Towards Christ

"Thus is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His Name to all nations..." These are Christ's words recorded in the gospel of Luke. The Word touched me when I was sitting in the devotions at Logos Pastors training, glancing over the serious looks of the pastors. It's this Word that connects us missionaries with the people we work with. Serving towards one and the same purpose: winning people for Christ. When Cees was getting his copies from the office I had a chat with one of the pastors. Justin told me how privileged he feels, being part of this training program. "I did secondary school and started serving in the church voluntarily. I am so grateful for the ministry of Logos. I could never afford going to a college or seminary. Here, God is equipping me for free. Amazing grace." When I asked him what the best part was so far, he said: "I love the way Reverend Cees is helping us to be able to interpret the Old Testament towards Christ. It is a real eye opener!"

From there I drove to Chinsapo where the kids come running down the dirt road as soon as they hear the sound of our vehicle. They eagerly help me carry all teaching materials and of course the bread, accross the bridge and up, into the village! A couple hundred kids are gathering in the shade of the big tree and started singing the song 'Lolani ana' (let the children come). This day all my abc assistants are absent, my friend Grace is still in Tanzania. My other faithful Korean friend is with me. She is such a gem! She is a real servant! Eventhough she hardly speak english nor Chichewa I understand her and she is great in helping with logistics. Teaching 500 children in one group by myself is only doable in rural Africa!!! After the whole program I walk over to the mothers who have been listening too. They always appreciate a little 'kucheza' with me. I pray that as we lead these children to Christ, through them we might also lead the mothers!

The newest addition to our program: Towela, the 2 days old baby of one of our unmarried teenagers, a very common problem here. We believe this 'unwanted' baby is also welcome in the Kingdom of God. The need for leading children to Christ is always there!

Camping and more

I was never a great fan of camping! I simply don't like sand and ants in my food and in my bed, stuff all over the place because there are no cupboards to keep everything organized and a mattress that needs air every hour. Yet, when we had car problems in Zambia and needed to stay multiple nights in Lusaka we figured it was cheaper for us to buy a tent and sleeping bags than staying in a lodge. That's when our family camping adventures started. We cannot afford lodges, resorts, hotels or cottages so when we want to go other places with our family we camp. It's a LOT of Work....(especially for the mom). I must admit, there is a bright side to camping in Africa! Unlike to camping in the Netherlands we usually have the whole campground for ourselves!!! And even if we don't there is still lots of space left for playing, making noises and spreading our junk. An other blessing is the untouched surrounding creation, nothing is cultivated, no trimmed hedges, just bush, wild flora and fauna! Animals around you, pure African bush noises and smells. The number one blessing is the amazing sky at night. There is no place where you can see so many beautiful stars!!!!! I have no words for the sight of the galaxy here. Every Easter our church here (IBF) goes camping. A team from US comes to provide kids and adult Bible programs. We always enjoy the fellowship with one another in the rustic setting of Kuti campground!!! Will we go camping again? Lord willing, yes!

Welcomed by an ostrich: "Hello, how can I help you?"

This Duiker was addicted to coffee, every time when I emptied the filter it came to eat it.

Pinning the tent corner under the gaze and graze of local cows.

Campsite at the beach, no danger of tides at a lake! My favorite spot! Waking up (in case I slept) with the sound of waves.

We hiked the nearby Senga hills, great view of the bay!

An other blessing of camping...mud making and painting. Moses stared this feast and soon all little boys of church camp came to have this experience.

An hour after this three were flat...we didn't manege to find the holes.

Received their Bible story and coloring book, so happy with it!

First fruits of 2014.

Rhoda and 600 other kids watching the Easter skit.

Mothers were watching too!!!

Lunch with the chief and his wife.

Looking back

There is nothing wrong with looking back. In fact, it is encouraging. Didn't God instruct the Israelite's to remember the past in order to celebrate Gods faithfulness? When you live your life as a follower of Christ it is good to take a little time now and then to look back and say "Eben-Hazer".

April 2006 Arrival in Africa

Covenant College mission post, we lived our first 365 days in the tiny left house before we built our own.

No electricity so in order to have hot water, this is what we did.

April is a special month in our family. First of all we received two children in April; Joas was born 9 April 2000 and Rhoda 6 April 2002. What a blessings from God our amazing Creator. He has kept them all these years in His hands. Secondly we celebrate our arrival into the mission field in Africa this month. It has been 8 years now that we set foot on the African soil. I never ever thought of going to Africa, I was totally focused on going to Indonesia, yet Gods thoughts are much higher that ours. He makes no mistakes. He made us willing to go to a place I would have never picked myself. Great is His faithfulness.

Homescholing our kids .

The school building where Cees taught pastors from mon-friday and I did kids ministry on Saturdays.

Graduation October 2006

Joas and Rhode enjoyed eating lunch with CC staf (all from one pot).

The CC farm was just taking in the harvest when we arrived, a welcome distraction to our kids as we were still waiting for our school materials (arrived 6 months later so I improvised a lot, like, daily schooltrips to the farm...)

God blessed us with a son in 2008, Obed, born in a local hospital nearby, baptised by Rev. Miti our 'grandfather-friend'.

In 2009 we were again blessed with a son...that make a lap full for daddy Cees during his student-home-visits.

Family pic Dec 2009

Family pic 2014. Eben-Hazer! (To Joas' happiness he is now as tall as his parents...)

Guinea-pig for Dinner

 

I have never been to a palace in Asia, Europe or US, but here in Africa I am a regular palace visitor. In Zambia we had a very good relationship with chief Mumbi. He was a member of the church of one of our students (quite exceptional to have a Christian chief!). We have been in his palace quite a few times and he has been at our home regularly. Here in Malawi I work closely with the Mfumu (king / chief / leader) of Chimpangu community. In fact, in general most community work will only succeed with the approval / support of the local leader. Even though this man is not a professing Christian, he is very appreciative for everything we do and even encourages us to keep doing the good work and expand. Therefore he offered us a piece of land.

