We visited another congregation in the Balaka Parish today, which is the companion parish for Christ Lutheran Church. This church is located very close to ZUC Lodge where we are staying. We were greeted once again by Abusa Francis and many congregation members. I’m told that Balaka Parish has 519 communicants and 676 children for a total of 1,195 members. I summoned the courage to greet one person in Chichewa. He asked where I learned to speak Chichewa, and I had to confess that he had just heard everything that I know.
Today is a holiday where Malawi celebrates their country’s independence. They were a British colony just like the United States. Even though we are very different, we have many things in common. We were saddened to hear that today there was an independence celebration at a stadium and unfortunately five children were trampled to death and five others injured and hospitalized. This is something that you likely won’t hear in the news in the United States. I gave Abusa Francis copies of our pictorial directory, which are being shared with the congregations in the parish. Everyone is very interested in looking at them and find our church building very beautiful. The biggest challenges for this parish are Islam and disease including Malaria, TB, and HIV/AIDS. They request that we pray for them and do not forget our companionship. They are praying for our group for safe travel throughout Malawi and our return home. I’ve also requested that they pray for our congregation as we call our new pastor. We gave them gifts of a soccer ball, a volleyball, a ball pump, and some frisbees. Abusa Francis was very happy to receive a Christ Lutheran Church coffee mug along with two pens. Since he travels to serve 14 different congregations, I am certain he needs to drink coffee. We spent some time visiting with the members of the congregation. The teenagers in the group enjoyed playing with the many children there. They also have a nursery school at the church. I brought a Polaroid camera with me today and took photos of many of the children, as well as some of the adults for them to keep. Once they saw what I was doing, several people came up to me and asked for me to take pictures for them. It was a great way to interact with each other. One group of young ladies also had their picture taken with me. We learned how to play netball, which is similar to basketball except there is no dribbling. I’m afraid there may be a video of me falling to the ground trying to get the ball posted to YouTube by one of the young adults watching our game! Let me just say in my defense that it isn’t easy to do wearing a long skirt! But it was still fun. In visiting with them, a young boy who is in Standard 5 indicated to us that there are 100 students in his class and two teachers. We were welcomed into the parsonage for lunch which was white rice, delicious chicken, cooked spinach, and the best tasting bananas you can imagine. Bananas in the United States have no taste in comparison. When we returned to our motel, I also enjoyed a Coca Cola in a glass bottle made with real sugar. |
Malawi MissionsLuAnn Dohms & Dick Tyson Archives
May 2023
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