Warm Hearts Found

Three years ago today was one of the most disappointing days of our lives. The previous year, Sylvia and I had achieved our long dreamt of ambition of serving as missionaries in the United Methodist Church. While serving in that capacity, we ended up unintentionally uncovering a great deal of corruption and embezzlement in the church. It was a sad and difficult situation. We reported what we found to our supervisors, but for political reasons within the church, our supervisors decided not to pursue the corruption and embezzlement. On March 8, 2012, (Sylvia’s birthday), we received an email from our supervisors in New York that stated that the leader of the United Methodist Church in Malawi (the man responsible for the corruption and embezzlement – the man currently serves on the Board of the organization), asked that we not continue our assignment in Malawi. We left the country a short time later, both disappointed and relieved, but we were reeling both emotionally and spiritually.

Through a series of fortunate events I think of as prevenient grace (God’s hand guiding us to the right place), we made it to Memphis, Tennessee, and found First Congregational Church. First Congo has been a place of healing, and support for us. It has been a place where Sylvia and I have both been able to fulfill our call to serve through ministry to God and our community. We are often overwhelmed by the way God uses people, including us, to do amazing work that we don’t necessarily “get” at the time.

This morning, as the choir sang, “I Know Something About God’s Grace,” by Patrick Bradley, I was reminded of just how far my family has come in the last three years. The words the choir sang became, for me, a prayer of thanksgiving, “Can one witness testify, ‘I wouldn’t have made it without the grace of God.’”

Three years later, Sylvia and I are engaged in meaningful work that we find both challenging and fulfilling. We have two amazing children who are able to grow up in a community of faith that is as diverse and inclusive as any we have ever witnessed.

We didn’t make it here on our own. The gift of finding this place is something we celebrate often. We get to be a part of this, and our kids get to grow up in a place where great ministry is happening.

It didn’t take too long to recognize that First Congo was a place where warm hearts are present, and continue working. We are grateful to have found this place!

Grace and peace,
Teddy

Crums End Service as Missionaries

Dear Partners in Mission,

Thank you for the support you have shown for us during this last year as we have served as United Methodist missionaries with the Malawi United Methodist Church.  During our time in Malawi, we made every effort to learn Chichewa and the Malawian culture, as well as to get to know the Malawi United Methodist Church (MUMC). We felt good about our success in visiting 13 of the 22 MUMC Circuits in a mere nine months. We attempted to see as many projects and churches as possible. Along the way, we shared pictures and success stories through our blog.

This sharing of the story of the MUMC resulted in ten new Covenant Partners (a program through the United Methodist Advance Office where churches make an intentional commitment to support mission work) and many more individual monetary gifts, with more people aware of and interested in the work of the United Methodist Church in Malawi.

We are proud to have raised almost $9,000 in yearly Covenant Partnership pledges, with 5 Covenant Partners each and several other folks giving individual gifts. We felt like we had a good base to grow from in Alabama and the whole Southeastern Jurisdiction, as well as some other friends in Oklahoma, Iowa and even New York!

It is with great disappointment that we share with you that we will not be returning to Malawi.   This decision was not an easy one and was due to numerous circumstances beyond our control, and despite our most sincere efforts. This has been an extremely difficult last four months for our family and we are sad not to be able to continue working in mission with the General Board of Global Ministries. We are also sorry not to have the opportunity to continue work in the missionary community. Global Ministries will look for possible placements over the next couple of months, but if nothing is found, we will no longer be serving as missionaries as of December 31, 2012.

If you have questions about Malawi please contact Caroline Njuki, cnjuki@umcmission.org, Assistant General Secretary in Mission and Evangelism.   If you have questions about financial gifts to the Advance or supporting a missionary, please contact Rachael Barnett, rbarnett@umcmission.org, in Missionary Services.  We were proud of the strides we made with local church members, the Publications Committee and local church pastors. Once again, thank you for your continued prayers and support of us. We ask for your continued prayers during this time.

Sincerely,

Sylvia and Teddy Crum

Leaving Announcement

Dear Friends,

Thank you for the support, prayers and encouragement you have shown to us on our journey to become missionaries with the General Board of Global Ministries.  We are writing to share some news regarding our service in Malawi. This week we have been in New York meeting with the staff at Global Ministries.  We have decided, along with the Global Ministries leadership, that our assignment in Malawi was not a good fit for us or for the church in Malawi.

We are, of course, saddened by this turn of events, but have no doubt in our call to serve in God’s mission.  We are currently in a time of waiting and praying and will continue to work with Global Ministries leadership on our options for the future.

We wanted you to know of this development. We are grateful for your support and interest in sharing the story of God’s mission together.  We realize you may have many questions, and we ask for your patience and grace as we work through this transition and change.

Please continue to pray for us and for the people of Malawi.

With thanks,

Teddy and Sylvia Crum

Finding our way in the Capital

Growing up in the suburbs outside of Washington, D.C., my nation’s capital city, I remember taking friends and relatives into the city to see the Smithsonian, the Zoo, the monuments, and just to look around the Mall. My mom was usually driving, as most of these visits happened during the summer months when she was out of school, and often talking about how much she hated driving in DC. When she would recount her most recent tale of frustration navigating DC’s streets, my dad would, more often than not, point out that the city’s architect, Dupont, had intended the layout to be intimidating to visitors. I recall one particular journey that had us circling Georgetown for what seemed like weeks, trying to figure out how to get across the Potomac! It wasn’t quite as bad as Chevy Chase getting stuck in the fictional roundabout at London’s Parliament building, saying, “Look kids, Big Ben… Parliament. Look kids, Big Ben… Parliament!” But it did make for a long ride home.

