**Please note- I know I am sending this WAY after I wrote it, you'll just have to chalk it up to African Internet, my friends!!**
Discipleship takes many forms. Wednesday we spent time with the guys and girls of TAYO as we slashed grass with them in the front of the TAYO offices. It was quite an experience as everyone who passed stopped to watch the azungu slash the fields. That day, I missed a lawn mower more than I ever thought I possibly could! It was fun though, as our friends taught us how to slash grass with a machete-type tool, I taught them fun songs to help work go by faster!
We did about 9 rounds of “I do some ___ for my Jesus,” as they filled in the words with “I do some slashing for my Jesus,” “I do some hoeing,” “I do some carrying” (as we carried the excess grass and threw it in the cornfields). We had a lot of fun with it. But, two blistered hands later, my respect for Malawians has been raised, yet again. While I was picking up the grass and soil after slashing some of it, I received possibly the best compliment ever since being here. (haha) Francis, a member of TAYO, looked at me and said, “You are such a hard worker. You do not count your fatness, you just work hard!” Now, understand, in Africa, being called fat is a great compliment. Yeah, you never get quite use to it though. I laughed SO hard as I was reminded of the passage in Philippians “I count it all loss that I may gain Christ.” Yep.. that’s just what I decided to do!!
That afternoon we had our third TAYO Bible study. Josh dressed as Joshua from the Bible and told the story of leading the Israelites into the Promised Land. It was fun, and in the end, there were many good questions, deep questions, and others began to put their input into the discussion.
Thursday and Friday I got a new and unexpected ministry opportunity as I've started teaching computer/typing lessons to some friends at TAYO. As they watched us type on their PC to help them complete their strategic plan, they said, "Laekan, will you teach us to type ?" So, we began with turning the computer on and getting into Microsoft Word. They were so fun to watch as they got excited every time a new screen popped up due to them clicking on something! We started writing new sentences, then started typing Scripture. They got such a kick out of themselves! We will continue typing lessons when we return from Mozambique in a week!
Tomorrow (Monday) we are headed to the Indian Ocean in Mozambique! We will be assisting the Brownfields as they survey unreached people groups in Mozambique as they plan where to move within the next year! Yay for a week of camping and scouting and praying with them!!
Things are going well in the cornfield! Thanks for the prayers and encouragement. Keep serving the King, as we serve here!
Monday, March 23, 2009
A really long blog, that is really overdue!
Time in Africa may seem to move slowly, but while beginning this update I am overwhelmed at how quickly the slow days have passed into an entire month and a half! Our first month in Malawi has been an incredible time of adjustment and dependency on the Lord. We are finally moved into our house, after taking several weeks running to town for different needs for the house and waiting on the builders to finish everything! As we moved in, the children in the village would run to the Brownfield’s vehicle to help us unload our belongings. While it was a very sweet thing, it made me a little sick watching these little smiling faces grab and carry so many heavy things, and place them on their heads and run them up to our house. I thought I would just die as I watched one little girl carrying my big red suitcase on her head, like it was a feather, with the biggest smile on her face. They would kneel down as they gave it to us, “zikomo, zikomo” (thank you, thank you) they would say as they handed it to us.
Pray the Lord would give us discernment
on how to continue to minister and love on these children.
We now have all of our furniture, and have made our space a quaint dwelling that our friends have come to feel free to visit anytime! And the same children stop by all the time to either practice English, or just speak their Chichewa to us, we share cups of water and peppermints and we just listen and smile and laugh with them. The wonderful little neon blue, yellow and pink house in the cornfields finally feels like home!
Through the past weeks we have struggled with blatant spiritual warfare in the form of seeing ‘witchcraft magic,’ from the bottle our guard has placed beside him at night, to the yellow bamboo ‘airplane curse’ placed as a barricade outside of Josh’s gate one morning. Yes, African traditionalism is still alive and well here on the edge of the bush and the boma (government circle).
Pray the Spirit of the Lord would
permeate each of these places
and these people affected and influenced by these false Gods.
I have been stretched and pulled as I have had to learn to give away my “rights,” which were never really mine to begin with. The difference in cultural timeframes and communication abilities were the first frustration factors I had. Then as the water became scarcer and the electricity became more unreliable, I was beginning to reach my limit. As I remembered that those rights were given up as I died to myself as a servant of Christ, I began to see our predicament in a new light.
Our first week in the house, water only flowed for about two house out of the entire week (cumulatively, not consecutively). I was able to talk with some people back home about my frustration, and I know that they began to pray and tell others to pray. Alibe, our house worker who is a relatively new believer, has also been praying for God to send water to our home to make her job a little easier. She is so wonderful, and fills our buckets with water from the well each day we don’t have any. For the past two days we have had water almost all day!! She told us, “I have prayed for God to send water, and He has! Just to help me!” We praise Jesus, the Living Water, that He has shown His faithfulness to us and to Alibe through water. Every time I hear our toilet begin to run, I praise God and say, thank you Jesus, somebody is praying for us!
Pray that regardless of water or electricity,
we share the Living Water with this village.
