posts back- in "i'm glad i'm not an elephant". kylee is one of the reasons i now want to be a mother. she was one of my closest friends- always loving me, speaking truth to me, crying with me, and rejoicing with me. she was beautiful in her love for her husband, children, and family. she hated sin and loved the hurting so much. and because of her hatred of sin, she longed for heaven more than most people i know.

as we cried, prayed, processed, and talked about kylee- i couldn't help but struggle to figure out how to hold the sadness of our loss and hold on to the beauty of her finally being in the home she always longed for and for the beautiful little baby that she left. i don't know what it will be like to grow up without a mother, especially for caleb, who never met his mother but i do know that God will meet all of their needs. God is only good and beautiful. He has a perfect plan that we don't understand. on sunday, i spent time reading and thinking about how beautiful Jesus' response was to the family and friends mourning the death of lazuras. john 11:33 says, "when Jesus therefore saw her (mary) weeping, and the jews who came with her, also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled." and then the famous verse 35, "Jesus wept". i take great comfort in the truth that Jesus weeps with those weep and that the Holy Spirit is the Great Comforter.

we praise You oh LORD for the life of kylee and that You were her center. we praise You that she is now with You in the place that Jesus went to prepare for us. we ask that You as the Great Comforter and healer of our hurts will be near to us and especially near to her family, whose lives are now greatly changed by her absence. may we all cling to You and hope in You alone. in the name of Jesus we trust You in this life to be better than we can imagine. amen.

-m

funny shane

2010-03-17T08:17:00.004-04:00

recently we sent out an email update that started with: Greetings and love from the three Vissanis in Zimbabwe (one of us is the size of a bell pepper, we are told!).

this is what our friend shane sent in response:

pictures that go with the previous post

2010-03-07T12:58:00.002-05:00

CHAMPS conference

the new (to me) sewing machine!

18 week bump

random things

2010-03-07T08:51:00.005-05:00

lots has happened in the past week and i thought i should share a few things. our week was mostly taken up by Foundations for Farming's biannual "Champions" conference. About 200 people gathered from many surrounding countries to learn about FfF and two new ministry branches: Foundation for Health and Foundations for Family. dan and i were kept busy helping to do all the IT visual stuff like power points, music slides, and dvd's. it was surprisingly a lot of work but well worth it to know that things had gone pretty smoothly.

i also drove by myself for the first time last week. the only other times i have driven in harare (twice) was either with dan in the truck or following dan in another car. i didn't go too far or have to cross the city center which is where all the crazy driving is but i did manage to run my errand and join my fellow quilters for a morning. i am quite proud of myself. and while we are on the subject of quilting, the other important thing we did this week was buy a second-hand sewing machine! i never thought i would be so excited about my own sewing machine but i am. we heard through a friend that an ex farmer's wife was selling it for pretty cheap so we bought it! and now i can get lots more sewing done at home. i should probably branch out and sew some clothes- wait would that make me one of those stereotypical missionaries? maybe i will just make baby things.

and i will wrap this up with two funny stories from our little neighbor, tatenda. this morning he came over while his mom went to the store. we were having breakfast and he told dan that he could make tea for us. dan already had coffee so i decided i would have a cup a tea. so tatenda got the mug, put in sugar and milk and added hot water. when dan asked about the tea he said, "that is tea. there is a mug, sugar, and milk." dan then informed him that he needed to add some tea leaves (we have loose leaf for now) to actually make it tea! then after i had my tea (making sure to sip around the tea grounds) i asked him what we should name our baby. if a boy: tatenda, like him. and a girl, well tatenda would work as well. he went on for a while and then said, "if you have a girl you could always name her beyonce." i don't think that one will make it on the consideration list.

pictures to come but the internet is too slow for now.

-m

our friend ryan

2010-02-28T10:13:00.009-05:00

yesterday we said goodbye to our first official visitor from the states - ryan. he and dan met 2 years ago, the first time dan went to mti and have been great friends since. he now works for nmsi in the media division, specifically in the video communications department. he came to zim on a month long visit to east & southern africa to visit a few of the missionaries and ministries that nmsi has in this part of the world. we had the lovely privilege to host him for two weeks so that he could get footage of the work the three families do here in zim and spend some personal time with us. it worked out perfectly for us because we got to join him on some of his visits also getting to know the work that we have heard about but not seen first hand. we were so excited to spend time with the Edwards' family and learn about the work of Ebenezer Agricultural Training Center in the southern part of zim. they have a great blog. ryan also has a great blog if you want to check out his thoughts about zim. and while we didn't do many grand things we did enjoy lots of fellowship and normal life together. my most triumphant moment was when we successfully took two buses to meet dan in kuwadzana one afternoon. i have only taken the bus there once and it was the first month we lived here and with shona friends showing us the way. i was quite proud of myself that i could do it without constantly having to ask for help. we also had the bonus of being in the most packed bus i have ever been in- a record or 26 where one would think only 17 could ride safely. we did manage to take him on a visit to a cave that near by and actually remember to take photos.

finally a baby bump! (you have to look hard)

the cave has an amazing blue pool at the bottom!

doesn't ryan look official?

-m

introducing...

2010-02-07T08:35:00.007-05:00

Mambokadzi! our new cat. her name means queen which she holds very well. she is still very shy because until last week she lived on her own outside but now she lives in our little flat with us! she is about 5 months old so she is very different from our last kitten who was totally dependent on us. she is quite happy to spend her day hiding under the bed or behind the curtain. she has warmed up enough to let us pick her up and she will stay on our laps if we are petting her. i think she has figured out that we are the hands that now feed her. there are two funny things about her that we both really enjoy: 1) when dan picks her up she spreads her front paws and "hugs" him 2) she is mostly black with a few orange specks but the tip of her tail is orange stripped!

a pile of shoes

2010-02-02T10:11:00.002-05:00

there is a pile of small shoes at our front door that belong to the 7 to 10 children (some are running in and out) sitting in our living room playing uno. it is awesome! and i wish i had our camera but i can't find it right now!

