wanna fall at your feet, don't wanna fall from your peace, i understand

2 blog updates in 2 days?!?! what has the world come to??  i'm only updating again because this is the last chance i will get before i arrive back home on sunday.

today we went to a home for street children run and planned our lessons accordingly.  but when we arrived joseph told us that they wern't children they were all boys aged between 15 and 20 which meant i had to do dreaded youth work (which i really don't like that much) and all the lessons we planned were aimed at 5-11 year olds so they went flying out the window.

both me and kaitlyn we're bricking it and didn't want to teach because neither of us were prepared or like youth work that much but when we got in the we gave our testimonies and i talked a bit about what we've been doing here in Malawi and managed to fit in how much God loves us all no matter who we are or how we grew up, because joseph told us the boys all feel rejected by their communities so i wanted to fit that in.

i can honestly say that everything that happened there today was totally God because there is no way i could have pulled that off on my own with no notice like i did.

now i'm off to get ready for my last games night and throw last minute things in my suitcase before i go home tomorrow

and in all my updates i managed to make it to the end of the chorus of the song that my titles have come from!

but i don't want it anymore, if it's not you that i gain

i can't believe i've only got one full day left, where has the time gone?

monday was my last day at cure which was sad, i'll miss that place :(

tuesday our trip to the village got cancelled due to trouble there so i spent most of the day working on an article that i have to write about my time here, then had my end of term meeting - in a chinese restaurant - best meeting ever! i also spent the start of the week without any electricity because we all three of us in the house forgot to check the meter and we ran out (the electricity is pre-paid here)

yesterday we went into a village with joseph but i wasn't that keen on going to begin with becasue he wouldn't tell us where we were going, what we were doing, what age the children would be or anything at all really, but when we got there he pulled out a big bag of toys and sport equipment from his car and it turned out that wer were just playing games with whatever children wanted to come.

i ended up playing football with he boys (and for those you you who know me you will understand that me playing football is a rare occurrence.) and kaitlyn played duck duck goose and 'jump rope' (although i still called it skipping) with he girls, then we taught a quick bible story, gave out sweet and got rugby tackled by a crowd of 100 kids who wanted the 9 left over balloons we had from another game we did.

then i went for a run and watched the sunset before running back home before it got too dark to see where i was going, but then decided to stay out a bit to star gaze.

today i spent packing because we're having people round tonight for pizza and a game of mafia so i wont have time, and tomorrow i'm going out with joseph but he wont tell us what time yet and then it's my last games night with the SIM malawi team :( so i could be busy all day tomorrow then i leave to go home on saturday!!!!

time has flown since i got here - i hope the summer slows down a bit when i get back

here i am dear lord, tasting hints of fame

well what a week it's been! i can't believe i'll be home again in 7 days, time has just flown by.

on tuesday and wednesday we went into junior academy to teach some more lessons but because it was their last week of school before a bit of a holiday they were having sports day and other fun stuff so after teaching a few lessons we decided to just sing songs and play games with the children instead which was so much fun! and all of them wanted to carry my backpack for me hich just made them look even more adorable because the backpack was the same size as one of the girls carrying it.

On tuesday night i went out with kaitlyn and liz to meet Tracy and Sarah, who are friend of friends of liz's, to teach them a little about using puppets in children's ministry and we had an amazing night.  Heard all about McKallies home for Future and Hope, which is a children's school and village that Tracy has set up just outside blantyre and we spent that long talking and using puppets that it was super late by the time we finished.

Thursday was a nice lazy day to catch up on some rest from the busyness of the start of the week then on friday we went into a village about an hour outside blantyre to do 2 good news clubs with the children who were off school.  It was the usual mix of songs and stories that we have in school but this time we also gave out toys and gifts from Operation Christmas Child boxes (giving out christmas boxes in may felt a bit strange) but it was really good to see the boxes on the other end because i have only ever packed them up before but this week i got to see the joy that it brings to a child's face to get something as simple as a tooth brush or a little 50p toy.
And i introduced myself to the children entirely in chichewa which i was so proud of.

Saturday we had a BBQ to celebrate to building of the new SIM guest house being almost complete and to say farewell to Bob Connie Seth and myself who all leave this week, so a great night was had by all.

And then today began my last sunday in malawi, and the start of my last week.  We taught the sunday school in a church about 20 mins from blantyre in a village and gradually during the lesson as more and more children saw that there were 2 azungus with balloons they all flocked over, so we started the lesson with about 10 kids and by the end had about 50 but it was really fun.

