( Casey, Cindy, Hannah, Henry, Tammy, Jimbo and Me at the Jackson, MS airport 8-5-14)
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It's hard to believe that 4 weeks ago I was getting ready to leave the comforts of my home and head to Malawi, Africa. What's harder to believe is that it has been 2 weeks since I arrived back home. I miss that place. I miss the people. I miss the children. I miss the hunger of a people in need of a Savior.
God did a miracle in me just to get me on a plane for almost 20 hours of flying time. He called me to Malawi and I knew that I had to be obedient. And I can tell you in all honesty that even the 16 hour flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg, South Africa was not bad at all. I felt His presence every hour of that long flight. You see, when God calls you to do something, He will equip you in that moment. He will enable you and empower you to do what you can't do without Him. If you fully trust Him and are doing what He has called you to do, He works.
From the moment we landed in Malawi, I felt His presence. I felt a great need for the people there. I felt a call from God to get the gospel to them. We headed out to the Rainbow Orphanage where we would be staying with a young man from our church who is a full-time missionary there. He and his wife, who is from Malawi, just had a baby boy- little Moses. What a blessing they are!
We spent 2 days doing Bible School with the 54 children in the orphanage. They range in age from 4 to almost 20. We had such a great time with these kids. We imparted the Word, we did crafts, we played games and we just invested our time into getting to know them and showing them the love of God. These children are exposed to the Word daily but it was still important to feed them spiritually to help them in the growth process!
(Our team with the Rainbow kids and staff of the orphanage!)
We spent 3 days in some surrounding villages doing Bible School with the children there. We were in very poor villages. One of them, the village of Sulumbwa, didn't have access to clean water. They were hauling water from a very muddy, dirty creek bed. The last few days we were in Malawi, this village receive a huge blessing from God. A team of men came to drill a water well in their village so they would have access to clean water! Praise the Lord!
We had over 240 kids one day in Bible School. It was a joy to share a bible story with them and do a craft with them. We played with bubbles, frisbees and all sorts of balls. We played games and ran around and just had a good time with them. We passed out stickers and candy right before we left. In the 3 days in the villages, we had almost 200 children accept Christ as their Lord and Savior. Our hearts were heavy with the state of poverty that these people lived in. It certainly gives you a good look at the excess of our American wealth. We have so much. We have too much. And we need to begin doing something about it.
(Children praying to receive Christ)
(Beautiful faces of the children of Sulumbwa Village)
(Precious children in Chingala Village)
(Tired girls but still basking in His Presence!)
What an amazing 2 weeks we had. We spent 3 nights in one of the villages doing a revival. My husband preached each night to the light of 3 battery operated lanterns. When I tell you it was dark, it was DARK! We had the opportunity to give our testimonies each night and we had around 120 or more people in attendance each night. We also had an opportunity to minister to over 100 women on a Sunday afternoon and after speaking what God had put on our hearts to share with them, we were able to pray with each one of them individually. What a powerful time that was in the Lord! Women have some of the same problems, the same concerns, the same needs whether you are in Africa or America. However, when you are in a third world country, you turn to God more readily and with more trust, because you don't have anything else to rely on! Oh, that we would start trusting God in that manner!
(My sweet husband relaxing)
(Lucas, Tiya and baby Moses)
(Me with Jill, a precious missionary at Rainbow - my buddy Yami in the background!)
(The team's last picture in Malawi, right before we headed to the airport for the long journey home)
(24 hours later, we are home!)
God did a work in all of our hearts during this trip. Our prayer is that with the power of God in us, we impacted the people in Malawi spiritually and that they felt our genuine love for them. We all left a piece of our heart there. A piece that I hope to go back and add to in the future. God is so good and He is so faithful.
"HE who calls you is faithful, HE will surely do it"
(1 Thessalonians 5:24)
