The Holidays
For Christmas Eve Team Bamboo enjoyed watching Elf and thinking about snow. Then Pastor Gama and his wife, Rose, joined us in reading scripture about Jesus’ birth and sang Christmas carols as we celebrated this special night. Christmas morning we exchanged our secret Santa presents and throughout the day people would receive calls from home and got to catch up with family back home. William preached a great sermon at an indigenous church that afternoon. It was hard dealing with the distance and not having a reliable way to connect on the internet to make calls, but it was special having each other to lean on. I failed to get my family the phone number to reach me so no one in the States had any way of contacting me on Christmas day. That night I was overcome with sadness and I found a quiet spot in the side lawn to cry and pray for my family. The sky was cloudy and the tree I sat under hid most of the sky from my view anyway. But for a moment, I looked up and through a hole in the branches; I saw a small clearing of sky and a solitary star in the sky. In that moment God reminded me that He is always with me and sees me no matter what. In that moment the loneliness went away and I was in awe of the quiet beauty that He and I shared in the dark. He dried my tears and gave me peace and comfort so that I was able to sleep soundly that night. J
our World Race Christmas tree =P
The Labor
These past few weeks team Bamboo has been working with Pastor Gama and Harvesters International Ministries in Zomba. We would load up in the back of Mbengo’s pickup truck and drive out to a rural village. Often we were greeted at the road by a crowd of women and children singing praise and walking alongside us as we drove down the driveway to the church building. Each of us would share our testimonies with the pastors/leaders and congregation and then one of us would preach a sermon. For two weekends we were also able to pour encouragement into the youth groups at various churches. I spoke to young women and living kingdom dreams and living as a noble woman of God.
Malawi is such a beautiful country and I have loved every minute of being here. It was hard to say goodbye to Pastor Gama and Rose. They were such gracious hosts to us and gave us the best care in everything. It would be great to come back, but God knows this country has a special place in my heart. I’ve grown so much being here and I’ve come to appreciate the gifts and talents of my teammates so much more.
The Next Leg
Last night the squad reunited and we said goodbye to another squad member. My “twin sister”, Damaris, returned home today and will begin support raising so that she can come back to Malawi within 6 months and begin full-time ministry to build orphanages throughout the country. She will definitely be missed, but I’m excited about how God has been beginning this process since the beginning of the Race. God has big things in store for her! For the rest of the squad, we head out sometime tomorrow for 2 weeks of ministry back in Mozambique. I’m afraid I do not have details about our ministry there at this time, but we will be creating new teams so that we can get to know each other better during our ATL (Ask the Lord). These two weeks are designed for us to change things up a bit and work alongside others in the squad that we haven’t before.
Africa has been an amazing experience and it’s coming to a close really fast. God has been doing amazing things through our various ministries and projects. I love the thought that this new year is starting off with so many surprises and fresh starts!
