Wednesday, April 12… Early, early in the morning I received a message from the family that they would take their flight to Lilongwe in a few hours. It was so nice to know that they were now actually coming close! With great joy and thankfulness of heart I could do the last preperations for their home coming…
How thankful we could be that “our God and Father had directed their way back unto us!” For “even though they were taken from us for a short time in presence, not in heart, we endeavoured the more abundantly to see their face with great desire…”
In the afternoon I received a call that they were on their way home now! From 8 at night I was listening carefully… “Is this the sound of the van?” Around 10 I went outside and heard the van coming home! I could after 5 months open the gate again and see the family that is so dear to me!
How joyful and thankful I was to see them all again… To eat and give thanks together with them… We read after the meal from Mark 16, where our Lord Jesus Christ commands His disciples: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” We are also thankful that the family is back in Malawi again, so that the gospel again may go out to the many Malawians… So that many will turn from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of our God and Savior…
The family has now been here for a few weeks already. Also Thymen, my brother, has come with them to help in the building at the land.
Trijnie is making the yogurt and taking care of her family. The children are doing school again and enjoying the Malawian sun 🙂
Richard has continued all the mission work again, especially in going out again to evangelize. Everything is going well and we may together serve our God with gladness!
In the next blogs we hope to introduce some of the families from our church here, so that you can get to know them too… 🙂
We pray for you and thank you for your prayers for us!
Some months ago we shared with you a little about our life here in Malawi. Shortly after that, in November, the evangelist and his family left to travel back for a few months to Canada and Holland. We think back to the day they left in great love and joy.. In every way they had taken care of me… How lovely it was to pray and read together that morning… To give each other in God’s hands, until He would bring us together again… All the children had made a beautiful piece of art and when I went to my apartment, Hanna had put everywhere little notes of love… So sweet! We love them and we miss them… but we hope, not for long anymore… 😊
Last November… On their way to Canada…
When Tonde (our preacher and builder) came to talk one day, before he went to his work at the land, I said to him: “Tonde, I know now when they’re coming home!” Then he smiled and said: “You’re very happy about it, I can see. Me too. I miss them.” And he imitated Richard. How he was picking flowers for Trijnie. He laughed and said that he would rather have chicken, than flowers 😊 Trizza (our cleaner) tells me often how she misses the noise of the children in our home. And she would say: “Tell Ma’am, that I miss her and everyone!” Sometimes I say to Esther (my loving sister and helper in the Bible stories and Bible studies): “Only so much more days, Esther!” And then we are together already joyful for their home coming… 😊 When I tell the children on Saturdays about the “Azungu’s”, they are all very quiet. And when I asked them: “Are you all happy that the family is now almost, almost coming home?” They answered all together: “Eeee! Kenako titha kusewera nawo!” (Yes! Then we can play with them!) As you can see, we will all be só joyful and thankful when they’re home again!
We love the children and their joyful singing!
Even though we’re missing them, we can also give thanks to our God for all His loving care… For the family and for us here! He has shown to us the truth of His own words: “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.” From the day that the family left us, until now, we can only say: “Great is Thy faithfulness!” Who is a King, a Shepherd, a Father, a Guide, a Comforter, a Helper, like unto Him? Hanna wrote it down for me, before they left and I have found it true… “God is our Refuge and Strength, a very present Help in trouble.” His grace is sufficient for every day and He is so willing to care for us, when we cast our cares upon Him… Nothing is too small for His love or too great for His power! In every day He has shown Himself to be our El-Shaddai… The God Who is enough for us… So patient, loving, rich in mercy and always willing to take our hand and lift us up again..!
Together with Julia and Hanna… Lovely memories…
To share something of God’s loving care and that He’s still the same as when Mary Slessor wrote what prayer was to her… She said: “My life is one long story of answered prayers, daily, yes hour by hour. Prayer for bodily strength, prayer in distress, in wonderful ways seeing His guidance, mistakes that I’ve been protected for and dangers that have been taken away. Enmity against the Gospel that has been taken away, yes, for all things that have to do with my life and deficient service to God… With great adoration and amazement I can testify: I believe that God answers prayer!”