A few of Mfumu's lifestock, so lucky to live in a palace!

It happened during my conversation with him in his palace that suddenly a little animal ran from under my chair. Something started to squeak and whistle and all of a sudden the room was filled with…. Guinea-pigs. I had never seen those in Africa yet. Was Mfumu actually keeping pets? Not really, his wife explained they have Guinea-pig on the menu regularly! During one of my next visits (Cees and the kids were with me) she gave us two little ones, male and female, so that we can start breeding and have it for dinner… Our kids are very happy with their new pets!

Seriously, for dinner?! No way.

We have been looking at land, not very easy to measure with the maize being so tall… Mfumu is the only chief in a big area who still owns land for sale. Grace and I are very excited about building a proper ministry building, for evangelism, literacy, pre-school and other community development programs. Please pray for wisdom for us to do what is right to serve the people here in Malawi, bringing them to Christ.

Discussing and measuring the land.

Mfumu has been leader for over 40 years. He wants to retire but there is no-one willing to take his place. His positions is not desirable; mostly dealing with problems everyday. When we left the palace on Saturday, a very angry neighbor had pulled out all his maize because Mfumu’s cows had been eating from it. Another neighbor reported his chickens were killed by some dogs. When we reached our car a drunkard bothered us, so Grace reported that to Mfumu. He and his first wife had 15 children, 9 are still alive. He has more than 60 (great)-grand children…most of them are in our programs. Mfumu shared his concerns about the youth. They are not following the traditional rules of respect and behavior anymore because they are influenced by a lot of worldly (western) stuff. 

Mfumu's cow's after their mud bath down the stream.

I was extra excited when I watched a big group of teenage boys listening and interacting to the Bible lesson last week. Wow! What an opportunity to teach them about a life in the footsteps of Christ. I formed a subgroup afterwards and read a passage with them, giving each of them a turn and asked questions. First their answers were a bit ‘gigglish’ but they got more and more serious. These teenagers are really an in-between group of the community. They are not kids anymore, but they aren’t adults yet either. Who takes them serious? Jesus does!!!

I am very excited about a new development: African Bible College students have to spend one afternoon per week on outreach / ministry as part of their training. Since we come eyes, hands, mouths and legs short with so many kids coming to our programs I suggested to involve a group of ABC students in our ministry. Today I am taking 19 students (8 in my car, the rest will follow by mini-bus) to our program. With some training integrated they can start helping out. Imagine, teaching all kids at the same time in small groups (10 groups of 40 kids)!! Now that someone gives us 40 loaves of bread every week….the number of kids is going up again. Let’s hope we find enough trees in the community to facilitate all. Please, pray for this development.

Some of Mfumu's great-grandchildren.

Chinsapo Children and women ministry

We were asked to give a little presentation at IBF church coming Sunday about the ministry we do in Chinsapo. I decided to post it here so that you have an overview of the ministry as well. For more stories just view my other blogs as well.

The bridge is still fine for pedestrians and bikes, not anymore for cars and donkey cart's

Where: Chimpangu community in Chinsapo; Area 46 Lilongwe

(Mchinchi road, passed Children of the nations, left on dirt road for about 4km, across the broken bridge.)

How it came about: Grace and Bernard Muhone bought land in Chimpangu and build their home. They saw many needs; spiritual, emotional and physical. In God’s providence Miriam and Grace became IBF church friends and shared a burden and compassion for the community. Miriam has many years of experience in children evangelism. With the approval of the village headman we started a children’s and women ministry.

What we do for the children and why:

Every Thursday we teach two groups of 200 kids.

First we gather with children between 3 and 10 under the public tree (bwalo). We teach them Bible stories, memorize verses and Bible songs, do Bible quizzes and color Bible story pictures. Once a month we hand out bread. On special occasions we hand out donated clothes (eg. Christmas) or any other useful materials we receive.

 We also run a group for 11-16 year old kids in our home made shelter and do the same activities yet at a higher level. We give opportunity to perform prepared drama or choir , linked to the Bible lessons. We encourage them to read by giving them the story each week. We play games sometimes.

When ever we see special needs, we try to help. Eg. Tiya a 14 year old disabled girl, was raped, had a baby but couldn’t feed the baby properly. We assist with milk and porridge. We also give medical assistance in emergencies. We sponsor some kids who were never able to go to school, due to poverty.

We do this because many kids don’t have parents who teach them the value’s of Gods Word and care for their kids as they should. We pray God will use these programs to touch the lives of these young people so that they may know God and glorify Him forever.

drama team

What we do for the women and why:

Most women in Chimpangu community cannot read and write. We organize and teach literacy classes. Meanwhile we teach them Biblical value’s for life, encouraging them to make the right choices (eg. Brewing and drinking beer verses cultivating vegetable, taking care of their children). The ability to read will help these women to read and study Gods Word for themselves but also understand more of the world around them.

Future plan’s: The village headman appreciates what we do in his community. He has offered us a piece of land for building a proper facility. We are now pursuing the possibility of land and building. If it is Gods will we would like to expand the ministry with a Christian community pre-school, a speedschool for older kids who don’t go to school to catch up with their peers and literacy programs for women. Making good use of the facility.

Running back to the car after the program.

How you can be involved:

-prayer

-donations (clothes, towels, blankets, soap, crayons, medicines, money)

 (when the pre-school is reality: puzzles, books, toys etc)

-come along and help teaching (Chichewa required)