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As I stood there in the border office, I studied the picture hanging on the wall of the President of Malawi. He looked peaceful, strong, and humble… and I had the feeling that I might actually get along well with the guy. The border office in Malawi was comparably well kept, and the office staff was friendly… not something that we had experienced as we came into Zambia, or Namibia. I just sensed peace here. We got our passports stamped and went through customs with no problems. “Welcome to Malawi”, they told us, and we drove through.
Immediately upon crossing that border, I felt warmth and peace. Driving through the countryside, people walked along the side of the road with a demeanor of tranquility. The women were dressed in brightly colored skirts and carried large buckets on their heads-with no hands. That’s impressive… The men rode their bicycles, and wore smiles on their faces. Everywhere we looked, there was lush, green vegetation, and rolling hills in the distance. As Matt always says, “T.I.A., people. T.I.A…”, which when translated means, “This is Africa, people…This is Africa…”
We stayed in the city of Blantyre that night and rested before meeting Pastor Duncan the next afternoon. Around 2pm we began towards Mulanje, which is down south in Malawi. We passed vast tea fields, and had I no idea that THAT color green even existed. Bright, vibrant, glistening… fenced by toothpick trees exploding on top with deep, dark leaves that appeared to dance in the wind. The landscape seemed to be reaching up from the ground, and to me, the trees resembled hands that stretched to touch the heavens… my spirit remembered that even the rocks and trees worship the Lord God. I was in a worship service with rocks, tea leaves, and trees, and Tazz.
The road curved up to reveal a massive mountain far in the distance, and my breath was literally taken away. I gasped, “Look at that thing!! Its HUGE!!…” We kept getting closer and closer to the mountain as we followed the directions Pastor Duncan had given us until, within the hour, we were basically at the base of it. There we pulled over and met a short black man wearing a long Africa shirt, slack pants and dull shoes, Pastor Duncan. He greeted me and the team and we hopped back in our car to follow him to his home in the Phalombe District, which he explained was quite a drive away.
Tazz took us off the main tar road and onto a bumpy red dirt one lined with leaning trees that trailed the base of the mountain. I asked Pastor Duncan what the mountain was called, and said that it was Mount Mulanje, the third largest mountain in Africa. Who knew… that we would be living at the base of the third largest mountain in Africa for two weeks.
We reached Pastor Duncan’s home about 2 hours later after the sun had gone down. He invited us in, gave us the tour, and showed us where we would be sleeping, one room of the guys and one for the gals. We met his three young boys, and his wife, Maggie, who is very pregnant and about 3 weeks away from delivering. Then we sat together in the living room and talked with the Pastor about the needs in the school, the church, and the orphanage and how we could serve over the next two weeks. I told him that we had no money or materials to give, but we came with hands, feet, and hearts to serve them, so whatever we could offer, we would with our whole hearts.
That night he gave us a brief tour of the grounds, and met his right hand man, Damson Samson. Pastor Duncan’s home is on the same property of the secondary school (which is their high school), as well as is a dormitory for about 40 girls who study there, and the homes of some of the teachers and directors. They hope to someday build a building of dormitories for the boys as well, because many of the students travel for hours in the morning just to come to school.
Pastor Duncan explained some things about the Malawi culture, and shared that the way most people earn income is through farming crops. However, this last year has been horrible for the crops, and therefore many people are suffering… including the orphans. Just a few months ago, they had to shut down the orphanage because there were not enough funds to feed the children, so they sent them to live in nearby host huts.
We woke up the next morning to take a tour of the secondary school, and Pastor Duncan introduced us to all of his students in each classroom, explaining to them that we were here to help them improve their English and also to tutor in any subject they needed help in. He encouraged the students to be open to learning “many new things”…
Around noon, we made out way over to the church, about 4 kilometers away on a red dirt road. People road by on their bikes, and women carried their big buckets on their heads… it still impresses me. When we arrived at the church, there were about 100 people there waiting for us. We taught, we preached, we shared our testimonies, Meredith and I sang, and we spent about 4 hours just meeting with God’s people, just sharing in what I imagine the early Acts churches did… true fellowship. There was freedom there… no regiments, no boxes, no agendas, other than to just meet together and be the Body of Christ by encouragement.
Maggie had been busy all day long toiling over our dinner, which consisted of rice, hardboiled eggs in tomato sauce, and potatoes. They had put out their very best for us, and I was humbled at how freely they shared what little they did have. Most of the time, the people in this village can only afford to eat maez, a corn ground type of filler with not much taste to it. But they are thankful for it… All that they eat comes from the earth and animals; none of this processed junk we eat so much of in America. I actually became very fond of it…
By the end of the second day in Migowi, Malawi, I felt at home. I fell in love with the students, the orphans, the church, and the Malawi sky… never in my entire life have I seen a sky so bright, with stars so close, and a moon that is so huge… I could see the details of Mount Mulanje in the distance, with luminescent, rolling clouds coasting by. I decided to make a habit of taking evening walks…
Isaiah 61: 3-4~~~
