Livin

Lilyanna welcoming our Bishop

Sorry it has been so long since our last update. Seems like time passes by rather quickly here.  The weather here has been relatively cool (60’s at night, high 70’s low 80’s by mid-day). This has been nice before the real heat kicks in. Soon it will be blazin hot and even dustier than it is now as the rains won’t come until early December. April is the last time we saw a decent rain, it’s getting extremely dusty here! All in all we have been getting along well and all of us are doing very good.

Fr Somanje, Comboni General Superior Fr Enrique Sanchez,
Kleven family

July 20, we celebrated the 40th Anniversary of Comboni Missionaries being in Malawi & Zambia. Also, Brother Patrick was ordained Comboni Deacon! The weekend was full of activities including a soccer and netball tournament. We had the honor of meeting the Comboni General Superior, Fr Enrique Sanchez who traveled to Malawi to join our 40th anniversary celebration. He welcomed us to the Comboni Family and also encouraged us to stay active with the Comboni Missionaries for years to come!


Fr Sanchez truly is a man of God who we feel so blessed to spend a little time with! Deacon Patrick's ordination Mass celebration was long (over 5 hours) though it was an incredible Mass. Lilyanna danced with the dancing girls, she did a great job! 

Tonya has been meeting with the Catholic Women’s Organization (CWO) and the Legion of Mary groups regularly. This has been a real blessing for her as it has provided her a small group to connect with and share her faith in a very real and intimate way. Tonya has also been working very hard on materials for the Comboni nursery schools. As we had said in earlier blogs, the schools have very little educational materials on the walls (2 posters) or to work with. So, Tonya and the girls have been working hard tracing and coloring alphabet letters, numbers and such to be put in and around the schools as tools for the teachers and children. Thank you Mom (Grandma Meg) for funding this effort! With her donation, we were able to purchase a ream of paper, permanent marker and tape so we could create these visual aids for the classrooms. We may have enough funds left to laminate the sheets as well! Also, this past week Tonya was asked to share a reading in Chichewa during daily Mass. Having one day to prepare (I’m finding most Malawian’s aren’t planners like I am…I pray daily for patience and acceptance!), I actually did alright! We look forward to learning Chichewa better so that we can share the Word of God more often and more confidently!

This little girl always seeks out Lily at church

Besides that Jacob has been working on our fence for the dogs, and also planting more greens and landscaping around the yard. The dogs we have been a real challenge. First we had to secure the bottom of the fence for the little one and then add to the top for the big one. I have honestly worked on the fence every day for the past two months.  They add a lot of security but the amount of work to keep them in has made us all wonder if it is worth it.  I have also been working on a project for Lily’s school. More about that in later updates.

Lily's birthday celebration playdate

Lily's first day of 3rd grade at ABC Christian
Academy (Josie photo bombing the picture!)

We have both been attending many Mpagati Msikas very regularly. Most weeks one of us attend at least two to four of these beautiful celebrations. It gives us a time to meet more of the parish community and father always voluntells us to speak a bit in Chichewa to the gathering which can be a bit intimidating but good for us to practice our Chichewa in front of a larger crowd. They will come to end at next week and we are blessed to have taken part in them.

Lily has been a very busy girl. She celebrated her 8^th birthday a few weeks ago. First we had few of her new expatriate friends over for a play date. Then on the day of her birthday we invited all of the neighbor kids over for a dance party and cake (over 20 kids came).  Also, Lilyanna had a surprise visit by our Parish Priest, Deacon Patrick and a visiting Comboni Priest to sing happy birthday and offer her some yummy birthday gifts (Lays chips, candy and juice!)

Lily's birthday celebration with our neighbor kids

The next week she attended a camp at the Lilongwe Wildlife Center where she made even more new friends and had the chance to see some of the awesome wildlife here in Malawi. Now to top it off, this week she started school at ABC Christian Academy. She has a delightful teacher and the school offers a great Christian based education. Lilyanna has adjusted well through all of the changes and we are both very proud of the little lady she is becoming.

Fort Lily built at Wildlife Camp

Next week Josie will turn three! She continues to make us laugh each and everyday with her wonderful personality and is now talking pretty much non-stop about anything and everything. I’m pretty sure she has asked Tonya and I a thousand times “when we go back to the United States, can I get my piggy bank back”? I’m not sure where she got it but it is sweet either way.  She has a great time and has connected very well with our nanny Esther. This fact is very comforting since we have now asked Esther to come Mon-Fri. because either Tonya or I will take Lily to school each morning and the other will attend daily mass at 6am and both of us will start working in the community more regularly. All of this is another big change in our daily lives and we pray for God to guiding us through it all.

Beautiful Josie, playing on her scooter

Last week we “witnessed” something that was very alarming and challenging morally as Christian. We were about to drive out of the parish property when we noticed many of our neighbors and others running towards the entrance of the property. We knew not to get to close and stayed back a ways. A few of our friends confirmed that we should stay away and we pulled the car close to the church to wait out the events. We waited 10 min. or so and then we were told that it was OK to pass. We later learned that commotion had to do with a man at the market across the road, who had a gun on him.  The people of the market challenged him as to why he had a gun and almost stoned him to death there on the spot. It was certainly one of our more frightful experiences since we have been here. We pray that the man recovers and that Our Father will forgive all.

Josie was delighted to hold a 5mo old baby!

We have learned recently that a big portion of our ministry in the near future will be to assist at the preschools in a number of different ways, primarily the director position for the preschools. We look forward to this opportunity! We pray that God’s hand will help us to lead these beautiful children to live a life according to His word.

Lily & Obrey, sweet neighbor boy

Our family is adjusting to Missionary life in Malawi though we still have our moments of homesickness and culture shock. We are thankful we are able to (so far) afford internet access and that we were gifted an amazing computer by our family before we left. Can you believe it’s been a year since we left our professional careers? Tonya misses her Park Bank colleagues as well as the work, though she knows she’s where she is supposed to be. Jacob also misses his team back at Sodexo but he’s grateful for the internet to stay in touch! The companies we worked for were good to us in many ways!

We ask for prayers for health, calmness and patience as we continue in our mission here in Malawi. Especially for health for the girls as we are not currently on anti-malaria meds and the mosquitoes are back.  May Almighty God continue to bless each and every one of you. Thank you for your continued prayers and support!

Apologies for the spacing of text and pictures on this update, we are struggling a bit using blogger! We wanted to include a lot of pictures and when we do that, the spacing gets messed up! Thanks for being patient with us as we explore and learn about the world of blogging! Peace and love, Tonya, Jacob, Lilyanna and Josephine (Kleven Comboni Lay Missionaries)

Josie, Lily and a few neighbors at our Mphakati Masika