First and foremost, we are sorry that it has been so long since our last post. My mother keeps reminding me at we need to write more often, thanks mom :)
Our first month in Africa is now in the books, and it really has been an amazing experience so far. Dawn is starting to settle in with work and research. On Monday she will work her first clinical day, and though she has already been involved in multiple surgeries here, this will be her first time being responsible for her patients. This is something she is both excited about, and terrified at the same time. For all of us who know her, we know that she will be amazing, but she is still nervous about it, so please keep her in your prayers!
Last week I was given the opportunity to spend a week in the villages of the Salima District of Malawi with a 5 person team from the United States. World Relief looks for partner churches that in essence sponsor a district of the country. World Relief Malawi has four partner churches that each support one of the four districts that we are currently working in. The Summit Church of Orlando Florida is a new partner church with World Relief Malawi, and I was able to be on their first ever mission week. It was a great experience for me, because it was also my first time being out in the field and seeing the ministries that World Relief is involved in first hand. We were able to see lives being changed in so many ways. People there are living with HIV/AIDS who are supporting one another and choosing to live life to it's fullest. Orphans and other vulnerable children (OVC) are being partnered with local artisans (locals who have a specific vocational skill: tailoring, carpentry, baking etc.) as apprentices and given the opportunity and training to start their own businesses that are sustainable in their own village.
We were also able to sit in on a "Savings for Life" group meeting that teaches villagers how to save their own money, no matter how little there is, and allows them over time to create enough group money to start loaning it out to each other to start small businesses. The beauty of the program is that there is a 30% interest rate charged on the loans (maximum of 3 month loaning period), and all of that money is put back into group account. At the end of a year all of the money is given back to each member at the percentage that they invested. Only members of the group are able to take loans, and only up to three times the amount that they have invested. Often the first year or two does not give the groups a lot of income, but at a minimum it teaches them that they can always save money, no matter how little they have. After the second year, and into the third year is when the members really start to see their money start to make them money. The group we met with more than quadrupled their money in their third cycle (third year). Being a money and numbers guy, this program really blows me away. I love that these villagers are creating money out of their own money. World Relief helps through education and consulting, but they do not contribute any actual money to the program. So every penny (or, more accurately, Kwacha) that they make has all been contributed by the members themselves. It is so amazing to see how empowered these men and women appear. I witnessed the sense of accomplishment they have in knowing that they are paying for their children to go to school, putting metal roofs on their house instead of thatch, and starting to look at ways that they can give back to their villages on larger scales. It was incredible to learn about and even better to witness a few of the lives changed by this program in person. 
The group from Summit Church are all part of a ministry called reGroup in Orlando. It is best described as a cross between a 12-step program and intensive counseling sessions. Their hearts were naturally drawn to the HIV/AIDS support group and wanted to spend the majority of their time working with that group. World Relief has developed a project called "Memory Books". For three days, men and women in the support group teamed with mission group members spending three days collecting information about their families, delving into personal questions, and creating a written document of who they are and what they have overcome to be passed on to their children. It really was a heartwarming experience to see these men and women be able to tell their story, and fully understand that this is a book that they will get to keep with them forever. Here is an attempt to upload a video of them dancing and singing in celebration, it really does melt the heart (if it works; and if it doesn't you may have to use your imagination)! 
After 5 days out in the villages, Dawn and I were able to slip away to Cape Maclear with is on the Southern tip of Lake Malawi to celebrate our 2nd anniversary. While waiting for friends to drop her off, I was able to spend a few hours in a small nature reserve called Kuti. It was just 10 minutes away from the lodge that the team and I stayed in for the week. I will let the photos do the majority of the talking.
In Cape Maclear we were able to stay in a simple bamboo walled villa that was 20 feet away from the water. We were able to watch three incredible sunsets, awake to coffee and tea delivered to our porch every morning, walk 20 yards down the beach to an amazing restaurant andlounge where I was able to eat one of the best burgers of my life (okay, so I ate that same burger twice, but it was SO good!) In addition I was able to get two scuba dives in. One was down to about 30 meters where there was an old sunken yacht apparently sunk during war time. Still don't quite understand why a pleasure craft was sunk during a war, but they were sticking to their story. For all of you out there who have asked for updates on the cichlads (pronounced siklid), they are all that they are cracked up to be. They are small fish, but as colorful as any fish I have ever seen. My favorite was a black and white striped one that I called the "Zebra fish". Thank you all for your continued thoughts and prayers. We have really enjoyed our time here so far, but we have also been told that no matter what, at some point we will go through a period of missing home, and questioning our decision to move so far away from the familiar. It has not happened yet, but we also want to be mindful that there may come a time when all is not just a big fun adventure. So we would continue to ask you to be thinking and praying for us. We hope that this finds you all well, and please know that we would love to host any of you who would like to come and experience Malawi!
God Bless,
John and Dawn Kopp
