A very good Sunday here in Malawi!!! No devotion this morning as Ed was teased by someone (won’t name names 😎) they didn’t want to hear him preach twice today! All in good fun!
We all piled in the van and headed out to Nasadegu for worship. There was fun conversations, laughing and sharing along the way……..and free chiropractic care along the paths! 😂
We were met with smiling faces and warm hugs! It felt so good to be back with them! These last couple of years have been met with many challenges…..and they are persevering by Gods grace!!!
Worship service- ahhhhhhhmazing!!! Over an hour of songs and clapping and dancing! Yes dancing! The joy that was felt, the energy, the pure worship of our Heavenly Father………and all that was needed was unashamed voices, a bongo and a room full of worshippers. I would have kept on going! The smiles, the eyes lit up, the foot stomping…..just beautiful.
Ed preached from Hebrews 12 this morning…. “lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race set before us looking to Jesus”. I was challenged…..what weight do I need to let go of? What sin am I clinging to? Real questions for all of us to ask ourselves! Ed also presented the Gospel and the call for salvation. Four adults stood up! They went outside with Ed, Ovi and Stanley to examine if they understood. They did! And instead of repeating a prayer said by Ed, Ovi or Stanley, they were each encouraged to say their own prayer for salvation……and they did! Praise the Lord! While they were outside, we in the church, sang songs as we waited……..the unity and focus was felt. After they came back in, 2 other adults joined the church as well.
Many hugs and pictures afterwards outside. So many women and kiddos I remember……I wish Africa was not so far away!
We had lunch at Kipps and then headed back around 2pm to the mission house. Some took naps. I came outside with a cup of coffee to a loud machine noise coming from Stanley and Doreen’s house. Leah and I went over to check out the activity. They were taking corn kernels off the cob with a machine Ovi had gotten. What would have taken over a week to accomplish, only took 3-4 hours. Leah and I dug in and started helping get kernels off the cob that the machine missed. As I sat with corn cobs everywhere, I was struck by Gods amazing plans for how He knits a family together. Here we were preparing food for the year……food that will help carrying them through until the next harvest.
We had leftovers for dinner with great conversations that often went to silly old movies like Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Sound of Music. There were lots of giggles.
We also talked about the next few days of ministry and hut to hut evangelism-presenting the Gospel clearly and the intentionality for individual prayer with guarding from a sense of false salvation.
Our evenings often end with Karey, Leah and myself sitting in the “big room” where we share meals. We type, we blog, we talk……it’s so good to have these women here! All sold out, leaving everything in the field, looking for the good, praying……this list could go on and on. I treasure them!
One last thing…….today I was apart of unashamed voices……voices lifting up our one true King. Are you unashamed?
If you are unashamed, keep going! Preserve! Fight the good fight!
If not, why? What stops you? What weight do you need to lay aside for our Savior?