Before we moved to Malawi’s capital city, Lilongwe, we heard from a number of people that, “it really doesn’t feel all that much like a city.” They’d say things like, “You never know if you’re in Lilongwe!” and, “Did you know that they have two city centres?!?” I don’t know if there was an architect involved in designing the layout of Lilongwe, but from what I have read, the city has just sort of grown from a small town into what it is today, a sprawling town/city of somewhere between 800,000 and 1.2 million people. The city is “organized” into areas with numerical names. Areas received their numbers based on the time they were developed. Areas 1 through 4 are considered “Old Town” which is one of the city centres. We live in Area 2, but I prefer to use our neighborhood’s name, Bwalolanjobvu “Place of the elephants”, to describe where we live. It is a coincidence that Area 23 and Area 24 are neighbors, as they just happened to be developed back to back. Area 25 is on the opposite side of the city, no less than 15 miles away.

The other city centre, “Capital City” is where the parliament building, recently constructed with significant contributions from the Chinese government, along with all the embassies and a new enormous hotel, also being constructed with money from China, are all located. Capital City is designed to look like a modern capital, but feels a bit like something out of Orwell when you look around and see very few Malawians around at all. Luckily for us, author Calvin Trillin’s perspective on Chinese expats having some of the best food in the world, has held true in Lilongwe. The food at the Noble China Restaurant is as good as any Chinese food I’ve had in New York City, or Singapore. I might be exaggerating a little bit here, but it is very good!

We’ve been received so warmly by the leaders of the Malawi UMC who live in Lilongwe! I am grateful for the friendship and help of the conference Lay Leader, Diverson Wakhutamoyo, along with that of his wife Salina, their church, and their family! Diverson’s humility, kindness, and servant’s spirit are fun to be around, and I look forward to working with him and others to support their wonderful work!

Lily is settling in nicely, too! Our night guard, Leonard Namauzongo, his wife, and their five children moved to Lilongwe with us. The children and Lily are getting along wonderfully. On our second day in Lilongwe, Lily was walking around the house, pointing to the back yard, where the Namauzongo’s house is, and saying, “Tin-tina! Zjay-zjay!” It took us a little while to work out that she was saying the names, at least her names for them, of two of the children, Christina and Eliza. I don’t know how Zjay-zjay comes from Eliza, but there is no doubt who Lily is talking about when she says her name.

There are some people, who after having their stuff packed away in boxes for several months, end up saying, “You know, I really didn’t need that stuff after all.” We realized, after 10 months of having our things in boxes, that we are not those people. We are so pleased that we brought the kitchen things so that we can cook together (a favorite form of family entertainment for the past 9 years). And what a treat it was to pull out family photographs, books, and artwork. I overheard Sylvia say more than once, “I’m so glad I thought to bring this!”

Sylvia’s grandfather always said that it was the drapes that her grandmother brought that made a new house feel like home. For me, it’s the big Dutch oven, filled with something tasty to eat together with family and friends.

For me, it’s no wonder the disciples finally recognized Jesus while they were at the table breaking bread together. I keep bumping into him at our table in the capital city!

Learning a few new words

This week we’ve been getting boxes stuffed full in order to head out again. We are moving from Blantyre to Lilongwe, Malawi’s capital city, which is centrally located in the country. We’re excited about the move, and hope to find a sense of community as we settle in.

Most of our boxes were packed in April 2011, and since they arrived in Malawi in October 2011, just after we were asked to move to Lilongwe, we made the decision to keep everything packed up.

We’ve heard people joke about having to wait this long for things, and asking, “Since we’ve lived this long without it, do we really need it?” I’m sure there are some things in our boxes that we don’t “need,” but at the same time, there are things in there that we really want.

I walked past an open box a couple of days ago and saw some pictures, still wrapped, I remembered wrapping up neatly in April. I couldn’t see the pictures, but I know that one of them, my favorite, was done by my best friend, Xavier Vinas, and I asked Sylvia to mark down the box number so that I could open it immediately after our arrival in Lilongwe, and find a place for it on the wall.

I can honestly say that Malawi has us more culture shocked than I have felt before, with possible exception of Washington, DC after living in Palestine for 18 months! At the same time, since we’ve felt like we’ve been perching for the past several months, it really isn’t so surprising.

On Friday, we get to start settling in, and making Malawi feel like home. Pictures of family will go up on the walls, Xavier’s picture will join them, and Lily should be able to add a few more words to her vocabulary, “Welcome home!”

A matter of perspective

As we were preparing to leave the United States we had an important round of immunization shots Lily needed to receive. At the time, we were staying a few hours drive from Lily’s previous pediatrician, and we were hoping not to have to make the drive just to get the shots! Sylvia spent several days calling numerous doctors’ offices before we eventually remembered that a former Church member had a daughter-in-law who is a pediatrician. We called the friend and she lined up a visit through her daughter-in-law. The doctor was wonderful, and we were very appreciative for her willingness to see us. As Sylvia continued expressing her appreciation, the doctor cut her off and said, “Well, my dad is a minister, and in his book, missionaries are as close to God as anyone. He always said that we should do anything we can to help missionaries.”

Sylvia and I both laughed, maybe nervously, hoping that we could live up to the high expectations.

Earlier tonight, a friend of mine stopped by to pick up some information related to a Volunteer in Mission team that is arriving tomorrow. We chatted for a while and he mentioned that the local gas station had a tanker that was delivering petrol. This friend is the main transportation provider that we use for hosting VIM teams, and he always has good information. We’ve both been looking for petrol all week so that we can work with the team that is coming from the U.S.

I kissed Sylvia and Lily and hopped in the car and headed up the road to see if I could buy some petrol, being careful to bring a book along for the wait. Sitting in the queue for petrol, I thought of the doctor’s words, and wondered, “So, how close to God is this?”

In the end, I waited two and a half hours, and the petrol ran out just as I got to the driveway of the station. Amazingly, I didn’t feel frustrated! It’s already been a long week with plenty of other frustrations. I remembered that my friend told me that he had waited for seven hours earlier this week in order to buy 15 litres of petrol (around 3.5 gallons).

