STEAM: STEAM XII - Trumble Missionary Update

Greetings!

Thank you for your prayers for the Trumble family and the ministry of the African Bible College here in Malawi. Sunday marked 5 weeks since we arrived and we are doing well. We had a time after we were here where the rains were not coming like they need to but now we are experiencing rain most days and it will hopefully be a good year for the maize crops which means people will eat (sort of an important detail of life, wouldn’t you say?).

Beth is now helping out with one of the 2nd grade classrooms. She will acquire the class full-time in April when the current teacher and her husband leave to go back to the States to have their first baby. Beth will gradually acquire more and more responsibility over the next few weeks and then soon the classroom will be hers. The last year Beth was regularly in the classroom as a teacher before this was the last full school year before Jim was born. That was 1995-96 so it’s been a few years. Please pray for her as she makes this transition.

I am working in the office and learning about the finances. Malawi is an interesting place. Here in Malawi many, many things are paid in cash (and even a lot of the checks we write are made out to cash with the idea that the people will take the checks to the bank and take cash out). The largest bill in circulation is worth about $3 so large numbers of bills are being moved around a lot. Paying bills in the United States is a piece of cake. Here, you often physically take the payment to the office of the entity to whom you are paying. It’s crazy inefficient but you don’t trust the mail system.

The kids are adjusting well overall. Elizabeth’s 12th birthday is Thursday. Elizabeth is a very special girl who has many wonderful gifts. She’s an artist (see some of her work at this link: E-Art). She sees the world differently than most of the rest of us which is pretty neat in many ways. However, it also means that her brain works differently than many of us and so there are some things that are a real struggle for her. One of these is math where she is behind where she should be for 6th grade. Her reading level is also not where it should be. We have met with her 6th grade teacher here at ABCCA (African Bible College Christian Academy) and we are on a fairly intensive tutoring schedule with her. 5 hours every two weeks with the teacher plus 5 hours per week at home. I am working with her on math and it’s some fun to spend time with her and some frustrating because she can’t see some of the number relationships which are so obvious to me. Elizabeth is going to be held back and will do 6th grade next year. This is probably good as it will give her some chance to catch up on some of the things in which she is behind but please be praying for her as she tries to catch up and as she deals with being held back (she seems to be dealing with it pretty well at this point).

We have been using mostly borrowed furniture since we arrived but it sounds like our container will arrive tomorrow. Some students will help us unload the container and move stuff. It ought to be interesting.

Prayer Items

Praise

· For a relatively good adjustment to our new home

· Safety & Health

· Provision of a good vehicle at a reasonable cost

Requests

· For the ongoing adjustment. Pray especially for Jim that he would find joy in being in Malawi and that he would develop one or more really close friendships

· Elizabeth’s tutoring and for a special birthday for her.

· Pray for the health of those on campus. We have two ladies (both are wives and mothers) who are seeking medical attention outside the country while their husbands and some of the kids stay here in Malawi. Amy is in South Africa (see attached message) and Holli is on her way to the States.

Thank you for your continued prayer support!

Missionarily,

Dan (for the Trumble family)

A picture of our family in our front yard taken on Sunday.