-m

"God is Good at Any Time"

2010-01-17T13:53:00.003-05:00

for my birthday our language teacher gave me a copy of her husband's book/31 day devotional. i was already in a planned reading in novemeber so i waited until jan 1 to start reading. it worked out to be perfect timing.

friday morning, dan, who always gets up much earlier than i do these days, came into our room at 7, sat down on the side of the bed and gently woke me up. i was fearing that it was time to finally get up since we had a packed day of leaving our house at 7:45 to go to immigration to check on paperwork for our friends, picking up other friends who needed a ride the the airport, language class, a trip to the grocery store and then possibly back to immigration because the one guy who could help us may not have been there at 8 am when they open. (i plan but with contingency plans now- i'm SLOWLY starting to get life here.) but that is not what he said. he said this:

the battery in our truck was stolen last night.

now waking up is hard when you are pregnant. and this is not what i wanted to wake up to. but the grace of God was hovering over me at the moment so instead of getting mad i rolled over, sat up, and grabbed my devotion book. day 13 is titled: "God is Good at Any Time!". the author talked about how we like to say that God is good all the time but he would rather change it to at any time to help move us to a specific focus- like right now! he also included this quote:

"His goodness shines through in times when we are uncomfortable, when all of life seems to have gone crazy" Gracia Burnham

and this prayer:

"O my God, however perplexed I may be, let me never think ill of You. If I cannot understand thee, let me never cease to believe in You. It must be so, it cannot be otherwise, You are good to those whom You have made good; and where You have renewed the heart You will not leave it to its enemies" Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

and God was good at that time. not just to me in the moment but for the whole day. we didn't get much of what we had planned accomplished but our friend shelton, who is also a mechanic, came over and helped us, we made it to language class only 20 minutes late, and we now know how to file a police report. and of course we praised God that it was only our battery that was gone and not anything else. possibly the easiest fix besides stolen gas.

-m

joy givers

2010-01-16T01:31:00.002-05:00

when we were in language acquisition training we were told that while we were learning Shona we would be "joy givers"- as in we would make attempts and it would give joy to the people we were talking with. if we say it right or wrong we can have opportunity to spread joy.

yesterday in class i provided a large amount of laughter in my first huge language blunder. we had to translate the following sentence: chokudya chaibva, asi tafura haisati yagadzirwa. it means: the food is ready, but the table has not yet been prepared. i however translated it as: the food was stolen, but we died before it was prepared. opps!

laughs all around!

-m

i'm glad i'm not an elephant

2010-01-06T03:51:00.003-05:00

i really like elephants. they are amazing creatures. but for now i am glad i am not one. the biggest reason at the moment is that the gestation time of elephant is 22 months! that is outrageous! i feel like the next 7 months is going to be long enough! yes that's right- we're expecting!

now for some of you who knew me in high school and college you may be a little surprised. i always sore that i would never have children. there was just too much risk involved. in 2003, while i was on an internship in malawi, a lady staying with us challenged me on this. she told me that i was named mary for a reason and i would be a blessed mother. besides scaring me a bit, i realized that i was holding this part of my life in my own hands and not surrendering it God. so i timidly told God that i wanted Him to have this part of my life too. which was scary because God does things that seem crazy to me and cost people a lot.

then i moved to ft myers and lived in the nmsi community. for a while there were almost no children around so it was pretty easy to not think about having any. and then eleanor came. she is the newest baby i have ever held. and since her dad worked across from me in the office i spent much time holding her. then the boden's moved in. and when kylee heard that i wasn't so sure about having children of my own, she made it her goal to get me to want to have children by loving her children. well seth and lydia are just too easy to love. they have changed my life. so now there were three children in my life that i would do just about anything for- like jump at the chance to babysit. weird.

and then dan came along. dan is a people magnet. i thought i was a social person until i met dan. as one of his friends says, "he makes friends out of thin air" and it is true. besides being a people magnet, he is definitely a child magnet. he was friends with all of the children in community when he was there. he planned camping trips and hang out times. if there is a small child around sooner or later they will be climbing on dan like a jungle gym and he will be loving it. so when we got married and talked about having children i was much more at ease than ever before. my husband is going to be a great dad.

so we'll keep praying and trusting God that since He has given us this gift, He will equip us for the job.

-m

christmas tree

2009-12-11T08:57:00.007-05:00

as promised here is a picture of our christmas tree.

i like christmas trees but not like some people. this year i just wanted a simple christmas tree. so i was inspired one day and i found some homemade green paper and used our fireplace screen to make our little tree. we hung the few ornaments on it and we even got a free stocking at a shop the other day! the little trees on the left side are made of wire and beads. dan got them for my birthday from the market.

-m

Thanksgiving and the rainy season

2009-12-01T01:26:00.003-05:00

It's weird how normal a day Thanksgiving was here. No parade, no pilgrims, not even a day off work. so we tried our best to make it feel like home. We got a turkey on Tuesday, which is a pretty normal thing to do, except that we had to keep her in the backyard because she was still alive (!). Our big splurge was a can of cranberry sauce imported from Canada (I won't even say how much it cost). We were even able to cook sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top (but we should note that the sweet potatoes were white and the marshmallows were multicolored!). I was truly amazed at the spread we had, considering we were in Africa. My dad will be thrilled to find

out that after dinner our friend Julie read the story of the first thanksgiving, which is something my dad would definitely do. And I can't complain...it made me feel at home, and it was a nice history lesson for our Shona friends who joined us. Back to the turkey for a minute--on Thanksgivng morning I called our gardener over to help me slaughter our bird. It was a bit more gruesome than I expected, but I tried to make it as quick as possible. It was my first time killing anything bigger than a sunfish, and I feel a little more grown up having done it.

