STEAM

2011-07-03T05:32:00.006-06:00

Greetings from Malawi!

The commercialism surrounding Christmas in the United States has not fully made its way to Malawi. This is a good thing. Additionally, we’re in no danger at all of having a white Christmas…it wasn’t as hot today as it is sometimes but it did get above 80° F.

We do have our Christmas stockings up (my folks sent them to us) and the fake tree that I’ve been using since the 1970s. One (or both) of our cats managed to break our Denver Broncos’ ornament and we haven’t yet put up either of our bowling Santa ornaments (the classic one from the 1970s with the gold bowling ball nor the newer one with the black bowling ball). Of course these are unimportant in the scheme of things but are kind of fun from a sentimental standpoint.

Beth and the kids had their last day of school before the break on Friday and the College students finish finals for the semester on Thursday. The break is nice but this will certainly be a Christmas unlike any we have experienced before. However, we can take comfort in the fact that our God and Savior, who took human form and was born and placed in a manger some 2000+ years ago, and who the holiday is supposed to be about, has not changed nor will He ever change…He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Please don’t forget us if you are sending out a Christmas letter this year. An electronic copy would be fine but if you want to mail a copy to us at my folks’ house, it will get to us eventually. You can mail stuff to us at

Dan & Beth Trumble
5930 Castlewood Ln
Colorado Springs, CO 80918

Some of you should soon be receiving a Christmas letter from ABC but some of you are probably not on the ABC mailing list and thus won’t get it through the mail. However, you can also access it electronically by following this link http://africanbiblecolleges.net/publications/2010/. Please take some time to read it and find out about what God has been doing through ABC and some of its graduates. As you support us, you are also a part of this ministry! Please keep our family and ABC in your prayers.

Dan

Page 1 of the ABC mailing mentioned above
Here is a recent picture of the “professional” (as opposed to laborers and grounds workers and the like) staff of ABC Malawi (professors, teachers, medical personnel, admin sorts, etc.). From left to right are ABC Christian Academy Staff, African Bible College staff, and ABC Community Clinic staff. Beth and Dan are indicated with green arrows. Photo by Matt Floreen.

Christmas Stockings at Dan’s folks’ house from a prior year (6 of these are now hanging in our house in Malawi)

A-Newer Bowling Santa

B-Classic 1970s Gold Bowling Ball Santa

C-Broncos ornament (now busted, somewhat like the current Broncos’ season)

STEAM XXV - Trumbles in Malawi - Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-06-16T15:14:00.006-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving from Malawi!

In the famous hymn by Johnson Oatman, Jr. we sing

Count your blessings Name them one by one.
Count your blessings See what God hath done.

Today, we truly have many blessings to count…blessings too numerous to count but let me list a few of them here anyway:

1. Family – God has blessed Beth and me with 195 months of marriage (16 yrs, 3 months) and 4 healthy kids. Children are, indeed, a blessing.

2. Friends – We have many friends in the United States as well as a number of new friends in Malawi including ones from South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Malawi, and the U.S. We were particularly blessed by friends and family who helped us through the ordeal of moving…both loading the container to ship to Malawi and clearing out the house so that we could leave. Moving is awful but it’s good to have friends that can help bear one’s burdens.

3. We have been in Malawi for 10 months now and overall the adjustment has gone well. The

African Bible College Christian Academy where Beth teaches and the kids attend is a good school and provides a good learning environment and caring teachers for the kids. Beth has fit in well as she has re-entered the classroom as a full time teacher after a 13-14 year hiatus. My finance background serves me well in my role as the ABC Financial Controller and we enjoy living on the campus of ABC. It’s good to be part of a ministry that is shaping young people for service to God. There are some pretty neat students at ABC and they are going to go out into the world and make a difference.

4. Stuff – we are not supposed to hold on tightly to the things of this world but we have been tremendously blessed materially (which contributes to the agony of moving…see number 2 above). Malawi is a poor country and there are many, many people who can hardly dream of the kind of material comforts that we take for granted. When purchasing a bicycle takes one and a half month’s worth of wages, you are in a place that I cannot really relate to, even though I can observe it firsthand. I’ve never gone hungry because there was no money for food but that’s a real issue that faces people in Malawi. Our gardener recently asked for an advance on his salary so that his children could eat breakfast before going to school.

5. Prayer partners and update followers – We have more than 600 email addresses on our distribution list for updates such as this one. It’s pretty neat to have that many people engaged and interested in our lives with many of them remembering us in prayer.

6. Financial Support – God has provided wonderfully for us through the donations of people like you. Substantial funds were raised up-front which helped cover costs for moving and shipping our container. God also provided a car for us shortly after we arrived. On an ongoing basis, we also continue to receive God’s provision. It’s a bit of an adventure because we don’t know from month to month exactly where the money is going to come from, but it does come (we have a number of regular monthly donors but we also have quite a few that give on a more periodic basis-- either one-time or just every so often--and thus we don’t know from month to month how things will work out…but things do continue to work out). Thank you for allowing God to provide for our needs through you.

7. Salvation through Jesus - Of course, the best gift of all is the salvation that we have in Jesus Christ who gave His life to pay the penalty for our sins. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and we are blessed to be counted as God’s children because of what Christ has done for us.

So, there’s a count of some of our blessings. But again, our blessings are really too numerous to count. However, we can rejoice that God is an infinite God who loves His children individually and personally. Wow.

Thanksgiving is not a holiday in Malawi so today was a workday. However, tonight we had a big Thanksgiving feast at Jack & Nell Chinchen’s house (Jack and Nell founded ABC and are now both in their 80s but still active with the ministry of ABC). There were something like 75 people or more. I understand that there were 6 turkeys prepared and I think the sweet potatoes I had tonight may be the best I’ve ever had (Connie Dehnert made ‘em and boy were they nice). So, we’re far from home (at least our earthly home) but we still had a very nice Thanksgiving dinner.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. Happy Black Friday shopping to those of you who participate in the chaos. Thank you for your ongoing prayers and financial support for our family.

Dan

The Trumble family at Thanksgiving dinner.

Some of the other people at the dinner and some of the food

Dessert Table!

Check out some of the nice china that was being used.

STEAM - Trumbles in Malawi - 22 Nov 2010 - Refugee Camp

2011-06-16T14:56:00.007-06:00

Greetings from Malawi!

The rains have finally come. We have had rain (or at least a sprinkle) for four days in a row so it seems that the dry season is over. Wednesday will mark 10 months since we arrived in Malawi. I turned 40 on the 10th of November. My Colorado driver’s license was expiring that day and I had not obtained a Malawi license yet so I went to the office where such things are handled and was told that I needed my Temporary Employment Permit (TEP) stamp in my passport first. My TEP was approved in April but the paperwork has yet to come through and so I don’t have the needed passport stamp yet. So, I drove over to the immigration office to see if I might obtain the stamp in my passport. The parking lot at the immigration office is fairly minimal but a car was going to come out of a space so I waited for it. As the driver negotiated his way out of the parking spot, he backed up a little too much and bumped another car and then he just drove off. I was going to attempt to back into the same spot and I hit the same car…Happy Birthday to me! I had just recently acquired business cards and the first one I handed out was to the wife of the owner of the car.

In the end, I still didn’t get the passport stamp or my driver’s license. I now don’t have a valid driver’s license anywhere in the world.

The pastor of the church we attend heard me talking about a Taco Bell 7-Layer Burrito. He and his wife made a quick trip to the States and he brought me back a Taco Bell 7-Layer Burrito in his carry-on luggage. He bought it in California on Tuesday, the day before my birthday, at about 5:30 pm and I ate it on Saturday, some 80+ hours after purchase. The tortilla gets a little slimy/clammy through the process but overall it wasn’t bad at all. It might be the first ever Taco Bell 7-Layer Burrito in Africa!

On Saturday, Will and I and a few dozen folks from ABC (a mix of staff and students) made the journey north to the Dzaelaka refugee camp where about 10,000 displaced Africans live. This is a pretty dire place. Dry and without much foliage, it is populated by people from Somalia, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (the DRC, formerly Zaire). Unless the refugees have specific specialized skills (such as medical or teaching), they are not allowed to work in Malawi so they sort of sit in this no-man’s land where they are not home but where they can’t assimilate into the nation in which they currently reside (and some have been in Malawi for years).

In the morning we broke up into groups and spent some time visiting residents of the camp, and in the afternoon, Mingoli, a group made up of ABC students and led by Kelly Dehnert, put on a little concert and Jonathan Robson (another ABC missionary) spoke through a translator to share some Scripture from 1 Peter.

The group that Will and I were in during the morning visited briefly with a Somali family and then spent a bit more time with some people from the DRC. Ronald and Chisomo, two ABC students, shared the Good News of Christ with four people and before we left Ronald led them in praying to receive Christ as their savior. Ronald shared in Chichewa, which the man understood, and he translated into Swahili which the others understood. Please pray for these new believers who are in quite a tough situation.

Evance, the man from the camp who led our little morning sub-group is also from the DRC. I asked him how many languages he speaks and he rattled off several, none of them English (which, admittedly wasn't fantastic but it was good enough to communicate with me). He said he speaks Swahili, French, Tshiluba, Lingala, Bemba, Nyanja, and Mbunda. Pretty amazing…here’s a guy who possesses fantastic linguistic ability and he is stuck in this camp with his life essentially wasting away.

Please pray for the refugees in this camp and the ABC students who will continue to try to minister to some of them. While their situation in the camp is very tough, we know that God is in control.

To read more about the camp, check out pages 2-5 of the document to be found at this link http://users.ox.ac.uk/~rspnet/PDFs/RSCworkingpaper23.pdf

Please continue to pray for our family. Beth and the kids have only 3 weeks (including this week) before Christmas break at the Christian Academy. The college semester ends about a week after that. There seems to be little doubt that this will be the most warm-weather Christmas that any of us have ever experienced.

Thank you for your continued prayer and financial support. As you consider your year-end giving, please remember the Trumble family and ABC.

Missionarily,

Dan
for the Trumble family

Pictures from the Refugee Camp

Note the lady behind Will who is pounding something into flour. She was really pounding away (see inset).

I’m not sure where the sticks come from, but they drag these long sticks to their houses to be used to help support the thatch roof

Will and Titu (tall guy, and an ABC student) with a bunch of kids in the camp

Evance is the multi-lingual guy. Ronald led the man to his right in prayer and he in turn led 2-3 other to his right in prayer to give their lives to Christ.

STEAM XXIII - Trumbles in Malawi - 4 November 2010

2011-06-16T14:52:00.001-06:00

Greetings! Today I am sending out a little different STEAM message. I am asking you to consider donating some money toward the purchase & distribution of Bibles and other evangelistic endeavors in Malawi.

Michael and Igna Janse van Rensburg are new to ABC. As the academic year approached there was an urgent need for a teacher at the ABC Christian Academy and this family who was living in South Africa responded on very short notice and moved their family of 5 to Malawi in August. They only found out about the possibility of coming to ABC at about the beginning of July and received official word that they were coming on July 16 and then in early August they drove from their home in South Africa to Malawi. Igna (and yes, it is spelled that way...it kind of includes a Germanic guttural sound when you say it properly) teaches 3rd grade at the ABC Christian Academy and Michael (when pronounced properly it kind of sounds like MIK-el but there’s sort of a guttural sound in the middle there somewhere too…I mostly just call him Michael like one would pronounce it in the States) is working in a badly needed maintenance/facilities role at ABC.

Michael has got to be one of the most gifted evangelists I've ever known. He talks to people and leads them to the Lord. I went shopping with him once and it was kind of a pain because he ends up talking to people and it takes a long time. Anyway, one of the things that he does in his job at ABC is to oversee the dozens of manual laborers that we have on the campus. These are grounds workers, carpenters, brick layers, painters and the like. Michael does devotions with these guys in the mornings before work…he leads the devotional times most days and then ABC students come on Fridays to speak. Many of these workers do not have a Bible but Michael would like to see those who want one to have one.

Michael rode with me yesterday to a men’s Bible study group that we attend on Wednesdays and mentioned this issue to me. He had contacted his old church back in South Africa but they are unable to help fund this Bible purchase at this time. So, would you be willing to help pay for some Bibles and possibly other evangelism-related expenses that he will incur? Michael would like the workers to pay something for the Bibles so that they appreciate them and value them but these guys are pretty poor so the purchase would be subsized to some degree. Many of the workers take home less than the equivalent of $75 per month and even the highest paid ones would rarely, if ever, take home as much as $200 from ABC in a month). Over 30 of these guys have expressed in interest in a Bible…most would like a Chichewa Bible (Chichewa is the main language spoken in Malawi) but a few want an English Bible and then there is a desire for one in Portuguese and one in Timbuka (another language spoken in Malawi). The money he collects from these guys for the Bibles will get rolled back in and will be used for further ministry.

It won't really take a lot of seed money to get started but I'm asking you to consider making a donation to support this effort to provide the Word of God to some folks here in Malawi. Even if you do not wish to support this effort monetarily please pray for Michael as he shares the gospel with these workers and others with whom he has contact. Pray also for boldness for the rest of us who are not gifted evangelists but still need to be ready to share the reason for the hope that we have in Christ.

After the family moved to Malawi Michael hired a young man to work at his house and led him to the Lord. I asked him about others who he’s led to the Lord here in Malawi and he said that there were “plenty”. As I spoke with him this morning (and keep in mind that he’s been in Malawi for less than 3 months) and asked him about people he’s lead to the Lord he mentioned Francis, Mark, John, Godfrey, Chifundo, Noah, Naston, Alick, and Emerson. I said something like, “You’re always looking for opportunities [opportunities to witness to people]” and his response was, “Oh yes.”

Not long after the family arrived in Malawi some kids were at our house and Hanna , the 6 year old came to me with a hurt toe and she was asking me for a plaster. Huh??? What's a plaster?? Anyway, apparently that's what a South African calls a bandage. Now, nobody has ever accused me of being particularly gifted in the medical arts but I helped here rinse off her toe in the tub and I got some bandages on her toe and it seemed to go okay. Happily she still has the toe and it seems to be fine...she is quite the cutie. Lydia, the 13 year old calls me ‘Uncle Dan’. They are a nice family.

Whether you can give us some funds for this effort or not, please keep this family in your prayers. Igna has left today to fly back to South Africa where her Mom is in bad shape. About a week ago a dog bit her arm and face and there is some question about whether she’ll be able to keep the arm. After the dog attack she had a stroke and has been unconscious for most or all of the time since then. She even stopped breathing on her own for a time on Monday but is breathing okay again now. Michael says that she is a nominal Christian but that she has not given her life to the Lord so pray for her physical and spiritual health as well as the family as Mom spends some time in South Africa while Dad and the kids stay in Malawi.

