I’m lying here on a trampoline outside our room in Nelspruit, South Africa where our squad is decompressing from the 45 hour bus ride and getting ready for Swaziland; and I’m trying to find words that can explain what Jesus did this month in Malawi. My team and I are in this beautiful place of humbly knowing that none of this happened because of us, we were blessed just to be used by God and to be a small part of what He is doing in His Kingdom.
Before we even arrived at Nkhata Bay, we prayed as a team that God would bring us people who want to hear about the Good News of Jesus and that people would be divinely placed in our path. God answered our prayers so much more than we expected. The very first day we did “ATL” ministry, God forged friendships with some of the most seemingly unlikely people in Malawi. We prayed beforehand to see if God had any specific instructions for us. Jacquie heard the name James, Karen heard we were supposed to go to the prison, and we felt like we needed to just walk and pray over the little town of Nkhata. So we left and we walked. We live on a steep hill, so the walk into town is a bit of a hike up and down big hills. There is a little short-cut through maize fields and the forest that comes out onto the main road going into town; we take that path and emerge out on the road just above where the “vendors” stands are. We always call them the vendors, but I think they actually call themselves the carvers. Anyway, as we’re walking into town, it’s impossible to walk by these guys without them noticing and trying to get you to come into their shops to look at their wares. No one understands that just because we’re white people, doesn’t mean we have money, but I digress. Jacquie and I end up going into one of the shops and we meet Alex, who shows us his paintings and asks why we are in Malawi. Which automatically leads us to Jesus. Jesus, who Alex has never heard of before. Jacquie and I look at each other and share this look that says “ok, I have no idea where to start or what to say.” So we started from the beginning. Literally we started at creation and went to Jesus. Somewhere in the middle of this conversation, a guy who has been sitting outside the shop listening (who turns out to be Alex’s business partner) comes in to ask us question about Jesus and what we’re talking about. I leave Alex and Jacquie to talk to him. He asks me a few questions and tells me that he grew up Muslim, but he didn’t practice that. His name? James. I met James not 30 minutes after God had told us about him. Sometime while I was talking to James, Alex has heard enough about Jesus and he decides to give his life to Christ! We left to walk into town after that, but this was the start of many beautiful friendships.
Every time we passed the vendors after that day, we stopped to talk. Sometimes we went just to talk to them. Alex and a couple other vendors wanted us to come and teach them about the Bible, so we went a couple of times to hang out with them and read the Bible and talk about passages and answer any questions they had. But it was never just Alex and a couple others; it was pretty much ALL of the vendors, there were never less than 15 of them there. They never mentioned us buying stuff from them, but welcomed us in to talk about God. These guys asked really good questions about church and the Bible and the Law and struggles in their lives and culture, and somehow God provided us with the answers every time. Malawi culture has a huge problem with abusing alcohol and this came up in a lot of conversations. I also learned that there is a lot of corruption in many of the churches there and so much division based on denominations and insignificant differences in doctrine. Like sometimes in America, church got in the way of people believing in and following Jesus. These guys were excited when we told them that Jesus is different than they thought and that church was meant to be different too. The vendors are not the group you would think would want to hear the gospel. It’s easy to look at them and assume that they won’t want to hear the Gospel because they seem happy living the party life, but when we told them that Jesus loved them, they responded and wanted more.
The second time we had Bible study with the vendors, they started with worship…something we had never mentioned. Children walking by on the street were lovingly pulled in by these grown men. They gave up their seats for the children to come in and hear the teaching of God. Women were welcomed in too. Although Alex was the only one who had officially accepted Christ at this point, I think maybe many of them had already decided in their hearts because they were a perfect demonstration of what happens when you meet Jesus and encounter His forgiveness….you can’t wait to bring others into that and share the goodness of Jesus with them. We were always sad to leave them at the end of our time, but always looking forward to rounding the corner on the street and seeing their faces light up when they saw us coming for a chat.
The third time we stopped by to have Bible time with our new friends, it was the same story… worship, prayer, pulling in women and children off the street, asking us to read and teach, and taking up offering. Wait…offering? That was new. James explained to us that they were taking up an offering to give to the poor people in the community. WHAT? We didn’t tell them to do that either. God must have. We walked in thinking we were there for Bible study and instead walked into a church that we had unknowingly planted. So we know beyond a doubt that it wasn’t us, but God who formed that church and placed His word in the vendor’s hearts. They didn’t even have Bibles, but they were following Jesus. The last time we got to visit and have “church” with them under the little grass roofed shed, we talked about following Jesus and giving up your life to follow Him and we ended with asking them if anyone wanted to officially accept Jesus into their hearts. I don’t know the number, but I know the vast majority of them prayed that day to declare Jesus as their Lord and Savior. My friend James was the first one to raise his hand when we asked…he was basically sitting on the edge of his seat just waiting for us to ask.
We have such a great hope for this little church that God created. Our last day in Nkhata Bay was very bitter sweet. We said goodbye to our friends and cried a bit as we left. Alex had printed up a list of all of the names of the people in the church. There were 42 names and a little note on there from “The Vendor Church” of thanks and love. This month was so short, but God did so much in the 2 and a half weeks we spent in Nkhata. I’m never going to forget those guys or what I saw God do in their lives. Pray for these guys, that God upholds them and that they don’t become corrupt as the other churches are.
By the way, we spent a long time looking for Bible in the area to give to the church. Each time we went in circles. But we ended up having to leave early to go back to Lilongwe to get our visas to travel through Mozambique, which means we had extra time to find the place that my mom had found online that sold Bibles there. It just happened to be in the part of the city that we could walk to and new about. We bought 50 Bibles and mailed them out, trusting that God would provide the money. 40 of them went to the Vendor Church, 2 to workers at Butterfly, and 8 to the prison. They arrived a couple days ago and have gone out to the people they were meant for. As of today, Easter, God has provided every bit of the $400 to pay for them. Can’t believe all that my Jesus has done this month!
