Well our time for ministry this month in Malawi has come to a close. Looking back on the month, it was packed with some preaching, house visits, prayers for healing, singing, socializing, etc. Sit back and take a few minutes to read about our fun month!
When we arrived here in Zomba, Malawi, about 5 minutes after getting to know our contact, we KNEW that it was going to be a fun month. I’ll give you a little info as to what our contacts are like. Our main contact is Medson Gama. He is a Malawian man in his late 50’s and is absolutely on fire for the Lord. He has been a preacher for quite a while now, and has planted over 40 churches in the surrounding areas. Seeing him translate or preach is an absolute spectacle. He has such a fire for the Word of the Lord that he can’t help but jumping up and down, dancing, screaming, running down the aisles, etc. When he is not preaching or translating, he is one of the most peaceful down to earth men you will ever meet. Being able to spend time and get to know him has been an absolute blessing. Another contact we had this month was Willie Pompi, later nicknamed “Willie P” by all the racers. Willie P really enjoyed his new nickname! Willie may actually be the craziest contact we have had on the race, but nevertheless his fire for the Lord is just as obvious as Medson’s. He works at the hospital and is the head of the ambulance fleet. He makes sure they are always operational and going where they need to go. This worked out to our favor in two ways this month. A lot of times, we would get rides in the back of ambulances when it would have costed money to get to where we needed to go. Also, hospital visits were essentially free. I had to pay 20 Kwacha (15 cents) on my visit. I received an examination and two different types of medicine. Try getting that price in America! Another one of our contacts was Mbango. He was the one that helped us out with all the door to door ministry we did. He is one of the most genuine and humble men you will ever meet. He was always willing to take us places and have us over to his home. I got to go to his home twice, and both times he supplied Fantas, bananas, and either cookies or bread and peanut butter. His home was also the first time I ever ate a bug. Yeah I ate a fried flying ant! Don’t think I’m weird or anything, but it was actually quite good. Mbango served in the Malawian army for 21 years, and fought in Mozambique and went to Rwanda as a peacekeeper during the genocide. All three of these men serve at the same church, and their love for each other and their congregation is obvious.
On to what our ministry was like. Our ministry was almost a 50/50 picture. Half of our time in Malawi we were preaching and the other half of our time we did door to door evangelism. In total, our group of 13 racers easily preached to over 2,500 people in our time here in Malawi. It was really our first month that we were asked to preach on a consistent basis. It was nice to actually be able to preach and have to dig into the Word because you always had to have a word to give to the people to encourage them. If we were not preaching we were visiting houses. In these visits we saw quite a few say they wanted a relationship with Jesus, many people ask for (and receive!!!) healing, etc. This was a great way for us to build relationships, and over the last couple of days all of these people have been stopping by our house to see us before we leave. Looking back this was one of the most eventful months that we have had so far on the race. It will be good to look back on this month and see all of the seeds that we planted. Not that that’s what the race is about, but it will still be nice to look back and see the fruits of our work in the future. The Lord definitely blessed our time here in Malawi! Hope the next one is even better!!