One of the jobs we do as missionaries, but nowhere near as much as local Malawians, is that we try to work out how to save short-term volunteers from these sorts of frustrations. I wonder sometimes about the wisdom in this, and know that when we make things here seem easier than they actually are that we might be doing a disservice to both the short-termers and the Malawians they’ve come here to work with. Nobody wants to come all the way to Africa to spend their time waiting in queues to buy gasoline, but a little waiting is probably good to get a taste of the challenges people face.

Waiting helps change our perspective, and I’m more and more convinced that all of us, everywhere, could do with a little extra perspective.

Learning and adapting

Living in a new place always requires a few changes. For us, as we attempt to continue to grow in our knowledge of the local language, we’re also trying to grow in our knowledge of what is going on around us. When do people mean “no” when they haven’t actually said it? Should we feel like we have been invited to that gathering even though we didn’t receive an invitation? Was that a question, or a statement?

Sometimes we have questions about little things, and sometimes the questions affect ongoing relationships in bigger ways.

Malawians tend to communicate in more passive ways. They leave many things unsaid, and within their own culture, these unsaid things tend to be understood by other Malawians. This doesn’t always work out, however!

A friend of ours who is a teacher told us a story of an incident at his school. Apparently a number of teachers had been leaving early at the end of the school day. Rather than addressing the issue directly, the school principal called an assembly of all of the teachers and talked about how, “some people have been doing some things that they shouldn’t be doing.” The message was so vague that the people who needed to hear that their actions were inappropriate didn’t actually get the message.

One area of learning for us of late relates to our garden. We have an avocado tree at the back of the house. For those of you unfamiliar with avocado trees, the fruit hangs down from the tree on strands, and eventually falls to the ground. Our tree is at the edge of our yard at the bottom of a couple of sloping terraces (it is actually a neighbors’ tree, but most of the tree hangs over into our yard), and I had been watching for a few weeks as the avocados grew larger and larger. Not knowing this tree, I didn’t walk to check it out very closely. Instead, I thought I would wait to go and collect some until some of the fruit looked ripe. Last week, while Lily and I were playing in the back yard, we walked down the terraces and saw that avocados had been falling off of the tree for several days, if not weeks. There was a pile of avocados, at least 150 of them, that had collected as they fell off of the tree and rolled down the hill. On the first day, Lily and I selected a few of these that looked good, and have gone back each successive day to collect newly fallen avocados. Each day we collect between 6 and 12 avocados!

A couple of days worth of avocados

In the US, we have never had to answer the question, “What do you do with a dozen or half-a-dozen avocados every day?” In Malawi, we’re looking for people to give avocados to (not always easy since many other people also have these trees), and we’ve been eating guacamole or plain avocados most days. Sylvia has scoured our cookbooks and looked on-line and found tasty recipes for avocado ice cream and avocado smoothies.

I’m hoping that our skin doesn’t start to turn a slight green-tint!

Having learned the lesson of cleaning my plate from my dad, I have a hard time not collecting all these avocados and I am doing my best to eat them.

I’ve noticed that most Malawians don’t put so much pressure on themselves to eat these and other fruits and vegetables out of their gardens. But as I look at the mangoes continuing to ripen on our mango trees, I’m starting to wonder just how many things I need to learn from my Malawian neighbors!

Potty training and pit-latrines

How do Africans teach their children to sqat and pee outside or over a pit-latrine? Probably in the same way that Americans teach children how to use a toilet! By demonstrating. But what to do when our daughter needs to know how to do both but we only use a toilet at home?

I’ve been thinking a lot about this problem for the last couple of months as Lily has moved out of diapers and into training pants. After a trip to the Lower Shire at the end of November, we decided to try Lily in training pants. It had been so, so hot in Nsanje and, over the weekend away, Lily’s heat rash returned. We thought maybe part of the problem was the disposable diapers we had her in for the long car ride and hot weekend. Sure, at home we use these lovely, soft, and modern cloth diapers. But I was not going to carry a bag of stinky, used diapers in the car with us for four days, especially with the intense heat of the South of Malawi. So, disposables it was. But with their plastic, they really hold in the heat. I’m sure she was uncomfortable and Lily with a heat rash is just pitiful.

So when we got home, we switched to training pants. We had two days of seven or eight pee-ed in pants. But after that she did really, really super. For a week or two we had almost no soiled clothes. But then, we needed to make a trip to Lilongwe. Lilongwe is a long trip, about five hours, if we don’t get stuck behind slow moving trucks. And there are not fancy rest-stops along the way. We’ve found one or two filling stations whose bathrooms are decent, when they are open. But sometimes their water is off and they, too, send us out to a pit-latrine. So, I always prepare myself for the good chance that I will be squatting to pee. This is already tricky, as we have found that there are very few stretches of road where people are not present. But hey, this is not my first time in Africa, and I can easily pee outside with the best of them.

Lily, though, has had more trouble. Until now, she has resolutely refused to squat down and pee outside. So for this trip, I put her back into diapers. But this wasn’t just a journey up to Lilongwe. We were stopping along the way to visit three churches. And the Sunday we were in Lilongwe we traveled outside of town to visit a church in the Jerusalem Circuit. I knew that this would mean very long days, with toilets, and even pit-latrines, tricky to find.

But here’s an added problem. Now that Lily is so good at using her training pants, she doesn’t want to pee in a diaper. But she also doesn’t want to go outside, and pit-latrines are too scary and often not so clean. Over the weekend, we had several instances when she knew and I knew that she needed to go but wouldn’t. And I felt like a terrible mother for giving my clever little girl such mixed signals.

