What a beautiful morning in Africa. God is good and coffee taste delicious again. Thank you for all the prayers and the text messages over the last few days. I have felt them and have felt very loved by all of you. I feel like I’ve been through a rite of passage.

After our morning devotions in Joshua, the team headed out to our beloved village Nasedegu. Our plan was for hut to hut visits, and then in the afternoon meeting with the women and men separately for Bible study. When we got to the Village, Pastor Jonah gave us a little bit of background on the different people we were going to go and visit. These were intentional visits for people that were not coming to church anymore, were struggling with sin and others that we just wanted to check on.

The first place we went, was to a man that had his own business. Mark was able to engage him in a very friendly and comfortable manner as Mark is so wonderfully capable of doing. There was a conversation about church, salvation, aspects of the gospel and our walk as Christians. But what happened during this I would have never expected. Which is kind of silly because at this point, I kind of should be expecting anything to happen here. As Mark was explaining the gospel and scripture, we heard what we thought was a goat coming towards us bleating being very loudly. The closer he got the louder he got. And in the middle of Mark, witnessing to this gentleman, this goat stops in front of all of us, and starts bleating so loudly, and so long that Leah and I looked at each other and thought for sure, the enemy had sent this animal. It was such perfect timing and so crazy. It seems we’ve had this experience quite a few times over the last two weeks. We were all still amazed, and then Pastor Jonah’s mother grab that goat by  its four legs and took it away. She is one strong woman let me tell ya. I have said goat, but later learned it was a sheep. So the team has decided it was a goat and sheep’s clothing. LOL

The next hut we were going to was to hopefully find a girl who used to go to church. We met her quite a few years ago. Our understanding was she was no longer coming to church, her husband has been gone six months and she has sadly been engaging in many sinful activities. When we first got there, the mother went to get her, but she refused to come this, really crushed our hearts. The mother and father that were there happened to be Muslim. So we assume that they were who God really wanted us to talk to. Samuel, Ed and Mark met with them under a tree, and just after that happened, the girl we were trying to visit showed up. Leah had just finished a prayer asking God to please bring her to us and then there she was. Her name is Rose, so Leah, Karey myself and Misozi went over to the other side of the hut to talk with her. Women don’t often talk when there are men around, and we wanted her to feel free to talk with us. Once she remembered the camaraderie we had had a few years ago, she started to open up, and was very transparent with us. She was very honest about her sins. We assured her we were not here to judge her, that we were here to love her and encourage her in any way we could. We talked through  scriptural direction when it comes to dealing with our sin. We shared our struggles as well. We also talked about God always being there, and will never leave us. By the end she had prayed for repentance, it felt very sincere, and she told us that her heart was happy. I will leave it to Ed in his blog to share what happen with the man and woman who were her parents.

We went to a few more hunts before lunch, and had really good conversations and encouragement to return to church. We pray we were a blessing to them all.

Lunch was delicious as Pastor Jonah’s wife can cook so well. We had a delicious lunch of rice, cabbage, and boiled eggs. They are always so gracious bringing out seats for us under a tree and sharing with us their lives. They have on more than one occasion asked about Gabby which is so sweet and wanting to know when she’s coming back. Ed had gotten a data plan and he was able to FaceTime Gabby this morning so that she could talk with them. It was so cute to watch all their faces as they got to talk to each other.

After lunch, we headed back to the church and the men met inside the building, and the women met outside under a straw hut that is used for Bible study for the children. We had 20 women there. Karey and Leah taught out of Matthew six today. They are both so gifted at what they do. And you can tell they just want to pour all they have into the women of Malawi. It is an honor to be on mission with the both of them. There were many conversations there were many questions, and working through Scripture in ways to honor God. I could tell by the questions that they were asking that they wanted to live godly lives, and I could also tell that just like the Pharisees had added to the word that happens here as well. Just like it does at home.

Overall a wonderful day for the Lord’s kingdom. We are all pretty tired, but I believe we have left it all on the field. No words that we needed to say, no actions that we needed to do. We hugged we loved, and we shared all that we had. It has been such an honor again to be here this year, this place just captures my heart every time

I will say this, the adversity that we have faced these past two weeks, and for the two months before, is nothing I have ever seen before. Ed and I have talked about it almost daily. The enemy has definitely been at work and the spiritual warfare…….holy cow. But in the end, God is victorious and He is on the throne!