Below is a picture taken in early August before the family left South Africa. The couch they are sitting on in the picture belongs to friends of theirs. It’s a very nice couch. If the couch could be sold and the proceeds used to purchase Bibles, we would probably have plenty of money for this effort. Alas, the couch is not being sold for that purpose.

If you are interested in contributing to this effort, for now I would ask you to respond to this message and tell me how much you wish to contribute. I do not have a final answer yet regarding what mechanism we will use to move the money to Malawi but if we get adequate commitments we can possibly move forward with the purchase of Bibles this weekend with the idea of distributing some of them early next week. However, this will not be run through ABC like support for our family is done. While there will be benefit to some of the ABC workers through this effort, it will not be limited to ABC people and is not an official ABC ministry. For those of you who tell me that you wish to contribute I will send a follow-up message with the details of how to do that.

Thanks for your prayers for the Van Rensburgs (even though their name is “Janse van Rensburg” we just call them “Van Rensburg” here at ABC) and for our family.

Dan

Michael & Igna and their three children. Hanna is 6, Reinier is 10, and Lydia is 13 (Lydia is in Jim’s 8th grade class at the ABC Christian Academy).

STEAM XXII - Trumble Missionary Update - 11 October 2010

2011-06-16T12:31:00.008-06:00

Greetings from Malawi! Itsure is warming up here. I’ve heard October referred to as“Suicide Month” and it definitely is getting hot as we move towardthe summer months. Chichewa is the main language spoken in Malawi(although English is used for higher education and even in Parliament). One of the early things I learned to say after arriving in Malawi was,“Kutenta kwambiri” meaning that it’s very hot. We hadsome pleasant months in June, July, and August but now it’s starting toreally get hot. One might even say it’s “Africa-hot”here!

Saturday was Stephen’s 9thbirthday. A bunch of kids came over to spend the night and that wassomewhat successful although there was a fairly large age range represented andStephen didn’t always feel like he was the center of attention (becausehe wasn’t) and that was a bit disappointing. Another lesson of reallife I guess…Our own selfish desires are not always fulfilled.

Before we moved to Malawi, oneof the things that Stephen consistently identified as one of the good reasonsfor moving to Africa was the fact that the power goes out. The power,indeed, does go out a lot but on the campus of ABC we have some generators andthus we are protected from a lot of the inconvenience of power outages. We didn’t remember to turn the power off for dinner but before we atedesert, Steve threw the breaker switch and plunged us into darkness and we atedesert (cake and Fanta floats) without the main power…we did have somecandles and there was at least one flashlight in use some of the time.

Stephen’s breakfastrequest was “bacon” and we had bacon and eggs for breakfast(I’m not sure he had any eggs but some of us did).

Today, Monday the 11thof October, Stephen is 9 years and 2 days old. I was 2 days past my 9thbirthday when my mother died in November 1979. So, as of tomorrow, all ofmy kids will have had more time with their mother alive on Earth than Idid. It is good to have a mother and we’re blessed to have Beth asmom (and wife). As an adult and as a parent, I have a greaterappreciation for what my Dad went through in raising my sister and I after ourmother died. I was 9 and Amy was not yet 8 and Dad suddenly was thrustinto a position where he had to try to fill the roles of both mom and dad, dealwith the grief of losing his wife, and dealing with all of the logistics ofgetting us back and forth to school and feeding us and such. For yearsDad would consistently drive the morning portion of the carpool so that hewouldn’t have to drive the afternoon portion which would have beentougher to coordinate with work.

A few years ago a church friend,Dennis Andrews, dug out an old copy of our church’s newsletter. This was the November 1979 version in which Connie Wallace, a friend of mymom’s, had written a piece about my Mom.

Quoted here is a part of thatnewsletter:

(Editor’s Note: On this past November 12th,God called Home one of His dear saints, Gladys Tumble. This month, inplace of our usual pastor’s page, we asked a close friend of Gladys toshare some of her thoughts with us.

THE JOY OF REMEMBERING
What a joy it always was to be with Gladys, or even to visit with her on thephone. Now the memories of those times we re-live and cherish, and howglad we are to have them, for her friendship was one of God’s dearestgifts. Her joyful outlook will be what we remember best, and Proverbs15:13a provides an apt description of it: “A happy heart makes theface cheerful”.

The make-up of Gladys’ personality was surely the work of the MasterCraftsman, and how we delighted in her company! Who among us could notrespond to her smile? She had a capacity to have a good time, laugh atherself, and see the funny side of everyday situations, which was sorefreshing. And when she said, “Hi Friend! How are you?”,she really wanted to know, in detail! She knew how to listen andwas not quick to make judgments or give advice. Her interest in peopleseemed to know no bounds, and what an encourager she was. One of thegreatest reasons we loved her is the same reason we miss her…she met needsin our lives. And she freely shared with us her own life—her joysand concerns about her family, friends, health, job; and when she felt afailure in some area—a weakness or sin, that she shared, too. Sheknew us and she let us know her. She was a friend.

Over the years, a picture of her growing-up years as a red-haired,freckle-faced girl on a Washington wheat farm took form in my mind, as sheoften spoke of the close and loving family life she enjoyed, and of the friendsshe had, many of whom she kept in contact with and loved dearly. Gladys’ father died when she was a senior in high school, and though sheloved him and missed him acutely, she saw it was through his death that she andher brother made solid decisions for Christ. Her mother went to [be] withthe Lord only last year. Their relationship was special; she so respectedher mother’s consistent, practical walk with the Lord and Gladys wasfaithful to her in every way—in correspondence, sending pictures, visiting,etc. And her relationship to her brother, Howard was no usual one either,as evidenced by her accounts of their childhood and how they continued to writeweekly.

Throughout her college and single years, she made friends with people whom shecontinued to pray for and love. Then, in 1969 came the bigevent—marriage to Jim, whom she often referred to as “myJim”. And there was no doubt in her mind that God had givenher the best of the best! Last year she even wrote a short article forValentine’s Day which was published in the local paper; it ratherembarrassed Jim, but it aptly described her admiration for him! This isnot to say she did not share rough spots in their relationship, but themarriage they had was a real-life example of a Christ-centered marriage to manyof us. Then in 1970 and ’72 came Daniel and Amy and, once again,she was convinced that God had given them the “cream of thecrop”! They were a great delight to her, and again we had anexample of Christian parenthood from Jim and Gladys.

In June, 1978, came the first of the battle with cancer. The next yearheld many hard times, most especially the physical therapy following surgery,then chemotherapy with all its side effects. And though she admitted tothe difficulties, sometimes through tears, these things only sidelined her forshort periods, then she was up and greeting life and its duties with her usualcheerfulness. It was a beautiful combination of what I came to call“grit and grace”. In May of this year she wrote to an oldfriend in Washington, sharing with her what she had learned and how shehad profited through this experience. Among several things she wrote thatshe had seen God’s love in a new way and that she was certain of Hiscontrol. She came through it with what she called a “rock-ribbedconviction” that she would continue to walk with Him, no matterwhat. She was thankful for the hearing she had with unbelievers due toher bout with cancer, as she shared the reason for her hope. The dailythings of life with Jim and the children were appreciated even more, such asthe opportunity to tuck in the children at night and to do their mending. She called Jim a “tower of strength” and was so thankful forhim. And she said that her relationship to Christ had been renewed as shehad been drawn closer through such a trial. And she was overwhelmed bythe love of His people toward her. Toward the end of the letter, shequoted a woman who was dying of cancer: “Affliction is not learningyou have cancer in your body. It is living without peace and withouthope”. Gladys went on to say that she was encouraged about thepeace and hope that do not depend on health.

Gladys’ life revolved around relationships. Even people who hadknown her for a very short time felt her love and warmth. Though Gladysperceived herself as a very ordinary person, there was nothing ordinary abouther relationships as wife, mother, daughter, sister and friend—her lifewas literally poured into people. In everyday, practical ways she livedout Romans 12:10: “Be devoted to one another in brotherlylove. Honor one another above yourselves.”

Gladys wanted the credit for anything good in her life to go to the Lord, so itwould be fitting to end this with a prayer. “Thank you, Lord, forthe precious gift of knowing Gladys. It was a joy. Thank you forher relationship to You and that she now sees you face to face. We needand accept your comfort. Help us to somehow fill the void of her leavingby being more loving toward one another. In Jesus’ Name,Amen.”
--Connie Wallace– one friend among many

Friday is Mother’s Day inMalawi. Take a moment to thank God for your mother. If your Mom is stillliving, why not take a few minutes to drop her a note or give her a phone calland tell her how special she is to you? For those of you in the UnitedStates, your mother is probably not expecting typical “Mother’sDay” greetings from you this week (since Mother’s Day is in such adifferent part of the year in the U.S.). Surprise her and tell her youlove her.

Jack and Nell Chinchen foundedthe ministry of African Bible Colleges in 1976. They are both in their80s now but they are still active in the ministry. Jack’s office isright across the hall from mine in the Administration Building where I work andthey are our next-door neighbors. You could say that Nell is the“Mother of ABC”. This is Nell’s renewed call for prayerwarriors:

A Message From Nell Chinchen

Friends,

The mother of Charles Wesley once said, "The handthat rocks the cradle rules the world"... I would like to add to thatstatement..."by prayer."

Empires may tumble; stock markets may crash... but thework of God upheld by prayer will remain steadfast, unmoveable on that solid Rock.

African Bible Colleges was founded by prayer, expanded byprayer, encompassed Africa by prayer, and as we "enlarge the place of ourtent; lengthen our cords, and strengthen our stakes", during theseuncertain days, we need you to become a prayer warrior with us.

Our goal is 100 prayer cells, with one or two ("Iftwo of you will agree as touching anything on earth it will be done for you byMy Father which is in Heaven") praying together once a week for AfricanBible Colleges and its missionaries.

When Jack and I began the first African Bible College inLiberia, West Africa, we had over 500 people praying for us and our childrenevery day. As a result...we now have 3 African Bible Colleges...Malawi,Liberia, Uganda...3 radio stations, a clinic, a Christian academy...and many ofour own children serving in Africa with us and others in Christian ministry.

But that was over 30 years ago!!! Let us renew that vigil!

If you would like to join this army of prayer warriors,please respond below.

We will keep you up to date on special needs ...and youwill be encouraged as together we watch God do amazing things for thefurtherance of His Kingdom in Africa!

In His Grace,
Nell Chinchen

This letter can befound on ABC’s website here: http://africanbiblecolleges.org/nell.php If you are interested in responding to her call forprayer, follow the link and fill out the simple form at the bottom of the web page.

Thank you for yourcontinued prayers for our family. This week Beth and the kids don’thave school as the week is sort of a “spring break” althoughI’m not sure hardly anyone really calls it that. I am taking a fewdays away from the office as well and we’re going to get away for a bitand go to Zomba Mountain to a cottage that a Christian family allows missionaryfamilies to use for a reduced rate. Please pray for a restful time andgood family time.

Finally, please prayfor the African Bible College students. While the costs of theireducation is significantly subsidized, they still are responsible for payingsome of the costs and this can be a very big challenge for some of them. Today I met with a number of students and a few of them will be forced to leavecampus and not attend classes until they meet some of their financialobligations. ABC does offer a way to provide partial sponsorshipfor students. If you are interested in helping any students, let me knowand I can perhaps point out a few specific ones (or you can choose your ownstudent by going to http://africanbiblecolleges.net/sponsorship/).

Thank you for yourcontinued love, support and prayers.

Dan

Stephen (center top) and the kids at his birthday party. Inthe second picture, see Stephen with the red “You Are Special Today”plate with pasta and a white chicken sauce that he had chosen for his birthday.
Stephenand his cake. As this was his ninth birthday on October 9th,it was his “golden” birthday -- see the number 9 in gold (actuallyyellow) M&Ms.

Baconfor breakfast. Note the arrow pointing again to the red “You AreSpecial Today” plate.

Inimage of the church newsletter (actually an image of a copy of the newsletter)that is quoted above about Gladys Trumble, my Mom.

STEAM XXI - 26 Sept 2010 - Trumble Missionary Update

2011-06-16T12:19:00.006-06:00

Greetings from Malawi!

Friday marked 8 months since we arrivedin Malawi. Beth continues to be very busy with teaching 2ndgrade and I don’t seem to run out of work doing Finance stuffeither. Things are very busy but our family is doing well. Thankyou for your continued prayers for us as we serve at ABC.

In my work in the Admin office,I am not on the “front lines” of ministry as much as some peopleare but I know that it is important to have good foundational administrativestuff done so that some of the other good work can happen. Let meshare a story here about some of that “good work” that is beingdone by some ABC graduates. I am following that time-honored tradition ofjust repeating what someone else has said. In this case, I am quotingKelly Dehnert, a professor here at ABC. He gave me permission to use thefollowing paragraph which he had used in one of his updates.

Today I took Jonathan Robson (one of the newfaculty members), Dr. Henry Krabbendam (from Covenant College), Shea, an ABCgraduate and his friend to Kachere Prison for Dr. K to preach. Kennedy,the graduate, has formed a new prison ministry with another graduate and theyare moving ahead quickly serving in the prisons in Lilongwe. In the last threemonths they secured chairs, a tent-like covering for the prison courtyard, somebooks, maps and other teaching materials to begin several grades for thejuvenile prison. There are four teachers presently and they are workingon four more volunteer teachers for the prisoners. The prison providedone small room that they could lock all their materials in duringoff-hours. The prisoners, ages 12 to 18, will now be able to be inschool, many of whom have not been in school before! It is amazing howthe prison guards and authorities have taken our graduates in to serve the childrenat Kachere. Kennedy and Yohane spent four years while at ABC developing alove for the prisoners in two prisons in Lilongwe. It is thrilling to seethem continue in this ministry – Pleasepray for them.

Tonight the new headmaster atthe ABC Christian Academy stopped by my house and we talked for a while. It’s interesting to see how God provides. A year ago he was workingbut not doing the kind of work that he really wants to be doing but instead wasdoing whatever needed to be done to support his family. He deliveredpizza, chopped wood, did a little tutoring, and received some help from hischurch but basically he just found a way to make ends meet. This is a manwith years of teaching experience and a Masters of Education and this was notthe way he dreamed of making a living and providing for his family. However, God was preparing his family for Africa (even though he didn’tknow it at the time) and now that they are here, he is doing the kind of workhe wants to do (and that he’s good at) and he’s actually living ina better house now than he was a year ago and God continues to faithfullyprovide for his family’s needs. God is good.

