I read a book a few years ago called Humility: The Beauty of Holiness by Andrew Murray. I recently found it on Podbean and have been listening to it in the mornings. I cannot recommend it enough. It is powerful and convicting. I could listen to it daily as I am in such need of humility!
The Lord has been working in my life since we came to the field showing me my great need of humility. He has exposed that I think more highly of myself than I ought to think. I am not Christ-like nor have I died to self like I should have. He humbled himself to the cross, yet I am offended by the attitudes of those who don’t treat me as I think they should.
Again and again I have been brought to Moses. The Bible says he was the meekest in all the earth. This was said of him as others rose up against him – against God’s chosen leader. He did not defend himself or tell others that God had chosen him. He humbled himself to the cross.
One of the most Christ-like attitudes we can attain is that of His humility, and yet it is probably the hardest as we must battle our prideful flesh!
Again, I highly recommend the book or the reading of it on Podbean.
Sometimes in the mundane routine of life you can lose how amazing your surroundings are. Everything just feels normal. But when you pause for a moment, you see it.
We walked down the path to make visits, we approached a little house. It was almost hidden by the tall grass surrounding it. The mountains towered in the background. A small girl, no more than 3 years of age, greeted us. She said that no one else was home. Just as we turned to leave, her dad came down the path toward us.
After greeting us, he quickly brushed aside the debris in the clearing under the tree, got a little stool for me to sit on, and a potato sack for the girls.
As Brother Shadrick and the man sat on the tree root talking, I couldn’t help but think of how amazing and different this scene was. I was wishing that I had my camera! Yet I know that I wouldn’t pull it out as I feel pulling out a camera causes you to lose connection with them; and it definitely is a distraction. But I was wishing that I could capture this scene!
After greetings, I had the opportunity to witness to the men, then Brother Shadrick witnessed to him. This man frequently passes out tracts, and both his brother and wife attend the Nyamula Bible Study, but he does not come. Even though he would agree with us, he had the knowledge of salvation but has never personally turned to the Lord. He did not make any decisions that day, what a blessing it would be to see this entire family saved and on fire for the Lord.
It is the time of harvest here and many are harvesting their millet and sorghum. Then they lay it out and beat it with sticks. The kids asked to help while we were waiting for our ride. It was fun for a minute, but they said they wouldn’t like to do that everyday.
Kids seemed to come from everywhere to watch, yelling, “The azungus (white people) are beating the millet!” They found it amusing. But then, they find everything we do amusing!
How excited I was for her! She had waited so long, and now, she was finally getting baptized!
Agogo* Fatima greatly desired to be baptized at the first baptism in Phokera, but only because she wanted to be a member of the church.
She tried getting into the baptismal, going from one side to the other, but she did not believe that she was in need of a Savior. In fact, she seemed to think she was more righteous than God.
She was angry at Him for taking her children and thought He was cruel and unjust.
It broke our hearts to see how earnestly she wanted to be baptized and how angry she was at God. She is very old, and we prayed that the Lord would bring her to salvation before it was too late.
What a day it was when she came and admitted that she was a sinner in need of salvation!
Finally, the day of the baptism came. The ladies had to work hard to prepare for it by carrying buckets of water to fill the baptismal.
Twenty-three were baptized that Sunday, and while all were exciting, her baptism was special. Holding back tears, we watched her step into the baptismal. She is not stable on her feet and fell forward, but thankfully, Pastor Nelson was able to help her regain her balance.
Since her salvation, she looks for me at every service to greet me.
Due to health, she has been missing more recently. What a blessing it is that she trusted Christ before it was too late!
Soon after climbing out of the lori (truck), a little hand reached out for mine. Quietly she motioned for her little friend to take my other hand. We walked hand in hand to the temporary structure in Nyamula for the Friday Bible study. I tried asking them simple questions, but they were too shy to respond.
On one side of the structure, a tarp was laid out for the ladies and children to sit on. Benches were placed on the other side for the men.
As we sat down on the tarp, the kids all crowded around me. They sat as close as they could, some with their arms in my lap as they leaned onto me. The ones sitting behind me leaned their heads on my shoulders as we sang. Whether they could read or not, they wanted to “read” my song book.
It is times like this that make everything worth it – the loneliness, the discouragement …it can feel like people only want to get close to us for money, and some days those things are difficult to take. If I am not careful, I could drown in self-pity on those days.
But the Lord always puts days like this in to help show me His love.
