We have had many opportunities to meet a countless number of
amazing people thus far in Africa. Malawi has such an incredibly friendly vibe,
everyone here is so gracious and welcoming which makes conversations very easy.
Harvesters was founded by Franklin Graham and the program has adopted an old
school approach to preaching the Gospel. His father, Billy Graham is known
world wide for preaching and evangelizing to massive groups of people. Laying out the gospel to massive amounts of people isn’t my preferred way of telling people about Christ. We showed the pastors
that caring for individuals, listening to their stories and
experiences, while sharing your own stories and experiences is far more
gratifying. If and when God and Jesus are brought up, we can talk to the people
about them, but not try and force it down their throats.
So far while in Malawi during my free time, aka really early in the morning, I
have woken up before ministry and climbed two mountains. Ah, that is what makes
me tick. I love nature and seeing God’s creativity and beauty. It just frees
the mind from the mundane and allows you to be experience life as it was
intended. We even saw a baboon on the second mountain. Daniel, Caleb and I
contemplated trying to get closer to get a better view. We weighed the pros and
cons. Eventually, someone asked, ‘What
would Bear Grylls do?’ That sealed the deal. The hunt was on.
Of course, we
made safety a priority because we agreed that a baboon could easily rip off all
of our faces if it wanted to, let alone an entire pissed off colony, or pack,
or flock or whatever you would call them. Plus they would have motive because,
A) these monkey’s are poached regularly so they might be looking for revenge, and
B) we were treading in their ‘hood and I am pretty sure they are territorial
animals. Caleb grabbed a rock for just in case protection while I opted the
cork-screw tool on my Swiss Army Knife. Daniel had nothing but his camcorder
and we made a pact that if we got attacked he would NOT stop filming under any
circumstance. We slowly but surely made our way over. Unfortunately our hunt
was unsuccessful and the monkey was nowhere to be found. Anti-climatic. I know.
So the other day I finally got enough courage to tell my
team about a rash I have been enduring for about a month now. It is a group of
bright red circles on my upper, inner, right thigh. After I reluctantly showed
them, I endured criticism for not keeping proper hygiene, mainly changing my
underwear enough. After some jokes were made, Natalie forced me to go to a
hospital to get it treated. We asked around and heard about a really nice
private clinic just up the road. Earlier in the week we had gotten sick,
throwing up, vomiting, that sort of thing, and we went to a public government
run hospital to get some meds. The lines were unbelievably long and the place
wasn’t very nice. We decided to check out the clinic this time around for my
ailment. When we walk up Natalie points out that this is a Family Planning
Clinic. I stopped in my tracks. I am walking up with Natalie, an attractive,
young girl into a family planning clinic to try and get a ‘rash’ on my upper
inner thigh examined. Hmmmm. This could be interesting… Nat ever so slyly slid
one of her rings onto her ring finger to make it look like we were married,
expect I had no ring, so she just looked like an adulterer now, not a mistress.
I went to the receptionist and tried to explain that we were looking for a
hospital, but we were referred to this clinic, and we did not know that it was
a family planning clinic, and that this rash on my upper inner thigh next to my
gentiles is in no way shape or form an STD that I received from my pretty adulteress
friend. My eyes darted nervously from side to side and my palms started to
sweat as everyone in the clinic locked their focus onto us. I had to explain
this situation to another lady, and then eventually to the doctor who saw me.
It was very comical. Oh, and it was a fungal infection for those of you who are
curious. If I apply the cream they gave me twice a day the rash should go down
in a few days. Too much information? … T.I.A. Get over it.
(For the record, Natalie is a wholesome lovely daughter of God)
Continue reading-
When God Saved My Life & Other Tales From the African Plain- Chapter III
