Hello, friends and readers!
Future posts to our blog will be found at http://jonathanandbecky.net. (We've moved the existing posts there, too.) So you'll want to update any browser bookmarks or favorites to point to the new site. Hopefully this will make it easier for those of you who want to post comments, as well as give us a little more freedom in how we write and post to the blog.
Feel free to let us know--on the new blog or via email--about any issues you have reading or commenting on the new blog. Thanks for reading and encouraging us over the last few years! We look forward to another term in Malawi, and to writing more on our blog.
Happy New Year!
[Wow. Somehow this message stayed in our old blog's "draft" posts instead of going live. It's still accurate...even though w meant for it to go live on January 1, 2016. Sorry!!!]
The Goin' Owens
Saturday, December 22, 2018
Sunday, June 28, 2015
Transition Stinks (err... is exciting!)
I need a little help with my ducks tonight…
Remember Yay Duck and Yuck Duck? A pair-of-ducks….paradox!
Tonight I’d like to declare that transition is rotten. It’s no fun.
I want to avoid it.
And, I’m really excited to embark on what is
to come. Transition is full of
opportunity. It’s exciting and fulfilling.
Let me explain...
When I was a little girl, I went to summer camp by myself,
starting at age 8. It was just a week of
camp and my cousins and/or friends from church were often there with me. It was SO MUCH FUN! But do you know what I did all through the
church service the morning before my parents drove me up to camp to be dropped
off? I cried. I cried through the hymns, I cried through
the sermon, I may have even cried through lunch and the two hour drive to camp.
Why? After all, I
just said that camp was SO MUCH FUN!
Because I missed my family.
My Mom. My Dad. My brother. I
missed them so very much, I cried. Then,
after we moved my bags into my cabin and met the rest of my roommates that
afternoon, we shared a tearful goodbye and I was at camp. I often didn’t eat dinner that night, even
though they were serving my favorite breaded chicken sandwich! But, for the rest of that week, I was “all in”. I did the early morning jog and swim to win
extra points for my team, I did the obstacle course, the trust fall, the kayaks
at the lake. I wore the armor of God,
brought down the walls of Jericho and even performed in the talent show. I loved camp!
I especially enjoyed mail call as well as sending postcards home,
telling my family about camp. I missed
them a lot, but at the same time, I was having a blast.
Did you hear that?
Yays and yucks, all mashed together!
We have three weeks till we fly back home to PA for a
time. We’ve shared many goodbyes as
other friends have already transitioned back home for leave or forever. But as my flight quickly approaches, I am
beginning to seriously miss my friends here…ahead of time, just like missing my
family before camp even started. Some
have been friends our entire three years here, while others are new friends we
look forward to getting to know even more. This Friday will be graduation at EBCoM with
even more goodbyes to students who have been here our entire first term.
It's tempting to feel quite sad. (Yuck!)
Then, we’ll board a plane with our two young children and
travel (by plane and car) for roughly the next 28 hours or so. We’ll take them “back home” to where our
6-year-old will vaguely remember his 3-year-old life and where our almost
4-year-old will have no memory besides the pictures we’ve shown and stories we’ve
told her. They’ll be reunited with
family who they mainly know through Skype or letters. They’ll meet many of our friends as strangers. Then, after 5 months, we’ll travel back to
Malawi to the familiar people and places of this “home”. And as I did before we boarded the plane to
come to Malawi, I turn to Jonathan and ask “What on earth are we doing to our
children?!?!”
It’s tempting to feel quite desperate, even confused. (Yuck!)
Transition is hard on kids.
It’s hard enough on adults! We’ve
talked with them for months about visiting PA, going “back home,” playing with
cousins, visiting museums, taking ballet lessons, swim lessons, going to
libraries and seeing friends. They get
really excited! They also get really
sad, missing their friends in Malawi ahead of time. They know transition is coming. Mommy and Daddy are moving things around,
talking about what to pack and even what to bring back. They can tell something is “up” and all is
not going to be “normal”. So they cling
to what they hold dear and claim as normal – they cling to Mommy and
Daddy. Mommy and Daddy have long to-do
lists and are constantly thinking of more details. Mommy and Daddy take time to fill up two kids’
leaky buckets.
Transition is HARD. (Yuck!)
I’m looking forward to store-bought salsa, Campbell's tomato soup and
buy-one-get-one 8 oz. cheese blocks. I look forward to paying with a debit card. I am really
looking forward to blending in, instead of being pointed at and called “Azungu!”
(meaning foreigner or rich person) almost every time I leave my house by foot or
car. I look forward to driving on nice
roads where (most) traffic laws are followed, with little to no animal
obstacles.
It’s tempting to get excited! (Yay!)
More than any places or things, though, I look forward to
hugging my parents, my nieces, my nephews and their parents. I can’t wait to soak up their presence over
meals, playground visits, happenstance visits and even phone calls! I look forward to walking into our home
church and greeting our church family who commissioned us on this journey and upheld
us in prayer, wrote notes, sent cards and packages. There are moments I can feel myself about to
burst!
