From Village to Village

Because of the steady rains today, travel through the villages was difficult.  Most of the time, our truck jolted along the washboard surfaced road, but  a few times, we lost traction in the mud and began to drift toward rain swollen ditches. Along the way, some sections of the dirt road had collapsed, leaving a gaping hole big enough to swallow our truck's tire, but being the skilled driver he is, however, George was able to navigate the hazards and get us safely to each village. (Well, that and answered prayer got us safely to each village.)

We were warmly greeted and welcomed at our fourth and last teaching point of the day. Actually, we didn't know we would be teaching in that village today. We thought we would be meeting the Chief and receiving her welcome and schedule a time for us to come back and teach. However, when we arrived, we found the house full of men and women eager for us to teach them from the Bible.  

In all, there were about 65-70 people  seated on benches the porch and on the floor inside the house. From the bench where we sat in the living room, we could see many faces peering out of a doorway to another room down the hall.   Also, 30 children participated in our children's program outside under a big mango tree.  Although it was late afternoon and George and I were very tired, I saw their spiritual  hunger and their eagerness to be taught the Word of God, and  I knew I could not disappoint them.  As I began to teach, I was Holy Spirit energized, and I was able to finish strong.

        

The lesson topic was "How Can We Have Assurance of Salvation?"  1Peter 3:18 "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit," 2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."

CHRIST'S SACRIFICE + MY FAITH IN WHAT HE HAS DONE FOR ME + TURNING FROM MY SIN = SALVATION.

 For months, about a dozen women from this village have been walking about 10 miles  each week to attend my Bible studies in another village, so there were many familiar faces in the crowd. They were so delighted that we came to teach the Bible in their village. All were very attentive and participated in the lesson, and although most said they are Christian believers, there was only one Bible among them all.  

As I taught, an elderly man sitting on the floor by my feet looked up each passage in his well-worn Bible, and a woman sitting on the floor just to my left wrote the Bible references in er note book. Initially, the Chief was not able to attend, so she sent her representative. Eventually, the Chief was able to break away from her responsibilities and come to welcome us, then stayed for the remainder of the meeting. 

We are certain the Gospel of the Kingdom must be preached in every village, and if God is not satisfied until everyone hears the Good News, neither should we be.  As I taught today, "God wants His house full! When the final day comes and all of His children are gathered home, we will be there among people from every tribe and language and nation.  He has provided this great salvation, and we are the ones who must go home and share what we have learned with our family and friends."

Montford Cottage Album

This was our second day at Montford Cottage. I hope you enjoy my album.

Montford Cottage

For a couple of weeks, George and I had been talking about taking a little getaway, so a few days ago, he called to reserve Montford Cottage, near the highest summit of Zomba Mountain. 

This morning we packed our binoculars, our camera, some food, and a few changes of clothes and set out on our little adventure. We had never been to this cottage before, but some time ago, we had stayed at a nearby one, so we knew the view from that height should be spectacular. 

Montford is a little house with a wide wrap-around porch, perched on a rocky crag and surrounded on three sides by outcroppings of rock and little gardens of wildflowers and beyond, deep evergreen forest.

By the time we reached the cottage early this afternoon, a wind storm was brewing. 

A fine cloudy mist was billowing over the precipice with gusts of spray blowing across the mountain ridge and swirling around the little cottage. We drove as far as we could onto the property. We could see the cottage some distance up on the crest, but from that point, we had a little hike to the cottage. We resolved to get all our belongings into the cottage before the rains came, but we knew that would take some real effort. First, we had to find the key-keeper, the custodian who lives in the tiny house by the cottage. Meanwhile, two vendors, one selling potatoes and the other a plate of raspberries, heard our vehicle along the road and before we could get parked, came to make a sale. 

We told them we were not interested, but if they would come and see us just before we leave, we would like to buy from them. The raspberry salesman left, but the persistent potato salesman followed us up to the cottage. We knocked on the custodian's door and called to him, but no one was home. 

We asked the potato salesman if he knew the whereabouts of the custodian. He told us he was somewhere in the neighborhood, but he would send his children to fetch the keys for us. At that point, we bought his bag of potatoes and thanked him. Within 5 minutes two happy children, a boy and a girl came bounding up the mountain like a pair of gazelles and dropped the keys in George's hands, both smiling brightly.

Now we could unpack the vehicle, and hopefully, get everything into the cottage before the rains started. George gingerly made his way down the steep, boulder-strewn trail to begin unloading.  The children, eager to satisfy their curiosity, stood near the truck watching George preparing to unpack. In that moment, he decided that it might be wise to enlist the children's help. 

He asked if they would like to help. Both agreed, and the trekking began. George stood by the truck and, one by one, handed off the cooler, the suitcase, the case of water. As each item arrived, I was standing on the porch to receive it. Before long, the truck was empty, and the job complete. We thanked them, then the children started to walk away. We called them back and gave each a 200 Kwacha note. They didn't know they would receive anything, so they were very pleased and stood for some time examining their treasures. 

By the time we unloaded our vehicle, visibility had decreased and the little cottage was being enveloped in a thickening cloud. From the front porch, we couldn't see Zomba below. In fact, we could barely see the trees 50 ft to the left or right of us! 

By nightfall, the strong wind was constant and was whistling through the trees, causing the curtains on the louvered windows in the cottage to billow out, especially in the bedroom. Brrr!  We put a few extra blankets on the bed, and I think we will be ok. We hired the custodian to chop firewood for us, and before long, George and I were sitting by a crackling fire, reading and sipping hot tea. Nice! 

