How did we get here?

We are just about one week away from our departure date and thankfully so many pieces are falling into place.  When I look back at the many months of planning and countless emails, phone calls and conversations it is clearly evident to see and sense God's presence with us throughout this planning process.  For myself and probably many reading this we don't really hear much if any news about the country of Malawi here in the United States.  Working here in the church has exposed me to some news about the country but I have learned volumes since our church decided to send a mission team and I became the main planner of the trip.  I will try and share some of what I have learned in an attempt to share with you the many amazing people that we have already met along the planning journey.  I feel certain that we will meet many additional amazing people in Malawi.

Malawi is a land locked country surrounded by Zambia, Mozambique and Tanzania.  From Greenville, to Washington, D.C., to Johannesburg, South Africa, we will fly into the capital, Lilongwe, and then travel by road to the town of Embangweni.  The town of Embangweni is located in the Mzimba district in the Northern Region of Malawi. It's population is approximately 5,000 people.


Martha Sommers, a PC(USA) missionary, that our church as known since she came to Africa was the first person that really challenged us to consider our involvement with Embangweni.  She came in September 2010 to visit our church for the weekend.  Below is a picture of Martha the weekend that she visited Westminster with Hots and Elliott Easley, Bill Kellett and Will Edwards.  For those of you who don't know Hots and Elliott Easley, Hots is the reason that Westminster became involved in Africa.  After retiring as an OBGYN in 1989, Hots went in 1990 to Lesotho, Africa to see PC(USA) missionary couple, Frank and Nancy Dimmock.  Hots recalls that his first trip to Lesotho occurred soon after Nelson Mandela was released from prison in South Africa.  He received a call from the South African Embassy in Washington asking him what he would be doing in Lesotho.  He had been told to say that he was going as "a visitor."  Hots made the trip to Africa eleven times since he started and estimates that the total amount of time spent there equals about two years.  Once the Dimmock's moved to Embangweni, Malawi Westminster started mission trips to that area.

Will Edwards is an elder here at WPC who is our missionary liaison. Will does an amazing job with communicating with our ten missionaries and always helps when they visit the church.

Bill Kellett is also a retired OBGYN.  He and his wife Lydia have made three trips to Malawi.  When we met with this group of WPC Malawi veterans in the fall of 2011, I remember Lydia telling Trey and Kimmie Dubose as we discussed the mission trip for 2012, "This is the best thing you will ever do for yourself!"  At that time we had not decided to join them and I also remember thinking this was something I would like to do and a little pang of what we call in our house, "the green eyed monster."  I really wanted to see Africa.  As a parent it is interesting to me that sometimes it is the voice of a child that convinces you of what might be possible.  Without talking directly to our daughter, Ellis, about the trip, she began expressing an interest and possibility of could our family also travel with the Dubose's to Africa.  Ellis had been talking to Ellie Dubose at church about their family making the trip and the wheels began to turn as I tried to determine how and if we could make the trip.