Welcome baby J!

On January 18th the Kyser family welcomed a new addition to our family.  Baby J was born at the African Bible Colleges Clinic at 5:14pm in Lilongwe, Malawi, Africa.  Here are some pictures to guide you through the day.

Our happy family all excited as we wait for baby Joshua to be born!  We arrived at the clinic at around 2:30 pm.  

I was measuring about 5-6 cm so we decided to take a walk around campus to try to speed up the delivery.  I think it worked!  

At 4:35pm Dr. Sonja broke my water.  Baby J was born less than 45 minutes later.  Mom was very thankful for the fast delivery since this was a natural birth (no pain meds or epidural).  Mom and baby did great!

Nurse Becky is the best!  J weighed in at 3.96 kgs or 8lbs 11 oz.  He is our biggest baby by far!  

J's brother and sisters couldn't wait to meet him!!!  They love their baby brother!

Aunt LeAnne was a huge help during the delivery!  As were Gidgi and Daddy!  Mommy couldn't have done it without them!  

AJ loving on her baby!!!  She's such a great Mamma Jane!

Best part of delivering in Africa?  I get my baby all to myself immediately after birth.  No 4 hour wait during transition, no nurses whisking him away to mess with him, no security bands and electronic monitoring devices, he's just ours!  

Proud Daddy!  I must admit, I said quite a few times during the labor that I couldn't do it anymore.  This amazing man made sure I knew I could!!! I couldn't have done it without him!  He's the best husband and Daddy in the world!  I'm so very blessed!

These are the two ladies who brought baby J into the world.  We are so thankful for Dr. Sonja and Becky!  I love them both so!!!!  They are an amazing team!

My sweet baby boy!

Proud proud Gidgi and her 4th grandbaby!!!  She has been in Africa for 4 months waiting for this very minute!!!! It was all worth it!

Dr. Jack and Mrs. Nell Chinchen holding baby J.  They are the founders of African Bible Colleges.  What an amazing story they have!  It's such a blessing to be serving the Lord with them!

Our beautiful new family!!!

Crisis Nursery

One of our family's favorite ministries here in Lilongwe is visiting the Crisis Nursery.  Crisis is a place where children from nearby villages who are malnourished, sick, or even abandoned can go to get better.  The average baby in the Crisis Nursery is there for about a year, so this is a place for long term illnesses or rehibilitation.  When the babies first arrive a lot of times they are sent to the ABC Clinic for acute medical care with round-the-clock nurses.  Once they are stable they return to Crisis.  Because of this, our missionary staff at the clinic has formed numerous bonds with many of these children.  It's easy to see why once you look at their beautiful faces.  

Our family has had a desire to be involved with Crisis since we first found out we were moving to Malawi.  Actually, AJ said she wanted to stop by Crisis the second we arrived on African soil.  I will be sharing many more photos of these babies in the near future.  Now that I'm not teaching full time we will have more free time to spend with these little blessings.  Please pray for them.  Many are very sick.  Many will return to their own villages soon where they may not receive the care or food that they need.  Many have no village to return to at all and need a family to foster or adopt them.  

Here is AJ holding Alice.  Alice is a twin.  Her sister is Annie.  

Here is Mateyo.  He is one of the oldest children in the nursery.  

SM is holding baby Alice.  I am holding Esime. More about Esime below.

CJ playing with Alice.

CJ and Mateyo

The family entertaining the troops! 

Jeremy holding Mercy and playing with Annie (Alice's twin). 

This is baby Christina.  If you look back in my first village blog post you'll see that we brought her from the village because of dehydration and malnourishment right after she was born.  She is growing and doing well.  I'll be keeping up with her and post more later.

Esime!   Esime is one of the children that everyone on campus is VERY close to.  She has been living with the Whites and has become a part of all of our family!  She will soon be returning to her village and we are all heartbroken to see her go.  Please pray for her, and the Whites, as they transition.  We all love Esime so!!!

Last days of school!

In case you haven't heard, we are having a baby very soon!  Yes, I'm currently in my 9th month of pregnancy with baby number 4.  What an exciting time it is for all of us!  Since I'm due at the end of January it was necessary for the Academy to find a replacement for me who would be able to take over my 4th grade classroom after the baby is born.  It's bittersweet leaving these precious children.  I love them like my own.  (Well, one of them actually is my own!!!)  In order to thoroughly spoil my sweet class I decided that the last two weeks of school would be a little different.  We still learned a few things, don't worry, but we enjoyed lots of games, arts and crafts, special projects, and candy!! Hey, they were all already on Christmas break in their minds anyway....why not have a little fun!  So here are some pics of my last days as the 4th grade 2 teacher!  Now let me go get the tissues....

 

ABCCA Swim Gala

There is a house system in place at ABCCA.  When you register with the school you are automatically put into one of three houses: Liwonde, Nyika, or Majete. These are representative of three of the nature reserve parks in Malawi.  All members of a family are in the same house.  Throughout the year there are different ways to earn "points" for your house.  Think of it like the houses in the Harry Potter movies.  Anyway, at the end of this term we had a House Swim Gala where people from each house competed in a swim meet with people from the other houses.  It took up an entire school day and the kids were allowed to wear their house colors that day!  What a fun day!  Here are some pictures:

My sweet class on Swim Gala day dressed in their house colors.

Now I told them to act like they were fighting each other!  They had fun with this!!

AJ and her good friend Brianna (also an ABC MK)

Me with Grandma Iris and Scharlie....Liwonde teachers (and ABC Missionaries).

In case you haven't figure it out yet...we are in Liwonde.  We pretty much loose everything each year.  The houses are not quite as even as they should be.  But we have fun!

Majete...the biggest house.  Although they didn't win the Swim Gala.  That was reserved for....

Nyika!  Good job Nyika!

Mr. McDonald, Mr. Kyser, and Mr. Bartlett all watching their daughters swim in the gala.  Yeah, they're a real serious bunch!  If only you knew the humor that these three men can muster up!

AJ swimming back (her favorite stroke).  She is in the blue cap second from the top.

Great job AJ!

AJ swimming Free...she really did NOT want to do this relay.  But she made it and did well!

AJ with some of her good friends: Martina, Charlotte, and Brianna!
What an exhausting day...but fun at the same time!

Jill

ABC Pool and Guest Huts

While looking through some pictures I realized that I (like other missionaries before me) have been guilty of not showing the campus well enough.  I remember the year we spent in preparation for coming to Malawi and the countless hours I spent scouring the internet for any and all info on Malawi and ABC.  I promised that I'd try to do a better job of portraying life here and showing the facilities as well.  I hope to do better at this in the future (now that I'm not teaching anymore).  Well, here is a start.  Below are some pictures that Gidgi captured at the ABC pool followed by some pictures of the guest huts where short term teams can stay when they come here to minister (hint, hint).  Enjoy!

This is a photo of the kiddie pool and the big pool taken from the seating area.

SM about to take a plunge! Directly behind her is the pool house with changing area and rest rooms.

 The pool house

Another view of the pool.  The seating area is to the left and the pool house is to the right.  CJ is after the ball and SM is by the pool.

View from the pool house looking out towards the pool and seating area.

Inside the main entrance to the pool area.  Isn't our country beautiful!!??

Life guard stand with AJ and Jeremy drying off.

There is a huge swim team at ABC.  They practice all the time and even travel to other countries to compete.

Kiddie pool!

The guest huts at ABC!

Beware of the crazy locals!

Another view of the guest huts.

Allison O. behind the wheel....beware!!!!

So who's ready to come visit us in Malawi???

Jill