As of yet i have no idea what my last week here has in store for me but if it's anything like the last 5 i can bet it'll be full of adventure :)

working everyday, i'm afraid i forgot to show what's most important, love

i've been here for a month! and i only realized today when i had to go and get my visa extended, it feels like so much longer.

i've had a really good time over the past few days, a lot of which was taken up by 'planning' my sunday school lesson with kaitlyn.  we had all intentions to actually plan but it turns out that ingrid michaelson and brownies are too much of a distraction, but we got there eventually and it turned out to be an amazing sunday school.

it was suppose to be a special sunday school with the english class and chichewa class mixed but none of the english kids turned up so it was just 50 chichewa kids which made it slightly harder because we used sam and whoopi (my puppets) to tell the story so our dialogue between the puppets needed to be translated but the kids seemed to love it.

apart from sunday school the weekend was filled with games night, an exploration of the markets, skyping rachel and mum and dad and a chinese restaurant for dinner - all in all a great weekend.

this morning i was back in CURE hospital but this time on my own - there were about 34 people all together (including the children's guardians) and we sang songs and told the story of Jesus and Peter walking on water and having faith after which an impromptu worship session started and 24 people responded to the gospel message! how amazing is that!!!!

then i went to the immigration office to extend my visa and it took forever, it's good to know that immigration offices in malawi are just as long and boring as the ones back home.

now im sipping on some mountain dew and writing a blog and just found out that i'm in junior academy for 2 days this week and we're making a dvd so we better make sure the lessons are good!! and then going into a village on friday to do some bible clubs - i'm excited!

love, oh love, will i stab you in the back

the past few days have been a little strange, firstly the sun has disappeared and been replaced by clouds, rains and cold (and yesterday even a whole pile of fog)  for the first time since i arrived here i had to put on a hoody because i was freezing.

on monday i went to beit cure (the children's orthopedic hospital) and this time there were people there because it wasn't a public holiday.  we started of by gathering the children together in the play area and singing some songs with them - my chichewa singing is getting better! and then told the story of jesus calming the storm before playing a game of bowling with them.  they got taken off to have their tea so we didn't get to finish off the program we prepared of colouring in and then marking their colouring but i absolutely loved my time there and the children didn't let the fact that they were sick or had disabilities stop them from having fun and joining in with everything.  most of the children who were there were in casts indicating that they had already had surgery and were on the mend which was really encouraging but when we go back next week it could be a new set of children who are still disabled and sick which i've been warned could be tough to see.

yesterday i had yet another day off because joseph got his dates wrong and thought i was only getting back from lilongwe so he didn't organise any school for us to go to, and the weather was awful so i didn't wanna go for a walk or exploring so i sat in the house and read a bit feeling quite useless because i wasn't out doing any ministry

then this morning by 8am we still hadn't heard anything from joseph about what school we had to go to so me and kaitlyn decided that we would spend the day planning our sunday school lesson for sunday instead.  when kaitlyn arrived at the office at 9.30 she found joseph waiting for us to say he had no money to phone us and we were going to junior academy and should be leaving at 10.  since i hadn't even left to house yet we told him we would meet him there and be a bit late - little did we know that our minibus would go a different way than usual and we got lost trying to get there and after walking around we eventually found it at 11 - and joseph was no where in sight.  we spent some time with the kids and they all wanted hugs and to hold our hands but told us joseph had never been there at all so we have no idea where he was.

so yet again i didn't do any 'ministry' but i did get to see the children and they made me feel really loved running up to us and screaming 'uncle matty' and 'auntie katy' as soon as they saw us.  the tackled me with such force i thought i was going to fall over.

so now i'm updating my blog before we really do start planning our sunday school lesson

love ya's all
matty :)

the tongues of men and angels, i speak but lack

fear not people, my silence for the past week has been because i've been traveling up north with the sunday school training team and haven't had access to internet or phone signal for my of my trip.

my trip started with a night at the African Bible College compound half way between blantyre and my final destination - and it felt like i had travelled across the atlantic rather than a few hundred km through africa.  the compound was so westernized it felt like being in little america.  it had a school, a gym, tennis courts, a swimming pool, loads of western housing, a radio station , a church and a college.  i honestly couldn't believe i was still in africa.