While I was working atCompassion I allowed myself to be lulled into a sense of security. Goddoesn’t promise to give us good employment or a reliable paycheck but Hedoes promise to meet our needs and while things may not go anything like theway our finite minds have them figured out, none of our challenges comes as asurprise to God and He does have it all figured out in His perfectplan. What a blessing to serve the One True God and to know that Heis in control.

Some of you will see this intime and I would ask for your prayers for tomorrow morning as I share in thedevotions for the ABC Community Clinic. Part of what I will be doing isasking forgiveness for my behavior on Friday afternoon. There was a staffmeeting and the leader of the meeting was having trouble getting people to bequiet so that the meeting could proceed and I was getting hotter and hotter andfinally just exploded and shouted at the people for a bit and stormedout. I don’t think I’ve every behaved that way in aprofessional environment before (certainly not in front of that many people). Some of what I said (shouted) may have needed to be said but itcould have been done in a more mature way. I posted something on Facebook about it and a veteran missionary said this:

Culture shock. How many months have you been there now? Hmmm. Ihad a shouting match with my co-worker in a team meeting sometime during thefirst 3 years we were on the field. Couldn't leave - it was our flat we weremeeting in! Hang in there. Do the Matt. 18 thing. Be encouraged. :-)

So, I don’t know if it isculture shock or just my natural sinful self but I will be sharing indevotions. Please pray that God would use this situation for His gloryand that I would have the right words as I speak. Devotions are scheduledto start at 7:30 am local time (11:30 pm Sunday night in Colorado).

Our gardener, Justin, makes about$85 per month. He also gets supplies for tea and for lunch and this isquite a good deal for a gardener. He is the third of 5 sons in his familyand seems to be the only one of the adult sons who is responsible. Fromwhat he says, some of the others seem to smoke and drink away what theyearn. Recently, his mother was sick with what sounds like spinalmeningitis. She was in a public hospital in Blantyre, one ofMalawi’s largest cities, but it is up to family and friends to provide foodto patients. I’m not sure if the hospital provides anything in theway of food, but if they do, it isn’t much. Since there are nodaughters in the family, Justin’s wife was caring for his mother and thefinancial burden fell on Justin. On Thursday his mother died and soJustin has traveled down to Blantyre to take care of matters. It iscommon for employers to provide for a coffin and money to transport the body asfolks don’t tend to have the money to take care of these things (acoffin, body transport, and food for the funeral can all be covered for lessthan $300). Please pray for Justin and his family during this hard time.

Finally, let me correct amisstatement I made in the TOAST message sent out earlier in the month. In the very last picture in that message I indicated that my Dad was readingthe Bible as part of the Christmas 2010 celebration. I understand thatwhat he’s holding in that picture may actually be a hymnal, not theBible. Also, Christmas 2010 hasn’t occurred yet (but is less than 3months away!)…the picture was from December 2009, not 2010.

Please keep us in prayer.

Dan

Kids on the first day of school

A couple of new teachers at theAcademy were involved in a car accident a week ago Friday. It happenedright outside of ABC’s main gate. Thankfully they were not hurtbadly. They were in the silver/gray car (note the deployed airbags).

A fun picture of Anny, one ofour cats, on the screen door. The dog is Daisy, the Dehnert’s dog.

STEAM XX - Trumble Missionary Update - 4 September 2010

2011-06-16T12:11:00.004-06:00

Greetingsfrom Malawi!

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).

STEAM XIX - Trumble Missionary Update - 3 August 2010

2011-06-16T11:12:00.006-06:00

Greetings from the depths of the Malawian Winter!

We have now been in Malawi for more than 6 months and things are going well. The weather has been very pleasant and the break from school has been nice for Beth and the kids. For Beth, however, the break is over as she works toward getting things ready for a new school year that begins on August 17. The College classes begin the following week so things are going to get cranked up here pretty soon.

We took about a week and spent some time together as a family on vacation. We split our time between Zomba Mountain which was quite beautiful and cool (we had a fire burning in the fireplace for much of the time) and Blantyre where the country’s only operational movie theatre is located. We saw a movie which was fun. We saw Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang (aka Nanny McPhee Returns in the USA). The “Big Bang” in the title is related to a bomb during World War II, not some Darwinian theory. For some pictures of our time on Zomba Mountain, follow this link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=187259&id=650243390&l=655a80e761.

My responsibilities have increased and I’m now involved in some of the financial operations of the Clinic and the Christian Academy as well as the College. I’ve also been working some with immigration issues for new non-Malawian staff and lately I’ve become more involved in security issues. Last week Children of the Nations, a ministry with a location not far from the campus of ABC, had an incident. Dr. Ty Krehbiel, a doctor who is spending a few weeks in Malawi, related the story this way:

--saw a guard from "Children of the Nations" in clinic today, they got broken into last night. apparently it was 10-20 men, they beat him with clubs, got him before he could blow his whistle. then they went straight for the safes in their main office and then went door to door taking computer equipment and anything else that was valuable. --interesting side note, also saw a white woman who stepped on some glass while trying to get away (followed by a quick surrender), they stopped the heist to bandage her foot, took all her computer stuff but didn't do anything to her. so, apparently they got some moral boundaries, maybe?

Anyway, apparently there has recently been an uptick in crime in the area in which we live and on Thursday I attended a community meeting of leaders. The effort is sort of along the lines of a ‘Neighborhood Watch’ program but because the police presence is not as robust as one might hope, the group agreed that households in the area would each contribute a certain amount each month to help fund security efforts. The funds will be used to hire some staff to man roadblocks and do patrols. The meeting lasted almost 3 hours and was conducted almost entirely in Chichewa. Of the maybe 75-90 people in attendance, I was the only non-Chichewa speaker…a LONG meeting. However, I ended up on a committee and we’ve already met once and will meet again within the week. Additionally, I have been involved in some security meetings on campus over the last two days.

Overall, I have felt quite safe in Malawi and I don’t think we’re in a lot of danger on the campus of ABC but it’s true that we are fabulously rich by the standards of most Malawians and thus we could make attractive targets.

The Eppersons, a family of 5 (including grandma) moved onto the ABC campus within the last several weeks and have been a real blessing (read more about their ministry here: http://sites.google.com/site/eppersonmalawimission/). They have a 13 year-old-boy (Ryan) and a 9-year-old girl (Kimmy) and we see quite a bit of them. It is has been good for Jim to have a friend with whom he can spend time). Quite a few sleepovers have occurred. Our son Will turned 11 on Friday. The Eppersons came over and we had a Mexican meal. A couple of other boys from campus also came and spent the night.

It has been a busy school break as many “regular” ABC residents have been gone (either on furlough or back in the States for a while before returning soon) and there have been many visitors to the campus. Last week we had a container from the Stateside office in Mississippi arrive. It contained textbooks for the College and the Academy, as well as some desks for the Academy, some dental equipment for the Clinic, and an assortment of personal goods for various families, including ours. Follow this link for container-unloading pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=195255&id=650243390&l=ba52dfbdd3. One of the things that came on the container for us was the complete series of Star Trek Deep Space Nine and we’ve been watching about one episode per night and Ryan Epperson has been joining us (tonight some of us watched two episodes). Fun!

Watch these two videos to get a feel for what unloading a container at ABC is like:

1. General unloading - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMAjo-CsPa8

2. Follow a box as it comes off the container and goes into the gym - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTXY4f_1hl0

Prayer Items

Praise:
· For the way that God has allowed us to adjust to our new lives in Malawi

· For the many new teachers and other staff who are joining the ministry for this coming academic year (and beyond)

· For continued good health

Requests:
· Security – pray for the safety of all on the campus and also those in the community. Pray that those who would wish us harm would be thwarted in their efforts and that ABC’s response to the security concerns would be a testimony within the community.

· The upcoming academic year – pray for the approximately 300 students at ABC Christian Academy (where Beth teaches and the kids attend) as well as the approximately 240 students (including about 80-90 new freshmen) who will be attending the College

God is using this ministry to prepare Africans for ministry and we are blessed to be a part of that. Through your prayer and financial support, you can also be a part of the ministry! Thanks for your continued prayers and financial support!

Missionarily,

Dan (for the Trumble family)

Beth and Will on a hike we took on Zomba Mountain. Keep in mind that this is in the midst of winter (it’s a bit different than winter in Colorado!)

Will on his birthday with his cake

In June we acquired 5 cats. A Momma and 4 kittens. During our vacation, one kitten went missing. The Sunday before last another one had a losing battle with a vehicle. Here are the two remaining kittens. Picture by Elizabeth.

STEAM XVIII - Trumble Missionary Update - 3 July 2010

2011-06-16T10:53:00.006-06:00

Greetings!

Our family has now been in Malawi for over 5 months and we are thinking that we will stay in Malawi for quite a few more years. Both Beth and I have places here where our gifts are a good fit and where we can be used by God to fulfill his purposes for the African Bible College. Right now our plans, as God wills and enables, is that we would try to make a trip to the United States about one year from now. We would come home for about 6-8 weeks and spend some time with family and friends in Colorado and Iowa. We would return to Malawi in August 2011 and plan to serve in Malawi for two additional school years (the 2011-12 and 2012-13 academic years) after which we would come back to the States for a furlough year before returning to Malawi in time for the 2014-15 school year).

Of course the expense to travel with a family of 6 across the world is substantial and it would be very wonderful if someone would like to contribute frequent flier miles toward getting us home. We have enough miles to hopefully cover the tickets for some of us (although most of our miles are American Airlines miles and there are currently no AA partner airlines that fly into Malawi so we might end up driving to Zambia to catch our flight…we shall see). There are partner airlines of Delta/KLM and United that service Malawi so if you have miles with one of those, we’re still interested in talking J!

Also, why not plan on coming to visit us here in Malawi sometime? How many opportunities do you have to visit friends in Africa? If you think you might be interested, let us know!

Steve & Marion Spencer are long-time missionaries with ABC (Marion’s folks are the founders of ABC). They have recently left to go back to the States on furlough. Steve is interested in elk hunting in Colorado. If anyone can offer and advice or if you might be willing to take Steve (and perhaps a son or two) hunting this fall, let me know and I can put you in contact with Steve.

We have recently acquired 5 cats…a mom and 4 kittens. For a little while they were being kept inside the house but they were a mess and they now don’t live inside the house anymore. We’re also watching Nacho, a small dog, while Nacho’s owners are in the United States this summer. They will be back in August but for now we’ve got an indoor dog and 5 outdoor cats. Elizabeth has written quite a bit about the cats on her blog and I urge you to check it out. She is not a strong speller but she’s a fun writer with a fun perspective. http://eatrumble.blogspot.com/

Please keep the African Bible College students in your prayers as they gather school fees for the upcoming semester. The fees for room, board and tuition are only about $700-$800 per semester but in a country where many people make only $1-$3 per day, this is a substantial challenge for many students and their families.

Keep Praying!

Missionarily,

Dan (for all of the Trumbles)

On July 3, at the residence of the U.S. ambassador to Malawi, there was an American Independence Day celebration for American citizens. Here is our family. More pictures from the party: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=186013&id=650243390&l=876c25627e

First Picture: Elizabeth with Anny Jo, her kitten. More cat pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=186009&id=650243390&l=1b4104756d
Second Picture: Nacho (the dog we’re watching) with my office building in the background.

The Trumble Family on Father’s Day. More Father’s Day photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=181594&id=650243390&l=8cfe6a5245

Dan watching some World Cup Soccer at the Student Center.

STEAM XVII - Trumble Missionary Update - 21 June 2010

2010-06-25T04:12:00.005-06:00

Greetings from Malawi!

Today is the winter solstice and is the shortest day of the year in the Southern Hemisphere. As I write this I’m sitting in the African Bible College student center watching the Swiss-Chile World Cup match with several Africans. I’m wearing my Brasil soccer shorts I bought when Beth and I visited Brasil together a few years ago. I’m not necessarily rooting for Brasil in the World Cup but my soccer apparel options are pretty limited (I do also have a Brasil shirt which I’m not sure fits me anymore plus a shirt from a Honduran soccer club who used to use the exact same logo as the Denver Broncos but with a different color scheme). So, while this is the shortest day of the year and while it is much cooler than it was when we arrived in the midst of the summer, it still is not cold. I can easily walk around outside with my shorts and a short-sleeved shirt without a jacket and I’m fine.

Beth and the kids finished up regular school at the ABC Christian Academy last week and Beth has spent some time since the end of school taking care of things in her classroom and stuff. When we arrived in January the school year was already underway and of course there were lots of things to adjust to with the new school, new teachers, new environment, new climate (hot and humid!), and new culture but we survived in one piece (more or less) and we are glad for that. God has sustained us wonderfully through these first 5 months here in Africa.

Near the end of the school year there was a chapel where some parents got up to honor certain teachers and one of the parents of a child in Beth’s class said this (or very nearly this…I’ve tried to transcribe it from the video I took with our digital camera).

I want to convey many, many profound thanks to Mrs. Beth
Trumble for filling in
the shoes of Mrs. B [Mrs. Breuninger, the teacher
Beth replaced] who left…Under
normal circumstances when a good teacher
leaves there is always anxiety – will
we find a good one?—and I want to
assure you that Mrs. Trumble has proved to be
the best teacher in Mrs. B’s
shoes. My kid, for example, has transformed to be
honest….I think every door
in our house is stuck with Accelerated Reader,
Accelerated Reader and this
was not the case before and I want to say thank you
very much to Mrs.
Trumble. I wish and hope that Mrs. Trumble will be with us for
a long time
to come. On behalf of all the parents in grade Two-1 I want to say
thank you
very much.
(check out the video of the parent sharing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1WKU7zfvdI ...the young man in the video with the U.S. flag draped over his shoulders and “USA” carved into the back of his hair was departing later that day for South Africa where he attended some World Cup games, including the first two U.S. games which were both draws).

It had been many years since Beth had taught regularly in the classroom but from this man’s testimony, you can see that her return to the classroom has gone pretty well.

Jim has struggled some with the adjustment but the other kids have done pretty well. Please do keep Jim in your prayers. You might remember how it was for you when you were 13 years old and if you throw in a school and country change on top of everything else, that can be a real challenge. Please pray for a close friend for him and that he would be able to see the positive aspects of being in Africa.

