A Note on the Mission to Malawi from Victor

As many of you know, the Lord has put a burden on my heart to return to Malawi and work in the ministry with my father, Frank Maxson, and Pastor Percy Chisenga from Zambia. A new church, Grace Baptist Church, has been established in the old capital city of Zomba, Malawi, and it is our desire to help establish that church in the Word of Christ, training leaders to take over the work from us, and to then go on to other places to establish churches in other needy areas of Malawi. As far as we know, this is the only work in Malawi that is both sovereign grace and Baptistic. I was blessed to have a part in the planting of this church a couple years ago with my dad, and look eagerly to the time we will return and join hands again in the work there. We believe that team leadership is biblical, and that a father/son team can be a great tool in ministry for the glory of God. I cannot think of anyone I would like to work with more than my father and his co-laborer, Percy Chisenga.

Part of my reason for this trip to FL has been to meet with the people of Faith Baptist Tabernacle and ask them to be our sending church to put their blessing on our work. Missions as worked out in the book of Acts was local church based. We believe that we need the accountability and support that comes from a local church in the States standing behind our work with their word and blessing. We praise the Lord for a good reception at Faith Baptist and look forward to hearing a definite answer to our request this upcoming week.

Our plan is to return to Texas and visit several churches and then pack up and move out to Florida where we hope to spend about 6 months working and visiting churches letting them know about the work God has called us to in Malawi.

We would ask you to please pray for us. Please remember the following things in prayer:

Praises

Praise the Lord for a great trip so far and that we had a good reception at Faith Baptist. Our request for their blessing is being considered, and an anonymous donor pledged $12,000 and another $1,000 was given for the mission.

Please Pray

Please pray that sufficient monthly support would come in for this little family.
Please pray for wisdom and grace as we prepare.
Please pray for spiritual empowerment for sharing with the churches and as we anticipate encountering the wiles of the Devil, who is not in support of this project.
Please pray for the people of Malawi and Grace Baptist Church.

I plan to post on our family blog here at least once a week to keep you all informed on the progress of this ministry. So please stay tuned . . .

Trip Update #4...

Today we went to the beach with Aunt Teri and Uncle Carlos. We took a ferry boat over and had a wonderful time. Hannah got a little fussy in the middle, but we got her to sleep and then let her sleep in her seat in the car nearby. We also took a picnic lunch and ate it on the beach. Uncle Carlos got some more great pictures, which I'll post below.

Hannah all ready for her first trip to the beach!

Hannah and Mommy enjoying the sand and sun!

Daddy and Mommy on the beach together!

Enjoying the cool breeze on the ferry!

Trip update #3...

Here's our third update... I'll try to bring you all up to date. Tuesday morning, Victor spent some time helping Jesse Saint unpack some airplane wings. Once he got home, we had lunch and then went shopping. Tuesday evening, we went to visit with Victor's Uncle Scott and Aunt Sue. Bad girl me though, I forgot to take pictures. Oops!
Wednesday, we took it kind of slow in the morning. In the afternoon, we went to visit with some people in the church and had dinner with the Eppersons. Then we went to church, where Victor spoke to the church about our goals and our calling to go to Malawi. We enjoyed our time there, and look forward to, Lord willing, going back soon.
Today, we spent the morning driving and have spent the afternoon with Aunt Teri and Uncle Carlos. We're enjoying ourselves very much. This afternoon before dinner, Uncle Carlos took some great pictures of Hannah, which I'll include below.
We aren't sure just yet what we'll be doing tomorrow, but I'll try to remember to get pictures and post them later (maybe tomorrow).

Trip update #2...

We have internet again, so I'm going to try to bring you all up to date. Friday went well. We travelled most of the day and got to Ben and Kim's house around 6:00. (Ben is Victor's brother) After dinner, we talked for a while and then headed to bed. Saturday morning we got up, had breakfast and then spent an hour or so looking through some old photos and memories that are being stored at Ben's house.

After that, we headed to Cedar Key to meet up with Ben and Kim. They had gone a little early due to Becky (Kim's sister) getting engaged there that morning. Once we got there, we said HI to the Schmidts before splitting off with Ben and Kim to go see the waterfront and get something to eat. They took us to a nice restaurant with a view of the water. I wish I'd thought to take more pictures, but I'm really not good at remembering to take lots of pictures. I need to work on that.

After we ate, we walked down to a pretty little spot with the Schmidts and Katie took our picture with Ben and Kim.

The next day was Sunday and we all went to Faith Baptist Tabernacle (the church where Victor spent most of his years growing up). It was fun to see all the people we both knew (but had never seen us together).