after my night there i traveled up to Kasungu to meet the sunday school training team and swap over with kaitlyn who had been with the team the week before me. then we drove for another hour or so to the place where tuesdays meeting would be and stayed in a 'luxury motel' which consisted of concrete rooms and hole in the ground for the toilet (i felt like a real life missionary!)

each day the meeting was in a different place so we traveled from town to town and motel to motel (i don't think i could ever get used to life of the move like that, sleeping in a different bed every night)

the meeting were great, they were all in chichewa so i didn't understand exactly what was being taught, although Velegeta (one of the team) gave me a basic overview.  my lesson was on prayer each day and looking at helping children to build up their prayer lives and creative ways of praying with them (i chose the topic because it's something i've been really challenged about personally lately) and i think it went well each day, some of the people even offered me land so i would stay in malawi.

every lunch and dinner during the week was nsima - which is the traditional malawian dish made from maize.  it's sort of like the consistency of play-doh and you roll a bit in your hand and dip it in a relish and it's served with vegetables and sometimes chicken or beef - without the sauce it tastes like nothing so you need to ration the sauce so you dont run out before the end - by the end of the week i started to like it but i ate so much of it that if i see another stalk of maize while i'm here i might cry lol

i also got to try sugar cane which was strange because you buy the whole cane and bite off the outside layer, chew the inside bit then spit out all the wood. it tasted like a mixture of a spoonful of sugar and a box of matchsticks.  with the amount of this that they eat and the amount of treacle sugar they put in their tea i'm surprised the malawians have any teeth left.

i'm sure there's loads more that i can tell you but at the moment my mind is blank so i'm gonna sign off for now and update again soon

matty :)

the feeling you deserve what you've heard, but it doesn't go that way

thursday and friday were both pretty uneventful days - i wasn't in school either day so i did a bit of walking/exploring and planned some lessons for next week.

friday night was my first games night and to start it off we had breakfast burritos in honor of cinco de mayo - the is nothing better than having breakfast for dinner! then after chatting for a while i learned a new game called ticket to ride - a bit confusing at first but i eventually got the hang of it.  i still lost but i'm blaming that on it being my first time.

this morning i woke up at 6.30 to go and do a sponsored walk in aid of beit cure hospital ,which is the childrens orthopedic hospital where i will be doing some work while im here.  most people who were walking were walking the 5km track but a few of us decided we wanted to walk the 10km so we set off then within moments we were lapped by the runners and eventually lapped by the 5k runners who started later but we persevered through and finished it in about 1.5 hours and then everyone got 2 free bags of sugar for competing! (i think i might use the sugar to bake some cookies)

tomorrow i'm heading up north with the sunday school training team for a week so i don't know if i'll have any internet access so i may not be blogging for a while so keep praying

matty :)

you're staring at the names of the famed that are dipped in gold

this week i've been going to junior academy which is a private school in malawi so all of the children speak perfect english which made teaching a whole lot easier!!  it was a lot easier to interact with the children and i didn't need joseph to translate for me which meant i could tell the story at my own pace and know exactly what was happening.

the classes were a LOT smaller than in the public school with only about 15 pupils in each compared to 150 but they weren't as well behaved, it is a christian school so they have constant singing and bible teaching and joseph is in comes into the school a lot with the SIM team so i think they have become so used to it that they've started to take it for granted.  although that didn't stop them from asking me and kaitlyn to sign their workbooks when we were leaving and queue up to get a hug from each of us.

i had today off because joseph had something to do so i went for a walk this morning for a few hours and found an amazing bakery which reminded me of the one we found in Salou a few years ago and i started to miss all of my friends back home so i bought a bun to cheer myself up.

now i'm in the office updating my blog and trying to plan the lesson i'll teach next week when i go to Kasungu with the sunday school training team.

and that my dear blog readers is everything that has happened in the life of matty the past few days.

i think i'm going to do a sponsered run/walk on saturday so i'll let you know how that goes.

matty :)

i know, i know, i know, i know, i know

it's been a holiday weekend here in malawi so things have been pretty relaxed.

on saturday i had the honour of going to a wedding.  i have never met the bride and groom before (and come to think of it didn't even meet them at the wedding) all i know is that the bride was the sister of the woman kayla and jonathan stayed with during their time in the village.

the ceremony was similar in ways to a wedding back home, the bridal party danced up the aisle one by one, which reminded me of the jk wedding dance video.  there was a lot of singing from a choir and the usual vows then the congregation danced up to the couple and gave them money.

