Wow, I can’t believe my time in Africa has come to an end! We’ve been in Asia now for a few days, and I’ve finally found the time to sit down and reflect on this last month. I grew emotionally and spiritually (and maybe a little physically, too…carbs, carbs, and more carbs were all we were fed!)
We began our month having a mini debrief with the rest of our squad a couple hours outside of Lilongwe. One of our squadmate’s sisters lives at an orphanage, so he got to see her and we got to break out our tents.
Let me tell y’all, mango trees are E V E R Y W H E R E. It’s beautiful! Some of the kids climbed up the tree and knocked dozens of mangos down for us to eat. In one day, I probably ate 7 mangos. It was lovely.
It was during that time that I ended up in the clinic from being dehydrated, but that was a learning experience that I wouldn’t take back.
The day we were scheduled to leave, we were made donuts! We were all just minding our business and enjoying donuts when swarms of gnats came out of nowhere. I’m talking thousands and thousands of gnats-it looked and felt like we were in the book of Exodus! It was crazy. The food that was left out was covered in gnats, we were covered in gnats-it was just all around awful.
After taking a 3 hour trek back to Lilongwe, my team traveled another 4 hours to get to Zomba. Zomba was a predominately Muslim area, with mosques and Muslim schools on every corner. I heard the call to prayer for the first time ever-it was a very interesting experience.
We stayed with our host family- Pastor Gama and Ms. Rose. They were the cutest little couple who really reminded me of my grandparents. We worked with an organization called Harvester’s Bible College; lots of times we would minister to the locals who were enrolled in school to become pastors. Pastor Gama and us girls would walk to a pastors house, a village, or a church where the Bible school was held.
Ms. Rose and Pastor Gama! They were so cute! And for the record, I’m only 5’6…
Every day one of us would share the Word and encourage the people around us. It was beautiful, and something I won’t soon forget!
While we were out preaching, Ms. Rose would prepare our lunches and dinners. Most of the time that consisted of fried potatoes, plain spaghetti noodles, and green beans. Sometimes a hard boiled egg would be thrown in there, and occasionally a live chicken would be brought in the gate in the morning and served for dinner that night.
Malawi was amazing. While I went by many names: Brenda, Brando, Brendo-never Brandi Lol-I really enjoyed my time in Zomba. It was beautiful and so spiritual!
Now that Africa is over with and Asia is getting started, team changes has happened. I’m now on another all girls team, and I’m so excited for what the Lord has planned for this season in Southeast Asia!
See ya later, Tribe of Judah!
back to front: Liesl, Kacie, Brandi, Carley, Elaina, and Allison
Hello Mosaic!!
Back row: Kearstin, Brandi, Irma, Tenaya
front row: Jamie, Skylar, Erin
