After 2 days of travel my team has finally left El Salvador and we have settled in to our new loving home, Malawi. Within the first week of living here, I have already experienced the Lord in ways that I have never felt before. Malawi is an incredibly beautiful country. The dancing, the mountains, the children are all so amazing to me. It definitely feels like I am in “the warm heart of Africa” (which is what all the locals will tell you).
When we first stepped off the plane in Malawi I really had no idea what to expect. Looking around me at first it pretty much looked like we were dropped off in the plains of Oklahoma. Everything was flat at first glance, but we were super eager to get through customs, so we did not pay much attention to our entire surroundings. Once my team got through the gates, we met our wonderfully happy host, Harvey. He is the head pastor of the organization Harvesters Ministries (the organization we will be doing ministry with during our month here) and we headed off with him to sleep at his house. We are blessed with the ability to be sleeping in little houses on actual beds after sleeping on the floor and in hammocks for the past three months.
Our first ministry day came very quickly. We were all still pretty jet lagged and tired but the excitement of the idea of evangelism pushed out any thought of exhaustion for me. I had no idea what evangelism looked like here, I was just eager to learn. So Harvey, my team, and three translators all made our to our first village. As we drove in our little van that is definitely not made to seat people 6 feet tall, we gazed out past the fields of dirt to see beautiful mountain ranges. We then realized that the village we were going to was at the base of one of the mountains. After about a 45 minute drive we arrived and all piled out of the van to meet the people living in the grass and mud huts. All the children ran up to us obviously very curious but still somewhat skeptical because supposedly we were the first white people they had ever seen. After some hand signals and some words that sound like complete gibberish we successfully got all the kids to run up to the top of a big rock hill with us. At the top of the hill we all got in a big circle and they started to sing their native songs and dance in the middle of the circle. I can not stress to you enough, this was seriously one of my favorite moments I have ever had in my life! Nothing but pure joy and beauty.
After we came down from the mountain, Harvey split us up into two groups. He gave both groups a translator and told us to go preach. So without a second to think about what to say, we were now put on the spot to teach these people about our Lord Jesus Christ. I went off with three of my other teammates until we found a couple of men and women from the village sitting together on the ground. Our translator stopped us and said, “okay what do you guys have to say?”
It was quite a learning experience for me to completely just speak through the Holy Spirit. We all said some really good messages that I feel as though the Lord definitely worked through in that community. By the end of speaking there were probably 30 people sitting around listening to us. The people were obviously very hungry to hear the word of God, and also very new to the Christian family. For example, a man asked the question “is it okay for people to pray while standing?” Hearing that question really brought to light the importance of the work that we are doing to my mind.
We made some amazing connections with the people in that first village and I am so excited to see what God has in store for us next. We will continue to go to new villages every day spreading the gospel to the natives. I don’t know what’s going to happen but I love Malawi so far and I feel more connected to God than I ever have.
