This last month in Africa was by far my favorite! Team Wildfire was back together for one last time in Malawi. This month we had what is called ATL or “Ask The Lord”. ATL basically means that we are in control of finding a place to live, a ministry, and really just trusting God to provide for us for the whole month. One of the sayings we have been told many times is, “Ministry is life and life is ministry”. So we were tasked with being the first team to figure out how exactly we can make our life ministry.
We started out the first week by just living our lives. One of my teammates Ben has an aunt that lives in Malawi, so we were blessed to be able to live with her during this month. We made different connections with people, prayed about what He wanted us to do, and just took everything one day at a time. There were a couple different ministry opportunities that we all wanted to do, so we started to set up our month.
After the first week, we decided as a team that we wanted to hike Mount Mulanje for one of our ministry opportunities. We left our beautiful home in Lilongwe and traveled about 5 hours to the mountain. We got a guide, 2 porters to help us carry our bags, and a chef to come with us on the climb. Let me tell you, the first two days of hiking were ROUGH! I thought my legs were gonna give out and I was going to plummet off of the mountain.
But despite my quads crying out for help, we had some great conversations with the people we were with and the people we met. We ended up having a bible study night 2 and 3. It was amazing to see the different people God brought to us to minister to and really just converse with. We started to see that our lives really can be ministry. Something fun we wanted to do, God ended up using for His glory.
That weekend I ended up getting really sick, so I was out pretty much the whole time leading up to Thanksgiving. It definitely wasn’t the best week of my life, but I was super grateful for all the rest I got and the quick recovery I had. Luckily, I was pretty much completely healed by Thanksgiving day. We had an amazing Thanksgiving with our new family and friends that we met and for sure ate way too much food.
Our last week in Malawi we spent in a refugee camp. We partnered with a couple living in the camp to help out with their various ministries there. We preached at the local churches, helped cook and clean, planted seeds and crops in one of their fields, prayed and encouraged some of the disabled people living in the camp, and so much more. We also danced our hearts out one night at the African style church in the camp. I’ve never been more sweaty in my life!
We went into the camp with the mindset of trying to help and bless the people living there. But instead, we left that week far more blessed and encouraged than we went in. It was amazing to see and talk to the people living in that refugee camp. Despite their circumstances, they were living in such joy, peace, and hope for what the Lord has for them. It’s the type of joy, peace, and hope that I pray I take with me every day. Our hosts were two of the most amazing people I have ever met and they are doing such great ministry in that camp. It was by far my favorite week out of all of Africa and a week I will remember forever.
This month my team and I learned that ministry really can be our everyday lives. Every day we got to choose whether or not we would follow what He has for us. We took hold of the little moments and prayed that He would lead us and bring us the people we were suppose to love on. Ministry doesn’t have to be scheduled or forced. Just by living our lives and seizing the small moments that came up, we were doing ministry. By being nice to others and loving the people around us, we were doing ministry.
Our last month in Africa was by far my favorite. This was also the last month I got to do life with my amazing teammates, Adam, Tenaya, Ben, and Alicia. I will miss my team Wildfire for sure. But i’m also super excited to see all that Asia and my new team, Bachelorettes In Paradise, has in store. Thank you everyone for the endless support and love, it means the world to me. Vietnam here we come!!!
