Saturday, April 23rd
Greetings in Christ from Malawi Africa.
Today we moved into Ephesians 2 during our morning devotional. A full understanding of the depths of our inability to help ourselves becomes clear as Paul says we were “dead in the trespasses and sins, in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience”.
Dead people don’t move, they can’t help themselves. Paul goes on to say we are children of wrath, like all mankind. All of us fall into this same category, none of us can do anything to save ourselves.
Verse 4—But God, we can do nothing, But God can do everything, We are unworthy of redemption, But God redeemed us, We were slaves to sin, But God set us free, We are unworthy of anything, But God raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus!
So much more, but what a great reminder to start of the day. Today we were going into Zomba town to check on the churches progress. The floor had been poured yesterday and we would be able to walk around inside and out to check it all out.
We were going to head out—until Ovi noticed a river of water, smelly water and tracked it down to the sewage area behind the mission house. There are quite a few storm lids leading to the septic system, but the one right behind the house was flowing over.
Ovi called the guards over to look at it and they took over. I even tried to refill a bucket with water, but had it promptly taken away from me. When we popped the top off the system, we had an issue.
Seems that roots are an issue in sewage lines here in Malawi as well. But George [one of the guards] had it fixed in under 30 minutes and everything was draining as normal again.
So, off we head to the church. I have to say that with each church that is built the construction gets better. This one is situated inside Zomba town, and up on a hill. It is a rough ride to get there due in large part to the damage caused by the tropical storms. Most roads are just dirt roads, so when you have massive amounts of water running on them, they get destroyed.
After checking out the church, we were blessed to have lunch at Samuels house. If you ever have a chance to meet Samuel and his family, you will love them. Both Samuel and his wife [we met his youngest daughter too] have hearts that just want to serve and to make Christ known.
It was a great lunch, the fellowship was fantastic, the discussion was easy, and the food was superb!
Samuels wife made Nsima, rice, cabbage, green beans, scrambled eggs and free-range chicken. I mean that chicken was running the range in the morning and was in our bellies after lunch.
We even got to try some Thobwa. I have had this before in the villages, and the recipes vary greatly, but this was good.
Years ago, the first time I had this was in a very remote village. I only had a small amount of it and thought I had consumed it all, but looking in my cup I noticed more, so I drank it.
Come to find out, someone standing next to me was pouring theirs in my cup! Too funny!
After lunch we took part of the day to reflect upon creation, I’ll let the girls tell you about that.
I would ask for prayers for tomorrow, April 24th. Tomorrow will be our last Sunday in Malawi. We are going to church early in Nasedegu, and then to a house church in the afternoon.
I want to encourage Nasedegu to continue to grow in the LORD. To live a life pleasing to God. For that reason, I have been led to 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12.
Pray that God would speak, that I would be true to the text in a manner that my brothers and sisters here can fully understand. Even though they are doing well, they are like us at HP, there is still room to excel still more.
The second church that we will be at in the afternoon has a former graduate of the Tom Gentry Bible school as pastor. We will most likely meet outside or in someone’s house because this is a new church plant, and it has no building.
Would you pray that God would give us wisdom. This is another possibility for HP to be part of yet another church plant in Malawi. I will have the opportunity to speak here as well, so continued prayers would be appreciated.
There may even be some in the group that do not know the LORD.
We have already been here nine days, and we have five more to go, time is going by so quickly, too quickly.
Pray that we endure, that we stay motivated to serve, that we reflect God, not tired westerners to the people of Malawi.
Love you all, see you next Sunday, LORD willing.