Last month we worked with a ministry called Bethel Chapel Mission. It was wonderful and stretching. One week we did ministry in the bush; this is our story.
First. By bush let me explain.
Let’s say you are a small country town, now drive out to the sticks. Nice right? Well, lets go a little further to the boondocks- nothing but farms as far as you can see and a few wooded areas. So we’re out pretty far now right? Not far enough though. Lets take about another hour and a half trip to the middle of nowhere. Now we’re getting close. After the middle of nowhere there’s a bit of a jaunt or two, maybe another two hours, and now you’re probably as close as you can get without actually coming to the bush.
Now that you have joined let’s begin.
Sunday: We had church in Blantyre at the main branch of Bethel Chapel. Katia and I led the Bible study on the spot.- Church looks like intercessory prayer at 8am, Bible Study, Worship and prayer, Message, worship and prayer, Offering message, offering, prayer, maybe another main message, worship and prayer, announcements, and finally prayer and shaking everyone’s hands.- Our contact’s daughter-in-law made everyone a big lunch.
Monday: This was typically our off day but weused it this week to pack and grocery shop for the week in the bush. Finally left in a minibus for Nosolo, the first village we would minister in. It was a beautiful drive and when we arrived we were greeted on the road by the people singing and dancing. They did that all the way to the house we stayed at. Spent the evening setting up camp. We decided it was safer to stay in our tents than in the house.
Tuesday: Be careful what you tell God. I told Him I’d get up for Morning Glory if He woke me. Apparently God wanted me at Morning Glory. I did get to see the sunrise though. We held a seminar for the leaders of the church. It went fairly well. We each had a different topic: Inner Healing- Tom, How to Resolve Confict- K, Church Growth- me, Why/How to Involve Children in the Church- Jesse, How to Support the Church- Ben, and How to Grow Spiritually- Katia. That evening the locals (lots of children) took us to the Shire River (pronounced Sheeree but we ignore that ;)).
Wednesday: Morning Glory. We held a children’s program this afternoon. We played games, did skits, sang songs, and taught the Gospel message. Kennedy our translator/honorary member of the Fellowship lead music because the children didn’t speak English. We learned a Chichewa song though- Zikomo. It means thank you. That night Katia taught the kids to sing God is so Good in English. Also The village had all night prayer and worship which made it quite hard to sleep. When you can’t beat ’em join ’em. K and I went and it was a lot of fun. I was very blessed even though I didn’t feel good going into it.
Thursday: We attended a goodbye service that turned out to be a full on Sunday service, complete with at lease two sermons. Packed up and said goodbyes. We were headed further in the bush to Phala. Our mode of transportation? A large truck piled with goods for shops along the way, our packs and twelve people hanging on for dear life. It was fun in a terrifying type way. We did see monkeys along the way.
Phala was beautiful and felt more peaceful than anywhere else I had been in Malawi.
Friday: Morning Glory (I’m telling you, God will keep His end of a bargin). We broke the leaders seminar into two parts. Did the first part today. Afterwards I prayer walked the church and camp area. I got to sing and dance with children! It made me heart so happy. That evening we attended an open air revival Tom and Rachel both spoke and we prayed over people at the end of the evening. The stars in Phala were so beautiful!
Saturday: This was our last day and we packed it full. Leader’s seminar in the morning. There were many questions that seemed odd, but to the people they were valid. Jesse invited the adults to the children’s program, because they were quite interested in her topic. Children’s program after lunch, and another open air revival. The revival was my favourite part. We all danced and worshipped together and the setting was beautiful! The children all surrounded our tents that night so we decided to have some fun. We taught them how to make the sounds of rain, the wave, and We Will Rock You. Again amazing beautiful, wonderful, only-God-can-do-this stars.
I absolutely loved our week in the bush. It reminded me that God is everywhere, and His people are desperate to hear from Him.