On a different note, the rainy season here has come, which is a big change from our first few months here. "Rainy season" doesn't mean it rains every day, like it does in some parts of the world. It just means there is a much better chance of rain than during the dry season. So far it has rained three times, but each rain lasted for a few days. Somestimes it rains gently nonstop, and sometimes we get intense 30-minutes storms. In any case, we are grateful, because things are turning from brown to green, and the farmers we teach now have the opportunity to put it into practice. And we just love storms!! To be fair, rain has its downfalls...like hidden potholes, crazier traffic, and muddy floors. I like to sing the line from Andrew Peterson's song, referring to our complaints about rain: "Do you thank the Lord for coming up with such a great idea?" I hope so.

-Dan

my birthday!

2009-11-14T11:18:00.007-05:00

first let me just say that i had a very lovely day here in zim. my birthday is a big deal to me and i have almost always been surrounded by really good friends to celebrate. this year my only really good friend here so far is dan. but he, of course, is an amazing gift from God, who loves me very well and did an excellent job of celebrating me. i had many suprise birthday presents, a small party, a few cards that came on time, many facebook wishes, and "happy birthday" sung in suprising new ways.

someone asked me how birthdays are celebrated here. to be honest i still don't know fully but i do know this- everytime i have heard "happy birthday" sung it has at least 3 verses, and two of mine had 5! i will give you a little taste.

"happy birthday to you"...

"how old are you now"...

"we wish you many more"...

"God bless you today"...

and my favorite "who is your boyfriend"... only altered for me to say "who is your husband"...

a little over the top.

today, dan took me to a safari park, that is actually a conservation park with an excellent black rhino breeding program. so we saw many great africa animals and got to touch and feed both black rhinos and elephants!!!! it was so fun. here are a few pictures.

-m

work permits

2009-11-09T13:56:00.001-05:00

we got them! officially stamped in our passports this morning! :)

friendship

2009-11-03T00:28:00.000-05:00

i have been recently challenged to think about friendship in new ways. i have spent the last two months realizing that i am a bit lonely because i do not have friendships here in zim like i have had in the past. and if you know me well you know that friendships are very important to me- so when i say i was challenged i mean CHALLENGED! my lovely friend kylee told me that she thinks i might have to let my ways of making friends and even thinking about friendships die in order to make friends and have friends in zim. i thought about this for a day and a half and then found myself in church listening to a man tell us that we may have to be willing to give up a gifting that God has given us for His glory. we may have to be ready to lay down what we know is “easy” to depend on Him and bring Him the glory for what we actually do. all i could think about was my way of friendship. i have seen it as a gift from God for awhile so it fit this man’s point very well.

i don’t really know what it means to let my ways die. and i don’t know what these new ways will look like. but i do know that i want God to be glorified in my life. i know that i want to love Him more than i love my friends and more than i love myself.

-m

Made in Zimbabwe

2009-10-21T04:21:00.001-04:00

I’m a little obsessed with where things are made. I realize it might be a rude, but I can’t help picking up the bottle of salad dressing in the middle of dinner to see, among other things, what’s in it and where it was made. I don’t know why…that kind of stuff just fascinates me. So, in homage to my curious curiosity, and for those who view the world similarly, here is a tour through our flat of things made or grown here in Zimbabwe. While Zim used to manufacture all sorts of things (especially during the sanctions of the 60s and 70s), industry here has nearly ground to a halt and we now just assume everything is imported from South Africa. There are however, products that remained under production all this time, as well as those whose production have been revived. So here it is:

-orange drink concentrate (this stuff is ridiculously popular here)
-hot sauce named “cheeky chili”
-Loose leaf tea and coffee
-Honey (“huchi” in Shona)
-Baking powder, white flour and “brown” flour, all made by a company named “Gloria”
-Various spices, packed under the name “New Seasons”
-Cocoa powder
-Sugar, brown sugar, powdered sugar and salt
-Muesli
-Bread
-Yogurt and milk
-Coke in bottles (cans are becoming prolific now, too, except nobody seems to be collecting them)
-Mr. Freeze, a sort of freeze pop that somebody is always selling after church, at bus stops, etc.
-Lots of produce is grown here, but it’s hard to tell what is imported. I’d guess that our tomatoes, onions, bananas, lettuce, apples, and eggs are grown here, as well as most meat (at the moment, we have some beef mince, sausage, chicken pieces and a beef steak in the freezer—but again I really don’t know where it is from, I just know that ranching is alive in Zim)
-Bleach, vinegar and ammonia
-Our mattress, which is “foam-rubber”—pretty decent I’d say
-And other furniture: nearly everything we have bought for our home (couch, chairs, tables, bookshelf, nightstand) is made on the side of the road close to our flat, from welded rebar and woven grass. It’s incredible to watch it being made.

So what sorts of things are imported, you might ask? Currently we have corn flakes, peanut butter, baking soda, soup mix, rooibos tea, vanilla extract, crackers, fruit juice, instant pudding, cat food, cooking oil, mayo, olives, pasta and butter-type spread from South Africa, and butter from Zambia. Some of these things are also made here in Zim (like oil), but different shops stock different things, as you might imagine.

Our fridge and kettle are from SA, but I think our stove was made here.

