20 July – Malawi.
There is nothing like a tank of gas to get you on the move, speeding up, so to speak. Yes, that pun was intended. We are now determined to complete as much of our mission as possible in spite of the fuel shortage, and you will remember that we planned to go into Blantyre for Sunday services, lunch with church leaders, then off to Senga Bay where we were advised fuel had been stockpiled for us. It’s interesting how your mood changes when you find fuel for your car. No matter that it is nearly $12.00 a gallon. It is fuel and you can move again.
On Sunday morning we left Namikango around 6:30 in the morning. Can you imagine that? Leaving at 6:30 to go to church services. Well, we did. We are trying to make an 8 AM worship service, and we don’t want to be so pressed we get the chance to visit with the now famous, radar patrol along the way. With all of the shortages of cash in the country there is little doubt the police are trying to do their part to balance the national budget. We don’t want to make a contribution today.
It seems both Scott and I both left the states without our watches. Gives us the feeling of really fitting in with the locals. They don’t have watches either. Not sure what time it was when we went into the church building, but about 2 minutes after we entered the service started. It was scheduled to begin at 8 AM, but I was sure the first song must have actually taken place around 7:40. Not sure how to take that one, a church service starting early. Imagine!
It had been noted to both of us the afternoon before that we would be “on the schedule” for the services. In other words, one of you will be preaching and the other will conduct the Lord’s Supper. Which one of us would do what part might have remained a secret except for our meeting on Saturday with one of the church elders. He spilled the beans, and noted I would be giving the lesson and Scott would be conducting the communion. Well, at least that gives us a couple of hours on Saturday night to prepare. Now, as the time for the sermon has reached that critical moment I wonder why I didn’t skip sleeping for the night and spend more time preparing the lesson. After a few songs, and a very long prayer for God to rescue the nation from its present plight I mentally scraped the lesson I had prepared, and folded up my notes and put them in my pocket. They just didn’t fit the crisis. I turned my attention to the moment Peter found himself sinking in the sea when he looked around himself and saw the wind, waves and rain. That seemed like a pretty good crisis on which to focus their attention. About 45 minutes later (they like long lessons), I wrapped up the lesson that helped bring focus on keeping your eyes on the goal when everything around you is falling apart. The idea of not taking your eyes off of Christ even when the wind, rain and waves are about to take you under. I guess you can’t hear the lesson because in this part of the world they don’t cut DVD’s of their sermons. In fact, they don’t even do CD’s. Scott did a great job with the communion. They actually give an entire hour for that part of the service. He didn’t take that long, but what he said was to the point and good.
Finally by a little before 10 we were done. We could go to lunch. Right? Wrong! An elder whisked us in his car and we rushed off to someplace. Since I wasn’t driving I didn’t draw a map of our route. Couldn’t do it anyway, since so much of it was on unmarked roads, roads with no names. Really, no names. Only the locals know what tree is the one where you should turn. In fact, he made note of the fact that sometimes they will make note of things like a termite mound as a marker. Can you imagine, go to the fourth termite mound on the right and turn left? What a place.
Finally we reached the place that only he knew we were going, and got out of the vehicle in front of another church building. Guess you already have this one figured out don’t you? You are right. We are preaching and conducting the Lord’s Supper in another congregation. Great audience. Great time. And besides, the lesson is still pretty fresh in my mind since it has only been an hour since I delivered it at the last place. Without much thought I repeat the lesson about keeping ourselves grounded and focused when it comes to a crisis such as the one being faced in Malawi currently. At the conclusion of the service our guiding elder notes this congregation expects us to stand at the back door and greet each person as they come out of the building. Wow! And this is a pretty large congregation. Shaking hands over 200 times. Where is lunch when you need it?
Finally (I said that at the beginning of the last paragraph), we shook our last hand and smiled our last smile and climbed up in the vehicle. Off we go to lunch. Lunch, you say? It’s more of a royal feast. This is a part of Malawi I can’t explain to you. Guess you’ll just have to find a movie about the height of the time when the British were in Africa, and imagine some of the elegance and extravagance the movies portray of that age. I felt I back in that time when one of the elders, a well-respected lawyer in Malawi, took us to the Ryalls Hotel for lunch, or rather a royal feast. Its an elegant hotel established in 1921, and the next time you are in the area I recommend you give it a try.
After the lunch and more discussions we got out on the road heading north toward Senga Bay around 4 PM. Since we had meant to leave for the Cool Runnings Lake Resort no later than 1:30, this means we are going to travel much of this trip in the dark. Oh well, that’s the way it goes. At least we are on the move. We have gas, enough to get to our destination, and that is good.
Third Report — From Dick Stephens and Scott Gordon- The Webmaster