Two full weeks in the country, and one more to go! I have had a great time here in Malawi, but I am definitely looking forward to coming home to my wife! We have had another great week of teaching, with all of the classes going up in attendance. In all we had almost 500 students in 5 villages! One village in particular had almost 140 students in one day! The crowd was so big that we had to move outside! It has been truly an uplifting experience. On the days that I do not go with Wayne to teach, I stay at the Crookshank’s house and help print books. We have completed all the books for Wayne's class, in fact he is starting to hand them out today, and we have started on books for Ed's upcoming classes. This was not supposed to take too long, but Ed found out that the locals are expecting close to 500 people at one of the classes, and it happens that the book for this class is the biggest we will have to print this week. So we are busy enough that I probably will not go to the villages this week.
Malawi is also going through fuel crises, so that has added another level of excitement to our lives. All the filling stations ran out of fuel last Wednesday or Thursday, which is apparently rather common here. So when fuel came into a few stations on Friday the lines were crazy! The line for the filling station closest to the Crookshank's went down one block, around the roundabout, and on about two blocks further. When Ed and I tried to go get fuel after dinner, all stations were out again. Saturday morning Ed sent me out to get into a diesel line and wait. I did finally find a station that had a line, and what a line it was! Semi-trucks were going down one direction of the road for the equivalent of two city blocks, the area around the pumps was completely full of small trucks and vans, and going the other way was a line of small trucks that was the equivalent of one city block. This is the line that I got in. After not moving for ten or so minutes I concluded that they were not actually filling anyone, so I called Ed. He confirmed that the workers probably called their friends to come because they were expecting fuel in that day, and everyone else had just followed suit. So I sat in the line for another 30 minutes hoping that they would get some fuel in soon, but to no avail, and Ed instructed me to head on home since they did not have any. When Wayne left after lunch to teach at "area 36," he called and let us know that there seemed to be fuel at some places now. So Ed had his wife go sit in line while I continued to print and bind books. That was around noon, and everyone finally got back home around 5:30. Ed succeeded in getting petrol in one truck, but his wife had spent all that time sitting in line, and the station ran out of diesel before she got to the pump. It turnes out that rather than sit in line, most people would park across the street and run back and forth to the pumps with fuel cans. So the vehicles in line were usurped by people with cans! Ed was not happy, but we at least had enough petrol to go to church in the morning.
The village where we went to worship on Sunday was two hours drive away on pavement. Apparently this was a great example of an African church service, because we got there at 9 am (the scheduled time), and no one showed up until 10:30, and we got started at 11. But by the end of service there were 400 people there, of whom only 125 were from that congregation. The others were from other congregations who had heard that the American missionaries were coming. Sunday I also got my first taste of local food! Their staple food is corn meal which is made into patties. They call it inseema (but I do not know the correct spelling). They also fed us cooked greens (I do not know what kind), and very tasty (but tough) chicken. It was quite good, but I discovered a phobia that I did not know I had. They provided a basin of water for us to wash our hands in, and I was reminded of all the warnings about drinking the water. While we had bottles of water with us for drinking, all of the food had been cooked in local water. Now, the rational side of me knew that if the water had boiled for a while it was probably fine, but I was still a bit put off. However, I manned up and ate the food, because I know that I was being silly. And - sure enough - the food was good and I am still alive and feeling fine!
Well I should get back to printing, but once again I ask that you all pray for the brethren here in Malawi!
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.
on the screen captioned with the words, "BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND." How hilarious! This mother duck had no idea that her directions would end up leading her ducklings down the gutter! This perfectly captures the concept of this class - parents are entrusted with something very special: the heart of their child. It is their God-given task to mold and shape that heart to follow God, which - it's true - is done partly by example. But, as this picture so adequately explains, there is more to it than simply going along with a destination in mind and hoping they make it to there, too. 