So there you have it, a snapshot of production in Zimbabwe, at least of whatever happens to come our way. I certainly enjoyed my little scavenger hunt.
-D

A tribute to Zvakanaka

2009-10-14T04:39:00.002-04:00

Zvakanaka is our kitten we got our first week here in Zim. He was 6 weeks old when we got him and trained him to use his litter box, not to bite me, and to sleep on our laps. We really enjoyed having him around to cuddle with, and laugh at, and pet something soft.

Unfortunately, he snuck out of our garden one night and was killed by a dog. We are very sad. So Zvaka- know that you were loved and are now missed.

Zvaka was the first real animal that I lived with and then disappeared and we actually found dead. I was surprised at how upset I was at the whole event. I cried much more than I expected. As I thought about it more I realized that Zvaka was the one who kept me company when I felt lonely here. One of the most difficult things I have experienced is not feeling like I have friends around me. So for these first few weeks, as we are making friends, I have found myself lonely and longing for companionship- and many days Zvaka provided a bit of that. I have wrestled with being sad over such a normal part of life with pets- but I decided that I was made to feel and sadness is part of life with the Fall. So my prayer for awhile is that I will continue to choose love over safety in future relationships and that my heart will be sad and weep over what Jesus weeps over. I was reminded yesterday of the many great and real tragedies around me- much bigger than the loss of a kitten. So while I can be sad and grieve a bit over my kitten- I must rise again today and live out of the life that Christ has given me and the command that he has given me to be light, salt, and to love my neighbors. Maybe they will bond with me over the sadness of my loss- and maybe it will open doors to conversation that never would have happened.

-m

Happy 1st Birthday Noku

2009-10-14T04:32:00.003-04:00

We realize that we haven’t given you much of an update about Zim yet. So here are just a few things:

We are settling in nicely and most days we really like living here- we love our home and garden.

We know how to take the public transport to just about anywhere

We are now getting used to driving on the left side of the road and dodging pot holes and slowing down for the hard to spot speed bumps.

We have found that you can buy just about anything in town (except for a water filter and chocolate chips), you just have to be willing to walk a bit.

We love practicing our Shona and have found that some people in the city are eager to help us and some just want to speak in English.

We are very excited about the ways that Foundations for Farming is growing and especially about their vision for the Peri-Urban (or high density) area.

Two of the Peri-Urban trainers are Joseph and Vivian Chitopo. They are close to our age and have become very good friends. So far we have spent much more time with Joseph-as he has helped us with our many trips to immigration and because Vivian is still in training at FfF. Last week we got to share just a bit of relaxed “family” time with them, as we celebrated their son’s first birthday! I made a cake and was quite impressed with how it turned out. Below are a few photos.

-m

our flat

2009-10-10T15:02:00.001-04:00

here are a few photos of our new flat!

Faithfulness to be inconvenienced when others are in need…

2009-09-22T11:37:00.000-04:00

...Once my friend Grete wrote this in her blog when she was talking about her community. For years I have pondered this statement trying to put it into practice. Zim offers many opportunities to practice this. The other day we left Harare very early to dive the 250km to Mutare (near the border of Mozambique) for the opening of a herbal clinic. We spent the whole day there and then drove back getting back into Harare after dark and ready to go home. We thought we were going to drop off our other passengers in town where we picked them but we soon found out that they could not catch public transport to their house and if didn’t take them home they would end up walking about 3k in the dark. Normally it is not a big deal for Africans to walk 3k but in the dark it is not a good idea. So we took them across town. I was a little frustrated b/c I was tired and wanted to get home- but someone was in need. And these words came flooding into my mind. And I remembered that really I wasn’t being - inconvenienced I was just riding in the car. I hope to keep practicing it.

In other news my allergies have found a new way to manifest themselves- puffy sore eye lids! It isn’t overwhelming but it is annoying.

Zimbabwe

2009-09-05T07:30:00.002-04:00

we are finally in zimbabwe! for a week we have lived life with our friend julie, who is letting us live with her. she is lovely and we are really enjoying our time here. keep praying for our work permits!

-m

sometimes i think i'm great...

2009-08-27T15:47:00.003-04:00

so you know how there are things about yourself that you think are really good qualities? i realized one of mine today- that i plan ahead and love to pack. because of these two things dan and i are almost totally packed (exception of our carry on things that we will use in the morning) with 14 hours until we leave. strange. i even took a nap! :) i do have to credit our parents who were generous enough to pay for an extra bag and extra weight so that we could pack one bag to 70lbs and another extra bag we weren't planning on. i feel like God was keeping me from being prideful by only taking 4 bags and a guitar. so now it is 5 bags and a guitar- still not bad. and the best part is we are taking the stuff we were willing to leave behind but i was a little sad over leaving- like my favorite toothpaste. and my carry on is not so heavy that i will regret all of the things that are in it. so here we go...let's start this adventure.

rejoicing and weeping

2009-08-16T18:52:00.003-04:00

i had a moment in church this morning when i was fighting tears, attempting to claim the truths of God in song and pondering this idea of mourning.
tim keller said in a sermon that you cannot truly enjoy something unless you share it with someone else. i think the same principle applies to mourning. in romans 12:15 paul encourages us to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.
i think we were made to do this. as i thought about mourning and weeping i realized that it is so difficult to keep to yourself. we weren't made to mourn alone. so i'm not. i will refuse to take the easy way and the way that the non-christian culture around me want me to react. i will not put on a tough face and tell myself to keep it together. the tears don't always come but the mourning is there.
i will weep and mourn and ask others to join me. and i hope that i will do the same for those around me when the time comes.