June 6th was graduation for the 16th graduating class of the African Bible College in Malawi. A representative of the President of Malawi as well as the United States Ambassador and several others spoke at the commencement. The President’s representative said that he would recommend to the President that he (the President) attend the graduation in the future. ABC graduates from prior years have already found their way into prominent positions in one of the major church denominations in Malawi as well as in the communications industry. God is using ABC as part of the preparation for many future Malawian leaders and it’s kind of neat to be a part of that. To see pictures of the Senior Banquet (which was held the night before graduation) and graduation, follow this link:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=177518&id=650243390&l=c90232407f

Shortly before graduation we had the main computer from the Finance office stolen. The computer wasn’t much of a computer but it did have quite a lot of historical financial information on it. Happily, we had a backup. Unhappily it was from about 2 months prior and thus a lot of information had to be re-entered. However, it was good that most of the data was restored.

I have gotten more involved with the ABC Community Clinic as one of the clinic’s main finance people has left and I have a good working relationship with Becky, the lady who has been charged with improving some of the processes at the clinic. Hopefully before long we’ll have some good budget processes implemented at both the Clinic and the College and that will help us be better stewards of the resources that God has provided to this ministry.

The game has ended and Chile won 1-0 over Switzerland. Truly soccer is not a high scoring sport.

Praise Items

For a successful end to the school year.
That all of our family is currently in pretty good health
Food, Skype, House, TV,

Requests

That the school break would be refreshing for Beth and the kids
Good friends for the kids, especially for Jim
The recent graduates of ABC who are out finding where God will use them.

Graduation

Beth & Dan at the Senior Banquet

Peter Bodde, the United States Ambassador to Malawi, and Dan. Don’t you think the Ambassador has a funny smile (if that’s what you call that grimace)?

STEAM XVI - Trumble Missionary Update -- 22 May 2010

2010-06-25T03:42:00.003-06:00

Greetings from Malawi! The weather here has turned quite pleasant. It is the dry season but the rainy didn’t end so long ago and there is still a lot of green (of course, being from Colorado where not much grows, my standards for such things are rather low).

Beth and the children have about 3 ½ weeks left at the ABC Christian Academy and it will be good to reach the break! The College students only have two more weeks. Just like in the States, this end-of-school-year time is a busy time of with lots of extra activities. We will soon have a Senior banquet, baccalaureate, and graduation. Last weekend was Super Saturday which is a fun day (kind of like a track & field day) of competition amongst 5 teams: The four classes of students (Fresh, Soph, Junior, Senior) plus a staff team. The rules for qualifying as “staff” are fairly lax and Will (our 10 year old) participated in the 400 meter relay, the 100 meter backwards run, and the 3 legged race. Beth took 4th in the women’s cycling event. I was part of the staff tug-of-war team (which we won, by the way). On Saturday evening folks gathered on the “football pitch” (the soccer field) for food. There were 3 bonfires set up and there was even an opportunity to do s’mores (although these s’mores weren’t exactly what we are used to in the States…the chocolate was from a chocolate cookie). I can’t imagine that the bonfires did a lot to improve the soccer playing surface! To see some pictures, follow this link http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=172409&id=650243390&l=6714f863a1

Earlier this month the college had Spiritual Emphasis Week. The Monday was a national holiday but for the other 4 days, regular college classes were put on hold. Students met in small groups in the mornings in people’s homes for prayer (I hosted one group in our home) and then there were two worship/chapel services each morning and another on Tues-Thur evenings. Bob Botsford, senior pastor at Horizon Christian Fellowship in San Diego was the key speaker but there was a whole team that came with him including other speakers as well as some musical guys who led the students in song (in a much more enthusiastic way than my Presbyterian roots prepared me for). Pastor Botsford shared several messages on Hope from various scriptural passages. On Friday evening the Junior/Senior Banquet was held on Friday evening (the whole student body, not just the Juniors and Seniors, is invited to attend). This was my 4th Junior/Senior banquet but the first in almost 21 years. For the first time, I finally went with a girl (Beth).

This past week there was a dedication ceremony for a new building that is being largely financed by Evangelism Explosion. EE will be able to use the building as a training center during ABC breaks but during the school year it will provide additional classroom space as well as additional women’s dorm space. It’s neat when the body of Christ can unite for His glory in the way that ABC & EE are doing on this project.

We have had a bit of sickness in our house over these last 2 weeks or so. Each of the children has missed time from school. There was one day where Elizabeth and Will stayed home and after a while, Stephen came home too. Mostly it’s been diarrhea/upset stomach kinds of stuff and not horribly unpleasant. Beth hasn’t been 100% during this time but has not had to miss any teaching days. I’ve been fighting a cough for quite a while now and last Tuesday I went to the ABC Community Clinic where I was diagnosed with bronchitis and prescribed some medicine. However, it’s now Saturday and I’m still sick (I’m not totally debilitated but I’m not exactly at the top of my game either). On a positive note, the cost for seeing the doctor and filling 3 prescriptions was about $23-$25…less than my co-pay used to be for the doctor’s visit alone! So, medical care is cheap. On the other hand, I was in a store where I saw flour tortillas and the price worked out to more than $8 for a package of 8 tortillas…I did not purchase any. Gasoline runs at over $5 per gallon.

This message has gotten rather long but if you’re still with me reading, let me mention a few additional things. Please commit these issues to prayer:

Praise

· For the way that ABC is investing in the lives of future leaders who will take their Christian witness into their spheres of influence.

· For the provision of a new headmaster who will be moving to Malawi with his family in August to serve as the headmaster of ABC Christian Academy for the next 3 years.

· For the united work of Evangelism Explosion and African Bible College on this new building project

Requests

· Trumble family health and strength to finish the school year well.

· Staff needs – Have you ever felt God tugging at your heart to explore short or long term service in missions? If so, let me encourage you to consider coming to ABC to serve. You might be surprised at the way God can use your gifts here in Malawi. Of course each year there is a need for college professors, teachers for the Academy, and medical staff for the Clinic but we also have other needs that might not be as immediately obvious:

Facilities/Maintenance - Our main facilities/maintenance guy recently moved back to the States with his wife (who was a teacher at the Academy and is now expecting their first child). The African Bible College campus has more than 40 buildings sitting on nearly 50 acres that need to be maintained.
Accounting/Finance - My area of focus thus far has been on the college side of the ministry here in Malawi. However, there are two other key finance people, one each at the ABC Christian Academy and the ABC Community Clinic, who are both departing within the next 45 days. Please pray for the provision of qualified people to step in and fill these needed administrative rolls.

If you feel God leading you to overseas missionary service but don’t know how your particular gifts could be used at ABC, why not contact me so that I can put you in touch with someone who can help you explore where your gifts might fit?

Elizabeth has a blog. Why not check it out for her unique perspective on things: http://eatrumble.blogspot.com/

Thank you for your prayer and support!

Dan ~ for the Trumble family

Whether I deserved it or not, I was in one of the pictures with some of the luminaries on the day of the building dedication. Included in the below picture are the presidents of Evangelism Explosion and African Bible Colleges, an international board member of EE, and the founders of African Bible Colleges (and some others, including me).

Beth and Dan at the Junior/Senior Banquet

Trumble kids in front of one of the fires on the football pitch on the evening of Super Saturday

Elizabeth, Stephen, and Will with hedgehogs (the real one was found not far from our house)

STEAM XV - Trumble Missionary Update -- 3 May 2010

2010-06-25T03:27:00.003-06:00

Friends,

We have now been in Malawi for 14 weeks. As we move toward winter in the Southern Hemisphere it is getting cooler and that is a blessing. Beth is teaching 2nd grade full time and it is truly a time-consuming job but she is enjoying being with the kids.

Beth gets to be on the “front lines” of ministry as she interacts directly with the children in her class. There are several nationalities represented by the children in her class including Malawi, Korea, India, The Philippines, Zimbabwe, and the USA.

It is certainly keeping her busy but she enjoys being with the kids and she says that some of them give good hugs. Stephen is one of only two children in the class who live on the campus of ABC. The others all live in the surrounding community. She does enjoy being with the kids and she says that some of them give good hugs.

My role is a bit farther from the “front lines” of ministry but I do believe that the finances are a foundational piece of the ministry and it is important for the financial management to be sound so that other parts of the ministry can effectively be carried out. However, this week I’ll have some additional opportunities to interact with the college students as this next week is Spiritual Emphasis Week. Today, Monday, is a national holiday (Labor Day) but on the other weekdays, the normal college schedule is suspended and the college students and staff will be engaged in worship, prayer, and hearing the Word preached by Bob Botsford, pastor of Horizon Christian Fellowship Church in San Diego. People from the community are also invited to attend the evening services. There will be daily morning devotional/prayer times and I will be hosting one of the group’s (of about a dozen students) in our house for these times.

Davie, the guy with whom I work most closely with in the office, is a young Malawian man who is getting married to Constance on Saturday. This will be our first wedding in Malawi (or anywhere outside the Unites States for that matter) and ought to be an interesting experience.

In March, Kelly Dehnert, the music professor here at ABC, led a group of students on a musical tour in the United States. The group is called “Mingoli” (meaning “beautiful sound” in Chichewa, the language spoken in Malawi). This was the first time ABC had done something like this and it was very well received. It was a great opportunity for some of these African students to share with churches and other groups and to challenge the perception of Africans as being only needy and in want and having nothing to offer the world. Certainly there is great physical poverty in Africa but the people are made in God’s image and they have many gifts and talents. This tour was a neat opportunity for them to glorify God by sharing some of their musical talent.

These are some direct quotes from some of Kelly Dehnert’s updates over the last several weeks:

So, on return we now need to work through some of the angst it creates to go into another country that is not your own. One comment upon return was that they didn’t know their country was so “backward”. The first reaction is to simply hate your own country and see only the good in the newly experienced country and no good in your own. It is hard to process through the failings and strengths of both countries…because they both DO have failings and strengths. It once again brings me around to the recognition that we cross cultures to bring the gospel to bear on both our own culture and our neighbor’s and it challenges us both. It also helps to remember this world is NOT our home.

After this tour I became all the more convinced of our need to stand beside our brothers and sisters insisting that God has made them and they have abilities and talents that come from Him. It is not in their best interest for us to become their paternal providers. They don’t need more of that from the West. They need training and encouragement. Their talents were really on display on this tour!

One of the Mingoli members is currently working to raise the funds necessary to start a piano studio for children. She is a fine musician and is seeking to fulfill the cultural mandate God has given each of us. She is not seeking handouts, but “working with her own hands what is good” that she can provide the only such music training in Lilongwe. It is very exciting to talk to her and see her eagerness to be trained to apply the gospel to all she does.

If you are interested in hearing what Mingoli sounds like, follow this link and if you choose to purchase any of the tracks the proceeds go to benefit the ministry of ABC. http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/Mingoli

Finally, there are several positions for which we have need. If you or someone you know is feeling God’s call to missions, please pray about the possibility of serving at ABC.

· Elementary school teachers for next school year

· A facilities/maintenance manager

· Doctors (options for both short-term and long-term service are available)

· Mass Communications Lecturer

· Athletic Director (starting Fall 2011)

If God is calling you to missions but none of these positions seem like you, contact me anyway. You might be surprised how God will use your gifts!

Prayer Items :

Praise

· For God’s continued work through the various ministries of ABC, especially for the successful Mingoli tour to the United States

· For Beth’s adjustment back into full time teaching after a lot of years off

· For the good way that the family has adjusted to life in Malawi

Requests

· For God’s blessing on Spiritual Emphasis Week – that students, staff, and members of the community who hear the Word would be blessed

· For Davie and Constance’s wedding on Saturday and their marriage – that the wedding would go well and that they would model a biblical marriage

· For a strong finish to the school year for Beth and the kids as well as the college students.

Thank you for your continuing prayers and support.

Missionarily,

Dan ~ For the Trumble Family

Beth’s 2nd Grade Class

Trumble kids with the banner for Spiritual Emphasis Week

Ever wondered what happens to a glass Fanta bottle if left in the freezer for too long?

STEAM XIV - Happy Easter! 4 April 2010

2010-06-24T13:31:00.003-06:00

“Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; He has risen!” (from Luke 24)

Happy Easter from the Trumble Family! Jesus is risen indeed! Today, Easter Sunday, marks 10 weeks since our family arrived in Malawi at our new home on the campus of The African Bible College. Without the resurrection of Christ the African Bible College’s chief aim would be moot.

The chief aim of African Bible College is to train Godly men and women for Christian leadership and service. The curriculum is designed to prepare the college’s graduates for Christian vocation. The degree is designed to be either terminal or preparatory for further education. Students are being trained for Christian leadership; consequently, the college desires students who are committed to God’s guidance and dedicated to the Lord’s service.

Praise God for His perfect plan of salvation and for rescuing those who He has called to belief in Jesus, the only means by which we can be saved from the punishment we all deserve for our sins!

ABC has a Christian radio station which broadcasts to the local community and in addition to Christian music and Christian teaching, people have the opportunity to take classes by radio. To get a sense for what some of the content is like, follow this link: http://africanbiblecolleges.org/webradio/. About a week and a half ago a man named Mr. Waya Kamsepa came by the campus. He was hoping to meet with Jack Chinchen, one of the founders of ABC, but Dr. Chinchen was not available so I met with him. He wanted a Bible so that he could follow along with the radio broadcasts. He also expressed a desire for a diary (something to write in). I didn’t know exactly what to do but how can you turn down a request like that where someone is looking to get their hands on the Word of God? I told him to come back the following week and on Thursday he did, indeed, come back. I had not done a good job of finalizing the process of getting my hands on a Bible for him but he waited while we found one in the book storage room for him. I talked to Beth and she had a little book with pages in it and only a few had been used so she ripped those out and I was able to give him the Bible and the little book. I prayed for him before he left. Please be in prayer for Mr. Kamsepa.

Beth and the kids are on a two-week Easter break from school and in Malawi Good Friday and Easter Monday are national holidays so I get a bit of a break from work in the Admin office as well. Last week was the first week of the break and we went with some friends to the Lujeri Tea Estate for an extended weekend. This is located in a huge tea growing area and is very beautiful. There are two houses at the tea estate which are available to be used for overnight stays and our group used those two houses. The tea estate is near Mt. Mulanje and it was fun to spend some time near a mountain after living most of my life near the mountains of Colorado. We went on a very pretty hike a ways up the mountain. We live in a world tainted by sin but there are still some very beautiful creation out there.