It’s tempting to feel extremely excited! (Yay!)
We haven’t seen any of our family (besides my parents’ visit)
for three whole years. Babies
have been born we’ve never met. Friends have gotten married AND had babies all
in those three years. Our own youngest
who was a baby when we left PA is now a spunky almost 4-year-old. We are very excited to catch up with everyone
and love on one another in person.
We ARE excited! (Yay!)
In the midst of packing and preparing for home ministry, I
have yay ducks and yuck ducks bouncing all over inside, competing for my
attention – trying to win me over. But I’m
reminded of the training we received in our last huge transition – when we came
to Malawi.
Embrace the paradox – the pair-of-ducks.
Let the Yays be Yays and celebrate them!
Let the Yucks be Yucks and grieve them.
They both deserve their due attention.
This is a hard thing to do – embrace paradox.
Please pray with us that we can embrace the paradox of this
transition.
Pray not only for preservation of relationships, but for
flourishing through the changes we face.
As always, pray that God would be glorified, magnified and
honored through the Yays and Yucks.
He is able.
Thursday, February 19, 2015
The 2015 Floods
As usual, I pulled out the homeschool books for the day and
settled into the couch with the kids to do some reading. It had been raining for a while and the wind
was really picking up. I particularly
noticed how stormy it was while I read from a book we had been working through
for a couple of weeks. That morning’s
chapter involved a hurricane hitting Palm Beach, FL and how one family prepared
for and weathered the storm. I paused a
moment to reassure the children that we were not experiencing a hurricane,
although it was very windy and rainy outside (just like in the book) and that
we didn’t need to board up our windows to be safe, etc.
Little did I know that it truly was a tropical storm passing over!
The 8x4x2 foot drain at the bottom of our property filled nearly to the top during the storm. Water drains from other properties uphill to collect and drain here. |
It started the morning of January 12th, 2015 and
continued storming through the 15th – all day, all night. It was incredible to experience so much
constant rain, very heavy at times, accompanied by impressive wind. We had no idea of the magnitude of the storm
at the time (we don’t have live radar and rarely tune into a weather
report). The most immediate results we
noticed were lack of power and water. The
massive increase of water in the Shire River resulted in the shutting down of
generators to prevent damage to them, which meant drastic power shedding and no
running water supplied to most of the city of Blantyre. For 3 weeks we had very little electricity,
ranging from 12-16 hours of the day without power. We charged up at night and planned meals
carefully, using our backup gas burner.
Carrying containers, in search of water |
Catching water from our roof at any time of day or night (almost), you catch it when it comes! |
As the storm subsided and people took stock of their homes,
news began to spread of the vast devastation across the country, particularly
in the southern half of Malawi. In both
rural and urban areas where houses are built from mud bricks (sometimes fired,
sometimes not) held together by mud or diluted concrete, with or without a
foundation, falling walls and houses were inevitable. The stories shared in news articles are
astounding. Here are some we have found
to be helpful in understanding the damage to property and life as a result of
the storm:
Malawi Floods: The Long Slog Home
UNICEF Reports
A Malawian Climate Change Specialist' Perspective
If you would like to provide flood relief assistance through the BIC Church in Malawi, please write a check to "Brethren in Christ World Missions" and designate it to the "Global Compassion Fund -- for Malawi". Mail to 431 Grantham Rd. Mechanicsburg, PA 17055-5812. Church leaders are currently assessing how the floods affected BIC churches and will oversee relief efforts as funds are available.
Saturday, January 3, 2015
Christmas Greetings 2014
We all had a lot of fun one hot, sunny, Sunday afternoon staging this picture to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy 2015!
By the time the photo was taken, the water in the kiddie pool had reached a lukewarm temperature and half the ice cream in our cups had been eaten or melted, but we got a kick out of demonstrating the difference in the weather we experience here from our home of Pennsylvania!
As you can see, it's mighty difficult to get everyone truly smiling at the same time, but such is this phase of life!
Although there are differences between our Christmas celebrations in Malawi and PA, there are similarities as well....here are a few...
Walking through the Advent Season
same = Each Sunday approaching Christmas, we light a candle and remember God's promises and people leading up to Christ's birth through reading related stories in the Bible.
different = We didn't use an Advent wreath this year, but lanterns and nativity pieces.
Our Christmas Tree
same = We have one
different = It's fake :(
Christmas Cookie Baking!
same = We still make the same paintbrush cookies Becky made, growing up
FOOD
same = We eat at Christmas! I make my annual purchase of Philly cream cheese (when it turns up in the store) and freeze it (even though the package says not to) to bring out on Dec 24th to make a favorite German recipe for Christmas called Spiral Fruit Buns.
different = Enjoying LOTS of fresh mangoes (at dirt cheap prices) and pineapples, both just coming into season for Christmas each year.
same = We eat meat at Christmas...
different = It took three chickens to fill my small(!) roaster pan this year. No 30-pound turkeys (or chickens) here, folks!!! They were (all) delicious, though :)
same = We built gingerbread houses with some friends, amounting to more candy consumed than used for decorating and more icing bag squirting into mouths (when parents aren't looking) than landed on houses. All very fun, though!
different = We made them from scratch. If you're wondering, it takes 3-4 days to do such a crazy thing:
Day 1 - make dough and chill overnight, at least
Day 2 - bake pieces, let rest
Day 3 - construct houses allowing a few hours between walls and roof installation
Day 4 - DECORATE!!!