-m

a faith that trusts that God will provide

2009-08-14T21:32:00.004-04:00

that was the title of the sermon we heard on sunday. it was a sermon dan and i both really enjoyed. he used gen 22:1-19, the story of abraham sacrificing isaac. i've loved this story for a long time but on sunday something new was pointed out to me: "Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.' " verse five. abraham had the faith to trust God to provide that he told his servants that he and isaac would go to worship and both would return! i like that kind of faith. i like the kind of faith that dan and i (and many of our friends) are putting into practice. God always provides and we notice all the more when we are actually trusting Him to do so. i am so honored to have examples of people around me who are trusting God to do big things. i am honored that they challenge me to trust God to do big things.
the second thing that stuck out to me where abraham's words, "here i am". years ago i knew i was supposed to be in missions when i heard the passage in isaiah of him saying, "here i am Lord, send me". when i read these words again my heart jumped knowing i am being sent because i am willing to go.
so this sermon sticks in my head and heart as we prepare these next two weeks before getting on a plane for zim. we prepare and will get on that plane saying, "here i am" and with faith that is trusting for God to provide all that is good.
-m

we all call it vacation

2009-08-06T10:44:00.006-04:00

last week i spent a little time thinking about vacation. dan and i have been semi-planning a vacation for the first week of august since may. i wanted something relaxing without much to do and lots of time to rest. that is what we did while camping for 3 days. i know that some would not call this relaxing but it totally was for us.

it was in huge contrast to our friend jackie's vacation the week before. jackie had never been to new york city and since we were near and wanting to see her, she and another friend erin, came to see all we could in 2 days! so we went nonstop doing everything we could think of.

the best part is that we all could call it vacation. we all loved it! and it was exactly what we each wanted for our time away from work.

-m

i am deeply loved

2009-07-23T22:39:00.002-04:00

yesterday and today i have been overwhelmed by love from three and four year olds. it has been so lovely to be instantly loved and have a playmate for a few hours. yesterday was my most favorite when we visited some of dan's family. i first met emily at christmas (i was overwhelmed by all the italian family so i sat on the couch and emily snuggled up with me), and i hoped she would love me again when we saw her and she did! my favorite line was, "hey mom, me and mary and this guy (dan) are playing nice!" her mom then reminded her that dan is her relative! :) i love it! i love small people in my life- they are the ones that i am dreading saying goodbye to.

-mary

storms to rainbows

2009-07-20T09:39:00.003-04:00

colorado of course has some breath-taking landscape but the thing that we got most excited about were the storms. fortunately for us this summer was a wet one and we watched storm after storm roll in. we saw amazing lightening, heard thunder that shook us, hail on 4 occasions and the most beautiful and bright rainbows i have ever seen. the picture below doesn't do it justice but you can try to imagine.

Faith to be Stong

2009-07-16T19:07:00.002-04:00

this is my theme song for goodbyes- thank you andrew peterson.

Give us faith to be strong
Father, we are so weak
Our bodies are fragile and weary
As we stagger and stumble to walk where you lead
Give us faith to be strong

Give us faith to be strong
Give us strength to be faithful
This life is not long, but it's hard
Give us grace to go on
Make us willing and able
Lord, give us faith to be strong

Give us peace when we're torn
Mend us up when we break
This flesh can be wounded and shaking
When there's much too much trouble for one heart to take
Give us peace when we're torn

Give us faith to be strong
Give us strength to be faithful
This life is not long, but it's hard
Give us grace to go on
Make us willing and able
Lord, give us faith to be strong

Give us hearts to find hope
Father, we cannot see
How the sorrow we feel can bring freedom
And as hard as we try, Lord, it's hard to believe
So, give us hearts to find hope

Give us faith to be strong
Give us strength to be faithful
This life is not long, but it's hard
Give us grace to go on
Make us willing and able
Lord, give us faith to be strong
Give us peace when we're torn
Give us faith, faith to be strong

4th of july

2009-07-05T21:04:00.003-04:00

it has been a long time since i have celebrated the 4th of july in the us. for some reason i found myself getting really excited as i read about the festivities that were planned in the small towns around MTI. dan and i caught the end of a long parade in monument and then walked around the vendors of a small street fair. one of the people we were with commented that small town america is where you find the american spirit you think about on days like this. and it was true. i really enjoyed walking around seeing people in all sorts of red, white, and blue.
later in the evening we went to the other town to watch the big fireworks show! again it was fun to be surrounded by the people who call this place home. and the fireworks were great! :) we got to stand right under them, shivering and enjoying every minute. so thanks small towns around me! it was a wonderful last 4th of july for awhile.

-mary

pictures from CO

2009-07-05T20:54:00.006-04:00

pikes peak!

palmer lake reservoir

new friends!

at the top of a mountain with cory and tim

Garden of the Gods

Giving

2009-06-28T16:25:00.003-04:00

A fellow missionary-in-training at MTI (preparing to go to France) had a video series on "transformational giving," and last week a few of us watched some or all of it over several evenings. I was frankly skeptical...I've seen a number of resources aimed at getting more donors and most of them seemed too slick and materialstic for me to make any use of. This guy was less slick than average (how's that for a compliment?) and his message was completely unlike any other I've heard before. Here's the main point: most fundraising focuses on the need to raise money, i.e., "it's getting close to the end of the year, and we really need your gift to keep this wonderful ministry alive..." But that kind of giving doesn't really do anything for the donor, and, besides, that doesn't match anything in the Bible.

So what's the alternative, according to this guy? He pointed out that when the rich young ruler asked Jesus what to do with his nearly-perfect life, Jesus didn't tell him how much the disciples could use his support....instead he pointed out a way for him to grow spiritually, through radical charity. So, supposedly, the point is not meeting your needs but encouraging people to live lives more characterized by giving than receiving.

