Ok so now that I have been here in Zomba for two weeks, I figure I might as well explain what it is that we are doing here. We are working with Medson Gama, probably the most lively and Yoda-like man of God I have ever met in my entire life. He has literally opened up his home and his life to us. I am just getting back from a market trip with his wife Rose where she negotiated quite the deal for us girls to get fabric for skirts so that we maybe fit in (except for the white skin thing…). Medson is the Bishop of the Euro-African Baptist Church here in southern Malawi. He is also the pastor of the local church. So for the past three Sundays we have been going to his church to worship as well as give testimonies, preach and sing. The first week, once we finally got to Zomba we spent in and around Zomba doing door-to-door evangelism, prayer, visiting. In that week we were able to pray with a woman whose husband (Amos) was in the hospital with cancer and that weekend we went to visit and he was home! Not completely healed, but God brought him home to be with his family! There was another woman (Maisandi) who was ripe for the picking and we were able to pray with her and welcome her to the family!! Praise God! We threw a dance party right then and there, just think 8 people crammed into a little room just jazzed for Jesus…no sweet moves but many happy hearts. We visited a ton of people and then went on day trips into a few nearby villages and shared God’s Word, worshipped, prayed, shared how God’s working in our lives…I don’t think I will ever be able to worship God without an epic tribal drum beat in the background!!
In the next week, we took a three day trip to Chindoko in Chikwawa, Malawi. At one point we were about 2 km from the Mozambique border. We did more of the same in these three days. The first day was all travel…shouldn’t have been…but it was. We headed out of Zomba at 10:30 am or so and stopped in Blantyre (about an hour south) to pick up some food and supplies. All this time we are traveling in the heat of the day…did I mention that there were 20 people plus a few days luggage and food packed into the back of a flatbed truck? It was probably the most hilarious thing to see, and at times it was funny to be in, but once you lost feeling in a limb and knew there was no where else for it to go…not as funny, but we all stayed pretty positive considering…. We went a few hours out of our way to visit a church that had been started on a sugar plantation back in August…IT WAS HUGE there were SOOO many people there ready to worship and hear the Word. We got back from this excursion and continued on down the road, it was getting later and we only had about 1.5 hours left in our trip and two more churches to stop at…and our truck broke down. We spent two hours on the side of the road while the drivers and people nearby helped to fix the transmission. Meanwhile Willy P. one of the pastors at Medson’s church was speaking to a man living in the house right by where we broke down and he said that he was willing to start a church right there…right next to his house, all he needed was a Bible. Perhaps I should take this opportunity to share that Medson is affiliated with Harvesters International Ministries (H.I.M.) which is focused on establishing churches in villages all over the world by raising up people within said villages to establish and pastor a church. So who but God knew that we would find someone so ready!! We finally arrived long after sundown and quickly got to the place we were staying and set up our tents. The next day we went to different villages in the surrounding area and preached, worshiped, shared testimonies, and prayed over people. It was our true African experience. I loved every minute of it!! Except not having water…I mean we did, but not all the time like we do at Medson’s and so many of us got dehydrated. Not to the point of death, obviously but we got to a point where we would do anything for water. It consumed our minds. We couldn’t think about anything else…and we all thought to when Jesus says that he is the Living Water, and how blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness…and we realized what it is truly like to desire soooo hard after God. We would so much rather have God consume our minds, our focus, our passions, that we would do anything for him! I think a few of drank some questionable water in the meantime…because when we got home a few of us, ok Team Truth was sick with fevers and diarrhea and a few of us threw up…not a pretty picture, but God couldn’t have had better timing. We have basically had this whole weekend to rest and get hydrated and cleaned out. God continues to grow us together and toward him…there is so much more to say but no one will read much more for now…so peace and love!!
