Hello everyone! We had very limited access to wifi in Malawi, and every time we had it we had to pay for 30 minute segments… therefore, I never wasted my time writing a blog 😉 BUT! Malawi was so awesome and definitely deserves a blog!
So let’s cut to the chase. The beginning of Malawi was very difficult, such a huge culture shock. We were unsure about who we were living with and what kind of doctrines they were teaching at their church, since it was so different from anything any of us have experienced.
Fountain of Holy Fire Ministries is the name of the ministry/church we were placed with, and they are SUPER Pentecostal. I mean, the congregation was dropping like flies every service, shaking and convulsing like crazy. The entire message was screamed, never spoken. There are about 60-70 people (mostly women) jammed into a tiny room. All the women sat on the floor with babies strapped to their backs and pulling out their boobs left and right, with like four men in chairs to the side. Not many men attend church, sadly. But when they do, they get to sit in chairs while the women are cast to the floor.
Another big culture shock.
Every service had at least 20 people that would start shaking and collapse to the floor yelling. Service was 5 hours long everyday except Sunday.
Needless to say, this is definitely something that none of us were used to, even those that had been to Pentecostal churches in America before. We were all uncomfortable with everything about Malawi. I know I was! Especially with all the yelling and falling down in every service.
After a week of being in Malawi, God gave me a vision… That sentence is so weird to say. “Vision” It sounds so supernatural and unreal. “Vision” It makes me sound overly Christian and crazy. “Vision” I drank the Kool-aid! But really… When I say “vision” I really could be saying: “I had a daydream…” or “I imagined…” or “in my head I saw…” So don’t feel freaked out when I say “God gave me a vision” What I’m really saying is I had a daydream, except I’m giving God the credit for putting the thought in my head… because let’s face it. He deserves all the credit.
Now. Back to Malawi!
So in Malawi we did a lot of cool mission work. We often went to minister to incredibly poor villages; but one specific time, God gave me a something that I will not soon forget.
Duncan, our pastor that we stayed with, was doing door-to-door ministry with us. At one point, he had drawn a crowd of about 40-45 people (I counted). They were so interested in what he had to say. A lot of people in these villages have never even heard of Jesus and what He did for us, so it blew their mind to realize that someone out there will always love them no matter what. Some people came up and wanted further prayer for themselves. We went with them into a house… if I can even call it that. It had 4 walls with a tin roof with holes in it. No windows, no floor, no electricity of course, no doors, just a walled structure with a dirt floor. About 10 of us stood in a circle, holding hands in that dark room as Duncan began to yell-pray in Chichewa, like usual.
I just closed my eyes trying to get through the screaming prayer, and God gave me a vision.
In my head, my imagination, my daydream, my vision, whatever you want to call it… I saw us all in that room, holding hands in a circle with Duncan yell-praying, just like he was in real life, except in my head I saw everyone falling to their knees at the sound of Duncan praying whatever he was praying in Chichewa. I opened my eyes and saw everyone still standing during the prayer.
“Hm” I thought, “Why did I just invision everyone in this prayer circle falling to their knees?”
Then God made it clear to me.
“They are falling to their knees because the yell-praying is speaking to them, Leah!” He said.
Just because this type of worship and prayer doesn’t help meeeee see God, it DOES help other people! Just because it doesn’t work for me, that doesn’t mean that it’s wrong. I’m not in America, I’m in Africa! I’m in Malawi! It’s a totally different world over here.
I’m not an incredibly “slain in the spirit” type of person, but in Africa a majority of people are. This continent is a super “spiritual Christian” type of continent.
For example: in America if someone has a headache, we take medicine and if that doesn’t work we’re like, “Oh God, make my headache go away!!!” In Africa if someone has a headache, they pray it away first, no meds required. Why do we go straight to modern medicine without trying prayer as a cure FIRST? I’ve prayed many headaches away on this World Race, and sometimes the answer to my prayer is “Take medicine. Love, God” But most of the time it doesn’t even get to that.
Sorry for digressing. Anyway!
At the time I had my vision, my entire team was in a really bad place with the ministry. Everyone knew that I would be uncomfortable because I was the only one in the group to have never experienced anything Pentecostal before, and yet I was the first one to find acceptance for what they were doing here. Funny, since I was the most uncomfortable one at the beginning. I shared what happened in my vision with the team and it definitely didn’t happen overnight, but eventually everyone found their acceptance in their own way. Although it was the hardest month living-wise so far, it was the month I grew the most. Therefore, I don’t think it would be fair to call Malawi the worst month. In many aspects it was the best month. In all honesty, Malawi is my favorite month so far.
Malawi is the poorest country in Africa and yet it has the nickname “The Warm Heart of Africa” because the people are so nice. They truly are. I would definitely go back to visit my Malawi family again, I loved it!