For pictures of the tea area and the place where we stayed, follow this link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=161558&id=650243390&l=8a0c87b1c6

For pictures of our hike and Mt. Mulanje, follow this link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=160434&id=650243390&l=b0f7253d29

Prayer Items

Praise

o For Christ’s ultimate sacrifice of His life and for his triumph over death

o For the men & women studying at the African Bible College.

o For God’s creation and the opportunity to enjoy it.

Requests

o For Beth as she takes over one of the 2nd grade classes full time upon return from the Easter Break

o For the kids at the Christian Academy and the students at the college as they enter the home stretch on the school year after they return from the Easter break.

o Pray especially for the college students as many still have fees which are due next week. Some are at risk of not being allowed to finish the semester if they cannot make adequate progress on paying their fees. The amounts still outstanding are modest by U.S. standards (often less than $500) but are a significant challenge for some of these students who come from very modest backgrounds.

o Pray that Mr. Kamsepa (the man who came to get the Bible) would be blessed as he studies God’s Word and that God would use him to bless those around him.

Thanks for your prayers and support!

Missionarily,

Dan (for the whole Trumble family)

Trumbles after the hike. Dan did much (MUCH) perspiring on the hike.

There were snails at Lujeri Lodge. Here are the Trumble boys and Shea Dehnert and a bunch of snails.

Mt. Mulanje in the background, tea in the foreground.

STEAM XIII- Trumble Missionary Update - 14 March 2010

2010-06-24T08:37:00.006-06:00

We have had an eventful couple of weeks since our last STEAM update went out.

You may recall that in the last STEAM update I mentioned that a couple of ladies on campus were seeking medical attention outside the country. On a happy note, Amy, who had gone to South Africa to seek treatment for a bulging disc, was in traction for a while and that didn’t work but she ended up having surgery and it was a success! It has greatly relieved her pain and she will rejoin her family this week after being away for almost 3 weeks.

On a not-so-happy note, this week we lost our doctor. Holli High, the wife of the doctor at the African Bible College Community Clinic, left to go back to the States to follow up on a suspicious mammogram she had here in Malawi. On Thursday morning we learned that she does have breast cancer and by Friday afternoon, James (the doc) and his two boys (Wesley, 7 and Chad, 10) were on their way home. Ashley, their almost 2-year-old, had traveled back to the U.S. with her mom. Please be in prayer for the High family as Holli is facing surgery and chemo therapy. Selfishly, we hate to lose them. Besides the medical expertise that James provided, they are a nice family and were going to be one of the families who was going to be staying in Africa through the North American Summer months (a lot of people will be gone over those months but our family is sticking around). Chad was in Will’s 4th grade class and is a real nice kid. There has been some good news of late from an x-ray and some bloodwork and it appears that the cancer has not spread to other parts of Holli’s body so that’s something for which we can be thankful..

Many of you may know that my mother passed away in 1979 from illness related to breast cancer. Ruby Bostrom, a neat older lady in our church in Colorado Springs, sent a message about 2 months ago in which she included the following:

Dan, your mother , Gladys, and I were very good friends and she taught SS in my dept. I was the supt. of Beginners for I think over 20 years. Those were the days that our attendance was "bulging" to some 30 plus children and 3 teachers plus Bev Lovelace as pianist and I led the singing. Dan, I think you were older and I had Amy in the dept. Later your mother came to help. It was common knowledge that her time on earth was limited---it was a morning service and cong. was singing "How Great Thou Art" and Warren and I were standing across the aisle from your mother and dad and we were singing the 4th verse and I looked over and when we came to the line that says "and take me home" your mother looked into your dad's eyes and smiled and that scene was indelibly printed in my memory box. To this day when I sing that verse, my heart brings that to mind. And I am not sure I ever shared that with you. Talk about "tugging my heart" that has. And then for you and Beth to meet and now are going to the mission field, my heart is with you in a very special way--a part of you is in my heart of hearts.

We arrived in Malawi on Sunday the 24th of January. On the following Sunday, the first time we attended church here in Malawi, we sang How Great Thou Art as part of the service. The church is International Bible Fellowship and it meets on the campus of the African Bible College. It’s awfully convenient to get to as it might be as close to our house as the Lantz house is to our church back home (some of you don’t know Merle & Diana Lantz but to give you an idea, if Jim, our 13 year old, were to leave our front door at a sprint, he could easily be sitting in a pew in less than 60 seconds and 30 seconds might not be out of the question).

I had shared previously that Elizabeth was going to be repeating sixth grade next year and that we were on a pretty intense schedule of extra tutoring (5 hours every two weeks with her teacher and 5 hours every week at home). This creates a pretty tight schedule when piled on top of Elizabeth’s other homework but we have been pounding it out and it’s mostly been me working with her on math and so that gives us some good father-daughter time (sometimes it’s better than others). On March 5 Elizabeth did some testing with a lady here who has some expertise and this past Friday, we got the word that Elizabeth is dyslexic. I knew her brain worked differently from mine (and a lot of people’s) and in some ways this can be very wonderful but in other ways it’s really challenging. However, with this knowledge, we should be able to move forward in a more productive way while trying to intentionally overcome some of the challenges that this dyslexia creates.

On March 3 our container arrived with our household goods. It took just over 11 weeks from the day in December when we loaded it until we received it. This was one of the fastest times people in these parts have seen for a container to get to ABC from the States. It is a blessing to have many of our things (for me, it’s especially good to have our bed back) but it has also created a level of additional work as we figure out how to get things set up and stuff. It is a blessing to have so much but there is an element of a curse in having so much as well. Before we left we purchased new appliances that are 220 volt rather than the standard 110 volt we use in the States. Most of the appliances seem to work well and that’s great. There has been some challenge finding the right part to hook up our new stove so it has been sitting in the middle of the floor in our kitchen while we continue to use the old stove that we’ve been borrowing.

In a strange way, but kind of on a related note, on the day we loaded the container in Colorado Springs, there was an accident involving another missionary who was shipping some stuff on our container and helping with the loading process. This person slipped and fell and broke a couple of fingers and at least one rib. The hand ended up requiring surgery and now this person is doing better (although still not back to normal). Anyway, this ended up producing several thousand dollars of medical bills and the person who fell had no medical insurance so I have accepted liability for paying the medical bills. The person has worked to try to receive grace on the bills with some success and we recently received word that one company that had billed a little more than $6000 has agreed to a 50% charity discount and so that company is now owed only about $3000. We are still waiting to hear about the other 4 bills.

It is an interesting experience raising support from others after so many years of having a regular salary which was guaranteed every two weeks (it all comes from God anyway and it wasn’t really guaranteed but it is easy to take that regular provision for granted). We are approaching the point that will mark one year since we began seriously pursuing the idea of coming to Malawi to serve as missionaries with ABC and God has graciously provided very adequately for our financial needs. On one hand, when considering the regular financial commitments that have been made, we are still well short of our full support level. Based on specific regular commitments, our support level currently stands at about 57%. However, through one time and periodic gifts besides the monthly/annual commitments, God continues to meet our needs very adequately and we were even able to purchase a vehicle soon after arriving and that has been a blessing. However, we don’t know exactly how the future finances will work out and I would ask for your prayer in relation to that. I have rolled the pension money I earned for my years of service at Compassion into an IRA where I can gain access to it if necessary. There are income taxes and a 10% penalty for accessing that money early so it’s less than an ideal proposition but it’s a blessing to have that as a fall-back option. I’m quite aware that most of the students who attend African Bible College (and certainly millions of Malawians across the country) would have no similar financial resources to fall back on.

Finally, there is a group of African Bible College students under the leadership of our friend, Kelly Dehnert, who are currently on a short tour of a few States in the U.S. where they are sharing their musical ability and showing some people in the States an example of some of the quality of students that make up those attending African Bible College. The group is called ‘Mingoli’ (which means ‘Beautiful Sound’ in Chichewa, the primary language spoken in Malawi). For each of the 6 students, this is their first time to visit a Western country and from the news we hear, overall they have handled a fairly grueling performance schedule and the culture shock of visiting the U.S. very well. Please be in prayer for the people involved in the tour and that God would use this visit by these remarkable students to touch the hearts of those who hear. For an example of what Mingoli sounds like, follow this link (http://africanbiblecolleges.org/mingoli/?email=) and choose the “Listen Now” option in the upper right corner of the web page that opens.

Our family has now been in Malawi for 7 weeks. Until yesterday, none of us had ventured more than 25 miles from our home since we first arrived at our house but yesterday we took a trip with Connie Dehnert and two of the Dehnert kids, Shea and Janelle, to Lake Malawi where we played in the warm water and enjoyed a time of recreation. Lake Malawi is the 10th largest lake in the world by surface area but the 4th largest in terms of water volume.

Finally, let me highlight some staff needs that ABC will have next year. If God has been calling you, or someone you know, into missions, please consider coming to serve with ABC in Malawi. Some key openings are the following:

o One or two doctors to serve in the Clinic.

o School teachers for the Christian Academy (where Beth will be teaching 2nd grade)

o Facilities/Maintenance – the young man who has been overseeing the maintenance on the campus is leaving in May. We could REALLY use someone with good maintenance skills.

Prayer Items:

Praise

· Our container arrived quickly and in good shape overall

· Amy who has been delivered from the pain that the bulging disc was causing her.

· High guys (the doctor and his sons) arrived home safely and that the initial indications are that the cancer has not spread.

· God’s provision for a discount on the medical bills for the person who was hurt on container-loading-day

Requests

· Mingoli in the United States – for continued safe travel and good health and that the performances would be God-glorifying and that some valuable cross cultural exchanges would occur.

· The High family as they work through treating Holli High’s cancer and adjusting back to life in the United States. The 2nd and 4th grade boys will rejoin their old school so they won’t be in a totally strange environment but changing schools in mid-March is less than optimal.

· Financial provision for the Trumble family. Both for the medical bills for the person who was hurt and for ongoing expenses. Pray also for this person’s continued recovery from the injuries.

· Elizabeth’s dyslexia and our response to it

· Beth as she takes on a greater and greater load of teaching her 2nd grade class in preparation for the time when the “main” teacher of the class departs for the U.S. to have the couple’s first baby and Beth has the leadership of the class all to herself.

· For me (Dan) that I would have wisdom to propose the right changes to the finance processes of the College and that I would add real value to the administrative side of things.

Thanks for your prayers and support!

Missionarily,

Dan (for the Trumble family)

Our piano comes off of the container. This is the piano my mom used when she was young.

Mingoli, the musical group touring the States

Stephen in the sand at Lake Malawi (Will can be seen behind him).

For more pictures from our Lake excursion, follow this link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=156251&id=650243390&l=362073530b

STEAM XII - Trumble Missionary Update - 2 March 2010

2010-06-24T05:35:00.008-06:00

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.

Our new car. A 1996 Toyota Ipsum

A large stack of bills

If you wish to see a more extensive collection of pictures from our first full month in Malawi, please follow this link: Malawi Feb.

STEAM IX.1 - Trumble Missionary Updates - We're on our Way!

2010-02-11T10:42:00.002-07:00

( This update is in the wrong place, but I can't figure out how to place in the right place. So this is just the way it will be. )

Just a quick update:

We are in the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport and we have checked our bags, received our boarding passes, and cleared security with hardly a problem!

Our flight to Amsterdam is scheduled to depart at 7:45 PM tonight. We have a long layover in Amsterdam and then we travel on to Nairobi and then a quick stop (we don't even get off the plane) in Lusaka, Zambia and then on to Lilongwe, Malawi, our new home. We are scheduled to arrive a little after noon on Sunday, 24 January in Lilongwe.

The check-in process went nice and smooth (unlike last time).

Praise the Lord, we are on our way! Thanks for all of your prayers. Please keep praying!

Missionarily,

Dan (for the Trumbles)

In Albert Lea, MN, a little north of the Iowa/Minnesota border, is a restaurant with a very good name.

STEAM XI - Trumble Missionary Update - 5 Feb 2010

2010-02-11T10:37:00.003-07:00

Greetings everyone!

We are approaching the end of our 2nd week of living in Malawi. We are kind of getting the hang of things. The kids have begun school and Beth has attended her first staff meeting. She will be taking over teaching one of the 2nd grade classes in April. I am learning about African Bible College’s finance processes. There seems to be a real place here for me as many of the accounting practices could use some significant upgrading and I think my years of experience working with Compassion International’s finances in multiple different roles should prove quite valuable.

There is a local family moving back to the UK who is selling a vehicle that we will purchase. It is a Toyota Ipsum (aka Toyota Picnic). Before I came to Malawi I’d never heard of it either. It’s kind of like a minivan in that it seats 7 but it’s really more of a car.

Please keep praying for us as we continue to adjust. We have been warmly welcomed by people on the ABC campus but it is still quite an adjustment. The humidity is a challenge and while we have been provided loaner beds and some basic furniture, our household goods in the container we shipped are still weeks, if not months, away from arriving.

Please pray for good health and safety for our family as we get used to a new climate (and a place where they drive on the left side of the road!). The attached document contains some Facebook posts of mine. This provides a bit more of a day-to-day look at some of the things we’ve been dealing with.

Thanks for your support.

Missionarily,

Dan

Will & a gecko that met an unfortunate end (see the attached document for more about the gecko in the Jan 31 post)

Kids before church on Sunday

I find the phrasing on this coffee package interesting

STEAM X - Trumbles Safe Arrival in Malawi - 26 Jan 2010

2010-02-11T08:02:00.004-07:00

Greetings from Malawi! We have arrived!

Malawi is sometimes called, the ‘Warm Heart of Africa’. I might quibble with this description a bit and substitute the word ‘Hot’ for warm. It’s Africa hot here! When we landed in Malawi it was about 78-80 °F. Keep in mind that over the last 4 weeks that we had spent in the Midwest, it might have gotten above freezing on 7 days but most of the time it was well below freezing.

Follow this link to see some of the wintery pictures (including many from an ice storm) from Iowa: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=144722&id=650243390&l=e4a1c7b1bf

We departed Minneapolis without incident and arrived in Amsterdam on Saturday morning. We got off the plane, stowed some of our carry-on luggage in some lockers, and got in line to clear immigration and while we were standing in line, I counted the passports and had five of them. However, there are six of us so we pulled out of line and checked and sure enough, there were only five and the one that was missing was mine. Yikes. I talked to someone from the airline and they sent me back to the gate where we had de-planed. The plane was still there but was already in the process of boarding for the next flight (this is maybe 90 minutes after we had landed). I talked to a guy from the airline and he went onto the plane and CAME OFF WITH MY PASSPORT! Praise the Lord! If I had lost my passport and been unable to recover it, I might still be hanging out inside the Amsterdam airport. Yikes. God is good (even when we’re stupid). We took the train into the city and ate some Dutch food and took a canal tour. Three of the kids slept quite a bit through the canal tour so those ended up being some expensive naps.

