I am currently living with Pastor Frederick and Matilda Manjandima in their tiny Malawian home along with my five teammates. When we first got here we just had to laugh at the fact that two of us are sharing what is basically a toddler bed in one room, and the other four are sharing a double bed in the other. There are more cockroaches in our little house than I have ever seen in my life, and some of them are over two inches long. Water and electricity have proven to be unstable, and all of these things have made this our most difficult living situation yet. It certainly took a bit of adjusting! On the plus side, this is the first month that my team has been alone in ministry since the DR and that has been a true blessing.
This has been a month of stretching and growth. On our first day, we were told we were to wake every morning at 4:30 am for morning devotions. Being someone who literally does not function at this early of an hour, I objected to this immediately. But thankfully, we made a schedule and I only have to be up that early every third day.
Our ministry this month is door to door evangelism, open-air preaching and women empowerment. For women empowerment we are teaching the basics of a successful business and I am teaching the women to make wrapped rock jewelry out of the beautiful quartz that is a natural resource of this country and is easily found in their front yards. Our hope is they will be able to sell the jewelry to tourists to help support their families. It is very common here for men to have several children with a woman and then abandon her without any support or knowledge of how to earn it for herself.
My prayer muscle is certainly being built up this month. Outside of the 4:30 am devotions, we also pray before each meal, before we leave the house, when we return, before bed, as we walk and with each person we meet while doing door to door ministry. I pray out loud in a group of people 20-50 times a day. Its been a wonderful experience. My faith is growing, my relationship with the Lord is more intimate, and I feel filled up spiritually.
Mama Matilda fasts twice a week, on Tuesdays and Saturdays, and on one of these days she travels to a mountain, climbs to the top and spends the day in prayer. This week Annie and I decided to fast and go to the mountain with her. I knew climbing it would be difficult, but I thought since I’ve lost 50 lbs and work out almost every day, I would be fine. I was wrong. I did make it to the top of the mountain, but I had to rest every five minutes, paid a young boy to carry my bag and, at one point, literally passed out for a minute or two. I have only fasted two other times while on the Race, mostly because what we eat is already so much less than in the States. And so, after pushing my body to its limit, by the end of the day I was wiped out. Even so, I’m so glad I was able to have that experience. It was such a beautiful time of worship and prayer, and I will always remember it.
Though my faith has grown since coming here, I still look at my hosts and am in awe of their lifestyle. Their devotion to prayer, encouraging their community and spending intimate time with the Lord exceeds anything I have ever known before. When I fast, I still drink water. Mama, on the other hand, does what she calls a “dry fast” on a regular basis, putting nothing in her body for sometimes up to seven days. Scientifically, the human body cannot live without water for seven days. When I told her this, she said that was where it takes faith; that’s where the miracle is. She says at the end of these fasts is when she is able to see visions, and I couldn’t help but think, “Yep, I would see visions too if I was on the cusp of death by dehydration.” I’ve never even heard of faith as extreme as what I’ve seen and experienced here. Its a struggle for me to comprehend the logic behind this sort of fast or waking at 4:30 every morning to pray. But the Lord is working inside of me to help me see through their eyes, to understand what drives them to this kind of living and to bring my own faith to a new level.