So back to the question of how to teach Lily how to pee outside. At home, in Blantyre, we have a toilet (two, in fact. We do not live in the “bush”). And I’m pretty sure our housekeeper would think I was crazy if she caught Lily and I squatting out in the grass. But, to go to a United Methodist Church in Malawi (even the Blantyre “city” church has a pit-latrine), Lily is going to have to learn how to squat.

And then, the problem solved itself. Yesterday, we went to Bible Study. Lily and I attend a group of moms and kids and it is just super because a bunch of kids around Lily’s age always come and they play together while the moms meet. At one point, Lily was in a sand box and I saw one of the moms jump up with a concerned look on her face. Her daughter had just torn off her pants and panties and was about to pee in the sand box. The mom rushed her over to a tree and helped her to pee outside of the play area. Later, I noticed the girl again without her pants on and I almost mentioned to the mom that her daughter had, again, removed her pants. But then I realized that she just hadn’t put them back on. And before it was time to go, she pee-ed outside once more.

Today, while we were outside in our back yard, Lily wanted to take her clothes off. After she did this, she indicated that she wanted help squatting. After practicing for thirty minutes or so, she pee-ed! It may seem crazy, or even silly, to you to be so excited about this. But for now, I think it’s a survival skill that Lily needs!

We celebrated after Lily pee-ed outside for the first time, and Teddy and I both thought, “one less thing to worry about!”

A Visit to Phala UMC

On 8 January I traveled to Phala UMC, a local church in the Mpenya Circuit, but south of Blantyre, near the Shire River. This circuit includes the flagship UMC of the Malawi Missionary Conference, Galilea, where much of the Conference leadership attend most Sundays. Galilea is also the only congregation within Blantyre.

The pastor of Mpenya Circuit, Collings Kaunda, asked me, after preaching last Sunday at Galilea, to accompany him to Phala the following Sunday to preach and celebrate Holy Communion. We gathered at Galilea local church at 7:30am and were loaded up and ready to travel to Phala twenty minutes later. In order to get to Phala we descended the M1 road south from Blantyre, which included numerous hairpin turns. On a previous trip in this direction a friend had pointed to the turn-off for Phala and said, we have a church down this road that is on the Mpenya Circuit. When the pastor asked me to travel with him, I remembered where this turn-off was and thought to myself, “Oh okay, that will be an easy trip.” I was not told that after the turn off we would travel an additional 34 kilometres on a dirt road, fording no less that 8 streams along the way! It took about an hour and fifteen minutes riding on this bumpy main road to make it to Phala.

The pastor explained along the way that due to the increased cost of travel in the country, and the distance to this local church, he had not been able to visit Phala for three months. We found a congregation who was happy to see us. 

When we make these sorts of drives, and hear that pastors are only able to visit some of their congregations four to six times per year I often think, “How did we get this church out here?” And, “Does this really make sense?”

In reality, it doesn’t make sense from a modern Western perspective to have these churches spread out and seemingly disconnected from their leadership. But in the history of Methodism, this is exactly how churches were started; and they grew. Local leadership was cultivated and allowed to provide the needed support and guidance on a week by week basis. And, the clergy person arrived occasionally to celebrate the sacraments and provide supervision for the continued work of the Church.

After we arrived at Phala at around 10:00am, members of the congregation started turning up for worship. Sunday is a market day in the neighboring village, and since this is a season when most Malawians purchase food rather than getting it out of their own gardens, many of the Church members were returning from the market.

Phala UMC building, just after our arrival, and not many people around

By 10:30 worship was in full swing, with multiple choirs singing and celebrating. The first video is of congregational singing (poor video quality on this one, as I was attempting to dance along!). I love how the excitement builds as they sing this one. It makes sense, as they are singing, “Anasankha ine Ambuye!” which is literally translated as, “He did choose me, Lord.” But the real meaning is something more like, “The Lord chose me, and all of us… so let’s celebrate!”

This next video is of a youth choir at Phala. They sang a few songs, and had a lot of joy!

I preached a brief sermon, we celebrated Holy Communion, and finished the service a little after noon.

Then it was time for the checking-in.  We heard updates about the community and the ministries of the Church. I heard the common refrain about lack of access to clean water, and the desire to have a borehole well placed near the village. The Church building, which is a significant structure, has been having trouble with its foundation during the rainy season, and the leadership is concerned. The nursery school that was started is no longer functioning (the word has gotten around in many of the congregations of the Malawi UMC that if the congregation will start a nursery school, funding will be provided by the Conference to pay for a teacher). Another ministry that is now no longer functioning is an adult literacy program.

Pastor Kaunda encouraged the congregation to work on these ministries, and organize them in ways that could be supported locally. The challenge in having no money can become an opportunity for local people to do what they can in order to provide the needed leadership and guidance for their community.

After a question and answer session with the whole congregation that lasted around an hour, the congregation split up into three groups: men, women, and youth. There is rarely a group dedicated to children during these times, and so I hung out with them a little bit while the other groups met. The children often initially run away from me, but there is always a brave child or two who come up and boldly say, “Muli bwanji?” the Chichewa equivalent to, “How are you?” When this child comes forward, I will shake his or her hand, and exchange a few greetings in Chichewa, asking the child’s name, and asking if I can take a picture. After I take the picture, I show it to the child.

"The Brave One" at Phala

This is when the other children usually sprint forward to view the picture and start yelling, “Jambula! Jambula!” This word is a good one, meaning basically anything that is artistic from photos, to paintings, drawings, songs, etc. The children quickly become a crowd, and I end up taking many pictures to show to the children. Their response is always the same: squealing laughter, patting one another on the back excitedly, and running forward to have their picture taken. Soon, all the village children gather round.

Everyone wants a jambula!