I may be butchering this concept, but it was pretty impressive on the big screen. The idea of never "selling myself" again is tantalizing...not to mention ministry to donors. Ideas?

On a different note, I flew to Tampa on Friday for Shane and Helen's wedding, only to fly back on Saturday. Ouch. But the wedding was beautiful and I'm glad I went. Would have been better with Mary, but at least it was just one night apart.
-Dan

we are good at many things...

2009-06-26T15:12:00.002-04:00

but i am not sure if blogging is one of them. for those of you who actually read our blog i must apologize. we have been pretty busy- experiencing many new things. i may have to blog about them separately or this one will be very random and long.
i'll start with MTI. we have spent the last two weeks (and will spend 3 more) just outside of colorado springs. since dan already went through both training programs- he spent his days outside working on the landscaping. i sat in PILAT- Program In Language Acquisition Techniques. we filled our days with thinking about how to go about learning a new language when we arrive in the countries we are going to, practicing the thousands of sounds that are not in the english language (did you know we only have 44 sounds?!), practicing some of the techniques we should use when we arrive by learning various languages (for me it was russian), and various other things that will help us as we learn to communicate in a new way. i really enjoyed this training. i was pretty intimidated by the whole idea before i started and very intimidated by the idea of learning shona in a few months. now i feel very equipped to learn shona. and i am excited about it! :)
i also found a new game that i love to play! mexican train domino's. i have stayed up far too late a few nights playing - but it was always worth the loss of sleep for the fellowship!
dan, of course, won the hearts of many little people, which helped us build relationships with their parents. missions is bittersweet for the missionary and those close to them. it is a constant stream of building relationships and then saying goodbye. it was hard not to cry today just watching people say goodbye and when it came time for me to say goodbye it just got harder. and at the same time it is absolutely beautiful! we are all going out- all over the world- to share Christ. wow!
ok that's all for now. more to come

-mary

home

2009-06-16T22:01:00.003-04:00

i've been missing home lately. which is strange because i like to travel and i don't really know where i call home. and even if i could pick a place, all of the people i would want to be there are not there. so i guess i am missing the idea of home. or maybe it is the simple act of being known. i think most people feel at home when they are known by those around them. as of tomorrow we have officially been traveling for 8 weeks. i can't even tell you how many beds we have slept in. but i can tell you that along the way i have felt at home- and that is a blessing.
on monday we got to mti in colorado. it is the place we will be the longest (five whole weeks) until we get to zim. so the first thing we did was unpack our suitcase and put our plants in the sun. this morning was the first full day of pilat, the language learning part of our training. we sang the hymn, How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord for devos and the second and third verse caught me:

"Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed, For I am thy God, and will still give thee aid; I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand, upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand.
When through the deep waters I call thee to go, the rivers of sorrow shall not overflow; the flame shall not hurt thee; I only design and sanctify to thee thy deepest distress."

the Lord is my home. He is the only one who truly knows me and i am trusting in His righteous and omnipotent hand to guide me to a "home" at the right time.

-mary

i've been pondering...

2009-06-05T10:36:00.005-04:00

passions. i have spent time with many friends while traveling the last six weeks. we have talked about the gospel in various ways, especially how to live it out in various settings around the world. obviously, dan and i have spent time sharing about some of the ways we hope to live out our passions and the gospel in zimbabwe. i have noticed that many of these conversations center on some specific way to reach out and share God's love with a specific group of people. for some it is about strengthening the church and the family, for others it is about the homeless, and for another it is about those who are caught in sex trafficking. everyone we talk with is passionate about a group of people and wanting to be Christ to them. all of this leads me to think about if this is what is supposed to happen. are we made to find something God has made us passionate about and do that? is it inevitable that we focus ourselves on a specific group or cause? if we do focus in are we missing out on some other part of the gospel or the church? i'm not sure what to think of all of this. your comments are welcome.

on another note, i told you i would get back to you on how i feel about buying our tickets to zimbabwe. i feel good about it. we have spent months preparing for this. God has constantly provided along the way. i say: let's do this!

we just spent a lot of money

2009-05-29T15:51:00.002-04:00

on our tickets for zimbabwe! we bought them! we are officially going on august 28. now we just need that $500 more a month and we will be all set. wow. we are really doing this. it feels...
i'll get back to you.

-mary

memories continued 07

2009-05-28T18:02:00.011-04:00

recycled and unrecycled (trash) in china

went to NK with these fine folks

lead an intern team to germany and estonia for the summer

i started dating dan.

i spent christmas with
erin and holly in cambodia

oh my achin' back

2009-05-28T17:02:00.002-04:00

today i went to the chiropractor and found out that i have a mild back sprain and very inflamed muscles around it. that means i get to be in pain for about 2 more weeks, ice my back often, and rest a lot. too bad dan and i are trying to meet with our supporters in town and try to find a few more.
lessons learned: ease into farming in zim. it will be better for everyone. and work on strengthening those back muscles.

-mary

a few pictures to go with the last post

2009-05-27T19:59:00.006-04:00

taco crawl in LA

us at the wedding

and a short stop on the blue ridge parkway where we met ironman

take two aspirin and call me crazy

2009-05-25T18:18:00.004-04:00

A lot has happened since our last post (I really do hope we were cut out for blogging, but is this a bad sign), including anonymous celebrity sightings (I'm sure there were famous people all over beverly hills, I just didn't recognize one), taco-crawling (a four-course meal made up entirely of taco-truck tacos), more Zimbabwe meetings and presentations, my brother's Mexican-American wedding (apparently when you give a toast at a Mexican wedding, you don't drink until both speeches are over and everybody chants something...wish I'd known that...), and a lovely drive from southwestern VA to upstate NY. oh, and on that drive we stopped on the Blue Ridge Parkway and met a guy hiking the Appalachian trail named ironman.