after the ceremony we went back to a friend of the family's house for a few hours because we were classed as VIP guests and they served us some traditional malawian food which was amazing, it was a big plate of rice with beef and chicken and vegetables in some sort of relish, at first we ate with our hands the traditional malawian way which was ok but eventually we had to ask for spoons because it was taking forever.  the reception was completely different to anything i've ever seen before - the whole time was people dancing up to the couple and throwing money at them (maybe i could start that tradition back home)

went to CURE hospital for children this morning to do some teaching and activities with the kids but when we got there the team wasn't there because it's labor day today so they took a holiday.  at least i got to see around the hospital - it's as well kitted out as whiteabbey by the looks of it which was quite surprising.

i'll keep you updated on my adventures as they happen.

matty :)

are you working everyday, are you working just to bleed?

i can't believe it's been a week since i left my house to start my journey to malawi, and now i'm here and the time has just flown in.

i started my time in school with joseph and kaitlyn this week.  the first day i just observed and joined in the songs as much as i could.  the school we were at this week is a public school so most of it is entirely chichewa speaking with a the oldest class knowing a bit of english.

on the second day i began teaching lessons on the good samaritan (although it wasn't as good as when i taught it in college) which was really weird because i taught it in english and then joseph translated it into chichewa for the children to understand, but it's really hard to teach a story when you don't know exactly what the children have already been told.  there were times when i said one line and joseph would talk for a couple of minutes so im not sure what bits and pieces he added in himself.

done a bit more exploring around the town and think i'm finding my bearings. also went to the big supermarket called shoprite and they literally have everything imaginable - i even found a can of mountain dew!!

keep praying
matty :)

a lucid life you never thought you'd lead

i'm in malwai!

the flights were great.  from belfast to london i had all 3 seats to myself, on the flight to Johannesburg i had both seats to myself so i got to spread out a little, then on my flight from Johannesburg to Blantyre i didn't have the row to myself but i just cracked open the macbook and watched some tv that i had downloaded before i left (the malawian guy beside me on the plane seemed quite interested in what was happening in flash forward)  The most annoying thing about the traveling was that i couldn't find a starbucks in any of the airports :(

i spent the rest of the day unpacking and getting to know Lionel (one of the guys i'm living with) and learning bits and pieces about malawian life.  bed was a strange experience because it's the first experience i've had of sleeping under a mosquito net, which felt like i was trapped there, hopefully i get used to it quickly)

this morning i experienced church in africa for the first time at chilomon african evangelical church.  i didn't have a clue what was being said most of the time but i sat beside a woman called Ruth who works at the bible college here and she let me know roughly what was going on.  the singing was all done in chichewa but i sang along with the hymn book because its pronounced exactly as it is read - i didn't have a clue what i was singing but God did and that's all that matters.  there was a time of free praise and worship lead from the front by a few people without hymn books so i couldn't sing along but there was actions which i could follow (which i loved) and lots of clapping.

when i arrived yesterday it was 26 degrees but it's a lot cooler today and overcast - although its still quite warm for me compared to back home, all of the missionaries were talking about how cold it was and telling me i must have brought the irish weather over with me.

i begin orientation tomorrow and then start my ministry mid week but already my schedule is filling up as people invite me round for tea, lunch, dinner, or even for a game of mafia!

i'll blog again soon

keep praying

matty :)

a million miles an hour, while lying in your bed

Today's the day, checked with the airlines and all my flights are scheduled to depart.  I'll probably be out of contact until I arrive in Malawi but i'll try to update as soon as I can.


I'm getting more and more excited but more and more nervous at the same time.


Keep praying!


Matty :)

and ideas are flowing through your head

URGENT PRAYER NEEDED!!!

Please pray that the flight ban is lifted before Friday and that I am able to fly out of the country and make it to Malawi.

you can look alive, but you are not at rest

aaagggghhhhh so much to do!! yet so little time.

i've got 2 essays to write, clothes to wash and pack, spend time with rachel, sunday club lessons to plan, college presentation to give, an exam to study for, an exam to do, work, a concert to go to, placement orientation to go to, classes to go to, and a bible to read

but hey if i can succeed in ticking each of the boxes in the picture everyday i'll be happy

stop the press, everything's a mess

i'm gonna try and keep this thing updated while i'm away but i cant promise anything

it's 12 days until i go and im feeling a mixture of excitement and nerves.  lots to still get ready before i jet off but over the past few day's i've really seen God providing for my finances through the kindness of other.  thank you to everyone who has helped me out

i'll blog again soon (i hope)

matty