Tea Leaves

Beautiful area, especially when the sun kisses every leaf. 

Hallelujah

As yesterday came to a close we ended it off with a yoga session after supper with Tracey and I as instructors. That was interesting to say the least with Taylor trying to do the downward facing dog. But off to bed we went, and as I went to bed thinking tomorrow was just another day, the team had something else planned. I woke up to a rap, yes, a rap. Beat boxing was heard and instantly I knew what was happening. I was getting my birthday song rapped to me with clever lyrics and smiling faces. Breakfast in bed, hot chocolate powder, and a volleyball all signed by my loving team was given to me on my special day. Honestly, I thought I’d just be jump on in the morning with them yelling happy birthday. Thankfully, I was completely wrong. 

But we soon began our day after my little celebration in Malawi. Today there was church, a church full of laughter, smiles, and of course, dancing. We started with some of our classic Canadian songs, and then soon they broke into their own music, all of us baffled by the different language, just danced and clapped with them. Without words we could still join together in Gods family. We soon came to a close with singing and began to share our testimonies, I think all of us are getting a little warn out about sharing our testimony over and over, but this team I am surrounded with still does it full hearted. Its beautiful to see the impact all our stories make in the lives of others. Julia then shared the message of the day for church, she once again did a fantastic job as she did last Sunday in church. They have all agreed that she should stay in Malawi and become the official pastor for the churches. I think our whole team can join together in agreement to that.

Our day ended earlier than planned, we pretty much have the whole afternoon off to bond with our two Malawi friends who have been beside us since the beginning, Augustine and Dorothy. Two loving people, who will be terribly hard to leave on our last day. 

So we are now relaxing and tomorrow morning heading up to prayer mountain. A long journey ahead, which will definitely have stories in it to share with all of you!

But, as the Malawi church people say, “Up, up, Jesus, down, down, devil.”

Praise the Lord, and Hallelujah. 

Resting Clouds

Clouds sitting upon the mountains in the morning sun as we drive to our destination. Silence fills the vehicle this morning, not from being tired, but just from peace. Peaceful thinking of what lies ahead of us for today. But as the clouds settle further into the mountains we reach our location. Back to our regular routine with door to door Evangelism, it’s strange that we can now call that a routine. I don’t think we’d ever be able to call it a routine in Canada. But off we went on our normal day, this time my group was with Julia and two of our friends from Malawi, Dorothy and Rhoda. We went into one mans house who was already a Christian, his shirt full of bible verses. As soon as I saw his shirt it brought a smile to my face, but once we were invited inside I shared my testimony. He loved the encouragement, but it wasn’t the fact that we did anything amazing in his life that he is being put into my blog today. Not at all because we only simply had a conversation, but this conversation was all I really needed for today to remind me, God is good. From that conversation I learnt the simple joy of God children, he is just one of many Christians in the world, and we have so many more waiting to be discovered. We are not alone, nor will we ever be. Just talking to him showed me that. Showed me that we are reaching out to people and inviting God into their life, but for some people they are reaching into our lives and changing our lives with God. For that I am forever thankful. God is good, good indeed. 

Our day of Evangelism came to a close early afternoon and as we gathered to eat and play some games we joined in community. Our new little family in Malawi. Julia was feeling sick all day with a sore stomach, so she wasn’t as full into the games which made me sad that she couldn’t enjoy it. But after a while I too became sick and was not feeling 100%. So I soon relaxed in my chair with Julia, feeling her pain. Our ride soon came after my stomach began to turn, and as we sat in the vehicle Augustin asked if I was tired and I replied with, “No, I just feel sick.” Taylor being the best daddy I could have on this trip soon took my shoulder to comfort the bumpy ride for me. Not even thinking he was there for me as soon as I said I was uneasy. What a great guy eh? I felt so loved in the simplest way of just resting a hand on my shoulder to comfort my rocky ride. I love my team, I couldn’t be more blessed with these goofs in my life.

But as the evening passes and Julia is sound asleep next to me, I pray she gets better so we can have a fun evening tonight to finish up our day.