So, after that long intro, here we are in NY, where we spend the first three days working on the farm that gave me my start in farming. I was really looking forward to the work (you know, fresh air, using my muscles, etc.), and I was not disappointed. We mulched brassicas, seeded sweetcorn, transplanted peppers and eggplants, prepped land for tomatoes, and played with the dogs. Now, it didn't surprise me, but you don't really ease into farm work here. So we we're a little sore. But grateful. But sore.

I'm struggling with how to introduce this next paragraph, so here goes: Mary was stretching her back a few days ago, and something horrible happened inside her back muscles, and she couldn't get up for 24 hours. It appears to have just been a run-o-the-mill muscle strain (thank you webMD), but it was definitely a big deal...I mean, she couldn't move...but thankfully she's up and (cautiously) about now, which is cause for celebration. So, I brought my wife to a farm, and she spent a day in bed. Yes, we are moving to Zimbabwe to work with farmers. No, I'm not worried :)

our adventures in cali

2009-05-12T13:57:00.005-04:00

we have been in some part of california for almost a week now and have participated in quite the range of activities, all centered around visiting friends who lovingly and sacrificially support us in ministry.
we started our time in oakland with jeff and sarah. this is really my first time meeting them (the actual first time was our wedding but that is not a day for meeting new friends). dan went to college and served in intervarsity together with them. and i am forever indebted to them because they were the organizers of a trip to ECHO where dan heard about NMSI and therefore met me. so thanks jeff and sarah! because i do not spend a lot of time looking at maps of CA, i had no idea that oakland is right across the bay from san francisco. so our first full day, while jeff and sarah worked, we toured the city. we had lots of fun learning about and riding cable cars, walking the hills, seeing famous things like lombard street, alcatraz, the golden gate bridge, fisherman's wharf, and sea lions basking in the sun! we also met up with dan's friend jen, who he went to high school with and had not really seen since! we had lots of fun with her and ate at the stinking rose- famous mostly for having garlic in just about everything! the next day we drove to napa valley to tour wine country. it was beautiful to just drive through the hills and see vineyard after vineyard. i thought a bit about the passages in the bible about vines and fruit that comes from them. i like being connected to the land- even if it is just through sight and thought.

we left oakland to fly to LA to visit some of my friends from college, rachel and warren. i love the random times i get to spend with rachel and warren, which because of our locations happen vary rarely. on sunday they planned a cookout with another couple and family that we share friendship with. joy we know from our milligan days. she met her husband, jordan while serving in australia with YWAM and now they have two beautiful children. tim, i know from NMSI and introduced to rachel and warren. he and his wife, becca live out here and now they are all friends. so we had quite a strange reunion/meeting. it was so good to just share about our lives and ministries about people who understand or are interested in it. while we stayed up far too late, my spirit was encouraged by time with friends who have known me for quite awhile. for most of this week we are trying to rest up for the weekend of wedding festivities ahead. we have no idea what to expect from these events but we are excited and honored to participate. one thing we have done here is eat some amazing food. like last night when i had carne astada fries. yum! and tonight we are doing the "taco crawl" where you go around and eat at various taco trucks in town. sweeet!
the best part of this whole time has been realizing how grateful i am that i get to travel through the rest of my life with dan. the way God works is amazing and i am in awe of the partner He brought to me.

-mary

On the runway again...

2009-05-06T07:45:00.006-04:00

So, today we're flying to California. We're in a tiny airport, about to get on a microscopic airplane...but then again, this is the boy who grew up with Newark airport for a backyard. I've probably flown on close to a hundred flights...and I still get giddy at the thought of getting on an airplane. I don't know what it is, maybe the crazy acceleration at takeoff, maybe the novelty of a cart full of cocktails rolling down the aisle at 35,000 feet in the air...in any event, I spend about a third of my time on a plane thinking about Bernoulli...
This morning as we were getting ready, I had a flashback of sorts, to the airport in Johannesburg (Joburg, affectionately), which was/will be our last stop before we get to Zimbabwe. I remember a profound/auspicious feeling there, as in "you're about two spend two weeks/months in a strange culture"...it was all the more weird because everybody else just seemed to be going about their normal business. I think there's a lot of life that feels like that. So anyway, I thought about that this morning, and I have a feeling every flight between now and Zimbabwe might be the same.

In case anybody's wondering why we're going to Cali (as they call it), my brother is getting married there. Fortunately, we also have several friends and supporters, whom we're more than happy to visit with (that's right, I used "whom").

-Dan

memories continued 05-06

2009-04-24T16:01:00.035-04:00

i missed an important part of 2005- angela and i moved into a new house across the alley from our previous duplex. we had a few roommates come in and leave for the field and then ashleigh moved in with us and shared a room with me. and thus began a very beautiful friendship, ashleigh is now serving in kenya with africahope.

in early 2006, all the girls moved again. this time i moved in with stacey, who five weeks later got married to derek. we loved our five weeks together. i learned a lot and miss her but am glad she and her family are now serving in southeast asia.

in feburary i joined one of our board members on a trip to japan to set up the summer internship we were sending to japan that summer. (did i say before that my job from the time i started at nmsi was to direct the summer intern program?)

in 2006 we sent interns all over the world. here they are at our pre-field orientation.

