This month in Malawi has been everything I could have ever hoped for and so much more!
“The Lord is good…All the time…. All the time… The Lord is good, especially to me and that’s his nature… WOW!!!” (I like the Malawi version!)
There is are certain thoughts about Africa that I have both dreamed of, and dreaded at the same time. I heard of the lifestyle that comes with living in rural Africa, and people who live in mud huts, cooking by fire, and using squatty potties. All things that I both hoped and feared to experience. Here in Malawi I was able to get a small taste of everything I hoped for through our time at crusades (the rest of the time we spent with more comforts that we have had in all of these 5 months, which I was thankful for too!).
The day after we arrived in Blantyre (finally!… see my blog about TIA) We packed up and left for an overnight crusade. After about an hour drive, on mostly dirt roads we arrived at a village that looked just as you would picture a village in Africa. We gathered our things and set up our tents in a classroom. At first we terrified the children, (but then again running after them growling maybe wasn’t the best introduction) as they observed us more and found us to be playing most of them came around
While the women started up the fires to prepare dinner, I was pulled aside with another wor
ld racer by a member of the ministry and we were taken to meet the village head chief. We were following through with the proper
protocol to ask permission to hold our program that evening. We met his family, and asked him questions about his role, and invited him the service.
We went back to the school and prepared for the service, through prayer and worship. We circled up holding hands, alternating American, Malawian, American, Malawian (if there were two Americans together we were always rearranged), and we sang to our God and prayed for his presence to be known at the service. Circling up like this and singing with no music, just voices, and the different
way that they sing here, and just the passion with which they sing has been very moving, and memorable for me.
Our service took place in an open field where the ministry set up a sound system to a generator. We started worshiping and dancing and by the time we sat down for the message there were probably around 400 people around, with probably around 150 people sitting around the edge of the field, just close enough to hear the message. We were so pleased to see the head chief arrive and sit in the front. 
After the messages shared we prayed for people who needed prayers. People of all ages and all needs came to the front to be prayed for. Actually everyone waited to be prayed for. I was shocked by the number of children who came to us for prayer in their struggle with witchcraft. A struggle that we have seen to be a theme throughout the villages we have been to this month. Some children have told us that they are abused if they do not participate in witchcraft and they are beat for attending our services. This harsh reality has challenged us to trust Lord in a new way. We feel helpless, so we must trust that as we do everything God calls us to do that He will care for them beyond that. I have become more accustom to trusting the Lord with my life, but trusting Him with the life of another in this way has been more difficult than I would have imagined. He has proven to be nothing but faithful, so I am learning.
During the next day we were welcomed all over as we walked from house to house visiting with the villagers and sharing more personal messages. At other crusades this time was spent visiting a hospital, or teaching English at a school, but we finished the crusade with another program. We packed u
p and headed back towards Blantyre, but on the way we stopped to drop some materials for the next crusade, and as we did our spirits were lifted as we arrived to people from the ministry singing praises to our God, dancing and celebrating the victories of the crusade.
“Ehhhhh…. my God is good oh….Ehhhh…. My God is good oh!”
We danced and sang along side them and we were hooked! With a start like that you can imagine the places the Lord has taken us in this months time. Malawi is truly the warm heart of Africa, and it has stolen a place in my heart forever.