This week has been a particular start to new ministries. Monday we went to a funeral in the village. Our friend, Willard’s toddler nephew passed away. We found out as we got to TAYO Monday morning, so we all walked to the village together. As we sat in the dirt with the other village members around the hut the funeral was being held in through the four hour service, I was amazed at the presence of the Lord and how different it can look. It was a sobering and eye opening experience for the three of us.
Wednesday TAYO had its first bible study. We were so excited that in planning for it, the members of TAYO began to own the Bible study as their own. They did not like the idea of separate Bible studies for guys and girls. Malawi is going through it’s own women’s rights movement, and all of them agreed that the Bible is something they should study together. So, we changed our thoughts and ideas, and Wednesday Shaila led the first TAYO Bible study and told the story of the parable of the sower. We will continue meeting on Wednesday afternoons at 3:30 (8:30 am eastern time), and prayerfully after we’ve led a couple, leaders will rise out of the group and continue teaching and we will sit and listen. Next week I will begin the story of Moses and the water of Meriba and Josh will continue the story the next week.
Pray the Holy Spirit will give us the words
to say and will raise up two leaders in TAYO
to continue this Bible study.
Last night was probably the best night in Africa I’ve had so far! We invited all 20 members of TAYO over to our house for dinner. We planned on blessing them, but they decided to bless us as well! It was a fun afternoon of teaching and fellowship as they brought ingredients to make their staple foods, and we provided chili and taught them how to make cookies. Snickerdoodles to be exact. They taught us how to make a relish for their enema (staple food, a mix between corn-meal mush and grits). We made something with pumpkin leaves, ground peanuts, and tomatoes, and then made ensema for the first time! They also made their version of fruit salad. While we were waiting on things to cook, we wound up having a little dance party in our house! We taught them the cupid shuffle, and they showed us some traditional “African moves”. I’ve decided white American’s weren’t created to move like that though! ?
Then it was time to teach them to make the cookies. Most of them have actually never seen a cookie before. The girls giggled and joked as they prepared the dough, we let them all try some of the dough before baking it, and their response was, “Is this like sweet bubble gum?” Hehe, it was wonderful. Several of the children in the village sat around our house, some even came in to join the festivities. We gave them each a snickerdoodle and they all sheepishly smiled and talked amongst each other. Two of the girls, who are our most frequent visitors (Fanny, pronounced “Funny”, and Cecilia) even joined us for some of the food. We invited our guard, Bambo Tambala, in as well for dinner.
As the three of us watched all of the people go through the line, we had the same through running through our head. This is church. Not dinning with the elite and the well-to-do, but with the sinners, the beggars, the children, and the poor. I was overwhelmed with the goodness of the Lord. The water and the electricity stayed on ALL day so that we were able to provide the meal for everyone. Jehovah Jirah- the Lord provides- at His best!! We enjoyed food, laughter, learning, dancing, and praying together with our Malawian friends that night.
This morning, as Alibe began to wash the dishes, she timidly turned the water on, and I saw the biggest smile come over her face. “Water!” I said, “Jehovah Jirah, He is providing!” “Yes!” she exclaimed as she burst forth in laughter. We had a little praise party right there in our tiny kitchen!
Through all of these events the Holy Spirit is teaching me several things. None of which I can quite understand together yet. I feel kind of like the apostles must when the meaning of things were hidden from them as they walked with Jesus. The constant thoughts of “turning to look,” “discernment of giving from the Holy Spirit not from obvious need,” and “persistence, in prayer and other things” and “waiting to see Him do the impossible” keep recurring in my prayer life and when I sit alone with Him. I don’t understand what they all mean together, or what the Lord is molding me into through these thoughts just yet.
Pray for my personal discernment
and Walk as I continue to learn. Pray I
am always obedient, above all else.
Thank you for taking the time to read this update and for praying for all of these things! Your partnership and love mean more than you can ever know, especially as I continue to learn to live so far away from everything and everyone I know. Please email me and let me know how I can be praying for you, or you can even just give me an update on your life! Until next time…
Living in His Grip,
Laekan
*Thankful for: the Living Water, Snickerdoodles, and laughter*
Pray the Lord would give us discernment
on how to continue to minister and love on these children.
We now have all of our furniture, and have made our space a quaint dwelling that our friends have come to feel free to visit anytime! And the same children stop by all the time to either practice English, or just speak their Chichewa to us, we share cups of water and peppermints and we just listen and smile and laugh with them. The wonderful little neon blue, yellow and pink house in the cornfields finally feels like home!
Through the past weeks we have struggled with blatant spiritual warfare in the form of seeing ‘witchcraft magic,’ from the bottle our guard has placed beside him at night, to the yellow bamboo ‘airplane curse’ placed as a barricade outside of Josh’s gate one morning. Yes, African traditionalism is still alive and well here on the edge of the bush and the boma (government circle).
Pray the Spirit of the Lord would
permeate each of these places
and these people affected and influenced by these false Gods.
