The Gills in Malawi

On the 14th September we also had to say farewell to our dear friends.  Rebekah, Jon and Caleb began their long journey back to the states to be with family and have a memorial service to honor the life of Daryl.

We are thankful for God's favor on this precious family during their flights and we were so overjoyed to hear they were upgraded from their flight from London - Dallas.  It brought tears of gratitude and joy to my eyes!

It is always hard to say goodbye but this I have to say was the hardest of all!

Please continue to pray for this family, that God would continue to pour out his love on them at this time, that He would give them peace in their hearts and that He would provide for all their needs.

I chose the picture of the sunset to go with this story as Daryl loved sunsets!  So I felt it was right for that reason but also that this was our time to say goodbye to our friend.

As a lot of you will know we have had a few troubles with our health this year. Paul has been having trouble with his breathing since January and in April ended up in hospital on a drip. I also have a couple of things that have been bothering me too.

We had the amazing opportunity to meet with a Doctor/councillor who was over from America at another project. He spent a long time talking to us and we really appreciated his time and compassion. He found Paul to have high blood pressure and felt that Paul is exhausted and in need of a holiday. He found a bakers cist behind my knee (not a lot can be done for this here but it is not pleasant) and I also have plantar fasciitis in one of my feet which causes pain when walking! Oh my goodness we do need a holiday!!!! lol!

On the day we saw the Doctor we received an email from someone who said they really felt we needed a holiday and were going to send us some money for one!!! Paul read the email and started laughing and crying and felt a physical weight lift off his shoulders. At the start of the year I had felt to pray for a holiday and have been praying since February for this, I even felt God impart faith to me for it. How amazing is our God...he supplies all our needs and knows what we need even before we ask. I am still amazed at His provision for us and goodness.

So since we received the email we have had a buzz in our house. We have been hunting on the internet for different places to go. We will not be able to leave Malawi till October as we have visitors till then, and we plan to take a slow drive down to South Africa through Mozambique to save some money on the airfare from here to there. So we are planning to take our holiday in November. We would like to go somewhere hot and our hearts desire is to go to an all inclusive. We know that God has the perfect place for us!  If you have any suggestions we would love to hear from you.

We will also be able to fly Lauren over to South Africa and spend some time with her there before we travel back to Malawi! God is soooo good!

I was going to wait until we had found our holiday to share this amazing news with you but I woke up this morning and had this song going round in my head 'look what the Lord has done, look what the Lord has done' and felt I needed to share our testimony with you all.  When I look at what God has done for us this year with our car and now this I can say I am truly humbled and grateful.

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We had a call from our mechanic today who we know and trust.  He has been really good to us in the past and helped us a lot.  We asked him his thoughts on our car and this is what he has said.  You have a hot potato, it is not worth fixing this car, it is better to sell it as a non runner and get another car.  He said it would take a lot of time and money to fix this car and he feels this is not wise

So that is the verdict!  What does that mean for us as a family?  For those of you who have not visited us here it means isolation.  It is hard for the kids not being able to see any friends and they quickly become discouraged.  We have been here once before for a very long 16 months of only going to town when we needed food and the kids not getting out at all. We cannot bear the thought of going through that again as it was a painful and difficult time, though we thank God for the grace he gave to us. To continue living and working at Hope Village we need a reliable car.

What can you do?  Please, please please pray!  Pray that God will give us the faith for a new car, that God's provision will come, for grace to be with us and the kids and for provision to come quickly!  We really need you to stand with us right now, more than ever.  Please pray for us!

We got a little extra money in this month so we thought that we would use it to put our car in for a service.  Our car mechanic is always telling us to service the car regularly to avoid problems but we never have any extra money to make this happen.  So this was going to be the week!  We could think of many other things that the exta money could be used for but thought this the most important.  One of our staff was very sick and we decided to take her to the hospital as she was really not good but on the way we heard a big bang then the car stopped, smoke was coming from under the car and the car would not move!

So for those of you who have walked with us from the beginning of our time here you will remember that we were without a car for 16 months when the computer box on our car went.  We feel that we can't go through that again so please please please join us in prayer and pray for a miracle!

We left Malawi on the 28th July with very excited children! 

We spent the first week of our furlough in South Africa with my parents.  We visited a really cool craft market......we could have spent a fortune on all the nice goodies!  We had our first visit to McDonalds and the kids enjoyed it so much!  We had to buy warm PJ's for the kids as it was freezing in SA in the morning and in the evenings.  We had 2 duvets on our bed and also hot water bottles!!!!

We also went to the chinese and enjoyed a surprise birthday treat for Benj.  Although the food was yummy my body did not agree and I was covered in a rash the following day

We enjoyed spending time at my parents church, Victory church and were very blessed to have some time with them, to enjoy live worship and just relax in the presence of God.  It was wonderful.

We arrived in the UK on the 6th August and were met at the airport by Lauren and Graham, a few tears were shed.....it was so good to see Lauren again!

We are so blessed to have a 6 seater car for our use whilst we are here.  God is so good. 

We will be enjoying catching up with friends and family whilst we are here and will also be visiting churches evey Sunday to share about Hope Village.  If you live in the UK and would like us to visit, please let us know.

We apprecate yours prayers for us over this time.  A time of refreshing is much needed.

We are so thankful to God for providing the money for us to be able to fly to South Africa.  We thought we might have to take the bus but we are very happy to say that we will not have to make that long journey.

We booked our tickets this week and leave Malawi on the 28th July.  We stay in South Africa for 1 week and then off to the UK for the first time in 3 years.  To say that the kids are excited is an understatement!!!!

We will be in the UK until the 7th October and back in Malawi on the 19th October.  Please pray that God will provide a car for us to use and a place for us to stay. 

We are really looking forward to visiting the churches that have been supporting us.  We are very thankfull and look forward to meeting people for the first time.  We are also looking forward to visiting family and for having some rest.

Thank you so much if you have supported our trip home in either finance or prayer.  We really appreciate you.