Cunning little plans

This weekend I chugged over to Haverfordwest to say hello to Wik and Sue Chichlowski and ask them various questions about the Malawi experience. I was kinda spaced out by the time I arrived - work had been longer than usual and finding time to do things like eat had been a bit of a struggle. But struggle produces personality...maybe I should enter the Mr Persona UK competition for 2007.

Had an awesome weekend. I'm always flabbergasted (score one on the almost-obsolete-word count) by how involved that family are in Malawian life despite living in rural Pembrokeshire. Wik had a couple of emails in about a SA pilot he'd known who'd crashed to his death that week in Malawi, and we also had a chat to Glen Halliwell in Blantyre on the phone. Glen was laid back as ever, but he had a coupla requests for me, and I had a couple for him. Didn't feel like I knew where the conversation was going, but it went somewhere and I learnt something.

Back in Cardiff, cunning plans were being hatched to creatively part the populace of that city with it's unnecessary riches. Simon Ewing was busily applying for corporate funds, Sarah Kennedy and Steph Wells had organised charity netball, and various other members of the STORM team were planning ceilidhs, buskings, city-wide scavenger hunts and concerts. I had a brief chat to Simeon at Bethel Baptist about the support that they could provide. There are no fewer than three Bethel people going to Malawi this year, which is great ;) No concrete support yet, but I'm going to start billing my Easter cycle-trek today.

On which note, if anyone would like to sponsor me to cycle from Auxerre to Lyon in three days (10/11/12 Apr) with three friends (Paul/Zoe/Jon), that would be superb. My address is 1 Bishop's Close, Whitchurch, Cardiff, CF141NH, UK, and cheques can be made payable to Ian Thomson. Anything you can afford would be great, and you'll know exactly what I'm doing with your money because I'll be posting it here ;) You can sponsor me by the mile (the whole trip is 200 miles) or just in a full great chunk, which would mean that if I fail to complete the trip, you get your money back. There's an incentive for me!

Raising money is a funny old business. Apart from the nagging guilt that you're taking money off people and not giving them much in return, there's the whole issue of who do you appeal to and for how much? I only know so many people, and because of my lifestyle, I do tend to find myself asking them for sponsorship now and then and then and then and then...and presumably they're going to run out of money eventually. And, having grown up on Robin Hood, I kind of prefer to ask people I know have lots of money for some of it. But having just graduated from Uni, the people I know have no money. Hmm. I'm glad God provides, coz I feel like trying to be sensitive to all parties could kill me one of these days.

A wise man once said, 'We humans keep brainstorming options and plans, but God's purpose prevails.' You've seen my brainstorming. Tune in in six months or so to see how God's purpose has prevailed.

Moni!

Hi all. I'm Ian. People call me Ian, Iano, Yanobas, Mr President, Mr Thomson, sir, fatty, lazy and various other things. Feel free to call me whatever you like, just post how you're doing.

Welcome to my mission blog. This summer, on June 21st, I'm going to be flying out to Malawi to go and work for City Pentecostal Church in Blantyre (henceforth denoted 'CPC') and this site will be one of the main ways I try and keep in touch with people back in Cardiff, the UK and the rest of the broadband world. Don't expect me to phone. My facebook account is highly likely to become a barren wasteland strewn with ageing photographs and out-of-date posts, an eerie warm wind whispering through... MSN will likewise be a luxury I won't have much time for. If you have Skype, I may be lucky enough to catch you (I'm Asaphite, Cardiff, UK) now and then. Post and email (ianomore@yahoo.co.uk) will be continued sporadically. You can call me for 5p a minute if you get time and inclination, and I'll love hearing from you...phone numbers will be posted here when I learn 'em.

11% of Malawi has AIDS. There are more orphans there than you can shake a stick at, and it's been rated in the top 10 poverty-afflicted countries in the world. Loads of villages have no clean running water, no basic healthcare, no public transport and no access to educational resources. Blantyre, where I'm going, has all of the above, so I'm going to get it reasonably easy, but I'm seriously praying my work takes me into the bush villages time to time. Because I want to take in as much of Malawi as I can while I'm there - city and country, orphanages, safaris and financial institutions. I'm not really there to solve the problems. Hopefully I'll be able to help in some way, but the deeper motivation for me going is much more selfish. I want to learn how people in different, often diabolically difficult, circumstances to my own survive and thrive. Because they do. The Malawians I have met, in Blantyre last summer and in the UK, are generally happy, hopeful people. Those of you who know me can back me up when I say I'm not always either of those things ;) So if I discover anything, I'll be posting it here ____

Anyway, cheers for reading, cheers more for posting, and remember: never swing chipmunks around your head by their tails. That's just cruel.