For pictures from Amsterdam: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=144023&id=650243390&l=9cf3858267

We went back to the airport and it was snowing outside and they de-iced the wings before we departed. After a brief stop in Nairobi and a touch-down in Lusaka, Zambia we arrived in Malawi at about noon on Sunday (we are 9 hours ahead of Colorado time in Malawi). All of our luggage arrived fine and we cleared immigration and headed to our new home on the campus of the African Bible College. So, after the trouble we had with trying to depart from Minneapolis earlier in the month, this trip was remarkably uneventful. Unfortunately the change of tickets to the later date ends up costing almost $2800 more than what we had paid for our earlier flights but the extra time we had in Iowa was really good.

We are kind of getting adjusted. It will be several weeks (at least) before our container with household goods arrives but people have pulled together beds and some other pieces of furniture so we are not sitting around in an empty house (or sleeping on the floor). People are being very kind to us and we are having dinner at different people’s houses for much of the week. We did manage to do some grocery shopping yesterday.

Thank you for praying for us and supporting us through this transition. Please continue to pray for the adjustment as we all begin to fit into our new roles. We found out last night that Beth will be taking over teaching one of the 2nd grade classes starting in April when the current teacher and her husband head back to the United States to have their first baby.

Prayer Items

Praise

· Safe and successful travel

· Arrival in Malawi on God’s timetable and the extra time in Iowa that we had before moving to Africa

· Good health

· The beginnings of a good transition to our new home

Requests

· The transition to the new culture and our new responsibilities can be a bit daunting. Please pray that we would approach it with a sense of adventure and in dependence on God.

· Health – it’s malaria season and we haven’t begun taking our malaria medication yet. Additionally, we may be exposed to a bunch of new viruses and stuff here in Africa so please pray for God’s protection of our health.

· We have had some very generous financial gifts and December was a strong month. However, our ongoing committed support level remains below 60% so please pray for God’s financial provision for us. While we don’t know exactly how God will meet our needs, we know that He is faithful and that our needs will be met. We certainly have much for which to be thankful.

Thanks for your prayers and support (financial and otherwise).

Missionarily,

Dan (for the Trumbles)

Follow this link to see several Malawi pictures from our first couple of days http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=144608&id=650243390&l=e0445fb6c9

Four Trumbles standing in front of our new house

A thermometer in the shade at the Dehnert’s house on Monday

STEAM IX - Trumble Missionary Update - Departure for Africa (or NOT)

2010-02-11T07:50:00.004-07:00

A funny thing happened on our way to Africa…we didn’t make it out of the country.

Yesterday morning, the six Trumbles, along with Beth’s brothers Doug and Bill, and Bill’s wife, Julie, piled into Bill & Julie’s 15 passenger van (modified so it only fits 11 now but has more storage space in the back) with a bunch of our junk. This is the vehicle I refer to as “The Prison Transport” but Julie prefers to call it the “Party Transport” or something like that. Anyway, we piled in and drove the approximately 300 miles from Oskaloosa, Iowa, where we’d been staying with Beth’s folks, to Minneapolis, Minnesota where our flight was scheduled to depart at 7:45 pm on Monday night, January 11.

We arrived at the airport and got our enormous volume of stuff inside and worked on adding labels and stuff and then when I went to check in, a funny thing happened: They wouldn’t check me in.

Leah, the agent we were working with, didn’t like the fact that we had one-way tickets to Malawi but no visas for entry into Malawi. Her system told her this was a requirement. At some point, Leah’s supervisor was also brought into the discussion. So, what to do? I called Malawi between about 2:00 and 2:30 am Tuesday morning in Malawi. Apparently I was supposed to have a letter from African Bible College stating that my Temporary Employment Permit paperwork was in process. I didn’t have the letter but the president of ABC (who lives in Malawi) someone with the home office in the United States and I eventually received the letter via email. The airline people didn’t really care about the letter. Jan Harper from the ABC home office spoke to Leah’s supervisor but the airline folks still were not satisfied. Eventually, the supervisor’s manager also weighed in on the situation but the song the airline people were singing really didn’t change. Apparently this basic process has worked frequently in the past with other ABC missionaries but perhaps after the recent attempted terrorist incident on Christmas Day or for some other reason, the enforcement of the rules has been changed.

In the end, we did not resolve the issue in a way that would allow us to board our flight and thus we returned to Iowa. The Trumbles arrived back at Dad & Mom Boender’s house at about 2:00 in the morning after stops by Doug’s and Bill & Julie’s houses to drop them off at their homes.

Donna Palmertree, one of the ladies that works in the home office in Mississippi, sent a message today and part of what she said is quoted below:

I’m so sorry about the little hiccup in your plans … we were all blindsided but ultimately, we have to know that God’s in control and He sees things we don’t. What an extreme blessing that you have family that you get to enjoy a few more days before leaving the country and as I was told on one of our mission trips to the Ukraine about a situation we were in “It just adds to your mission testimony!” It will be cool and encouraging to see how God works this out.

Well said, Donna. God IS in control. We do not know exactly what His purposes are during this time but we can trust that He knows what He is doing. So, we have a bit of an adventure on our hands (and a bit of extra time which is also a blessing)!

Please pray that we would be able to obtain the necessary visas quickly. I am told that the processing of the Temporary Employment Permit can take months. Please pray for miraculously quick processing of my application and that approval for our full family would be given quickly. As long as we are able to use the tickets within a year, we will not forfeit the cost of the tickets so that is a blessing. We might face some change fees for the tickets but that is a much better situation than if we had to walk away from the full cost of the tickets.

Elizabeth was running the camera for much of the time and did a pretty good job of capturing some of the events. Below are a few pictures but if you want to sort of see the progression of events, You can view pictures here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=141443&id=650243390&l=b9bca7b3ce

Thanks for your prayers for our family during this time!

Dan

Here's me with Leah (the agent) in my left ear and someone from ABC in my right ear.

I bought internet access and sat there working with stuff. Fun times!

Stephen taking a break

STEAM VIII - Trumble Missionary Update -- Imminent Departure

2010-02-11T07:38:00.005-07:00

Today, Sunday, is our last full day in the United States for a while. Tomorrow we drive from Oskaloosa, Iowa (where we’ve been staying with Beth’s parents) to Minneapolis where we will board our flight to leave the country.

This morning during the service at Beth’s old home church (and the church where her parents and her 4 brothers are members), we had a few minutes to share about the ministry of the African Bible College and that went pretty well.

We left Colorado on December 23 and have had a nice time in Iowa. Stephen (our 8-year-old) and I took a trip to South Dakota where I visited my Aunt Dorothy and four of my cousins. We also spent one night with my friend Blair Andrews in Omaha. It’s cold in South Dakota. The last night of the trip we spent in Sioux Falls. The morning that we left the internet said the temperature was 28° below zero. We will soon be experiencing temperatures 110° (Fahrenheit) warmer.

It would be nice to have a few more days to wrap things up before we depart but that’s kind of the way it goes. We will leave Monday morning to drive to Minneapolis and we will fly from there to Amsterdam where we will have a long layover on Tuesday. We will hopefully leave the airport and see a bit of Holland. From Amsterdam we fly through the night to Nairobi, Kenya and after a short layover in Nairobi, we fly on to Lilongwe (perhaps with a short stop in Lusaka, Zambia on the way).

In the Christmas Day update I sent out, I said the following:

We will finally have some down time over the next couple of weeks and I will be sending out some more details related to our Washington D.C. trip and the packing/shipping adventure. These will be sent under the TOAST heading rather than the STEAM heading under which this message is being sent. (TOAST = The Outstanding Adventures of Six Trumbles ).

As it turns out, there wasn’t as much “free” time as I might have hoped and I still have not sent any TOAST messages on this trip. One may still go out today or tomorrow but that may be it for a while.

Thanks for your prayers for our family! Please pray for travel safety, our adjustment to life in Malawi, and our general sanity throughout the process!

Missionarily,

Dan

For the Trumble family

Beth’s 40th birthday was Monday (January 4). The night before her birthday she spent some time with some old high school friends (Beth, Julie, Gwenda, Kathy). On Beth’s birthday, we visited some of Beth’s aunts. Pictured are Aunt Marilyn, Aunt Bernice, Mom Boender, Aunt Dorothy, Aunt Kathy, and Beth.

The first picture below is Stephen and Dan at a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The second picture is from Orange City, Iowa later the same morning that it had been -28° in South Dakota.

First picture: Pastor Dale Visser and Dan. Pastor Visser is the pastor of Beth’s home church in Iowa where we shared this morning. Since this picture was taken last Sunday I have shaved and so we don’t look as similar anymore. The second picture shows me with the boys (with some snow) on Friday.
The approximate route of our travel to Africa (if it goes as planned)

STEAM VII -- Merry Christmas from the Trumble Family! 25 Dec 2009

2010-02-11T07:17:00.003-07:00

In John 1:45 Philip finds Nathanial and says to him, “We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” This is the very Jesus whose birth we celebrate on Christmas day: The promised Messiah!

Merry Christmas to each of you on this cold (at least it’s cold in Iowa!) Christmas day! Let us remember that God gave us the greatest gift ever when Jesus came to Earth as a human. Let us also remember that Jesus was born so that He could ultimately die (and be raised to life and thus conquering death), providing a way for us to be saved!

Trumble news:

We have had a busy few weeks. In late November, just before Thanksgiving, we drove to Iowa where we spent Thanksgiving with some of Beth’s family and then we drove out to the Washington, D.C. area with a stop in Pittsburgh along the way. We attended a wedding for Dan’s niece and returned to Colorado on Tuesday, the 8th of December. We moved most of our household goods to a warehouse on Saturday, December 12, and then on the morning of December 14 we loaded the container and shipped it off. We had a lot of wonderful help from friends and family and survived the ordeal. We celebrated Christmas in Colorado on Saturday the 19th. On the 20th Will and Elizabeth played piano in church and both Beth and Elizabeth sang. On Wednesday, December 23, we departed Colorado to head toward Iowa and we arrived yesterday, Christmas Eve where the Iowa family Christmas get-together was already underway.

This morning in church, all of Beth’s immediately family were together. Counting Beth’s folks, her siblings, and all of their families, there were 43 family members (including two unborn babies) in church this morning (if my count is correct). There were a few missing but that represents a large portion of this part of her family (she had oodles of first cousins and other relatives).

We will finally have some down time over the next couple of weeks and I will be sending out some more details related to our Washington D.C. trip and the packing/shipping adventure. These will be sent under the TOAST heading rather than the STEAM heading under which this message is being sent. (TOAST = The Outstanding Adventures of Six Trumbles ).

In less than 3 weeks, on January 11, our flight departs from Minneapolis and we will be on our way to Malawi, Africa!

Last Sunday, December 20, was our last Sunday in Colorado before the move to Africa. Some of our family participated in the service and you can hear and see some of that by following the below links:

Elizabeth singing O Little Town of Bethlehem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hS-836TEixw

Will playing Angels We Have Heard on High: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5aMplRrLs4

Elizabeth & Beth playing We Three Kings: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TorWtPMceRE

Please respond to this message with any questions you may have about any of this stuff. It’s fun to hear from people.

Prayer Items:

Praise

· Successful packing and shipping process and that the container is on its way!

· For the great help of friends and family (especially Merle & Marty) in the shipping process

· For Dan’s folks who hosted us in their home after we shipped moved most of our household goods out of our house.

· For safe travel, even in wintery driving conditions, to Iowa

· For Beth’s folks who will be hosting us during most of our last 2.5 weeks in the States before we move

· For God’s faithful provision

Requests

· For some rest and good fellowship with family during these last days before we depart.

· Financial Support - Our ongoing committed support (that has been communicated to us) puts us between 50-60% of our full support level. We know God is faithful and will meet our needs but some additional financial partners in this endeavor would be very welcome.

· Container - That our container which contains most of our worldly possessions would travel safely and speedily to Malawi. The estimate that was given by the organization we’re working through said the estimated time of arrival for the container is February 28, more than 6 weeks after we are scheduled to arrive in Malawi.

· House - That our property manager would find good renters for our house soon.

· Dan’s Malawi employment permit – That it would be approved without any problems.

· Health – pray that God would keep us healthy as we work through the process of getting to Malawi.

Thank you for joining us in this ministry through your prayer and financial support!

Dan for the Trumble family

email: Trumble.STEAM@gmail.com

blog: www.trumble-steam.blogspot.com

phone: 719-238-3995 (for a short time longer while we’re still in the States)

On Sunday the 13th of December, our church commissioned us as missionaries being sent by the church. Here is a picture of our family during the commissioning service.

Loading the container to ship stuff to Malawi.

My last day of employment at Compassion was December 11 and my colleagues threw a very nice going away party for us. Pictured here are Beth and me with most of the folks from the Finance division at Compassion

STEAM VI - Happy Thanksgiving from the Trumbles! 26 Nov 2009

2010-02-11T06:47:00.009-07:00

Happy Thanksgiving from the Trumble Family!

Our family has very much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. We left on Tuesday night to come to Iowa and drove through the night, arriving in Oskaloosa, Iowa on Wednesday morning. During the church service this morning I made a list of several things for which we can be thankful. Below is that list (with a bit of added commentary in blue).

· Dogs – Both of our dogs have new homes. Maggie ended up with a Compassion colleague’s family and Oreo is now living with Beth’s brother Doug’s family

· Car Battery – On Tuesday, Beth was scheduled to take Maggie to her new home. At some point in the morning she moved our van and backed it up in the driveway, then when she went to leave to take Maggie to her new home, the van wouldn’t start. My Dad came over and jumped the battery and Beth took Maggie to her new home. Then, when she went to leave, the car wouldn’t start again and she got another jump and I talked with my Dad about taking the van into the place where we had recently purchased the battery. Dad took it to the store and they looked at it and said, “That’s not our battery” (or something along those lines). Dad called me and as I thought about it, they were right. We’d put a new battery in my truck recently but NOT the van. Poor Dad. Anyway, the battery in the van was old and bad and a new one was put in. Thankfully this all happened before we left on our trip later the same day. God is good. From Iowa we’re heading east. We’ll spend a night in Pittsburgh and several days in the Washington D.C. area (plus a night in Delaware). Anyway, it’s a long road trip and car troubles would be very nice to avoid.