This interaction can be fun for a little while, but falls short of our mandate to care for the children, offered both throughout Old Testament scripture, particularly in the prophets, and unequivocally by Jesus when he offers both the positive command, “Let the children come to me!” and the powerful warning for those who do not welcome the children, “they should have a millstone tied around their neck and be thrown into the deepest ocean.” Sylvia and I have committed personally to develop a plan for our upcoming circuit visits so that we will include an element of education with children.

While I was interacting with the children, the other groups met for the next hour and a half. The pastor led the meeting with the men, his wife the meeting with the women, and the circuit Youth President and Vice President led the meeting with the youth.

Once the women were finished with their meeting, one of the elders of the group, agogo, came and asked/told me that now I needed to take their picture too. Their reaction was pretty similar to the children!

Phala UMC women

At a little after two-thirty, it looked like we were ready to go, and then I looked inside the church and saw that the congregation had brought a meal for the five of us to eat. The meal included a chicken stew and rice, both extravagant gifts and extensions of hospitality during any season, but this part of the year in particular. We sat down and enjoyed our meal before saying the usual goodbyes and leave taking to the host community.

The drive home was equally long, and I was exhausted when we arrived back in Blantyre at around 5pm. Another good, if still unexpected/unprepared for on my part at least, day! Malawi often makes me feel like the slowest learner in the world!

First Semi-Annual Book Guide

In the midst of Finding Warm Hearts in our new home in Malawi, we have discovered that without a television or access to Netflix, we have had a good bit more time to read. Sylvia is a fast reader, and Teddy is not.

We thought we’d make some lists and notes about the books we have read, and offer a grade for each. It is probably arrogant to offer these grades, but we feel like we’ve earned it, since we’ve read even the dullest books all the way through.

Special thanks go to our new friends, Debi Nixon and Church of the Resurrection for hauling several of these books with them as a part of their Volunteer in Mission team trip in October! Special thanks as well to Jeff and Kara Oliver, who left a few of these books behind when they moved back to the States in July.

I agree completely with Teddy about reading through to the end even when it’s a doozy of a book. It really is a whole different ballgame when I am reading in Africa. I’m considering purchasing a Kindle when I’m home in March. Maybe with this I will feel a little less desperate. But for now, when I am reading along (and I read much faster than Teddy) and I see my stash of books dwindling, I find that I will stick with even a terrible book just to have something to read.

In fact, when I was in Senegal, I read the entire Left Behind series (I think there were only 9 or so of these books at the time, though now it looks like there are more). I read through to the end even though I found these books to be misogynistic, poorly written and based on a very bad interpretation of the Book of Revelation. You may not agree, especially if you like this sort of so called Christian fiction. But in my opinion these books are terrible but I read them all because I was desperate.

Luckily, thanks to the friends already mentioned and the books we were able to ship, we have some better choices this go round.

We look forward to receiving comments and thoughts from you about our comments and thoughts.

High marks are top of the class and order in each section.

(As you may have already noticed, Teddy’s comments and grades are in blue and Sylvia’s are in green.)

Non-fiction (Africa/Malawi)

Dark Star Safari, by Paul Theroux (Teddy A)
Teddy – Paul Theroux is no Pollyanna! He looks at the world with a critical eye, and often sees things that others miss.

Theroux taught in Malawi as a Peace Corps volunteer back in the early 60s, during the time Malawi gained its independence from the United Kingdom, and changed its name from Nyasaland to Malawi. He was expelled by the first president, Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda, for appearing overly cozy with Malawi’s opposition. His novel, Jungle Lovers, is still banned in Malawi.

In Dark Star Safari, Theroux embarks on a trek from Cairo to Cape Town over land. He isn’t afraid of the squalor, and shares that with his readers.

In a world where many people are always trying to put a positive spin on things on Facebook or blogs, Theroux doesn’t bother to neaten things up for the reader. If you want a taste of what life in Africa is like from a person who feels no need to sugarcoat it, this book is for you!

Held at a Distance: My Rediscovery of Ethiopia by Rebecca Haile (Sylvia A-)
The memoir of a woman who is the first in her family to return to Ethiopia (after 25 years in America). Her family fled two years after the army deposed Emperor Haile Selassie and she then grew up in the US. I, like Teddy, love Ethiopian food. But, I know little about the country. This book was a helpful travelogue and history, especially after reading the novel Cutting for Stone.

I appreciated Rebecca Haile’s love of her country of origin. And I found some of her insights helpful for what I’m seeing in Malawi. She takes real pleasure in the hoards of children (I do not like this type of hoard) who follow her trying to figure out if she is a foreigner or an Ethiopian. She also explains how even though houses are mostly hidden behind tall brick walls, inside those walls she has rich, fond memories of family gatherings and lush garden retreats. (The houses here are similar and I hope to make those kinds of positive memories for my family). I hope to visit Ethiopia while we are in Africa.

Chewa Traditional Religion, by JWM Van Breugel (Teddy B+)
This book was the dissertation of a Catholic priest who worked in Malawi for many years. Though originally written in 1976, it was revised for publication in 2000, and has helpful background about some of the traditional beliefs, particularly around death, rain, taboos, and initiations that continue to influence society in Malawi today. Many of the practices described in this book are not being practiced today, but the practices studied have left residual affects on the society. It is a challenge to get Malawians to talk specifics about these beliefs and background, largely because most Malawians are so young that they do not remember them. Culture influences what people think about appropriate practices within faith traditions everywhere (I recall a Church member commenting on my wearing a suit one Sunday by saying, “Well, you look like a real preacher today!” He didn’t realize that the suit I was wearing, as all men’s suits, had its genesis in military fashion, not clerical fashion.) Culture and faith are always linked, and learning more about some of the historic faith traditions of the Chewa is helpful for me so that I can ask better questions about what I am seeing today.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope, by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer (Teddy B) (Sylvia B)
The memoir of this young Malawian who struggles against hunger, poverty, and ignorance within his community is awe inspiring. The writing is not spectacular, and the story is often underdeveloped and slow, but all-in-all, it is a nice book.

