A field update from Hands and Elly Timmermans

Dear Friends of D.C.I. Malawi,

We arrived in Malawi last Friday, January 12, 2018 and Monday we travelled to Mzuzu and met our Team again. The families are all doing fine. The kids are growing. George’s kids even know enough English to talk with us a little. John’s wife Maureen is doing well too with her pregnancy. The doctor gave her a clear bill of health this past week.

Life in Africa is moving along for us. Today the sun is shining after heavy rains for most of this week, day and night! The temperatures are around 20 C day and night. This is summer in Malawi! Even on a sunny day the constant evaporation keeps the temperatures down. The roads are very muddy and sometimes almost impassible. Last night we went to our favourite restaurant in Mzuzu. The chef is Irish and makes a pepper steak that makes your mouth water, just thinking about it.

We met two Dutch nursing students there and struck up a conversation. They asked what we were doing in Malawi … Well, we had an opportunity to share the Good News and the difference it makes in the lives of the Malawians at length. They listened attentively. They had never heard the Good News. Their grandparents were church goers, but their parents disengaged right after they got married and never told their children any of the stories of the Bible. Please pray for Melissa and Annaloes. We were able to illustrate the spiritual battle life is from examples in Malawi. They are leaving Mzuzu today to travel in Africa for a while before returning to their studies in Holland. I gave each a New Life App card.

After a harder time than at other times to adjust to the jet lag this past week, we had a hard night last night. The university students had an all-night party with very loud music. We lay vibrating to the heavy beat of the drums in our beds. Sometimes someone would sing a song and a lot of rap music was aired. I finally fell asleep around 2 or 3 am.

We hope to visit Andrew and Mpahtso and their two children today, if the roads into their neighbourhood are passable … We have visited John and Maureen and George and Glory and their four children, Perembe, Orini, Tenson and Caleb. George is building a new house. We were able to help them from our own funds to buy doors and windows. This will enable them to move in. The house they live in right now is a mud brick house and it is old and in danger of collapsing in the near future. Now they still need to do the floors and plaster the walls before they can move in. We have helped our families here from time to time so they can live securely and not have to worry about their buildings.

Elly has been teaching George how to manage a budget efficiently using a computer.
On Sunday we will be traveling to Lilongwe to pick up our friend from Kenya who is interested in the work D.C.I. is doing in Malawi. Next week we will have meetings with pastors and leaders of Northern Malawi to hear reports on the progress of the work and top see how it can be improved. As Chuck Swindoll said, we need to always be “Improving our Serve”.

For the rest, life is fine in Africa. ‘Just need to remember, take a shower when the water is on and enjoy some reading when the hydro is available and charge your batteries. Yes, connecting is better than before, but the internet does not always work when we need it.

May God keep and bless you all!

Thanks for your support and prayers.

Sincerely,

Hans and Elly Timmermans
hanstimmermans5@me.com
Phone: 519-859-9812