meanwhile, i worked at the camp missionary and life guard at the church camp that i grew up attending

after thanksgiving, i took a month long research trip which started by a few days in amsterdam talking with a ministry called the shelter

i then went on to berlin to visit the seidls and talked about the next year's summer intern teams...

and on to india to continue to set up internships and visit the frys and stammers

and i finally ended up in kenya to spend my christmas with one of my best friends erin. she is lovely. :)

memories 04-05

2009-04-19T17:05:00.023-04:00

last night i took some friends on a tour of the NMSI campus through my memory. so i thought i would do the same for you. it starts in 2004. i moved into duplex 2 with angela. unfortunately i cannot find any pictures of us or our little home. so i will just share what i have:

stick-sticktacular: my 23 birthday party where only food on a stick was served.

clean up after a hurricane -->

a trip to thailand & myanmar

my sister got married

i went to kenya for my first triennial!!!

packing, parents, and leaving

2009-04-17T10:57:00.013-04:00

our house is a wreck. it has been in a state of transition for over a week now. and in that week so much has happened.
first dan and i packed up all the things that we can live without for the next 3 weeks so that my parents could drive it to their house in VA where it will be stored or gone through again before we leave for zim.
second my parents came to visit last thursday - Easter sunday. and dan's parent's came friday to sunday. we have never hosted our parents so to host both of them at the same time was exciting. we had a good weekend full of the joys of the great FL outdoors.

we are now in our last 5 days of living in ft myers. this has been my home for the past 5 years and on wednesday all of my things will be packed up and will leave with me. moving has always been part of my life so on one hand it feels normal. and it is terrible. i guess because i am more mature each time and my relationships are a little deeper that leaving continues to get harder. i really like working here. i really love the people i work with. and while i know that we will continue to be close friends i also know that that friendship will be very different. watching children grow up through pictures is bittersweet. this past wednesday our office devotion time was focused on remembering times with me or dan. we made a time line of memories on the board and various people shared memoried with us. it was beautiful. and funny.

-mary

my bff, misty, and her husband

2009-04-07T17:20:00.004-04:00

came for a visit last week. it was delightful to see them. i enjoy hosting them because they don't need to be entertained. they come just to be in the sun and spend time with me (and my community). there is only one to do on the list: go to the beach and that is pretty easily taken care of. it is also nice to host them because they love my friends here. it is strange when my two worlds collide but i like it so much when they do it nicely. :)

here we are doing one of the many things we do best together: just being.

-mary

the end of one thing...

2009-04-05T17:17:00.005-04:00

About a week ago, COAT ended. (COAT is NMSI's missionary development program...my job for the past six months has been to sort of co-lead it two times, especially the people part.) I'd have to say it has been a challenge and a huge learning opportunity...with no shortage of fun times, rest assured. The guy responsible for me this whole time was Matt (see photo), but most of the time I just called him "boss" (which most people attribute to my urban roots) and I probably will for a while. Anyway, COAT has given me a lot of insight into group dynamics, tough love, and failing well. So, this past week has comprised the end of one thing...
...and the beginning of another, namely, transition. We filled up our mini white board with ideas on what to pack and where and when to pack it. From here we move out of our little apartment in Fort Myers and drive and/or fly to a few select states: Virginia, NJ, NY, California and Colorado, for visits, support raising, training and weddings (in no particular order). I think we're both ready for this, or at least as ready as we can be.

-Dan

our garden

2009-03-24T18:31:00.006-04:00

So, we have a garden. Living without one has been kinda rough, ever since I left the farm, so it's really nice to have one. We're growing yellow squash, zucchini, watermelon, carrots, broccoli, basil, cilantro and flowers (from seed) and onions, tomatoes and eggplant from seedlings. Each morning, after kissing my wife, I seriously cannot wait to go outside and empty our french press, because that gives me an excuse to check on (speak tenderly to) our plants. Saturdays are the best, of course, because I don't have to rush this. And about life being hard without farming...well, it's hard to describe, but farming has meant a lot to me...I'd even say it changed my life. There's something about having my hands in the dirt, busting my back to pull out weeds, tasting a tomato that would convert a diehard tomatophobe...I could do this the rest of my life. Maybe I will.

-Dan

lent

2009-03-17T07:26:00.003-04:00

this year, dan and i are celebrating lent. in the past i have done some sort of fast and little celebration but this year, thanks to erin, we are taking another step in our celebration. first, we went to an ash wednesday service and for the first time i had ashes on my head. second, we gave up something that we actually miss and therefore think about Christ more. and third, we are reading a daily devotion together about lent. i especially liked today's:
"Life is a long journey of preparation- of preparing oneself to truly die for others. It is a series of little deaths in which we are asked to release many forms of clinging and to more increasingly from needing others to living for them. The many passages we have to make as we grow from childhood to adolescence, from adolescence to adulthood, and from adulthood to old age offer ever-new opportunities to choose for ourselves or to choose for others. During these passages, questions such as Do I desire power or service; do I want to be visible or remain hidden; do I strive for a successful career or do I keep following my vocation? keep coming up and confront us with hard choices. In this sense, we can speak about life as a long process of dying to self, so that we will be able to live in the joy of God." -Henri J Nouwen, Beyond the Mirror: Reflections on Death and Life.

-mary

step one

2009-03-15T17:51:00.002-04:00

(step one is to write your first post after you have created your site.) step one intimidates me. so here it is -our first post on our blog. i have a love-hate relationship with blogs. i love my friend's blogs and am terrible at keeping one myself. my friend grete has never let me get away with just forgetting that i too can have a blog. so dan and i have started one. we hope to keep it up the whole time we are in zimbabwe so that you will know what we are doing and thinking. so here's to hoping...

-mary