I thought this boy’s struggle was inspiring but I wanted to know more. What happens to his village, did they really get a bunch of windmills? What happened to him after he left the country to go to school? Will his great creations bring any long-term change to his home community or the greater Malawi? And seriously, there is so much wind here. Why hasn’t someone picked up on this kid’s simple idea?!?

Malawi, Bradt Travel Guide, by Phillip Briggs (Teddy C-) (Sylvia C)
This is the only travel book written exclusively about Malawi, and it sort of reminds me of when Delta Airlines adds a flight from Atlanta to Malta in the hopes that the route, which no one else flies, will be profitable. The information in this book is hit and miss. I give it a passing grade because I don’t know how many of the mistakes are the fault of the publisher, and how many are the fault of Malawian business owners who might have given incorrect information. Either way, the book is not very dependable in relation to pricing, travel directions, maps, or food recommendations. Lucky for Bradt, they’re the only game in town!

I really want to like this travel guide but it has led us astray on several occasions, including the worst Chinese food meal of my entire life. I never send food back but we sent back the soup and then refused to eat the entrees, it was so terrible. Plus, this book has the understatement of the year in its description of the way to Monkey Bay and Cape Mac (villages along Lake Malawi). First it says, “The quickest and best road route from Lilongwe, still not shown on most maps of Malawi, entails following the M1 through Dedza to Masasa, then the newly surfaced S127 to Golomoti, …” “The newly surfaced road” sounds great. And it was, for about a kilometer. Then, the elevation changes drastically and the hairpin turns begin. There were so many that I lost count. After Lily threw up on me three times, I think it’s safe to say that this road should be described with more than just the two words: “newly surfaced.” I’m sure it would have been a blast in our former car, a convertible MINI Cooper. But in a clunky, Toyota RAV4? A little warning would have been nice.

A little farther along in the trip to Cape Mac, and two pages later in the travel guide, we are told that the road “should be passable in most vehicles, but heavy corrugations make for a spine-jarring 18 km drive.” Maybe because I’m an American the words “corrugations” and “18km” didn’t make the impressions that they should have. This was at least 30 minutes, and probably more, of the worst road we’ve been on, yet, in Malawi. Cape Mac itself turned out to be pleasant, but I think I need a long time to forget the journey before returning.

I have thoughts on several other entries, too. If the editors of this travel guide want some notes, I would be happy to send mine along.

 

Non-fiction (Aid/Development/Church)

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn (Teddy A+) (Sylvia A+)
A compelling argument for the importance of women in all areas of life. The authors make a powerful case for equal treatment of women and girls around the world. The education and empowerment of women and girls, they point out, leads to better educated families (both male and female), healthier children, less violence and aggression, and numerous additional benefits. At times gut-wrenching and other times tear-jerking in its honesty, if you have a mother, grandmother, daughter, sister, or know any women, you should read this book!

This was a great book. And it gives an excellent reminder about how you can’t just take a program that works in one place and move it to another and expect it to work as well. A good lesson for those of us up on all the buzz words like micro-enterprise, value-added products and other great ideas that might work well but must be tailored to each specific situation.

Leading Beyond the Walls, by Adam Hamilton (Teddy A)
This is essential reading for all pastors and church leaders in the United States. Hamilton has been traveling to numerous Annual Conferences of the United Methodist Church over the past several years, essentially presenting the content of this book. In future, I will re-read it every time I move to a new ministry setting, and I will plan to do a study of the book with leaders of the local church. I’ll be looking at the book again next year in order to discern how it might best apply in this context.

Foreign to Familiar, by Sarah A. Lanier (Teddy B) (Sylvia A-)
Painting in broad, though helpful, strokes, this book illustrates the difference between “Hot” and “Cold” climate peoples. It is helpful in considering our own cultural presuppositions, especially when dealing with other cultures. This can relate to cultures within a country, such as the North and South in the United States, and also differences between varied areas of the world, such as the Global North and Global South.

I think this book gives some good anecdotes to consider. For example, in Southern Hemisphere cultures (and she points out that the Southern US has similarities in this—another place I lived as a foreigner), people expect neighbors to drop by, uninvited, to visit. I am not comfortable with this but maybe my neighbors think I am.

Serving with Eyes Wide Open, David A. Livermore (Teddy B-)
This book looks at the reasons why people do short-term mission trips, and whether or not they are effective. I thought the book had some helpful insights, though I didn’t find it to be a page turner.

The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good by William Easterly (Teddy C)(Sylvia D)

This is the only book that Teddy and I both started and both couldn’t finish. The author has a good premise but he is boring, boring, boring. And after reading Half the Sky, which was excellent, the effort just didn’t seem necessary.

Aid is often a problem, and there are loads of books written on the topic of how Aid has failed. This book is written by an economist who has worked at the World Bank and other such institutions, and has seen the failures of international Aid. Maybe I’ll be able to read more of this later, but it really isn’t written very well.

Non-fiction (How-to)

Dictionary Mtanthauziramawu: English to Chichewa/Chinyanja, 2^nd Edition by Steven Paas (Sylvia A++) Obviously, I haven’t read this through cover-to-cover. But this is an excellent dictionary. Not only does it cover a ton of words, but also the descriptions often give a very interesting look into the Chewa culture. I find it amazing that one word means so many things in Chichewa. And this dictionary often has ten to twenty meanings given. But seeing them side-by-side has helped us have an understanding of the Chewa point of view and what Chichewa speakers might mean when they are speaking English.

I love that in the midst of the definitions, common phrases and colloquial expressions are given with both a literal and figurative definition. They are fascinating. An example found by just randomly turning to a page is under the word njoka – snake. A sentence is given that means literally: “The keeper of a snake one day will cry after it has bitten him.” Which equals: “One must avoid playing with dangerous things.”