This is the first village where the kids weren’t terrified of us. It feels so nice to have them surround us, instead of running away in terror. I think this may be because there are a few children with albinism in that village, so our whiteness isn’t as shocking.
There are still people in that village who haven’t seen a white person before, but I think they’re usually visitors from the Mozambique mountains.
The other week, Abigail went to pass a tract to a teen girl. Abigail knew that she couldn’t catch up to her, so cut her off on the path ahead. The girl turned and fled screaming in terror. Brother Shadrick yelled out that Abigail only wanted to give her a paper. The girl stopped and took it, but was still wary of her.
Most of the time now, we find it amusing and laugh, but it still feels so nice when kids are not afraid of us!
But whether lonely or loved, HE IS WORTHY!
Through the good times or hard times, may I be found faithful!
We have started going to Nyamula on Fridays. While Eric and Pastor Nelson are doing a salvation Bible study with the adults, Brother Shadrick and I have started taking the kids through the Bible. This past Friday we had gotten to the story of Cain and Abel.
We frequently mix in acting out the Bible stories. This not only keeps their attention, but it also makes the Bible come more alive for them.
Sammy was acting out Cain and Daniel was Abel. When they came to the part where Cain killed Abel, Sammy dramatically made it look like he hit Daniel from behind with a stone.
Daniel does an excellent impression of fainting, and promptly dropped to the ground. Brother Shadrick pointed at him and said, “See! He’s dead!”
Then Sammy put leaves on him to pretend like he was burying him.
Suddenly, a few little ones started weeping loudly. One immediately left for home crying.
We had been so busy telling the story and watching the boys, that we hadn’t observed the distress of the littlest ones. I quickly told Daniel to get up and reassured them that Daniel was okay.
Most of the kids thought it was hilarious, but who knows what the stories will be in the village next week!
We are only going to the church in Phokera on Sundays,which gives us a little more time Sunday morning. It has been nice to move a little slower on Sunday morning.
We have also started Wednesday prayer meetings in Phokera. There are many ladies who cannot read. It is not as much of a priority for them to go to school as it is for the boys. It has been a burden on my heart that they would be able to read their Bibles. The burden only grew as I looked for teachers for the children’s classes, but struggle not only to find ladies willing, but ones who are able to read.
The Lord has opened the door for me to teach them to read Wednesdays before church. I am not fluent in the language nor do I feel qualified for this job, but my prayer is that the Lord can work through me and do more than I thought possible. Pray that the Lord allows them to learn to read and for Him to give me wisdom as I teach them.
It’s always busy here, but Christmas is an even crazier time! The girls and I used our Christmas break to sew little tote bags for the kids at the Phokera church and simple sheep costumes. The little lambs were adorable, and all the kids were excited about the bags with treats and gifts!
We also helped put together gift bags for the hospital and prison, but the kids and I didn’t go as we were completely exhausted.
I think one of their favorite things to do was to go caroling on a donkey cart. But we were all tired by the end because it was about 110° that day.
I didn’t think that it was possible to get everything done, but the Lord gave strength to do everything that we needed to do!
We have enjoyed watching the building of the church in Phokera. It has been exciting to see the progress each week. The men of the church molded and burned the bricks, while the women brought the water for making the bricks.
Since they are made from mud, burning the bricks prevents them from melting away when it rains. After they were burned, we all helped move them to the location where the church would be built.
Everyone found the kids excitement to help move bricks amusing. We were asked to move only 15 bricks…but they were going as quick as they could to try to carry more! At the end, they chattered back and forth to see who moved the most.
I love these guys! They bring life and excitement into every area of life – and entertainment to the Malawians!
The church was built so quickly! There is still work to be done inside, but we were able to meet in there on Christmas Day for the Christmas service.
The temporary shelter was taken down in Phokera and put up in the new village of Yamula. We met there for the first Bible study this past Friday. Because there were more children than adults and there wasn’t enough shade for all of the kids, they had us stay under the shelter while the adults met under the tree.
A few minutes into the lessons, it started down pouring! The adults sitting under the tree were soaked! We had to dismiss, but everyone is excited to have Bible studies start there.
For a couple weeks things will be extra busy as we continue to attend the church in our village planted by the previous missionary on Sunday morning, then rush over to Phokera for services. On Wednesdays we go again to Phokera then Fridays to the new village. When the new pastor here is officially ordained, we will be turning it over to them and backing away.