I have been stretched and pulled as I have had to learn to give away my “rights,” which were never really mine to begin with. The difference in cultural timeframes and communication abilities were the first frustration factors I had. Then as the water became scarcer and the electricity became more unreliable, I was beginning to reach my limit. As I remembered that those rights were given up as I died to myself as a servant of Christ, I began to see our predicament in a new light.
Our first week in the house, water only flowed for about two house out of the entire week (cumulatively, not consecutively). I was able to talk with some people back home about my frustration, and I know that they began to pray and tell others to pray. Alibe, our house worker who is a relatively new believer, has also been praying for God to send water to our home to make her job a little easier. She is so wonderful, and fills our buckets with water from the well each day we don’t have any. For the past two days we have had water almost all day!! She told us, “I have prayed for God to send water, and He has! Just to help me!” We praise Jesus, the Living Water, that He has shown His faithfulness to us and to Alibe through water. Every time I hear our toilet begin to run, I praise God and say, thank you Jesus, somebody is praying for us!
Pray that regardless of water or electricity,
we share the Living Water with this village.
This week has been a particular start to new ministries. Monday we went to a funeral in the village. Our friend, Willard’s toddler nephew passed away. We found out as we got to TAYO Monday morning, so we all walked to the village together. As we sat in the dirt with the other village members around the hut the funeral was being held in through the four hour service, I was amazed at the presence of the Lord and how different it can look. It was a sobering and eye opening experience for the three of us.
Wednesday TAYO had its first bible study. We were so excited that in planning for it, the members of TAYO began to own the Bible study as their own. They did not like the idea of separate Bible studies for guys and girls. Malawi is going through it’s own women’s rights movement, and all of them agreed that the Bible is something they should study together. So, we changed our thoughts and ideas, and Wednesday Shaila led the first TAYO Bible study and told the story of the parable of the sower. We will continue meeting on Wednesday afternoons at 3:30 (8:30 am eastern time), and prayerfully after we’ve led a couple, leaders will rise out of the group and continue teaching and we will sit and listen. Next week I will begin the story of Moses and the water of Meriba and Josh will continue the story the next week.
Pray the Holy Spirit will give us the words
to say and will raise up two leaders in TAYO
to continue this Bible study.
Last night was probably the best night in Africa I’ve had so far! We invited all 20 members of TAYO over to our house for dinner. We planned on blessing them, but they decided to bless us as well! It was a fun afternoon of teaching and fellowship as they brought ingredients to make their staple foods, and we provided chili and taught them how to make cookies. Snickerdoodles to be exact. They taught us how to make a relish for their enema (staple food, a mix between corn-meal mush and grits). We made something with pumpkin leaves, ground peanuts, and tomatoes, and then made ensema for the first time! They also made their version of fruit salad. While we were waiting on things to cook, we wound up having a little dance party in our house! We taught them the cupid shuffle, and they showed us some traditional “African moves”. I’ve decided white American’s weren’t created to move like that though! ?
Then it was time to teach them to make the cookies. Most of them have actually never seen a cookie before. The girls giggled and joked as they prepared the dough, we let them all try some of the dough before baking it, and their response was, “Is this like sweet bubble gum?” Hehe, it was wonderful. Several of the children in the village sat around our house, some even came in to join the festivities. We gave them each a snickerdoodle and they all sheepishly smiled and talked amongst each other. Two of the girls, who are our most frequent visitors (Fanny, pronounced “Funny”, and Cecilia) even joined us for some of the food. We invited our guard, Bambo Tambala, in as well for dinner.
As the three of us watched all of the people go through the line, we had the same through running through our head. This is church. Not dinning with the elite and the well-to-do, but with the sinners, the beggars, the children, and the poor. I was overwhelmed with the goodness of the Lord. The water and the electricity stayed on ALL day so that we were able to provide the meal for everyone. Jehovah Jirah- the Lord provides- at His best!! We enjoyed food, laughter, learning, dancing, and praying together with our Malawian friends that night.
This morning, as Alibe began to wash the dishes, she timidly turned the water on, and I saw the biggest smile come over her face. “Water!” I said, “Jehovah Jirah, He is providing!” “Yes!” she exclaimed as she burst forth in laughter. We had a little praise party right there in our tiny kitchen!
Through all of these events the Holy Spirit is teaching me several things. None of which I can quite understand together yet. I feel kind of like the apostles must when the meaning of things were hidden from them as they walked with Jesus. The constant thoughts of “turning to look,” “discernment of giving from the Holy Spirit not from obvious need,” and “persistence, in prayer and other things” and “waiting to see Him do the impossible” keep recurring in my prayer life and when I sit alone with Him. I don’t understand what they all mean together, or what the Lord is molding me into through these thoughts just yet.
Pray for my personal discernment
and Walk as I continue to learn. Pray I
am always obedient, above all else.
Thank you for taking the time to read this update and for praying for all of these things! Your partnership and love mean more than you can ever know, especially as I continue to learn to live so far away from everything and everyone I know. Please email me and let me know how I can be praying for you, or you can even just give me an update on your life! Until next time…
Living in His Grip,
Laekan
*Thankful for: the Living Water, Snickerdoodles, and laughter*
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