· Container Stuff – The process of moving overseas can be quite daunting. I was in Nicaragua the week before last and was ready to move ahead with paying the shipping company for the 40 foot container we planned to load on Monday, November 22 (last Monday). I got some pushback on going with a 40 footer rather than a 20 footer and in the end, we did go with the 40 footer but delayed the loading date to December 14. This will allow other people in Malawi time to get stuff sent to Colorado Springs for loading on the container. As these other folks purchase space on the container, this will also help defray our costs. Also, Marty, one of my stepbrothers is allowing us to use his place of business as a loading site. It will be great to get this part of the whole process behind us but in the end, things are working out well.

· Family – Our immediate family is a blessing. Beth and I have four neat kids. God has blessed us richly.

· Extended Family - in laws – It is a blessing to have large, extended Christian families on both Beth’s side and my side of the families. It would be harder to move overseas without their support!

· Friends/supporters – we now have over 500 names on our list to receive our STEAM updates (such as this one) and over 100 people who have contributed financially (or indicated that they will do so). Our ongoing communicated support level is at 51% but we know additional support will still be forthcoming.

· Safe travel – we had a safe journey out to Iowa, even as we drove through the night.

· Opportunity to take trip – this is going to be a neat trip. We are in Iowa for Thanksgiving and then will be heading east (as detailed above). The kids have never been to Washington D.C. and this will be a neat time to see some of our national treasures before we move to Africa

· Appliances – We have ordered appliances (washer, dryer, range, refrigerator, microwave, air conditioner) to ship to Africa and they have all arrived at this point (or at least most of them have arrived). In Malawi, the electricity is 220 volt in Malawi and hopefully everything is working out with all of that.

· Peanut butter (Jim was sitting next to me in church and suggested this addition).

Pastor Dale Visser delivered the message this morning at Beth’s old church, 1st Christian Reformed Church of Oskaloosa. His sermon was titled “Sweet Peas” and was closely patterned off of Johnnie R. Bailey’s sermon of the same name (http://sermons.logos.com/submissions/85585-1618#content=/submissions/85585). In 1904, Howard Morgan, the young son of G. Campbell Morgan, D.L. Moody’s success as manager of the Northfield Bible Conference Center, was very ill and asked his mother, “Sing to me about the sweet peas…You know, the sweet peas, gift of God’s love.” She realized he meant Sweet Peace, the Gift of God’s Love (http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/s/w/sweetpgg.htm). Pastor Visser read from 2 Peter where in verse 4 it refers to the fact that God “has given us his very great and precious promises” and he went on to share seven of God’s Precious Promises that begin with the letter “P”. These are things for which we can be thankful:

Pardon – for those of us in God’s family, our guilt has been placed on Jesus Christ and we are pardoned!
Purpose – Jesus died for me and I now have a reason to live
Precepts – God has given us His Word to guide us
Providence – God is in control
Provision – God provides care and guidance
Presence – God is with us
Peace – Isaiah 26:3 You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.
Of course, we also have many other things to be thankful for. Here are some additional “P” things for which we can give thanks:

Presence of God in our lives

Preaching

Prayer

Pastors (Can you imagine a tougher job than that of pastor? Perhaps Christian school principal would be similarly difficult).

Play – Isn’t it wonderful that God allows us to have fun? Wouldn’t it be nice if the Denver Broncos decide to actually show up and play tonight against the Giants?

Plans (God’s plan for our lives)

Pilgrims

Priceless (The gift Jesus gave for us: His life)

Pork – the other white meat

Pizza

Parmesan Cheese

Peppers (especially the crushed red variety)

Packing (such as for a move to Africa)

Pain

These last two on my list are not as pleasant as the other things but we are to give thanks in all circumstances .

Some addition news (and prayer) items:

I went to the doctor’s office this past week and had lost 16 pounds since about late June or early July. I also had some blood work done and my diabetes is doing much better. For those who understand such things, my A1C was down to 5.8 from 7.0 this past summer. This is a really positive development. I could use some help with blood pressure and cholesterol and I still need to drop more weight but there is some movement in the right direction on some health issues and that’s something to praise God for.
My final day at Compassion is scheduled for December 11. One month later, on January 11, we board our flight to leave the country and move to Malawi.
Packing & Shipping – after we return to Colorado on December 8, we have just a few days to finalize things before we pack our container. We will be moving stuff to our loading place on Saturday the 12th and will have 2 hours to load the 40 foot container on the morning of Monday December 14. If you live in Colorado Springs and are able to help on one or both of these days, please let me know. We need help.
Anyway, happy Thanksgiving! Let us remember how greatly we have each been blessed.

Thank you for your support!

Dan

for the Trumble family

email: trumble.STEAM@gmail.com

blog: www.trumble-steam.blogspot.com

phone: 719-238-3995

A note our daughter Elizabeth prepared.

We had Thanksgiving dinner at Steve & Jan’s new cabin (Steve is Beth’s oldest brother). Pictured below are sister-in-law Julie with Beth, Dan and nephew Luke, Steve & Jan’s farm, and the cabin where we had Thanksgiving dinner.

There are those who think that Pastor Visser and I look similar. Here is a picture of Pastor Visser and Dan.

STEAM V - Trumble Missionary Update - 11 Nov 2009

2010-02-11T05:26:00.009-07:00

Greetings!

Today is November 11. On December 11, one month from today, I finish my employment with Compassion. On January 11, two months from today, we depart from Minneapolis and arrive in Lilongwe, Malawi on January 13 where we will be living on the campus of the African Bible College. After more than 16 years working at Compassion this is quite a big change for all of us but Compassion has treated me very well through this separation process and that has been a blessing. We will be shipping major appliances as well as furniture and other household goods. We were going to try to ship goods before Thanksgiving but that may not happen now. Figuring out how to ship this stuff overseas has been one of the least pleasant aspects of this whole process. Please be in prayer for us as we continue to work through those details.

We need to find a good home for our two dogs. Oreo & Maggie are about 3 years old and we’d like to place them with a family before Thanksgiving. They are free to a good home and would come with some “dog accessories” (kennels, leashes, etc.).

We continue to see God’s provision for our financial needs and even though our support level is only at about 50%, we are moving forward trusting that God will meet our needs. We know that there are some additional commitments coming so this 50% number will go up some..but even if it doesn’t, at least we’ll be able to eat every other day! (just kidding). Seriously, though, if you have been sitting on the sidelines wondering if we’re really going to go (we are!) or whether we might reach our support goals without your help (we haven’t!), please pray about whether God might be leading you to partner with us financially.

We are planning to spend Thanksgiving in Iowa with Beth’s family and then will be driving to Washington D.C. We’re going to visit Brian & Debbi Dutton in Pittsburgh along the way and we will be staying with Chris & Julie Keller some while we’re in the Washington D.C. area. Anna Chambers, one of my nieces, is getting married on December 5 in Washington D.C. We will then be back in Colorado for about 2 weeks and after an early Christmas celebration with my family we will leave Colorado and go to Iowa where we will spend the Christmas holiday and enjoy a time of fellowship with people from Beth’s family.

I am sending this update from Nicaragua where I am for a brief trip with Compassion. It is a real pleasure to have this final opportunity to visit a Compassion country and spend some time with Compassion colleagues from several different country offices before my departure from Compassion. I fly home tomorrow.

Beth submitted some of Elizabeth’s artwork to Kainos Cards (www.kainoscards.com) and a couple of her pictures were accepted to be offered for sale on their site. Kainos Cards offers the ability to order a personalized card online and to then have it printed and mailed through the postal system to your intended recipient (so your work is all online but the person to whom you send the card actually gets it in the physical mail). Follow this link to see the card that is being offered using one of Elizabeth’s pictures: http://www.kainoscards.com/previewcard.php?cardid=204

I had the opportunity to record a segment for Compassion’s ‘My Best Day in Ministry’ series. You can hear the audio recording by following this link and clicking on the pink button: http://blog.compassion.com/dan-trumble-best-day-in-ministry/

Prayer Items:

Praise

· For God’s constant care and provision

· For better health in our family after some sickness in the kids

· For Compassion and the wonderful way they have worked with me through this process

Requests

· That all the details would come together with shipping our container

· For good health and safety in travel over the next two months

· For the kids to feel peace about the move to Africa

· That we’d find a good home for both dogs before Thanksgiving

Thank you for your support!

Dan

for the Trumble family

email: Trumble.STEAM@gmail.com

blog: www.trumble-steam.blogspot.com

phone: (719) 635-5109

Jim turned 13 in October. Below is Jim as well as a special card that Elizabeth made for him.

Yesterday Nicaragua became the 17th country in which I’ve eaten Chinese food. Fatima & Yamileth, two Compassion colleagues, are also pictured. Yesterday was also my 39th birthday.

STEAM IV - Trumble Missionary Update - October 22, 2009

2010-01-15T15:55:00.006-07:00

Greetings!

13 years ago last night we were in the hospital giving birth to Jim, our firstborn (actually, Beth was giving birth and I was just standing there doing the “supportive husband” thing). He was born at 5:26 PM which was right about the same time as the beginning of Game 2 of the 1996 World Series between the Yankees and Braves. We are now the parents of a teenager! Yikes! Stephen, our youngest, turned 8 earlier in the month.

Plans continue to roll for our move to Malawi. Yesterday I talked with my boss about my departure from Compassion. My final day could be as soon as November 24 or I might end up doing some work still into December. However it works out, I’m down to my last few weeks at Compassion before departing for the mission field. It will be quite a change after 16 years! God willing, we plan to go to Iowa for Thanksgiving and then travel to Washington D.C. for a wedding on December 5. The boys will finish school on December 18 and we will depart for Iowa sometime during that next week (hopefully after celebrating Christmas early with family in Colorado). We will depart from Minneapolis on January 11 after spending some time with relatives in Iowa. Someone at work directed me to a travel agent who has obtained some outstanding prices for the six of us to fly to Malawi for less than $6000. If you have much experience with paying for airfare to Africa, you will appreciate this excellent price.

I have been in contact with an organization that will help us ship a container with household goods. We haven’t finalized those arrangements yet but hopefully will fill and ship the container within the next few weeks. There is a real chance that we will arrive in Malawi before our goods so we may have the opportunity to exercise some “missionary flexibility” right off the bat.

There are still some questions about our financial support but we are confident that we are in God’s hands and that He will provide for our needs. When we look at the committed (and communicated) ongoing financial support, we are at about 45% of our overall goal but there are still people out there who have said that they will support us financially but for whom we do not yet have an amount. We have received some encouraging news on the fundraising front over the last couple of weeks. Thank you to those of you who have already agreed to provide financial support!. Of course, additional support would be very welcome. Please pray about how God might be leading you in that regard. We also face some significant up-front costs including the airfare, the shipping of household goods, and getting set up once we are in Malawi (including the purchase of a vehicle). The jobs we will be filling in Malawi are full-blown missionary positions. We will receive no salary for the work that we do. We need faithful prayer and financial supporters like you!

On the evening of September 20 we did a presentation to people at church. On October 1 I had an opportunity to briefly address some church leaders and I have done several presentations to people at work. Tomorrow, Friday October 23, I am the speaker at the Grace Presbyterian Church annual men’s steak fry (if you are a man and are in the Colorado Springs area, you are welcome to join us…contact me for details). It looks hopeful that we may be able to present our ministry to another church on November 15. If your church would be interested in hearing about our ministry in Malawi, please let us know!

Finally, let me encourage you to follow these links to learn about “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind”. He is an amazing young man from Malawi and several years ago he spent some time at ABC Christian Academy (the Christian school that is part of the African Bible College ministry in Malawi and where Beth will be teaching).

Video Clip: http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-october-7-2009/william-kamkwamba

Article: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/10/05/malawi.wind.boy/index.html

Prayer Items:

Praise
· For God’s sovereign plan. He’s in control. We are not in control. And it’s okay!

· For the faithful prayer and financial support that God is raising up for us. We now have more than 450 names on our update list including many Compassion friends from all over the world.

· For four pretty neat kids.

Requests

· Please continue to pray for Jim. As of yesterday, he is a teenager and that can be a tough time of life. If your parents move you to Africa in the middle of your 7th grade year, that can be cause for some anxiety.

· That the details for everything would continue to come together. This is a pretty daunting process!

· That our hearts would be focused on doing what God wants for us and that we would find joy in obedience to Him.

· Health – pray that God would keep us healthy as we work through the process of getting to Malawi.

Thank you for your support!

Dan

for the Trumble family

email: Trumble.STEAM@gmail.com

blog: www.trumble-steam.blogspot.com

phone: (719) 635-5109

STEAM III - September 21, 2009

2009-11-13T20:21:00.003-07:00

Greetings from the Trumbles!

We are rapidly approaching the time when we hope to depart for Malawi, Africa! The 2^nd term of the school year begins 18 January 2010 and we want to be there by then. Our fundraising continues to progress and we know God will meet our needs but we are still short of a level that makes this huge commitment seem comfortable. Perhaps God does not wish for us to feel comfortable!

We are currently aware of specific commitments that put us at about 31% of our total support level. We are prepared to go to Malawi at a level less than 100% but it sure would be nice for the number to be higher than where it currently stands! So, let me be bold: If God is leading you to support us financially but you have been waiting because you feel like there is no rush since there is lots of time before we depart, please let me urge you to tarry no more. Please let us know your intentions and please prayerfully consider going to Africa with us by supporting us in prayer, or by supporting us in prayer and financial support.

We will have some up-front costs for moving and will have ongoing expenses but it is true that I continue to work at Compassion and thus our immediate need for support funds is not great. However, the time for purchasing airline tickets and making some other commitments approaches rapidly. It is fine if you don’t wish to start sending support until December or January but we’d like to know what to expect for planning purposes.

If you are interested in setting up a regular withdrawal from your checking account or a recurring credit card payment, let me know and I can send you the necessary form.

If you do choose to support us financially, please drop us a quick note by email or give us a call at 719-635-5109 to let us know your plans. It can take quite a while for us to get the information from the ABC home office so it would be helpful to us if you could keep us informed of your plans. Let me also take a moment to say Thank You! to those who are already praying for us and for those who have already provided financial support or agreed to support us financially in the future.