I heard one VIM team member mention that a fellow team member was keeping a list of Chichewa words they had learned. This is fine but there are a lot of Chichewa words, and each one has a lot of meanings. I think it would be great if every VIM team leader carried a copy of this excellent dictionary; just to better familiarize your groups with this complicated language and culture. This book is not available in the US but it is sold all over Malawi and only costs around $15 US.

The Backyard Homestead, Edited by Carleen Madigan (Teddy A)
Great ideas on gardening, preserving the harvest, keeping animals, and things like this. It has helpful resources for where to locate things in the US. We’ll see how it can be applied in Malawi. I am hoping it will be useful in starting my egg operation with chickens once we get settled in Lilongwe!

Montessori from the Start: The Child at Home from Birth to Age Three by Paula Polk Lillard and Lynn Lillard Jessen (Sylvia A) I have recommended this book to a lot of pregnant friends. On my second reading (the first time was well before Lily) I found that some of my opinions have changed. But this book still provides excellent information about early childhood development. And it also gives super ideas about how to encourage small children to explore their world. I would still recommend it to my pregnant friends and their partners.

 

Non-fiction (History/Other)

Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall (Sylvia A++)
Excellent read! I am not a runner but I loved this book. It is probably the only non-fiction book I’ve ever read that I thought at the end, “Wow, I look forward to reading that, again, sometime.” The narrative is great. The author, in his search to eliminate his own back pain in running, is engaging and enthusiastic and the people he meets along the way are incredible. Some of them even had me convinced that maybe we should run barefooted.

John Adams, by David McCullough (Teddy A+)
Teddy – I’ve become a big fan of David McCullough. In this book, we get a look at, he explains, potentially the most important founding father of the United States of America, and undeniably the most overlooked. Reading this book gave me a better appreciation for the struggle of independence in America, and also, a better sense of the moral dilemmas being faced by people such as Adams, who was completely opposed to slavery. McCullough does a good job of developing the relationship between Adams and Thomas Jefferson, and to my mind, makes clear which one is more intellectually honest with himself and the world. The HBO mini-series, starring Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney is worth watching as well!

1776, by David McCullough (Teddy A-) (Sylvia A-)
Teddy – I gave it this grade mainly to differentiate it from John Adams. It is still a great book, and provides more details into the American Revolution and the Continental Army. It also gives some good insights into the mind of George Washington and other commanders on both sides of this conflict. I’m not a war guy, so the descriptions of the battles were not as moving to me as they might be to others, though McCullough makes even these interesting.

Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories That Heal by Rachel Naomi Ramen, M.D. (Sylvia B)
This was a bit like reading a Chicken Soup for the Soul book, though all the stories were about disease or ailment survivors. The author shares stories she has gathered over her years as a physician, professor of medicine and therapist. Several are touching and most are heart-warming.

Fiction

Prodigal Summer, by Barbara Kingsolver (Teddy A+) (Sylvia A+)
Set in the central Appalachian Mountains, I found Kingsolver’s take to be right on. She seems to both understand the people, and write them well, while also holding her sense of perspective. It seems to me like Kingsolver respects people even if she doesn’t like or agree with them. In this novel, she weaves together a number of characters to make for an emotional and worthwhile read.

The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver (Teddy A+)
I re-read this one just before coming to Malawi. This could be used as a “what not to do” guide for missionaries. I noticed on a Facebook post a few weeks ago that my friend, Jeff Oliver, quoted from this while he was en route to Malawi for a mutual friends’ wedding. If you don’t have a stack of novels waiting to be read, or if you haven’t read this one yet, get it, and read it!

Cutting for Stone, Abraham Verghese (Teddy A) (Sylvia A)
Teddy – My favorite novel read of the year not written by Barbara Kingsolver. This story is set largely in Ethiopia’s capital city, Addis Ababa, a city and country I would like to see… and taste (I love Ethiopian food!). The book takes on topics in medicine, faith, and family relationships. Written by a medical doctor, it occasionally offers more detail than some would have interest.

I was very interested in the medical detail regarding fistula surgery, a needed operation a lot of women in Africa who have found themselves in need of when they had inadequate care for problems in childbirth. This was one of the few books that I considered reading again as soon as I finished it.

Sarajevo Marlboro by Miljenko Jergovic (Sylvia A+)
Again, I’m not much for war stories but this collection of short stories (and I LOVE short stories) is more about people living in the midst of war than about the war, itself. The writing is just excellent. From the back cover: “Reading Miljenko Jergovic’s Sarajevo Marlboro is like wrapping yourself in a quilt of 29 patches, with each patch personalizing the horrors of the Bosnian War in ways that are engaging, humorous, and unendingly sad. If we are ever to learn to avoid carnage it will be through such acts of constant humanizing as are captured in Jergovic’s amazing work.”

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster (Sylvia A)
I had not read this since the 7^th grade when it was given to us to introduce allegory. It’s a super book and a very enjoyable re-read. The stick-in-the-mud boy who is the main character does some real learning but it’s not heavy handed and moralistic, which I greatly appreciated.

The Full Cupboard of Life by Alexander McCall Smith (Sylvia A)
This is book 5 in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series. I love this whole series and all of McCall Smith’s other series, too. I want to live in Mma Ramotswe’s Africa. Though, maybe I do but I just haven’t, yet, found this friendly character to be my guide.

Last year in Talladega I was reading through this whole series at the public library. They had one or two missing, which at the time I was very frustrated by. Lucky for me, Book 5 was one of the ones I couldn’t get in Talladega!

The Illuminator by Brenda Rickman Vantrease (Sylvia A-)
Set in England in the late 14^th century. Descriptions are very much like many movies set in this period. However, the job of Illuminator was unknown to me and I enjoyed reading how an artist was employeed to make drawings on Biblical texts after they were copied out by monks. There are also some other colorful minor characters in this book.