We have been evangelizing in Yamula to prepare for the coming Bible study there. Last Saturday while Brother Shadrick was witnessing, a little goat was going around us. Two little boys decided that they were going to catch it. Running all around us, and trying to block the crying goat with their arms – they were adorable, but at the same time a huge distraction! A few minutes after the little goat escaped, they started chasing chickens. It was hard to refrain from laughing!
When Brother Shadrick was finishing up, another boy came with his pet. All the kids surrounded him and his poor pet. It was a baby monkey! The kids were very excited about it!
Whether monkeys or snakes in church…life is never boring!
Funerals are very important to the Malawian people. Life almost seems to stop, and everything is dropped for them. Unfortunately, there are many of them. Sometimes it feels like death is a way of life here.
When people hear of a death, the youth and ladies choirs go to the home of the family and sings outside the home all night. They continue the next morning until the service begins. Children usually do not attend so they are left to themselves at home. Because of this, I have only attended two funerals – Abambo Charlie was one of those.
Abambo (Mr.) Charlie was very faithful to church, even though it was difficult for him to get there. He walked hunched over and always greeted us with a big smile. Frequently his added comments during the preaching made it difficult to contain our laughter. Because of sickness, he stopped coming. I really wanted to go visit him, but never made the time to get over there. How I regret that!
When we arrived at the house, people were scattered around under different trees. There is no set time for when it will start, but usually the funeral takes place as quickly as possible or the body will begin to stink – especially when it is the hot season. They begin as soon as all the family and important people are there, and when the body is ready. The church ladies help with the dressing of the women’s bodies, and the men help prepare the men’s bodies. This is so foreign to me and I don’t know if I could handle that – though I know that the Lord could give me grace, if that is what I needed to do.
The guests of honor usually sit near the front center on chairs, while everyone else sits on the ground. They were going to set a chair for me with my husband and the other preachers, but I requested to sit on the ground with the ladies. You cannot avoid everyone’s stares, but being front and center makes me more uncomfortable and separated.
The church ladies laid out a tarp to sit on. They dumped the buckets of flowers they had picked from bushes around the property and a flower that seems like it is a wildflower to me. They began to gather bunches of stems from the wildflowers and shape them into wreaths. Two ladies worked on shaping them into a cross. When they had the wreaths and cross secure, they poked the flowers from the bushes into them. It was beautiful! How I wanted to take pictures of them working with the flowers, but it felt disrespectful to do that.
Sometimes I feel like my presence distracts from the occasion. I felt like I had thousands of eyes on me. The ladies around me were all talking about me. Of course I didn’t understand everything being said, but I felt I could understand most of what was being said. I still speak so poorly that they probably don’t know how much I understand. It is funny to sit and listen sometimes, and at other times, it can feel stressful to have people talking about you all the time.
When the funeral starts, the women are called up and sing a song, then place the flowers on the casket. They all sit around the casket during the preaching and speaking. Throughout the service, women will begin crying out, some even appear to pass out and have to be carried away.
At the gravesite, I sat with a lady from church. She told me that we should move to the shade, and I did. Some of the village men behind us began to talk and say, “She doesn’t know Chichewa!” “No way!” I was just going to pretend like I didn’t hear them, but the lady I sat with turned around and told them that I knew Chichewa and Sena (the village language here). I told them a little. I only know a few phrases in Sena, so it would be a stretch to say that I know that. But it does have many Chichewa words mixed in so I can sometimes understand still.
So many things seem to make Bible times come alive. The funerals remind me of when Jesus healed the little girl and had to make all the people around her leave before he healed her. Part of me feels like this open grieving and focusing on it helps people move on. But sometimes the emphasis on death and funerals makes me think of the verses when Jesus said in Matthew 8:22, “Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.” People here feel the need to go to every single funeral in the village, but if we do that, we would only be going to funerals and everything else would be canceled. There definitely has to be a balance. We are not here to change their culture, but I do pray that we can impress on them to follow Christ above all else.
We could hear the chant getting louder as they came in the direction of the house we were witnessing at.
“He’s crying! He’s crying!” Some were chanting.
Others chanted, “Don’t cry! You stole yourself!”
The young man, net yet 18, had stolen a duck and gotten caught.
The kids that had surrounded us decided that was more exciting than listening to the white people talk about Jesus. Laughing, they ran off to join the chanting crowd.
I wanted to join the crowd too, except I wanted to go in the middle and try to witness to the young man or calm the crowd.
But it is too dangerous and I have little ones with me.
