First, let mefollow up on the prayer request sent out a week ago related to the head-oncollision of Katie and Lydia (mother and daughter) with a fuel truck. Thank you for praying and please continue to pray. Lydia had a terribleburn or bruise (or something) from the seatbelt but has returned to school andshould be okay. Katie broke a bit of her pelvis but it’s near the topof the pelvic bone on one side and apparently if you’re going to have abusted pelvis, this is the way to do it. More seriously, her kneecap wasalso busted up quite badly and on Sunday last week they transported her toBlantyre (about 300 kilometers away) and she had surgery. I’veheard that she will need to remain in the hospital for 2-4 weeks total. Katie’s husband and the kids’ dad was killed in a car accident lessthan 2 years ago in Malawi and so besides the physical recovery, please prayfor the emotional health of the family. Thanks for all of yourprayers. In last week’s update I had said that Lydia’s sisteris in Beth’s 2nd grade class but that was incorrect. Lydia is in the 3rd grade but none of the Bartlett are inBeth’s class.
Augustwas quite a cool month. I even wore a long-sleeved flannel shirt to workone day. It’s been a busy several weeks as lots of new missionariesand staff have moved to Malawi for the first time or returned after a visit tothe States. We have new families from Australia, South Africa, and Indiabesides the new families from the U.S. There are several young singlepeople here to teach at the ABC Christian Academy (where Beth teaches and thekids attend). It’s quite a busy time getting everyone from the airportand situated into their new living quarters (and retrieving bags thatdidn’t make it on the scheduled flights). Since we came to Malawiin the middle of the school year at ABC, we missed the normal orientation thatis held for new staff but we got to join new staff for orientation in Augustafter having been here for more than half a year. I even presented someof the orientation for finance stuff. One of the activities was ascavenger hunt into town on a minibus to acquire certain itmes. Picturesof the scavenger hunt can be seen here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=198646&id=650243390&l=af4a03287a .
Beth and thekids have completed the 3rd week of school and while it keeps Bethincredibly busy, it is good. She has kids from Malawi, the U.S.,Zimbabwe, Korea, and South Africa (and maybe others that she cannot remember atthe moment) and the school has over 20 countries represented in the studentbody. Jim is not in favor of homework but the kids are doing okay.
We havefriends on campus who employ a cook named Steve and he has done some work forus as well. Our son Stephen thinks that cook Steve is the best and we doenjoy lots of the food that he makes. Anyway, our friends were headedback to the States for a short time and shortly after they left, Steve came byour house. His wife had gone to Blantyre and was very sick in agovernment-run hospital and they wouldn’t even tell Steve what was wrongwith her but his wife was not doing well at all. Beth did some worktrying to figure out how one might go about getting a person transferred to aprivate hospital but before anything was resolved with that, we found out thatSteve’s wife had died. Steve travelled through the night toBlantyre and his wife was buried the next day. Steve has 3 children agedabout 11, 6 and 2 and now he’s a single parent. Then, within about2 weeks, his father died (several hundred kilometers away) and so he had todeal with that as well. Please pray for Steve and his kids as he has alot facing him. In less than 6 weeks our son Stephen will be the age Iwas when my mother died. Single parenthood is a tough deal and I’mglad I don’t have to do it.
Beth and Icelebrated our 16th wedding anniversary on the 13th ofAugust. We went out to dinner and friends kept the kids overnight. It is good to be married.
ABC is a bitlight on administrative staff and so I end up being involved in quite a bitmore than basic finance duties. In the past 30 days we’ve had tosack three workers (in Malawi, we refer to firing someone as“sacking” them) for theft. On Thursday I dropped by ourlawyer’s office with some labor law questions. Right now I’msigning virtually all of the checks for the College, the Academy, and theClinic. It is busy, busy!
In my financerole I get to be the “bad guy” in trying to collect studentfees. It is neat to see how some students who are adequately paid-up ontheir school fees are sometimes willing to transfer funds to other students whoare in need of help.
In the updatethat I sent in early August I had intended to include a picture of our cats butfailed to include the picture in most (if not all) of the updates I sentout. I have currently misplaced the camera cord that I need to downloadpictures from my camera (although another guy on campus has a way that he canhelp me). Anyway, I am including the cat picture in THIS update (see below).
Thank you foryour prayers for our family as well as for the ministry here at ABC. Please remember Katie and Lydia (the accident victims) and Steve (whose wifeand father died) specifically in your prayers. Also remember the collegestudents, some of whom face significant challenges in trying to raise the necessaryschool fees. Dr.Henry Krabbendam from Covenant College is a guest lecturer at ABC for a littlewhile. He is big on counting trials as joy the way we are instructed to do inthe book of James. Living in Africa can present lots of opportunities forcounting joys. Please pray for us that we would count difficulties asjoy!
Pleasesend us messages to letus know what’s going on in your lives!
Missionarily,
Dan (for the Trumble family)
The picture was taken by Elizabeth and shows Sunshine and Anny. Sadly, Sunshine has now gone missing so we’re now down to Anny and Floppy, Anny’s mom. It’s kind of too sad. Sunshine was a nice looking cat.
Two pictures of Elizabeth from the scavenger hunt during orientation. (Beth and the backof Steve’s head are in the second picture).
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