And this is just the first day of our little adventure. 

Though the Fields Yield No Food

We drove past the villages where we work and came to the end of the road. We parked here by a rickety footbridge to have our lunch between community meetings in the two villages. As it turned out, this is a busy place, with both bicycle and pedestrian traffic. Bicyclists hauling heavy sacks of maize approached, then dismounted and pushed their loads across, as the structure bounced and swayed.  We were soon to learn that the faith of many people in the villages has been shaken. They must learn to trust God on a whole new level.

Rickety Bridge

Without a traffic director, everyone moved smoothly, waiting their turns to cross from both directions. One woman with two small children and a 50 kg bag balanced on her head approached the bridge, sidestepped down the bank, then she stepped into the rain swollen creek with her children trailing along behind her. 

As we were finishing our meal, a woman approached the window of our vehicle and waited to be noticed to strike up a conversation. She said, "You know I attend your classes in that village. I want you to know all of my crops were washed away in the storms." How should I answer that?

All morning we had been meeting with community leaders and villagers. When we offered words of encouragement to pray and hope in God, the people in one village received them gladly and believed with us that God can make a way where there seems to be no way. In the other village, hearts were heavy and despairing. We prayed and asked them to pray. George read Habakkuk 3:17-19 and told them they can trust God when it seems all earthly hope is gone. Some were receiving George's words gladly, but in some hearts it seemed these seeds of faith were bouncing off a wall. 

This is a community meeting where George was teaching from Habakkuk 3:17-19.

Many friends led us to their fields to show us the devastation. Although generally, people who applied Farming God's Way fared better, in some fields, the flooding was just too much. In many fields, ground cover had washed completely away and laid in heaps along trails left by the flowing water. Many fields are still waterlogged and the maize stunted and yellowing.  

Some crops were completely destroyed, and some were stunted and badly damaged.  

These are one crop farmers, so no maize crop means no food for the family for the coming year. It's as simple and heartbreaking as that. We could see the despair in their eyes as over and over, we had heard this same story from people as we walked throughout the villages. 

The home of a friend that I often visited was completely gone, and all that was left was a pile of crumbled mud bricks. She, as most extremely poor people, had made her own mud bricks to build her small two room house, but she was too poor to fire them. I asked her to describe what happened. She said that the typhoon came in the middle of the night while she was asleep in one room and her children in another. She woke to the sound of cracking as the walls began to collapse. She ran to her children's room and managed to get them out before the walls could fall upon them. She, her family, and her brother's family are now living in a small building we had been using for the clinician's examination room on clinic days. 

We were standing on the site where her home stood. The rubble under our feet is what is left of her home.

Nearby was a home that had been badly damaged and one entire wall missing and cracks in the others. Nevertheless, families were living inside. There was a cooking fire in the middle of the floor. The multipurpose building we built a few months ago was occupied by several families. No furniture, no beds, of course, only clothes piled along the walls indicated people who had lost everything were sleeping there. 

Several families are living in this badly damaged house.

All of us have watched on the news as a disaster unfolded in some distant place in the world. Those events can seem rather abstract to many people, and some may conclude, "Thank God that is not me and my family."  The absolute devastation in these villages is not at all abstract or distant.  These are people we know and love. If we take no action, we know the logical consequence of poor subsistence farmers losing their crops, then losing hope. 

Love cannot be just words. The kingdom of God must come through us, and we must represent in every way the heart of the Father. We believe He will give us wisdom and resources to help them recover, with faith in God intact that will make them stronger. 

Let me tell you how you can help. We need much prayer support, that God will give us wisdom and the resources to carry out this assignment. We need many people to give generously for new seed, fired brick, and cement, and a year-long feeding program for the children. Ask God what you can do, and we know if everyone responds with their part, the need will be met.  You can make a tax deductible contribution securely online at www.surefoundationministry.com . Or, you can mail contributions to Sure Foundation Ministry, PO Box 30332, Winston-Salem, NC 27130. May God bless everyone whose heart God has stirred to give. 

Tropical Storm

The tree tops were shaking and towering blue gum trees swayed, and within seconds, strong winds from the west (an unusual direction for storms here). The corner of our roof lifted then flapped up and down. Winds ripped large branches from nearby trees and felled several large ones over the neighborhood. I called George to agree with me in prayer. We asked for safety for us, our lives, this house, and all our workers. We thought of the villagers and asked for their safety and that they would pray, and would find Him a very present help in time of need. We had the peace of God that all would be well. We prayed with prayer, praise, and proclamation for some time.

Eventually the winds calmed down and the rains subsided enough for George to pick up one of our workers who had gone into town to get a few groceries. He was taking our usual route when he rounded a bend and  came upon a large section of tree blocking the entire road. There is one other way, a much longer route, into town, so he decided to turn around and try it. Along that way, many trees had fallen across the road, but people were all along the road claiming the fallen trees for firewood and quickly carrying away bundles and sections; whatever they could carry away. It was a much longer and a slower route because of all the fallen limbs and  branches littering the roadway, but it was a blessing that the road was passable. 

After the storm, I checked for damage and found only one medium tree along the upper wall, some distance from our house had fallen and we are happy to say the wall was not damaged. We want to thank God for protecting us, our lives, our workers, our house, and we are trusting God that all our friends in the villages are safe as well.