Picking Up The Pace

It has been just a month since our last update and the pace has certainly picked up. We have continued to be blessed with good health for the most part (Josie spiked a fever for a few days but recovered quickly) and are now getting used to the African heat.

Josie in her new birthday dress

Josie celebrated her 3^rd birthday on August 27^th and we celebrated it in our usual way with cake, dancing and a whole lot of neighbor children. Thank you to all who sent gifts for the girls. All of them meant the world to the girls and we all appreciate it from the bottom of our hearts. Josie now spends most mornings with Esther and has really developed a bond with her. Her speech has struggled a bit agin with the changes in our routine. Please pray that Jesus will help her to find her words easily and continue to grow into the beautiful little lady she is.

Lily performing at Friday Chapel

Lily is doing VERY well in her new school. She has made many new friends and has really excelled in her reading skills. Her teacher is a very sweet woman originally from South Africa and I believe she adores Lily as much as Lily does her.  The school itself has great staff overall, with a strong curriculum and beautiful faith woven into it all. We have been fortunate to be able to attend most her Friday chapels.  Witnessing and experiencing those have definitely assured us that the Holy Spirit has led us to this place and Almighty God has shown his mercy onto us with many blessings.

Pretty in pink

 Tonya has been busy helping at Lily’s school in a number of ways including organizing the school’s uniform closet, helping Lil’s teacher, and creating a resource room for the teachers. On days that she is not helping at the school, she has also been working with Fr. Dario at the provincial house. We have ben asked to assist the province in some administrative duties in the finance/accounting office and we are happy to help. This has been a great way to learn more about the Comboni province of Malawi and Zambia, the different Comboni communities in these two countries and the great work they are all doing for the glory of God. If that wasn’t enough, we both helped to open the two-pre schools that are run by the parish. They opened two weeks ago and have been a great learning experience of the culture in many ways.

Part of the road to the pre-school

Over the past months I have been working with Lily’s school in building and creating their new food service program. I researched and sourced the equipment out of South Africa and have been developing the menu, pricing and procedures. The equipment should arrive soon and then I will get the program up and running. Again, another gift from God that I can utilize my knowledge in food service here in Malawi! Since the opening of the pre-schools, on the days Tonya is at Lily's school or the Provincial House, I have been walking to the bigger of the two to help with enrolling the students collecting fees and making sure the teachers have some basic needs to operate the school. The walk is about 2 miles from the house through a very poor area of Lilongwe on a dirt road. It takes about 40 min. each way and has been fun except for the plooms of dust that come rolling when a car passes. It gives me time to listen to music and speak more Chichewa to people I meet along the way. I have had some pretty funny looks when the people see and hear the white guy strolling and singing down the road, something not many had seen there before.

Some of our learners at St. Agness pre-school

 We appreciate the work we have been given so far and thank God for the opportunity to share His love in all that we do. Please pray for our health, safety and patience as we continue on this wonderful journey. 

Please mail your gift to Comboni Lay Missionaries 1615 E 31st Street
 La Grange Park, IL 60526 or donate online at www.laymission-comboni.org

Denote “Kleven family – General Support” in the memo line or intention box on the website to support keeping us in mission or “Kleven family – Ministry Account” to support our ministry projects in Malawi. Gifts are deductible to the full extent allowable under IRS regulations.

Sending our love and blessing to you all! Jacob

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

Busy in Malawi

The past few weeks have been very busy for us.  The Lord continues to bless us with good health and happiness during our many activities. We thank Him daily for bringing us to Malawi and allowing us to share His love to those we meet.

It is towards the end of the harvest season, so during this time the mphakatis (small Christian communities) all have their offertory masika (mass). We have had the pleasure of being invited to and attending all of these beautiful celebrations. Most weeks there are three to four of these masses. These give us the opportunity to see more of the surrounding villages, meet more of the wonderfully gracious people of Malawi and also practice more of our Chichewa.  We are very thankful for these opportunities.

Tonya started an awesome project in conjunction with Spencer McSorley, the previous lay missionary that was in Lunzu, Malawi. Tonya met with some of the children that are in the catechism classes here at St. Johns and had them write letters to the children in Spencer’s VBS class in the US. The children in the states will then write back and hopefully continue to keep in contact and share in each other’s lives and faith. It is a beautiful project that we will continue to update you on over time.

 

We continue to work on our neighborhood cleanup project. We have now dug two of the four rubbish pits (mkuti) for our neighbor’s buildings, there are four families per building. There will be much more works to be done after the pits are dug though. Just a week after the fist was built, I noticed that the neighbors were still burning wherever and just throwing rubbish around. With the help of our friend and neighbor, Patrick, we explained again to them why the pits are dug and that we want to keep the earth that God has given us as beautiful as possible. The change in the way of thinking will take a long time but I am confident with love and patience it will slowly come around.

Last weekend was Fr. Somanje’s birthday. We celebrated it on Saturday night by going to the provincial house for dinner and a dance party. The Sisters of St. John the Baptist joined us. So the family, the sisters, the fathers and all danced the night away (ok it was until about 9:30) and truly enjoyed each other’s company and had a great time.

Lily has been practicing hard on her dancing girl steps. On July 20^th there will be a huge celebration for the 40^th anniversary of the Combonis working in Malawi and Zambia and “Brother Patrick” will also be ordained Deacon before being ordained a Comboni priest in November. During the celebration, Lily will dance along with the other girls during many points of the celebration. We are very proud of her and can’t wait to watch her.

Josie is becoming more of a Malawian child everyday. She loves playing in the dirt, can now greet men, women and children properly in Chichewa and never wants to wear shoes. She has also come to like nsima very much, probably mostly because she gets to use her hands, as there isn’t much taste to it.  She is really blossoming into a beautiful little child full of spirit.

We continue to pray for patience and good health. We miss all of you will continue to pray for your health and happiness. Jacob