On a Sunday I was walking with Priscilla to our church. She looked at the corn and said to me: “Pray Nienke, I’m praying for rain! My corn needs rain…” The week after that it was raining… Só much that I thought… How can I do the Christmas celebration with the children at the land? If it will rain that day, how can the children come? It would not be possible for the little ones, because it would be too much water and mud, the way they have to walk. And we would eat together, but I thought… How can I give the children all the space that they need in the Mission Center? So we prayed together that our Father would keep that day the rain in the clouds… And our God answered our prayer… The day of Christmas the sun was shining brightly for the first time that week, no dark cloud was to be seen… Many children had been brought by His hand to hear how Abraham offered his son… To hear from God’s love to this world, in giving us His Son, to be a sacrifice for our sins… Also for the children in Chadzunda… How joyful the children were when they saw we had prepared some food for everyone… How thankful we were when we went home… Rejoicing in our loving God and Father… “He abideth faithful, even if we believe not!”
We have seen the care of our God also in the love of the Malawians. They have been so helpful and loving as brothers and sisters… One time I said to Aubrey (our farm manager) when there was a technical problem… “Sometimes I wish I could ask my father or my brother about things like this or that Richard was here. They would all know what to do, but now I should actually figure it out myself I think…” 😊 Then he answered, smiling: “You should not say that. I want to be a brother for you. The next time, just come to me right away and I will help you.” If I ask Esther to go with me to the market, she always says: “Ofcourse I am willing to go with you! When you have time, you let me know and we will go together.”
Esther before her home
If I come to Tonde and Priscilla to quickly bring something to them, they are always so joyful and say: “Takulandilani, lowani!” (“You are most welcome, come in please!”) “Please wait a little bit, then we can eat nsima together!” And if Replaca (their little son) sees me coming, he smiles, expecting something sweet to eat… He loves our yogurt or something that I baked and will say to me: “Tathokoza kwambiri, tseke, tseke, tseke!” 😊 (Very much appreciated, só sweet!”) Priscilla then takes me to her kitchen and we make the nsima together. We eat together, read the Bible and sing the Chichewa hymns together… What a sweet place of peace their home is for me!
Priscilla asked me to go to her field together…
How often has our God shown Himself to be “our Father of all mercies and our God of all comfort..!” That He is also the God of Love, even in His judgements… Some weeks ago the cyclone Freddy came over Malawi… Many people have been affected and many have lost their lives… Aubrey and Tonde went to the homes of some of the most affected people in the villages around us. They talked with them and invited them to come to the Mission Center on the Wednesday after.
One of the homes that was broken down by the cyclone…
That Wednesday we listened together to God’s words from Jeremiah chapter 7… That it is God’s hand, doing this, because of all our sins… But that He is doing it, also in His love, because He wants us to return unto Him, so that we may be healed and be blessed… So that we may be forgiven and ready for Jesus’ coming… After the sermon we invited them to come on Friday again to receive some food items.
Listening together to the words from Jeremiah
Everyone received the gifts in joy and thankfulness… How we wish that this all has brought sinners to the only and complete Savior… That many have washed their garments in the blood of the Lamb…
The people are going home with their food items
As I’m writing now, it’s only 9 more days until we hope to hear the van coming home and we will see the family again, that is so dear to us… So the next time we hope to share more about their life again in Malawi… We want to thank you all for your prayers and gifts… We pray for you too and wish you all the blessing of our God…
A very warm welcome for everyone who reads this. In the coming weeks I, Lianne Bakelaar, will write the blog and help in other activities that are to be done in the family. For those who sympathize with the Overbeek family and Nienke, it is very nice to hear from them. In this blog we will take you to what life is like in Malawi. We will also show you some pictures of the visit of Mrs. Overbeek (Richard’s mother) and Jason (their cousin). They have been with us for two weeks in August and we enjoyed this time together very much! 🙂
Oma Overbeek with the childrenFrom left to right: Jeniessa, Lianne, Emmalie, Julia, Hanna with Isaac
While writing this blog, the family and Nienke have been living in Malawi for almost a year. Now you may be wondering: what does a day in Malawi look like? This is of course different for every family member. The children start school at eight o’clock and are usually finished early in the afternoon. Nienke teaches the children.
Richard’s days are filled with mission work, in which Aubrey helps him translate. Every other week on Fridays and Saturdays he teaches the leaders of the various churches from the Bible. For this “Stewardship College” he uses the Mission Center. The other week Richard goes to the churches on Friday. The rest of the days are filled with all kinds of other work for the Bethábara Mission. On Sunday morning Richard preaches in one of the churches and in the afternoon there is a church service in the Mission Center. Only Malawians who can understand the English language attend this service , because there is no translation to Chichewa. Trijnie is Richard’s great help in all the work.