Beth and I really desire to depart in January and the need in Malawi is real. As a reminder, a key finance guy, Eckton, who had been working with the ministry of ABC, has moved to the United States to go to school and thus there is currently a key vacancy. Let me share a few comments from some people who are already in Malawi serving at African Bible College:

In a message to Grace Presbyterian Church (our local church which supports the Steve & Marion Spencer family), Steve Spencer said this:

Dear Grace,

Warm Malawian greetings to you from the Spencer Hut. We appreciate you making time for the Trumbles. They are a wonderful family answering the call to missions in Africa. And they couldn't be coming to Malawi at a better time. Our CFO just left and we are desperately in need of a new finance guy. Dan will fill that void perfectly. And as you know, we are always in need of teachers at the Academy and are looking forward to having Beth there. Thank you again for supporting the Spencer and Dehnert families. Thank you for prayerfully considering the Trumbles. Please note: any family willing to dress the entire family in red for their prayer card is surely worthy of support! God bless you and we're still waiting for you to visit us iin Malawi. Blessings from our hut to yours, Steve and Marion.

Connie Dehnert wrote the following (I'm pretty sure she's joking):

We desperately need you here!! did I tell you the new accounting system since Ekton has gone? When the students pay their tuition, we put a big barrel in your office and throw in the money. When we need some we dig it out! Not too easy to go into debt that way, right??

On another occasion Connie wrote this:

…we are in DESPERATE need of you and this is no joke…the more days that go by without you here, the more days it’s going to take you to FIX all the messes we are making in the absence of anyone who knows what they are doing in finance.

Finally, attached you will find a neat story from one of the young men who had recently moved to Malawi to serve at ABC. I encourage you to take a few minutes to read about his experience. Thank you for your prayers for our family as we prepare for this adventure that God has for us.

Prayer Items:

Praise

For the ministry of ABC and the way that God is using the ministry to shape lives to be used in His Kingdom.

For the faithful missionaries who have responded to God’s call on their lives and for those who are joining them in ministry through prayer and financial support.

Requests

Please pray for our whole family that we would be passionate to do exactly what God calls us to do. Jim, our 7^th grader, still is not thrilled with the prospect of moving to Africa. Please pray that God would work in his heart to make him excited for this adventure.

That additional people would choose to go to Africa with us by supporting us financially

Details – there are a bunch of details to be worked out before we leave. Pray that we would be diligent in tackling those details and that God would smooth the way for things to come together well.

Thank you for your support!

Dan, for the Trumble family

2009-10-14T08:40:00.002-06:00

Hello, friends.

We haven't done a very good job at updating this blog. Dan always seems to be much better at writing and posting than I am, but I will give you all a little info about what is going on.

We continue to get closer and closer to the time for big decisions. We are hoping to be able to ship our container of household items by the beginning of November. Dan has been emailing with 'Missionary Expeditors' (or some similar name) to get all of that worked out. I have been trying to pack a few boxes here and there, like our books and other things that are not needed everyday. Not sure what we will be sleeping on once our beds are gone. Maybe we should just set up our tent in the house. :)

Another big issue for us is where our two dogs will end up. We are not taking them to Africa, so we need to find the family that God has planned for them. I was thinking early on that having them in Iowa with some of my family would be ideal, but now I think anywhere they can be loved and cared for is good enough for me. If you know anyone looking for a couple dogs let us know. They are both between a large and medium size for dogs. One is more relaxed and the other is more hyper.

Dan has also been working with someone to get our airline tickets. We don't have a definite date for departure yet.

On December 5 we have a niece getting married in Washington D.C., and we would like to be out there for that. I think we will be going to Iowa to see my family over Thanksgiving and then continue to drive east for the wedding. Hopefully we can visit with friends and family along the way.

Thank you, everyone, for praying for us. God is always good, and His plan is always perfect.

Beth

STEAM II - Aug 31 Update

2009-09-21T22:28:00.007-06:00

[note: there is a figure of 22% cited below. That figure has increased some by the time this infomation was posted to the blog]

August 31, 2009

Greetings folks!

We continue to move through the process of preparing to move to Africa in January to join the ministry of ABC (African Bible College). It is quite an interesting process. The school year for the kids begins on 18 January so we hope to arrive in Malawi shortly before that. We will remain in the States through the holidays and then will depart sometime in the first half of January.

How is the fundraising going? Well, I’m glad you asked. Short answer? Confirmed regular commitments? About 22%. We received reporting from the Mississippi office of ABC regarding July donor activity and that provided some good information that we hadn’t already known. We believe that there are others who plan to contribute to our support but who have not yet communicated a number to us so they are not counted in this 22% figure. We now eagerly await the report on August activity as we have sent out well over 150 additional letters during August.
We have a lot to accomplish between now and when we leave but we are excited. The school year for both the College and the Academy (the K-12 school) began on Monday, 24 August. We have made contact with some of the teachers at the Academy, including two who are new just this year. One of those will be Stephen’s 2nd grade teacher after we arrive. Another is living with some roommates in the house that we will eventually move into.

Prayer Items

Praise
1. For the sovereignty of God. We know that He will provide the resources for us to go if it is indeed His will. This is a wonderful opportunity for us to trust in God.
2. Our email list has grown to over 275 names!
3. Good health for the family during the summer and good progress on some diet and exercise changes for Dan as he deals with his new type 2 diabetes diagnosis.

Requests
1. For the approximately 80 new African freshman who have recently begun their 4-year journey at ABC.
2. The new staff at the College, the Academy, and the Clinic who are adjusting to their lives in Malawi.
3. Preparation for the move. Scheduling the shipping of some of our goods and getting rid of some other stuff. We have a lot of junk to work through.
4. School. All four kids have begun the school year. The three boys are at Evangelical Christian Academy and Beth is homeschooling Elizabeth.
5. Fundraising – as mentioned previously, we have a ways to go. Pray that God would work in the hearts of the people who He is calling to go to Africa with us.
6. Patience and trust in God as we wait to see how He provides

Thank you for your prayer support!
Dan
for the Trumble family

Dan & Beth Trumble Family
email: Trumble.STEAM@gmail.com blog: http://www.trumble-steam.blogspot.com/ww.trumble-steam.blogspot.com/ phone: (719) 635-5109

Here is a picture of the house we are scheduled to move into.

On the 8th of August we attended a Colorado Rockies baseball game with some of the boys (and families) from Jim’s baseball team. We also took a tour of the stadium. Very fun. The Rockies lost (not so fun).

Wess Stafford, the President of Compassion International, spoke at the Willow Creek Leadership Summit in early August. He shared the moving story of childhood abuse he experienced and how God has allowed him to forgive those who wronged him and how God has redeemed his life and prepared him for his current role as the leader of a ministry focused on the needs of children. To enhance the talk they wanted to have some images of Wess as a child. Our son Will was the one they ended up using to portray a young Wess Stafford. You can see Will on the screen behind Dr. Stafford in the pictures below. Thousands of people watched the presentation live at the Willow Creek campus near Chicago and tens of thousands of additional people watched it as it was simulcast to more than 100 locations around North America. Pretty cool.

A note from Beth

2009-09-18T18:03:00.004-06:00

God is so good.

I have been thinking about writing something on here to share some of my thoughts since Dan usually does the talking...or writing, in this case. So here I am. Writing. Trying to figure out what to say first.

We received our second group of commitment cards that the ABC office sends to us. These are the response cards that folks fill out and send in to the office in Mississippi to let us know how they would like to be involved in our missionary endeavor. I will say it again...God is so good. It is encouraging to see friends and family and coworkers wanting to be a part of our team. Lots of folks share with us financially, but some also share their prayers. We are currently at 30% of our total goal for regular support commitments.

The time for us to leave seems to be coming so quickly. My emotions fluctuate with whatever I decide to dwell on. For instance, thinking about all that needs to be accomplished (getting rid of junk, boxing things up, figuring out what and when to send things on a container, keeping track of important information, getting passports for two kids, etc.) can bring a heaviness to the heart. But thinking about the kids in Malawi that could use encouragement or the experiences that our kids will have with a new culture bring an excitement to be over there doing what God wants us to do.

I am so glad that God takes care of us and whatever happens, happens under His control. He never leaves me. He is always here to help me and to teach me the lessons He wants me to learn. Thank you to all of you who are praying for our family. God hears and answers!

STEAM Newsletter - July 2009

2009-08-06T10:53:00.008-06:00

Greetings from the Trumbles!

This is the first edition of the STEAM Newsletter thing providing an update on our family as we pursue a missionary calling to African Bible College in Malawi, Africa.

We received word that we were accepted to join the staff of the ministry of the African Bible College on May 24th. The two months since then have been eventful for our family. Some of the things we’ve been involved in are these:

1. Jim (age 12) and Will (age 9) have both been playing baseball. Both seasons end this week.
2. Jim went to a Boy Scout camp for most of a week
3. The family drove to Iowa for vacation and spent July 4th there
4. Last week was Vacation Bible School at our church. Beth taught and all 4 kids attended.
5. Dan’s high school class had a 20-year-reunion. Dan was the Reunion Czar and thus that ended up being quite a bit of work.
6. Dan was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes

Along with these things, we have been working on communications related to our upcoming missionary adventure in Malawi.

We have established a new email account for use in our missionary communications (which is the account this update is being sent from). I, Dan, designed a logo that could be used (which you can see at the header of this message) and we developed some communications that could be sent out electronically and/or by hard copy. As many of you know, I take a lot of pictures. However, when it came time to find a picture to use for our Prayer card, we didn’t have a good recent one of the whole family that we liked so one Sunday after our church service, we spent some time getting pictures of the family and we ended up with something that works. We developed something on our own that worked okay but we also worked with an organization to get a professional card designed. As part of this process we decided that we wanted to list some kind of web address on that card but we didn’t have a website or blog set up so I quickly set up the basics of a blog that we could use. Since that time, we have added a bit of content but work remains to be done. We have sent or handed letters to over 150 people with many more yet to come. It’s quite a process to identify who you want to contact, figure out their contact information, produce a letter and related pieces, address and stamp the envelopes, and send the letters.

There are just a lot of details to work through with this stuff and we are new to the game. Please pray for us as we work through this process of raising up prayer and financial support!

There have also been some pretty exciting and fun things to the process. We have been blessed and encouraged by people stepping forward with a desire to partner with us. We have been blessed with many encouraging words from people as well as some encouraging financial support. African Bible College is a pretty low overhead operation (which is great from a cost perspective as ABC only takes a 4% fee from the normal donation) but it also means that they are not real robust in providing support. Because of their processes, it can take quite a while for us to receive word of contributions or commitments of financial support. As a finance guy and one who is keenly interested in the progress of the fundraising process, this need for patience is not my favorite part of the process! So, how are we doing on our fundraising? Good, I guess. We are aware of some very generous commitments of support but we still have a significant gap to close.

We have received word regarding what house we will likely occupy when we move to Malawi. The family who lived in the house for most of the last several years has been generous in sharing information about the house and it has been fun to be able to start having some of the details take shape.

Our plan, as God allows, is to move to Malawi in January. The ABC Christian Academy, where our children will attend, begins the 2nd semester on January 18 and it will be our goal to arrive before the start of the semester.

Prayer Items

Praise
1. for God’s confirmation of our call to the mission field in Malawi and our desire to answer that call
2. for the generous partnership and support of many people

Requests
1. Joy & Enthusiasm - That the whole family, including all of the children, would be excited about the adventure ahead. Jim (our 12 ½ year old who is going into 7th grade), does not really want to go. There are some real sacrifices for all of us (moving away from friends and family) but please pray that we will keep our eye on what God has called us to and that we would have great joy in being in the center of His will.
2. Fundraising – while we have received some very generous financial support, we still have a ways to go. Pray that God would work in the hearts of the people who He is calling to go to Africa with us through a financial commitment.
3. Houses – Dan met with a realtor about our old house (the one we’ve been renting out for most of the past year). Given the amount of debt on the house, it doesn’t look like it will be realistic to sell the house in the short term (we’d likely have to bring a substantial amount of cash to the table at closing) so we will plan to continue renting it. It is currently vacant and it would be great to get a renter in it soon. We will also seek to rent out the house we currently live in but we plan to continue occupying it for several more months so while we will need a renter for this house, that need is a ways off.
4. Health – as mentioned above, I have been diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. To combat this, I need to be serious about food and exercise (less of one, more of the other). I have begun taking a couple of new medications and still have another to add soon.
5. School – The kids will be starting school soon. We plan for all three boys to attend ECA (Evangelical Christian Academy) for the first semester of the school year before we move. Beth will homeschool Elizabeth.
6. Moving - Of course we have a lot of packing to do and decisions to make about what to ship and what to dump/sell/give away, etc.

Thank you for your prayer support!

Missionarily, (I made that word up)

Dan

for the Trumble family

Dan & Beth Trumble Family
email: Trumble.STEAM@gmail.com
blog: http://www.trumble-steam.blogspot.com/
phone: (719) 635-5109

Kids dressed up in camping gear for one of the “theme days” at Vacation Bible School

Jim & Will in a boat on Uncle Steve’s & Aunt Jan’s pond in Iowa
Visiting the tallest working windmill in the United States in Pella, Iowa (where they are proud of their Dutch heritage)
Some of the kids (actually middle-aged people) from Dan’s class photo by Dave Ulman (husband to one of Dan’s classmates)

Top Picture: Jim batting. Bottom Picture: Will batting

Financial Support

2009-07-14T20:38:00.007-06:00

Use the following form to commit to support us financially.

If you wish to give by credit card, use this link Donate by Credit Card

If you are interested in setting up an automated monthly withdrawal from your checking account, the below form can be printed, filled out, and mailed to ABC...or, email us at Trumble.STEAM@gmail.com so that we can email a form to you.

Malawi! Where is it?

2009-06-29T15:45:00.000-06:00

Introduction to the Trumble Family

2009-06-29T15:37:00.000-06:00

Greetings. The Trumble Family is made up of parents Dan & Beth Trumble and 4 children. Jim, Elizabeth, Will, and Stephen. Jim was born in October 1996 and the other 3 followed in less than 5 years.

Dan grew up in Colorado Springs, CO USA. Beth grew up on a farm in Southeast Iowa. Dan & Beth married in August 1994.

Before kids being born Beth was an elementary school teacher. Dan has worked since August 1993 at Compassion International, most of this time in the Accounting/Finance area. He has had the opportunity to travel to 20 of Compassion's foreign countries. 3 times over the years Dan & Beth have pursued job opportunities with Compassion in Africa but it was never God's time. In 2009 He opened the door for the family to serve at the ministry of African Bible College in Malawi, Africa.

The hope is to move to Malawi in Janaury 2010. this is a situation where we have to raise our own support so the move is dependant on God providing the resources.

Please contact us at Trumble.STEAM@gmail.com if you are interested in being on our email update list or if you are interested in supporting us financially.