The News from Paraguay by Lily Tuck (Sylvia A-)
A young Irish woman becomes the mistress of the future dictator of Paraguay in a not entirely clear time setting. Definitely an engaging read.

Prayers for Sale by Sandra Dallas (Sylvia A-)
The story of two women, one young and one old, living in a Colorado mining town in 1936. I found it hard to remember that it was 1936, though maybe that was because I kept thinking about the HBO show Deadwood that would have been much earlier. And, too, the older woman has a lot of flashbacks. Not as good as Deadwood but not as vulgar, either, so there’s that.

Eden Close by Anita Shreve (Sylvia A-)
From the back cover: “A compelling tale of edgy, small-town emotions, lingering obsession, and romantic salvation. I wasn’t sure if I’d like this but it was well written and I enjoyed it.

Blessings by Anna Quindlen (Sylvia A-)
This is the story of an old woman who still lives in her childhood home, a mansion on the edge of a mill town, and her groundskeeper who finds an abandoned baby on his doorstep. The writing was engaging and the characters ones I could feel sympathy for. 

Snow Falling on Cedars, David Guterson (Teddy B+) (Sylvia A-)
Teddy – A nice read, and compelling story set in Puget Sound. Set in a courtroom, it involves the themes of love, racism, and fishing in post-World War II/post-Japanese internment camps.

I don’t much like war novels, though I too have read quite a few in this six months. This one was well written with interesting characters, though one of them is so annoying in his self-pity, I almost gave up reading.

The Emperor’s Children, Claire Messud (Teddy B+)
One of two books on my list, which include the World Trade Center Buildings as minor characters (along with, Let the Great World Spin). I enjoyed reading this, though I didn’t like all that many of the characters. This book is set in 2001 in New York City, and spends much of the book in the pre-September 11 world.

Let the Great World Spin, Colum McCann (Teddy B+)
The World Trade Center buildings show up here as well, but this time as a backdrop for an eccentric tightrope walker. I had started this book a few years ago, but didn’t make it very far. I’m glad I stuck with it this time. 

April in Paris, Michael Wallner (Teddy B+) (Sylvia A)
I have read too many books set during World War II! Characters and plots always seem too predictable, and seem to argue that “the good guys” were acting that way because they were pure and holy. We should always keep in mind that anti-semitism has always been big in the United States, and that the US didn’t join the war in order to free the Jews. With that being said, there is more to this novel than that, and I enjoyed the read with its twists and often un-pigeonhole-able characters.

I thought this was an interesting spin on a WWII book with the main character living in Paris as a German occupying soldier. But he’s in Paris and he just wants to blend in as a Parisian out to enjoy the Spring. Of course, there’s a war on so his enjoyment of this beautiful city comes to an end. But the bit about enjoying Paris is enjoyable while it lasts.

Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Lorna Landvik (Sylvia B+)
I liked the first season of Desperate Housewives but thought it got pretty silly after that. This book reminds me of that show. I liked the characters and they got less shallow as the book went on. Plus, they have a book club, which I long for, so I lived vicariously through them and their book discussions for the couple of days it took me to read this book. Oh, and I liked how each chapter was the name of that month’s book with notes on who was hostess, why she picked the book and how she tied in the theme of the book to her refreshments. This would make a great beach read.

Blood Invasion by Lawrence Darmani (Sylvia B+)
The story of an African town as it first learns about the problem of AIDS. The author is unclear about where this is actually set, suggesting that Africa Town (or Africa City, for that matter) is the same all over Africa; a suggestion that I always find annoying. The writing is pretty simple and the character development is not great. But, it’s an interesting look at what it must have been like as villages in Africa were first invaded by this crisis and the shame and misunderstanding of the disease that allowed it to spread so widely and quickly. 

Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie (Sylvia B+)
My Gran loved Agatha Christie so reading her always makes me think of Gran. I once tried to read several in a row but they started to feel rather formulaic. But one every once in a while is fun.

The Wedding Machine by Beth Webb Hart (Sylvia B)
This book was silly and the writing was not great. But I did learn that when sending a wedding invitation there is no need to enclose an RSVP card. Each invited guest is supposed to respond on her own, embossed, personal stationary. So I guess we could have saved the postage on all those return envelopes we sent to those of you who came to our wedding. Whatever. I’d take this book to the beach. Oh and it’s a “Women of Faith” book, whatever that means. So I guess it’s safe for us Christians to read, or something.

The Velvet Curtain,
Behind the Velvet Curtain,
Escaping the Velvet Curtain, all by Trudy Harvey Tait (Sylvia B-)
Not quite as heavy handed as the Left Behind books and, luckily, not about the end times, either.

Citizen Girl by Emma McLaughlin and Nicole Kraus (Sylvia C)
I did not like the story line and thought the main character was naïve and a whiner. Nope, I don’t feel very sympathetic to her situation.

 Best Friendsby Martha Moody (Sylvia C-)
I did not like either of the main characters. I kept hoping that they would both grow up, which was a problem since the story follows them from college into their 40s. Ugh.

The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, Michael Chabon (Teddy C-) (Sylvia C-)
Written by author who wrote Wonder Boys, which neither of us have read, but we have seen the movie. I didn’t love this one. I thought the author was attempting to develop another Holden Caulfield, or something, but not very successfully.

Yep, agree, trying too hard.

Montana 1948, Larry Watson (Teddy D)
I told Sylvia not to bother with this book! I even removed it from her nightstand because I thought it wouldn’t be worth it for her! I don’t know enough to know if there was much style or craftiness to the book… I just thought it was depressing, and I was glad to be done with it! It probably deserves an F, but I’m not feeling quite so bold! My friend Michael Tully told me once that he went to see a movie just because a critic said it was the worst film ever made. Seriously, Mike, don’t waste your time on this one, it’s not that bad/good!