After the services, we went to the Schmidts house for lunch. Quite a few others were there as well.

In the evening, Victor went to the men's meeting to present his vision of the work God has called us to do in Malawi. He will post more on that later.

On Monday, we had breakfast and devotions with Ben and Kim, and then packed up our stuff to move to the Saint's house. Jesse Saint is the grandson of Nate Saint (one of the five men martyred by the Auca Indians). We've been enjoying our time thus far and look forward to the rest of our stay.

Last night (Monday), we went to see Victor's Uncle Tom and Aunt Jana. They enjoyed seeing us and meeting little Hannah.

We still have about half of our trip left, but we're really enjoying ourselves. God is giving great grace to us, and Hannah has been pretty good the whole time.

I'll try to update again if I get a chance, and Victor hopes to post soon with an update on our plans in regard to going to Malawi, Africa. The Lord is opening doors and putting His blessing on our preparations!!

So, until then...

Trip update #1

Just a quick update... we made good time yesterday and got to Biloxi, Mississippi last night. We spent the night at a Super 8 and we're up and preparing to head on to Ben's house tonight (that's Victor's brother). I haven't gotten any pictures yet, but I'll try to get some pictures of Hannah and Isaiah together over the next few days.

I'll also try to post next week if we get internet...

Bethany

And the winner is...

Martha A. Thank you to everyone who participated. Keep checking back... I'm hoping to do some more giveaways when we get home from our trip. I'm also hoping to post on our trip if I get time. We'll see...

Keep checking back...

Passionate Housewives giveaway...

I'm sure many of you have heard about this wonderful new book, Passionate Housewives. My beloved husband bought me a copy, and I REALLY enjoyed it. In fact, I liked it so much, we decided to give a copy away to one of our blog readers.

To enter the contest, simply leave a comment with your name and either your blog address or an email address, so that I can contact you if you win. Would you like to be entered twice? Simply post about this giveaway on your blog and leave the link in a comment!!

This giveaway will be open through noon on Tuesday the 12th when I will close it and send the book off to the winner, so be sure to pass the word along to your friends and post on your blogs!

Daddy and Mommy pictures

For those who have asked, here are some pictures of Hannah with Daddy and Mommy...

I think Hannah was made to be on her Daddy's shoulder. What do you think?

A long overdue update with pictures...

Hannah- making a speech




Ok, it's time for the excuses:) I really did intend to post while in Fredericksburg, but when we arrived at our hotel, checked in and tried the internet in our room, it wasn't working. Victor called the front desk and the lady said it wasn't working... bummer. So, I just took some pictures and waited till we go home to post. I think I've finally gotten settled back in at home (thanks to help from Victor and Angie) and I now have time to post.



First of all, we enjoyed having Grandma G. visit us for about 2 weeks. She stayed with the family, but we got to see her quite a bit. Here are some pictures from her visit of different ones holding Hannah. We also got a picture of the "four generations". What a blessing...

Four generations

Mom helping Matthew hold Hannah.

"Grandad" holding his little granddaughter

This past weekend we took a little "mini vacation" up to Fredericksburg. It was so beautiful, even in the wintertime. We checked in on Friday evening and pretty much just went to bed to be well rested for Saturday.



Saturday morning found us up and ready to go. We started out going for a drive around some of the roads in the area to see the scenery. It is so pretty out there and we had a lot fun.

One of the cute old farms along the road.


We ended our drive at the Fredericksburg visitors center and picked up some information on the area and town. Then we went for a leisurely stroll around the town. It's such a quiant little town with all the old historic buildings. By this time, it was lunch time and so we decided on a german restaurant called Der Lindenbaum and had some delicious German cuisine.

After that, we headed to the main attraction for the day - The Nimitz museum. We were hoping to see a film about a ship from the Pacific war, but it was Hannah's feeding time, so we went to find a quiet place to feed her instead:) We enjoyed walking around for a while through the different memorial gardens, as well as through the George Bush Gallery.

Me with Hannah on my back in a chitanje (not sure if I spelled that right)

After a while, Hannah was getting a little fussy, so we headed back to the hotel where we rested for a bit before going down the street and getting some pizza for dinner. After dinner, we went to bed. As you can see from this picture, I think we wore little Hannah out:)

Sunday morning, we got up, had breakfast and checked out of the hotel. We then went to the church where my family is visiting. After church, we headed home...

The rest of this week has been a whirlwind of activity including a shopping trip last night (Hannah's first time out).

Well, I'd love to post more (and I hope to soon) but for now, Hannah is calling:) so I must go.

Till later,

Bethany