Lilongwe Team

Sunday (Lilongwe Team)

We left the lodge at 9:00 to travel out into the bush to worship with Trinity UMC. This little church that looks like a mud hut with a grass roof has about 97 members.

We first entered into three groups. Several went with the children (there were probably about 20 kids) and the men went with the men and the women went with the women. We all had incredible discussions as we shared what it means to be a Christian in the different cultures.

The worship service went on for 3 hours and we marveled at every moment. We sang, we danced, we prayed - I mean really prayed, we heard words of witness, we had a joyous offering, and Mike preached. The most amazing part of the service when people were asked to come forward and receive the Holy Spirit as the team laid hands upon them. They were asked for them to pray for the team to receive the Holy Spirit at the same time. People came forward - men and women; and the children also came forward. It was amazing to see the team bend down to lay hands on the little kids. We also had the opportunity to present most of the prayer squares to the women of Trinity UMC. They feel very fortunate that the women of AFUMC will be praying for them as they will be praying for the women of AFUMC.

Trinity UMC is where Ankeny FUMC has sent money to purchase pigs. The church members are starting to make bricks to make the pig pen, then a member of the church will travel to the village to teach them how to raise pigs, and then they will purchase the pigs. The hope is that as the pigs multiply, each of the church members will receive pairs of pigs to raise them for food and maybe even some for sale.

After worshiping at Trinity UMC we traveled to the parsonage of the circuit pastor Steve Mbwe and his wife Rhoda. There Bruce taught them how to use the Chlorine Generator he brought. This will be a critical part of the church program and most of the people do not have access to safe drinking water. To drill a safe water well with a hand pump costs almost $8,000, but the Chlorine Generator only costs about $300.

After the Generator training, we went into Pastor Steve's house for bible study. We enjoyed entering into their discussion on "What is a Christian" were we explored everything from being born again to people acting like fake Christians.

We traveled back to the Kiboko Lodge, at some dinner, rested.

Monday:

This was work day. We traveled back to St. Peter's UMC and began to install the new cement floor. The women of the team were asked to join the women of the church to walk about 1 mile each way to get water for the cement. This meant carrying the water buckets on their heads like the village women. Let's just say that the when they arrived at the church, there was less water in the bucket than when they started. They had to make three round trips to get enough water.

The men of the team joined the men of the church to dig out the old and level to the old floor. It was dusty and hard work and we were amazed at their stamina compared to ours. We were able to lay about half of the floor and will return tomorrow to finish the work.

I just cannot put into words what the team is experienced. They are seeing poverty at unbelievable levels, but they are also experiencing God through the joy of these very special people. We are all being changed, the people we meet and the team. Please continue to pray for us as God is being revealed in very special ways. The team is also making very deep friendships with many of the Malawi UMC members. These relationships will be maintained over the years to come.

Also, you can probably tell we are not able to keep up with the blog on a daily basis. This is because we leave very early and get back late. But please know the team is doing well and we will all be very different Christians when we return. The word Malawi means "fire" and I think we will be bringing back some Malawi fire when we return.