I haven’t exactly done a great job at blogging recently so I’m cramming about three blog worthy things into one and summarizing!
As a squad we all went to the beach for a few days of relaxation before heading to Malawi. At the beach, I was very excited to get away from ministry for a few days and just be by myself for a while. God changed these plans drastically. When I arrived at the beach, the squad leaders told me that the night before they went to a fire circle of all Rastapharians. They played drums, sang and smoked weed while around the fire. They told me that they have been telling them about Christ and they are really interested. The whole next day my squad leaders were in bible studies with these Rasta men who all have dreadlocks, wear the red green and yellow attire, all smoke weed and all are the stereotypical Jamaican Rasta men. I spoke to some of these men throughout the days we were there.
I also met some awesome missionaries from the states who I automatically felt a part of their family. Buffy, one of the women even gave me a book she had been reading! Sarah, Kevin and Jonah were a family there who I sat with and listened to their testimony while they shared their beef jerky and fries with me (of course after 10 months away from America, I gratefully ate plenty!). I fell in love with this family and was able to encourage them for a short time. I will add pictures when I have good enough internet. 😀
So one night I invited the other missionary team to come to a worship session that I was going to organize that night. So they came, some of my squad members came, two mossai men came, as well as a Christian couple from South Africa, and even one of the Rasta men! After this awesome worship, I went to the Rastapharian fire where I was surrounded by weed smoking, singing, drum playing men who “looked like me” as they put it because I too have dreadlocks. My squad members Ryan, Kayla, and Leanna were also there. I explained to many of them that “No, I do not believe in Rasta- I believe in God”. I found out that Rastapharianism is actually a religion in a way. I told one of the men, Shabani, about God and what I believe compared to what they believe and shared the gospel while my friends were also talking to the other men about the same thing. Leanna actually baptized the man she spoke to the next day after spending a few more hours with him!
The time came that we had to leave the ocean and head to Malawi. This bus ride was a 40 hour bus ride which was only supposed to be 20. We arrived at border control at night and found out that the border closes at 8:00pm, so we ended up staying on the bus for the night. The bus driver and conductor at times just decided to stay in one spot for about six hours, and when we actually arrived to the bus station which was five minutes away from our hostel, it was 3:00am (the second night of being on the bus), and the bus driver decided he wanted to make us stay yet another night sleeping on the bus when he could have driven us five more minutes to our destination. We have been freezing every night on the bus and our ankles were very swollen. We were sleep deprived, a little grumpy, and extremely ready to get off the bus. After our men on our squad finally convinced the conductor, another bus driver came and drove us to our hostel.
My friend Wade has a brother who gave him a letter to open when things got really hard on the Race. Wade read it for us after he humbly opened it on the terrible bus ride. The only thing it said was “So they may know Jesus”. That hit me very hard. It’s worth having a terrible two day bus ride, so they may know Jesus. That is why we’re here and it’s very easy to forget the greatness of ministering to Rasta Men when your going through a hard experienced. I am now more thankful for these hard times, because without hard times- we wouldn’t be making much sacrifice for these people we’re ministering to. They are worth it because God says they are. God loves them (and you) just as much as he loves me, and for that- I will love too.
