I love Africa! It’s been hard but so full of unique culture and experiences that you couldn’t imitate any where else in the world. First of all, we are basically a part of a Malawian family in the outskirts of Blantyre in the southern region of Malawi. We live with them, eat with them, laugh with them, travel with them, go to church with them, and take care of their baby. We live in a very authentic little village where English is hard to come by and the power and water supply is far from reliable. Music is heard through the night and fruits and vegetables
Ed are sold all along the beat dirt road out front. There are plenty of mountains in the region giving he landscape a lot of depth and mystery. We get to camp in the front yard and since it is the middle of the dry season we can sleep without rain covers and peer out at the stars and feel the warm African breeze, if your willing to accept the thin layer of dust that will permeate your screen. It really has been a beautiful experience being a part of this family. I always much prefer the months where you become a part of a local family and get fully immersed in the culture, as hard or different as it may be at times. It’s he only real way to know what life is like there.
Our ministry is set up as two different missionary journeys to different church plants that Bethel Temple Mission has established around the country. Yesterday day we came back from our first such journey, and boy do these journeys take us to the heart of the bush of Africa. I loved every second of it even through the challenges and realized how much I need to appreciate the little things such as light bulbs. We traveled about two hours out of town stopping on the side of the road only three times to buy water, then vegetables, then raw goat meat. Our van was stuffed with all six of us, the pastor, the evangelist, the translator, two drivers, 20 jugs of water, all of our camping gear, a generator, and the sound equipment. None of these places we were going had electricity, and in order to have night services and attract a crowd, the generator giving electricity was not only a special treat for a town that never sees a lightbulb, but also necessary for the nature of our ministry. Living just out of Blantyre gave us some culture shock, but nothing like living out in the bush as we did for the last week. So many of these kids hardly ever see a white person so we were quite the attraction, but also just seeing the conditions these people lived in was quite humbling and observing the amount of work that went into just one meal. It took about 7 women to be constantly cooking over a hot fire in 100 plus degrees to provide 3 meals a day for us and their family. The men had some of the thickest hands I had ever felt because of their steady work in the fields to provide food for the village. Yet these were the most content, happy, and humble people I have ever met. Every village greeted us in traditional song and dance including all the children that would put the Watoto children’s choir to shame. Many of the kids would stare at us all day but be extremely timid when you would approach them and they would run away. But chase them around for two hours in the pitch dark and they suddenly become very friendly and attached to you and will sing you songs all night around the camp fire. One night we were serenaded through dinner and through the rest of the night with a make shift band with guitars made of wood and drum sets made of spare bike parts (the high hat was made of two bikes gears clanging together) and instruments that I had never viewed before along with enthusiastic dancing from all of the girls. That was one of the best ways I went to bed with that singing and chanting off in the distance. These people do everything in the pitch dark. It is just completely natural to them. As I mentioned, they don’t have electricity and fires are only used for cooking, so as soon as the sun sets, you can’t see anything, yet that is when it is cool enough in the day for such activities as playing tag and playing music. Kids of all ages would be out as well, and it would always amaze me how the young ones would make it home after a late night, as I could hardly make it 400 meters home in the pitch dark without tripping or wandering astray. Despite lack of communication, so much was taught to me from these people about hard work and doing what is needed to survive and enjoy life. I would see kids wearing rags as clothes and horrible open wounds on the back of their skull. I also saw people working in he extreme heat of midday to provide for their family in whatever way was necessary, fixing the thatch roof or collecting wood or water or herding the cattle. There is an honest simplicity to everything I saw and experienced this week.
One of the best parts of our missionary journey was living these peoples lives. We weren’t there for too long in each place, but we got to experience a night or two in each place and eat there foods and be a part of their customs and celebrations as we would put on bible studies and church services for them. I also learned to love the flexible nature of African scheduling and transportation and what it means to travel somewhere. To get to one of our ministry sites, we undertook quite the unexpected journey. As the crow flies, it was probably less than 20 kilometers travel. However that would be way to simple for an African journey. We were told that our next place would be on an island and we would have to boat there. We all pictured a casual canoe ride to a little peaceful island dotted with palms and thatch huts. However we pull over to the side of the road in a sugarcane field at the river. However, that was not the entry point for our place on the island. So we are told to hike through the banana leaf forest. So we pictured just a few hundred meters through the forest to the next clearing. The forest kept going and going and lasted for more than a mile until we got to our dock carrying all of our gear and the 20 jugs of water and he electronic gear. Here they had a bunch of dug out canoes made of a single piece of wood. Not long after we got there and we were waiting on shore in the blazing hot sun, we see one of these teetering boats capsize and dump its passengers and their bicycles into the water. Oh boy. We eventually load in and take the quick 2 minute cruise across the river without toppling over. Then we see a path meander slowly into the woods. We were offered bike rides to the village, but underestimating the size of the island and trying to be semi independent, we opt to just carry the jugs the few hundred meter to the woods where we presumed the village would shortly follow. I loaded up with my gear, 4 – 5 liter jugs and an extra bag and slowly grunted into the woods thinking I would just have to push a bit further. The path winded and turned and lost shade and eventually after about half a mile, straightened to see a long ways ahead with no sign of the village. Where were we going!? No one spoke English and none of our translators had been there before, but we were told maybe we were halfway there. We begrudgingly drink a jug of water to lighten our load and rehydrate and grumble the next half mile along the path until the village appeared to be no closer than when we fist began. We started to become disheartened as every turn never see,Ed to yield the village we were looking for. It was midday and we were in the plains and the heat couldn’t seem to have been more intense at about 105 degrees. It took over two hours and many forks in the road and over 5 miles until we finally reached our village on the island… But we were very wonderfully rewarded with beautiful singing and dancing from the residents as we longed for a mat to lay down on and take a nap somewhere in the shade. Not quite he island paradise we pictured, but certainly a story and scenario that we will never ever forget!
It’s been an incredible first half of the month in Malawi being a part of this family and this mission. It’s definitely a hard and uncomfortable month, but one where we will all grow so much as we interact with people who live sooooo differently than us. We have another week long missionary journey coming up in a few days where we will go and visit, teach, and encourage other Bethel Church plants in southern Malawai.
Thanks for your prayers and support!
