mr. & mrs. talton...

after a very quick turn around from africa, i was on my way to the beach in north carolina for a great friend's wedding. we had so much fun! this was my first 'destination' wedding and it did not disappoint. i got to hang with some really fun (and hilarious) people, lay on the beach, help with the wedding details and dance the night away! i would do it again in a heartbeat. here are some pictures of the fun...

beach day

shelly and jenn

jenn and tyler's first dance...they were groovin'

mimi and me

you can see more pictures of the weekend festivities here.

the many pictures of africa...

for anyone out there on the edge of their seat with anticipation...the pictures are here. we have three options for your viewing pleasure:

one: for the short, fifty picture tour on facebook, click here

two: to see all one hundred and fifty of my pictures on flickr, click here

three: if you're really into it, you can check out a gazillion pictures from the whole team here

africa the sequel...

we finished up our vbs and headed out of town for our two day safari at mvuu camp. our first day there we went for a game drive, during which you are given strict instructions to stay inside the jeep. twenty minutes into the drive our jeep broke down, so we all had to climb down in order to switch vehicles and gallivant around with the animals a bit. the drive began in the afternoon and lasted until evening so we could also see the animals at night with a large spotlight one of the guides had. once night fell and it was good and dark…we got a flat tire. out again we went, into the wilderness. thankfully there were no elephant stampedes passing by at the time.

round two of ministry was working with save orphans ministries in ntcheu. we spent some time loving on kids at an aids clinic. there are about fifty kids that spend friday, saturday and sunday at this clinic getting medicine, nutritious food and learning about the love of Jesus. the kids don’t look any different than the other kids around, but all of them have tested positive for hiv and most won’t make it past the age of fifteen or twenty at the most. but they were just as happy as can be singing, playing and laughing. we gave out lots of hugs and were able to encourage them by just reminding them that there are people out there who love them and care about them…they are not forgotten.

my girl zondiwe

three days in africa and there's so much to say...

in the mornings we've been doing a vbs at the african bible college for the children of the missionaries and the kids that live in the city (as opposed to villages). these kids are educated, well fed and have families. not the sort of kids you generally think of people going to serve in africa. but whenever teams come they want to help with orphans and these kids are often overlooked. it's been great to see how much they've been looking forward to and enjoying this week. and many of the parents have expressed how much it means to them for someone to come do something for their children too.

monday afternoon we took an authentic trip to the market. we hopped on malawian public transportation (which is an adventure all by itself) with our shopping list, which included a chicken. that's right...a live chicken. which we carried home. on the mini bus. and ate for dinner.

tuesday we walked about thirty minutes into a nearby village to help feed orphans their afternoon meal. it was like a parade. all the kids would yell "azungu" (white people) and run after us waving. it was so cute. the kids we were feeding and playing with all loved to get their pictures taken...all together i think our nine person team left the village with approximately one gazillion pictures. thank goodness for digital.

wednesday we spent a couple hours at a crisis nursery holding and feeding babies. if malawi allowed international adoptions to people other than madonna, we would have had a few more passengers coming home with us for sure.

the best welcome ever...

after spending an obscene number of hours on an airplane, i am really in africa. it's a bit surreal still...we just arrived at the african bible college in malawi this afternoon, so i haven't had too many adventures just yet. (unless of course you include the countless times we've loaded, unloaded, checked and claimed our seventeen pieces of luggage) but we've already seen why malawi is called "the warm heart of africa". as our plane from johannesburg to lilongwe was taxiing to the terminal today, our nine person team (all conveniently located on the left side of the plane) looked out our windows to see this...

in case it's too small for you to read, the banner on the right says "welcome calvary church . vbs 2009 . abc malawi". the funny part was that i had just remarked earlier that day how fun it is to be greeted at the airport with a sign...and there it was! it's really nice to be loved.

give out grace...

the african adventure officially begins in thirty six hours and i am ready to go.

it is becoming abundantly clear that the major theme for me on this trip is grace. both accepting grace for myself and giving out grace to others. a month or so ago i was reading what's so amazing about grace and had the idea to write the phrase "give out grace" on my hand as a reminder of what i'm doing on this trip. sometimes it's hard to see the point of traipsing halfway around the world for a few weeks on a mission trip. couldn't the money be better spent on supplies rather than travel? but it's not about the money or the time, it's about being the hands and feet of Jesus. maybe sometimes that will be a very practical thing, like building a house that stands long after you're gone. but other times it's less tangible things...giving out hugs, smiles, and reminding people that they aren't forgotten and that someone cares about them.

the funny thing is that today, i got a little lesson in accepting grace. i met missy and sophie for lunch at pei wei. i was a little early and they were a little behind, so it ended up that i was waiting for about twenty minutes. no big deal. i had brought my computer in and figured i'd just play around while i waited. the workers were apparently very concerned about me and after asking a few times if there was anything they could get me they brought over some water and lettuce wraps on the house! since that was what i was planning to order anyway, i tried to pay them for it but they refused. a little later in the afternoon i went to my appointment to get a henna tattoo on my hand, and after having to wait awhile due to a scheduling confusion, they refused to let me pay for it...not even a tip! it hit me as i was driving home that this was a perfect example of grace being given to me.

if you'd like to keep up with us while we're gone, we have a team blog that will hopefully be updated during the trip. you can find it at www.malawiorphans.blogspot.com. i hope to also be able to post updates here, but i'm not holding my breath.

in case you were wondering...

part one of shelly's summer o' fun (aka - two weeks in st. louis) has been a little on the crazy side, but good just the same. i ended up spending the whole first week at church helping with camp edge, the new all-day version of vbs...yes that's right, i said ALL-DAY!! welcome to the world of crazy. my mom basically becomes an unpaid employee of children's ministry when the summer starts and i told her i would tag along on sunday and monday to help with the final preparations and the madness of day one. then on monday morning i was granted ownership of a highly coveted walkie talkie and i just couldn't tear myself away. (did i mention there were 750 kids? hence the need for walkie talkies and "support staff")

once that week was over i was able to see some friends that i don't often get a chance to see when i'm in town, which is always great. we had some classic summer fun...played in the pool, saw a show at the muny, went to the old time picnic and played some serious games of settlers. and in between visits i managed to squeeze in painting most of my mom's garage. it's not totally finished, but i made some progress. now to get ready for africa...