As most of you know we spent most of July and part of August in Malawi. It’s hard for me to even know where to start in telling you about Malawi. I guess I’ll start by saying what I was thinking before we arrived. Malawi was a country that I wanted to go to since before I even heard about the World Race. When I found out that 3 teams would be going to Malawi I was so excited and hoped that I would get to go. The only thing I really knew about Malawi as that the people were really friendly and that it was a beautiful country with the huge lake that runs through it. This brings in some tourism.
We experienced some road blocks before we went to Malawi as we had no ministry planned just a few days before we were scheduled to leave.We didn’t even have travel arranged as travel through Africa is much more difficult then Asia. All the teams met and prayed and our team leaders asked us if this was something that we really want to do because nothing was planned yet and the rest of the teams had already left to go to their countries. All the teams felt strongly that this was a country everyone really felt called to. So the 3 team leaders and squad leaders worked hard to get contacts to stay with and transportation there and praise the Lord everything came together.
We experienced some road blocks before we went to Malawi as we had no ministry planned just a few days before we were scheduled to leave.We didn’t even have travel arranged as travel through Africa is much more difficult then Asia. All the teams met and prayed and our team leaders asked us if this was something that we really want to do because nothing was planned yet and the rest of the teams had already left to go to their countries. All the teams felt strongly that this was a country everyone really felt called to. So the 3 team leaders and squad leaders worked hard to get contacts to stay with and transportation there and praise the Lord everything came together.
We road in a bus many hours and with border crossings it took so long to get there. We even had a rock thrown at our bus that hit the window where a friend of mine and I were sitting. Thankfully we woke up just in time to jump out of our seats before the glass went everywhere. We finally made it though and it turned out to be my favorite month on the race.
God blessed us so much through a man named Jose. He and his wife had been missionaries in Malawi for about a year. They were from Chile. We lived in their house with them and basically would do what he did in a day. His ministry is to the children in the village and everyday He and his wife play with the children on the beach in the afternoon. Their house is in the perfect location for this as it is right along the beach and the families go to the beach everyday to wash and do laundry there. God is doing so much through this time with the children as children are kind of left to be by themselves and work really hard and parents don’t really give them much attention. Through loving the children and teaching them about Jesus they hope to reach the parents of the village.
So in the morning we would help him fix up his house which the Lord blessed him with and they had just moved in a few months before we got there. In the afternoons we would play sports with the kids on the beach. On the weekends we would travel to different churches in the area and help lead the church services. This was such an amazing time of allowing the Lord to speak through us pray for people.
We learned so much through Jose and his wife Narra. Their love for the Lord was was clearly seen in everything they did. Every morning we would start the day with worship and prayer and normally Jose had a word of encouragement for us. He spoke truth into each of our lives and taught us in a way that I had never been taught before. I can honestly say I have never met a man so bold in speaking truth yet so gentle in the way he did it. He was like a father to all of us while we were there and we all hope to be able to go back and help him at some point in our lives.
God did so much in each of our lives through Jose, playing with the children and helping with the differen church services. My faith grew so much in this time. The Lord is doing so much in Monkey Bay, Malawi! Please if you think about it continue to pray for Jose and his wife Narra as they are so faithful in serving the Lord there. They hope that many teams will come in the future and that the village will be transformed. It is such a battle there as witch craft is still practiced in most of the village. The people are very much into that and don’t really understand that following Christ means leaving all those practices and that Jesus is more powerful then the witch doctor.