I dare say, we may pick up a kit to make next year when we're in PA!
Celebrating Jesus' Birth
Still getting lots of mileage out of the Fisher Price nativity set... notice the dog and man with cell phone babysitting baby Jesus... I guess some of the pieces didn't come with the original set :) |
same = At Christmas, we celebrate the birth of Jesus and the hope of our salvation!
different = The weather is hot, we have a LOT of rain, everything is green outside (not white) and we really miss our family back home....BUT none of that can change our reason for celebrating!
The Trash Man
"The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world."
1 John 1:9
What a hope-filled, joyful message!
Where there is hurt -- healing
Where there is suffering -- hope
Where there is hunger -- satisfaction
Where there is sorrow -- joy
Where there is war -- peace
Where there is division -- fellowship
Where there is brokenness -- love
Where there is darkness -- light...true Light!
We sing "Joy to the world, the Lord has come, let earth receive her king"...."Go tell it on the mountain...that Jesus Christ is born"...and we are filled with the excitement of letting all people hear the Good News that they, too, may see light in the darkness that surrounds them.
Then, as our family drove home from church on Christmas morning, we saw a man (likely on his way to/from church as well) sifting through our trash can which was placed at the end of our alley for pick-up (it doesn't always get picked up on schedule, so it remained there).
What was there to be found in this wretched, reeking container, you ask?
Empty, crushed cartons, meat packaging, scraps of this and that -- nothing of use or worth (we know - we give away what is still useful for our housekeeper to sell).
What did he take away?
The plastic grocery bags we had put our trash in - those were still useful. So, he dumped the trash out into the can and took the bags.
This was a sobering view as we approached our home to continue our Christmas celebration. Although this man may or may not know of the Good News of Jesus Christ, he still struggles in the darkness of poverty. Joy and Light have come - Jesus undoubtedly brought them, yet Jesus also dwelt with people in their darkness. Sometimes he healed them or provided in their time of need, but he always showed the Way to God, the hope of salvation, the eternal healing and restoration from brokenness -- the way back to wholeness with God.
Often after witnessing poverty, I am left with more questions than answers or inspiration.
What am I doing to tell others of Jesus?
How can I dwell with others in darkness as Jesus did?
How does Christ want to use me to shine light into the darkness, even when I can't remove it?
What darkness do I still inhabit?
Where do I need to allow Christ's Light into my life?
Friday, November 7, 2014
Third Year Reflections: Part 2 Changing Children
Creative works abound from fun times at the school table. |
A second
reason I (Becky) haven’t written as much in our second year here is because of
our children’s changing ages, stages and needs.
It goes without saying that our kids are 2 years older and much
different in many ways than when we first arrived. Although many of you have a nifty prayer card
with a picture of our family on it from when Micah was 3 and Rachel was maybe 4
months old, they are not frozen in time.
Now, Rachel is 3 and Micah is 5.
After two
years of preschool homeschooling, I’m teaching Micah much more rigorously as he
entered Kindergarten this year. Rachel
is proudly in preschool now as well. It’s pretty crazy balancing their different
learning levels, attention spans and need for attention. Some days it’s super fun, whereas other days
are downright miserable, but all in all, I’m delighted in homeschooling and
attempt to rise to the challenge daily.
Many ask me how homeschooling goes with a preschooler and Kindergartener. It is challenging when one wants to learn and the other just wants to play, but with the help of Pinterest (I never thought I'd say such a thing), I've found some activities that help engage and teach both kids on each level at the same time. The pizza delivery game was a hit! We delivered pizzas in "The Village of An", "At", and "Og"... with road names in each village ending in those letters (Can, Cat, Cog...). It reviewed numbers, reading, directions, and even phone etiquette!
After reading a story, recreating it with Duplos is a favorite activity! |
I try, with varying success, to engage the kids in everyday chores. One day, while helping take fresh beans out of their shells, Micah was inspired to plant all the beans with roots already coming out. Because I had let the bag of beans sit out a few extra days, we found plenty to plant!!!
Planting beans with the help of a Duplo tractor scraper... hey, why not!?!? |
After a couple of weeks in yogurt tubs, these bean plants graduated to the garden! |
I am reminded how nice it was to have planning periods (when I taught in public school), not to mention lunch period to myself or with other teachers, but I have appreciated precious times with my children that I will treasure for a long time. Our excessively inquisitive 5-year-old makes connections between biblical stories/truths and any other subject or storyline we happen to be investigating. This provides natural teachable moments and immediate application of what he is learning. It is honestly incredible to watch him process the world as he knows it while discovering new things and fitting them together.
Daddy rereads a few chapters of their favorite book for the second or third time! |
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