Malawi, Africa - Week 1

This is a journal entry from David after his first week in Africa - Enjoy!

I have now been in the country of Malawi for just over one week. We have worshiped with two different congregations of the Lord's church, and met numerous Christians as we have taught in five different villages over the week. It has been very exciting to watch the African people learn; they love the word of God and are soaking up the knowledge like dry sponges!

We arrived in Malawi last Friday, and took it easy for the rest of Friday and Saturday. We mostly slept off the jet lag. Sunday we worshiped at a relatively new congregation in a village about 20 minutes outside of Lilongwe. This congregation was planted about a year ago, thus most of the Christians are less than a year old. But despite that, they are growing and learning by leaps and bounds. In fact, the day that we were there a woman was baptized who had been studying with Isaac (the Crookshank’s translator).

As the week progressed we went to a different village each day and Wayne Burger taught Hermeneutics (the science of studying the Bible). The people loved what they were learning because of how practical it is to their lives. They often asked great questions, and by their responses to Wayne’s questions you could tell that they were paying close attention. These villages have all participated in the 4-year school that the Crookshanks have conducted, so the people are more versed in the Bible than the average African villager. Each day we took attendance, and by the end of the week we had 455 students! It is unknown how many congregations were represented. The largest number that we had at one time was 119, and they were all packed into a building that was probably 20 ft by 30 ft in size. There were people packed five per bench, while other people were sitting on the floor and around the pulpit. They were crammed in like sardines, and they all looked happy to be there! No one seemed to be bothered by the lack of space.

Wayne has not been feeling good so Ed assigned me to do the driving. He wanted Wayne to conserve his strength for teaching. It has been very interesting driving on the wrong side of the road, on the wrong side of the truck, and with the gearshift on the wrong side of my body! It really makes you think about each and every thing that you do! The roads are also a new experience. In the city the roads are well maintained, but they are packed! There are people literally everywhere, on bikes and on foot, not just on the edge of the road, but in the middle as well! And the other cars drive in a crazy fashion (which means a lot coming from me). Because of all these things you have to drive very defensively, which I have enjoyed. The roads out to the villages are interesting as well. A couple are well-maintained, but most are little more than 4x4 tracks. In fact I think that I have been on some 4x4 tracks in the states that were smoother than some of these roads. On top of the quality of the dirt roads, there are still people everywhere, except the bikes do not always move out of the way like they do in the city. They find the one smooth spot on the road, and they are not going to move off of it! We also have to dodge people carrying large loads on their heads and ox carts that are much less maneuverable than the truck.. I have had a real good time driving out here - it is great fun and there is never a dull moment.

As we prepare for the next week of teaching, I would like to ask for prayers for the brethren here from all of you back home. They are facing a lot of pressure from false religions, denominations, and all the worldly struggles that all humans face. They are also facing a distinct lack of trained teachers of God's word. In short they need our prayers and our willingness to come to teach them. So please pray for the strength of the Christians, and for God to raise up willing workers to come train the people so that they can train each other.

May God be with you all!