Adventures WorldRace SethBarnes Sponsorship Giving

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On Tuesday morning we left Zomba to go to a town about 5 hours away to preach and share the word with the people there. We traveled in a small flatbed truck with 20 people in it. It was real interesting trying to get 20 people and 20 people’s stuff in such a small space, but we managed. Of course, we got stopped at every police roadblock between here and there, and we were quite a sight to bee seen by everyone along the road.

Along the way we stopped to give a message at a small village inside a sugar farm and we were greeted with running children and songs. Some of the children were a little skiddish around us. They would run up and get pretty close, but would not want to shake our hands. Willie said that many people around there had never seen white people before and were afraid that if they touched one they would turn white. The adults had no such fears and were extremely welcoming.

After leaving there we got maybe 20 minutes out of town and our truck broke down. One of the drivers went to town to get a mechanic and the rest of us stayed around the truck. There was a huge crowd that gathered to see the “Azungos” or white people. Turns out we were stuck exactly where God wanted us. We played with the kids and sang song with the adults. The man whose house we stopped directly in front of was wanting to start a church.

Well Medson is a bishop and got to talk to him for a while about it and arranged to meet with him on the way back to give him a bible. Now bibles are precious here in Malawi. The official language here is English, but the people here speak Chichiwa as their primary language. In most rural villages, the only person in town with a bible is the pastor at the church. We even met a pastor who did not have a bible. He had been doing a funeral and left his bible, when he went back it was gone. I told my parents about this problem and their Sunday school took up and offering to help buy bibles here in Malawi. They raised enough money to buy 60 bibles!!!When I told Medson he jumped up and danced out of joy. I wish I had it on camera.

 

We finally arrived in Chindoko about 11 hours after we left and set up our tents in a courtyard with probably a hundred spectators that just wanted to see us. It was real weird setting up my tent in the dark with 20 different people trying to help, but it was much weirder trying to sleep with a bunch of kids staring at me. It was too hot to sleep with my rain fly on and my tent is all mesh so they could see everything in my tent, including me as I slept. They say to not have any expectations when you come on the race but I never expected to be treated like a celebrity in Africa. I really don’t like being the center of attention and miss the last two months in Europe where instead of sticking out like a sore thumb, I would have to try to explain to people in my terrible Romanian that I don’t speak their language.
 
 

 
If you want to take a picture, you have to do it fast or you will be mobbed by kids.  Also, our trusty truck.
The next morning, we traveled about an hour away to do another program. In the village, there was no church building, but there was a huge tree we meet under. Once again the people were welcoming, but some of the kids were afraid to touch us. When we arrived back where we were staying, we were greeted just outside of town by the largest group of running children I have ever seen. They had been waiting about a half mile outside of town to greet us and run after our truck. We had a short program in town then went to bed, once again with a large group of spectators.

The last day we had a morning and afternoon program in our village and then headed out. We stopped back at the house we broke down in front of and the only bible Medson had to give him was his own. So he gave the man his own bible and promised to come back to help him with starting the church.