My parents' visit

We praise the Lord for the wonderful visit of my (Mirjam's) parents the last 10 days! It was short but intense. We were privileged to show them some characteristics of Malawi and of our ministry here. Please, join me on our ‘tour’.

At my parents’ day of arrival, after a cup of coffee, we took them on a little tour, showing the area where we live and work. We ended up stuck in the mud… Thanks to some helpful Malawians, a tree and our winch, we pulled ourselves out of the black, stinky mud, leaving deep holes behind. A real Africa rainy season experience. Good thing this was their third visit to Africa! My dad, a pastor, made some notes – a real life example…

The next day we went to Lake Malawi. It was the kids’ Easter holiday. We stayed at our favorite, cheap cottage with the luxury of looking out over the deep blue waters with here and there a local fishing boat and some mountains in the background. My mom lost her glasses in the lake…Rhoda found them after a one hour search!

Malawi’s shire river is home to a huge population of hippos. We took a boat ride to see them up close; all they revealed was their ears, eyes and nostrils…While driving through the bush we came across a heard of elephants with babies. Even all the antelopes had little ones. Very cute! It’s always exiting to be guests in the African wilderness; fortunately, I was the only one awake when an enormous hippo had his midnight snack right next to the hut where we were all sleeping. He left clear proof behind which our kids ‘admired’ the next morning.

Zomba is a plateau at 2000 meter above sea level. There’s a church cottage right at the edge, providing a beautiful early morning view. Here we celebrated the birthdays of my dad, Rhoda and Joas. There was no stove so we cooked all our food on a charcoal fire. It was cool on the mountain, nice for a change!

We took the Dedza pass route back home, crossing the Great Rift Valley mountain range, back to the flat area of Lilongwe. Malawi is relatively small but highly populated. The main road crosses many many villages, which slows down travels quite a bit. Cars share the highway with many: dangerously loaded trucks, bikes without brakes, cow herds crossing to greener grass, wobbly donkey carts full of maize, pedestrians carrying heavy loads on their heads, kids playing around, and incidental drunkards sleeping it off... It makes us aware of the constant need for God’s protection.

Back home meant back to work. The kids proudly showed their school. My parents enjoyed their time, sitting in Cees’ classroom, listening to a lecture on the Covenant. They were very convinced about the need for pastors training after watching these men drink in the lecture and asking such fundamental questions, sharing their experiences from their own ministries.

On their day of departure they were able to come along with me and join our Women ministry celebration. 25 Women had completed their first literacy program. Grace and I bought food to prepare a meal together with these women. The headman was also invited; he brought along seven other headmen to show the success of our program. On our way to the community we were held up by a group of Nyau dancers, wearing masks, completely covered with mud, leaves and painting. I did not dare to take a picture, looking at their big, swinging knives. Amazingly enough they let us through, knowing we have approval from the village headman to do this work.

We had a great program. The women did some drama about how eager they are to learn how to read and write. The headman made a speech, saying how thankful he is for the work among ‘his’ women and children. “Since they are learning they have less time for gossiping, this makes my work as headman much easier.” Even though he is not a Christian, he asked us to continue “Because I see a change for good in our community.” I did a devotion on the Tree of life, from Genesis to Revelation. I spoke on the Creation, the Fall, Salvation though Christ and the Future for those who believe in Him.

We gave everyone a Moringa tree. This tree is amazing, it contains much more vitamins, calcium, iron, protein, and minerals then any other food. We hope this community is going to profit from this tree, boosting the immunity of malnourished women and children.

Women who managed to reach a good reading level received a Bible, others were given clothes and soap. Grace encouraged them to continue to learn. We minister to these women and the many children in this community with the prayer in our heart that God will use it to really transform their lives and free them from the powers of darkness which are literally surrounding them.

Rains started to pour down when we had our celebration meal; Grace’s house was packed, our ‘classroom’ even more, others tried to stay dry under trees and against the walls of different huts… thankful for good food to fill the empty stomach.

Since my parents still had to reach the airport to not miss their flight we started off after the meal, trusting the 4x4 vehicle when we were crossing the bridge (which had more holes again, people using the wood to make fire to cook food), slipping somewhat through the streams caused by the sudden heavy rains. Praying for the people we left behind and for their crops on the fields (the maize is almost ready to be harvested but if the rain continues, fungi will destroy it).

We thank the Lord for a wonderful visit. My parents will bring experiences from this mission field home and share with their church so that more people pray for the building of Gods Kingdom also in Malawi!

(Click here for more pictures...)