On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I make the yogurt. Every morning Esther or Magie sells our yogurt at the market in Chadzunda. A few days a week Miriam comes to clean the house and Stan to do the gardening. Our hydro and running water is a little different arranged than in Holland or Canada. We are used to having no hydro for at least a few hours every day, but we are lucky we can turn on the generator for a delicious cup of coffee 🙂 Sometimes it happens that we do not have running water, but there is also a solution for that… We then ask some women from the village to bring us water, until we have running water again.
What I have noticed since I came here is the great poverty. Many families are broken… There is rarely any love between husband and wife, children grow up without love, children who do not know who their father is… Many Malawians have no hope or purpose for their life, education is unaffordable for most, many women sell their bodies for money… But above all… Few have heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That is why I would ask everyone who sympathizes with the family to remember the work in Malawi in prayer.
I hope that with this blog I have been able to take you a bit into the life of the Overbeek family and that you now have a better idea of how things are going here in Malawi.
Much love from all of us from Malawi and see you next time!
Jonathan and JasonOma Overbeek and Richard at the marketOma Overbeek and Richard with the leaders of the churchesOma Overbeek with Roseanne, Micah and Jeniessa
Welcome on our first blog about our life in Malawi! In this blog we will tell you what we do at this moment to reduce the costs of our mission work: we make our own yogurt…
We have had five cows on the Mission Center farm for a few months now. That’s why we hear every morning: “Hello, hello!” and then one of our farmers stands at our gate with a pail of milk. In the afternoon he comes again and so we get about 16 liters of milk from the farm every day. We use most of this to make yogurt. We learned this from Peter, a Malawian farmer.
Peter talking about the flavoring for the yogurt Hessiah and Julia loved to help Peter
When we have finished our schoolwork, we go outside. Then we prepare the charcoal stove. Meanwhile we pour the milk through several strainers, we add some powder and then we put the milkcan on the charcoal stove.
The charcoal stove is startedWe pour the milk in the milkcan
We stir the milk well, until the thermometer reads 90 degrees. Then we remove the milkcan from the stove and add the sugar. After this we let the milk cool down in a large bucket with water, until the thermometer shows 45 degrees.
Hanna is stirring the milk
Then we pour the milk into smaller pails and prepare different flavors of yogurt: vanilla, strawberry, mango, pineapple or banana yogurt. After the yogurt has been covered in blankets for a while and then refrigerated, it’s time to put it into small bottles.
The little children love to helpThe yogurt is put into bottles
The next morning Esther comes to pick up our yogurt. With a large cool box on her head, filled with 30 bottles of yogurt, she leaves a little later and goes to the market in Chadzunda. The children love to help in making the yogurt, but the tasting of the yogurt is the best part ofcourse! 🙂
Esther on her way to Chadzunda market
With love from all of us in Malawi and until next time!
Richard and his wife Trijnie along with 9 children have been living in Malawi since september 2021. Sent out of the congregation of Bethábara Holland, with the calling of evangelist, Richard’s primary focus is evangelism amongst the villages serving various church bodies including the (APC) Associated Presbyterian Church. The APC has over 20 churches established since 2015 in less developed regions of Malawi.
In march 2019 from his home country Canada Richard visited Malawi for ten days from a call of the APC leadership to “come over and help”. Responding to this call he realized the great need for evangelical gospel teaching in the conviction of total depravity of man and total salvation in Christ being justified by grace through faith. In Richard’s heart was a strong emphasis from Luke 14:23 “Compel them to come in that my house may be filled” and he had a call to the ministry from an early age. Through the grace and guidance of the Lord and with the help of the congregation in Holland he was able to leave things behind and follow this call to Malawi with his family. He could only do this through the mercies and tender love of his Master, Who gave the promise and commission: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”
In september 2021 Richard arrived with his family to begin this work. Richard & Trijnie came to Malawi with their 8 children, 5 girls and 3 boys, and in april 2022 another boy was added to their family here in Malawi.
Julia with her little brother Isaac Timothy
Though life is much different here, the family does enjoy the country and have made it their home by the grace of God. Richard’s focus is on evangelism currently amongst more than 30 villages mostly consisting of small churches or gatherings of between 20 and 80 villagers. Additionally, a “Stewardship” training course for men is administered at the Bethábara Mission Center where leaders of the churches are brought together for Biblical instruction. There is also a small sustainable farm developed to help the costs for the “Stewardship” training course. Richard’s longing desire is that the Holy Spirit would be richly poured out amongst the villages in Malawi, that Christ the King might be exalted amongst this nation and fruits of repentance and regeneration to the honour and glory of the Father would be brought before His holy throne.