Prayers are always needed for health here in Africa! It'd be greatly appreciated for us!

Letting Out Grace

Greeted by smiling faces and warm hugs was just the start to an incredible day. Door to door we went as our usual day; Taylor, Julia and I all in one group. We went house to house talking to people about Jesus, and than we stumbled across one home that changed all of our hearts. Patricia, is her name. A very kind lady, who listened very carefully as all three of us shared our testimony. She was indulged in all of them, and then as we came to a close she began to ask questions. Many questions that were very personal, we answered as best we could. After she had accepted God into her heart, we asked her if we could pray for her. So Taylor, Julia and I surrounded her and placed a gentle hand on her and began to pray. Two sentences into Julia praying I felt a sudden shake of her body, and to my surprise as I looked down she was in tears. Pouring broken tears. She had broke in our hands right there before us, before God. She had truly surrender all she had at that moment, and as the words came out of all our mouths when we left we all agreed those were not our words but Jesus’s words speaking through us. As we brought our prayer to a close she thanked us, telling us she was not expecting this with crying eyes and a warm smile. We understand now what we are doing, we are just the starting point to something bigger that God can’t wait to share. 

But as our morning of Evangelism came to a close we went back to the home we would be eating lunch at. Well to our surprise they love to dance… They LOVE to dance. We actually had a dance party in this tiny living room, all of us packed in and just dancing away. The music was cranked as loud as possible I’m sure. Everyone was going nuts, and of course everyone laughed at the white people dancing. As the music quieted we joined together in lunch. During lunch our group got to know three other young adults who are incredible! We made music with raps, beatboxing, singing, and everything in-between! It was beautiful to hear and be apart of! 

Together today all in all was pretty spectacular! It was a blessing to see people break down for God in tears, and incredible to see people break down for God in dance! 

Our team is now calming down from our hectic day, but we all have more energy than we ever have. Prayers and love have definitely been around this Malawi team, and we couldn’t be more grateful! Keep on praying for us, and not just us but for the people here in Malawi. They are all incredible and have extraordinary stories to tell! All of us can’t wait to come home and share these stories with you! 

Pray on, and love on. 

Adventure Upon Adventure

Well, I’m curled up on my bed. My hair dripping from a warm warm shower, my toes are in toasty warm socks and there is quiet. Day six since we left the little town of Gretna. Different culture? Yes, very much so. Rice for every meal? Yes, very much so. Loving faces and warm hugs? Yes, very very much so. We have been welcomed into this community with open and loving arms. Only smiling faces we see when we pass people. We have children running after our van as we leave the village. Running the whole way after us with giant smiles placed on their faces. We’ve been presented with incredible meals, yes it is just rice; but they give us all they have. We have had three filling meals a day, and we couldn’t be more blessed. Some of us don’t even finish all the food that is given to us because we are so full from the food we consumed a couple hours ago! Praise the Lord, praise the almighty Lord; we have been truly blessed with places to sleep and places to eat. We haven’t always had warm comforting showers, or running water. But honestly thats okay! We haven’t had anything bad happen to us from that, so, I couldn’t be more blessed.

Our team is incredible; we all can be vulnerable in front of one another, I mean we all have our struggles in day to day life. But, we help each other work it out, and bring out the best and silliness in all of us! Serious man. 

During the past couple days we have just been doing some Evangelism. Which is definitely something not everyone on our team is use too. We are literally going door to door and telling people about Jesus. Definitely a different atmosphere than Canada would be for that. We go door to door in five different groups and share our testimony with the people. Its funny to see there faces when they first notice white people walking in their village. Its so cute to see the joy come to their faces. 

But as the sunsets its our signal to go. But as we drove away from the children chasing our vehicle my heart filled. We didn’t even have to do very much but we made a huge difference in those little hearts. The sunset bright with colours and shining upon the mountain tops with a kiss of sparkle, I realize this is just one day. One day of my life that I made a difference, I have a handful of more days to do this, and I can’t wait to experience them with the incredible team I have surrounding me.