I am in love with Africa.
I am not, however, in love with Africa’s internet; hence my lack in blogs lately.
We spent our third month in Africa in Zomba, Malawi with our contact, Medsen; the coolest man in the world. Malawi has turned into my favorite country that we have been to – and easily the most beautiful. It’s tropical and mountainous and absolutely gorgeous.
All of the teams on our squad spent the month working with one contact, Harvesters International, but we were spread out all over the country. Team Bamboo worked alone for the month, in the southern region. At first, I was not particularly thrilled about our mission of the month. We were going to be leading seminars each day to leaders and preachers in the area. Each of us would have to speak daily – sharing from the Bible or a story from our life. At first, I thought this wasn’t my cup of tea. Turns out – I really like this cup of tea!
Each of my teammates and I spoke daily to packed churches. I mainly spoke on love. I love love. I generally talked about loving your neighbor and the golden rule and all that jazz. I went from being nervous to looking forward to my turn each day. I ended one of my sermons by saying, “I know this isn’t the most earth-shattering message you have ever heard, but I hope that it spoke to you in some way.” After the service, an older gentleman came up to me and said, “My Kelly, there is nothing more earth-shattering than love.” Amen, my older gentleman friend!
We were also given the chance to work with a lot of youth groups and women’s groups throughout the region. I used this opportunity to host “KNITTING EXTRAVAGANZA OH TEN.” I love knitting. Some people call me old, but I think this talent makes me rather groovy.
I have been knitting for many years now, and I usually knit scarves for friends and homeless people. During The Race, I have been knitting and keeping scarves in my back-pack and handing them out to any homeless people I encounter. (Even with the insane heat – African’s rock scarves a lot!) It has been amazing, and a great way to meet people on the street and show them some love.
Anyways – I decided to lead a knitting class with Kelly Kramp (my knitting prodigy!) during one of the women’s groups and it was a huge success. The women learned quickly, and are going to get together weekly to knit and sing songs! This was one of my favorite parts of this month. They told me they could also sell the scarves to help support their families!
During our time in Malawi, we celebrated Christmas and rang in the New Year. Since the beginning of The Race, I have been dreading the holidays. I knew I was going to miss my friends and family and all of the holiday festivities, but it turned out to be rather fun to have an African Christmas. We woke up in the morning and did Secret Santa’s amongst our team, and then we headed to church. It was the best present I could get to be able to talk to my mom, dad, brother, and future-sister-in-law on the phone.
Here is a picture of Team Bamboo (plus William!) on Christmas day:
The New Year marked our squad entering our eighth month on the field. We will be in Africa until the end of January when we will head to Southeast Asia for the last leg of our journey. It seems insane! But we are looking forward to shattering the rest of the world with love 😉
As always – much love to the homeland. I hope you guys had an AMAZING Christmas (complete with snow, from what I hear! I am jealous – it was in the upper 90’s here!), and I hope that you have an incredible New Year!! Love you.
Also – if you’re looking for some belated Christmas wishes, please watch our Bamboo Christmas video that we made. I’ll be home for Christmas … next year! Love you 🙂