The thief is usually beaten and, if he is lucky, brought to the chief or to the police for justice. But we have heard of many times when the thief was either beaten to death or burned.
Those who get involved are threatened with the same fate.
With this young man, because he was from that village and his father was offering to pay for what he stole, we think he wasn’t beaten too badly and was only fined.
Saturday we had a meeting with the children’s ministry teachers from the two churches we are currently working with. It’s exciting to see so many wanting to serve the Lord! We had a fun time, ate some good, Malawian food, and had some lessons on teaching. Praying the Lord helps each of us to be more burdened for the youth of Malawi. Each of the lady teachers received a “wrap” and the guys were given a tie. The ladies matched on Sunday with white tops and the matching wraps.
Sunday night Eric went into the watershed room and saw THREE baby mambas! Eek! He quickly let Pastor Nelson and Brother Shadrick know and they killed them. Everyone has been searching the property and just outside for more. So far they haven’t found any more.
Today Eric traveled north about 5-6 hours to one of the churches associated with this ministry. He was bringing them John and Romans. They told him last night that the church would be gathering to meet them and that he would be preaching. I look forward to hearing his report once he gets home. He is on his way home now.
“What if I said let’s have a contest to see who can jump over the Shiree River,” I said to the group. They all started laughing and saying no…except one man. He said, “Okay!”
Shocked, Brother Shadrick questioned him, “You’d try to jump across the River?”
“Yes, in faith!” he replied.
I told him that we wouldn’t be trying that. Because while they might make it a little further than I would, the river is very wide and we’d all just end up being crocodile food.
This man was the first to ever except my offer because everyone knows it is impossible.
Just as we can’t make it across the Shiree, we cannot get to heaven on our own as all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
While this man talked a lot while I was witnessing, another man sat quietly, intently listening. As we were finishing talking with them, he pleaded with me to please tell him what he needed to do to be saved and he prayed to ask Christ as his Savior.
The weather has been beautiful lately, it’s been mostly low 80°s, but mornings can be cool. We’ve had a few days in the 70°s. You can feel the tension release from your body in the cooler season. We are enjoying these beautiful, cooler days.
One of my favorite things here is the constant singing of the birds. I’ve always loved the sound of birds! Here there are so many, and they are singing all day. It’s such a relaxing sound!
I have been struggling lately with body pains, but the Lord continues to give me the strength for each day. I have a little less teaching to do as I’ve stepped away from teaching here at this church as we transition it to national leadership. The teachers have grown so much and are leading it extremely well. I have started looking for ladies in Phokera who we can start training as well.
One of my greatest struggles is not feeling guilt over having something. My husband recently had a dress made for my birthday, and I tried convincing him not to as I feel like I have so much! This will be the first new outfit I’ve had in almost year and a half, besides a like new secondhand dress we found at the beginning of the year. This is completely my doing as my husband would love to be able to get me something, but the guilt overwhelms me! They have maybe one or two outfits, yet I already have so so much!
I feel guilty having a bed to sleep on or a chair, when many of them are sleeping on dirt floors – some without mats or blankets! How do you overcome this guilt? I haven’t figured it out yet. We try to do what we can, but the needs are endless.
Pray that the Lord gives your missionaries the wisdom of how to have a proper balance in this area and in the area of our time. Balance is such a difficult thing to have and keep!
“I’ve never sinned.” “I’m not praying to God! He took my kids away!” This is what an elderly lady named Fatima has said…and yet she desperately wanted to be baptized!
She cried when others were baptized because, even though she didn’t want to talk to God, she wanted to be baptized.
She has been heavy on our hearts and we have been praying for her. She had malaria pretty severely a few weeks ago and we thought she might die without turning to Christ.
Finally, Saturday she told Eric that she had trusted in Christ after last week’s service! She said that she had lied, and that she was a sinner. She said that not only was she drinking beer, but she had brewed it at some point in her life.
I had planned on sharing her story with you all and asking you to pray for her, but now I also get to share the good news at the same time!
It truly is such a blessing to be able to be a part of this ministry!
The weather has been much cooler lately, which we are greatly enjoying. It’s not cold, but we want sweaters in the mornings.
One of my favorite things to do is sit on the front porch and look at the pink flowering bush against the brick wall. Beyond that, you can just see the mountains. I definitely wish I had a better view from my porch of those mountains!
Maybe soon I can start “blogging” again, but lately the words are just not coming together.
Pictures are of soulwinning on Saturday and after church with some of the kids.
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