Empower Ministry Trip Update — Sally and Aimee
Carrie arrived home Friday night, exhausted but happy. The following letter is from Sally Bryant, who is in Malawi with Aimee McKone.
Hi all —
The seminar in Lusaka (Zambia) went so well! The attendees were so involved in the material and so appreciative. The church we held the seminar in was a small cinder block building with a tin roof and no electricity. The pastor of the church had the most radiant face I’ve ever seen – he just beamed — and he took up a collection to buy gifts for Aimee, Boniface and me – so sweet. The area is very poor – dirt compound, no electricity or running water and a common toilet for the area. There is a ramshackle bridge over the stream that you have to cross to get to the church – filled with gaping holes. Right outside the church there is a hard packed dirt playing field and all the kids stopped to stare at Aimee and me. Aimee especially really attracts attention with her blond hair. But the people! We fell in love with them and they have asked us to return next year. They are planning to take the Empower material all over the area. We did an introductory seminar on Sunday afternoon for those who could not attend the seminar as we were strict with the 30 person limit. We started every morning and each session with a time of worship and boy can they sing and dance. We got tickled at times watching dance moves during worship but it was just beautiful.
We went to the church of our Zambian contact – he has started a new church and there are about 30 people who attend. We started with a time of worship and them went into a sermon that lasted about an hour. Then more worship and another mini-sermon and more worship. All in all, about a 2 1/2 hour church service.
During one of the first sessions, there was was heated discussion between a woman who insisted that Eve was alone in the Garden when she was tempted and an older man who kept telling her to read the scriptures that said Adam was with her! One of my surprises was that there were several men who were SO committed to this idea from the very beginning — many amens during the teaching.
We arrived last night in Lilongwe after quite a trip! The nicer bus only runs 2 days a week so we took an older bus – absolutely packed with people and luggage. It broke down about 45 minutes out of Lusaka and we had to wait on the side of the road for 2 hours while they fixed the problem. Then it was a long ride with no toilet on the bus and no food. We arrived at the Zambian border and walked through immigration. We hired men on bicycles to take our luggage across to the Malawi side where we went through immigration there. Then we had a fierce barginnning session with a taxi driver to take us to Lilongwe. It was quite expensive so we had him take us to catch a mini bus and made the 1 1/2 hour ride into Lilongwe that way. It was a REAL adventure! And who wants to come with me next year? I’ve worked out the glitches and I promise you will LOVE the people!
Tomorrow (Saturday) from 9-noon we will hold a introductory seminar in Lilongwe for about 30 people. Bonface believes we should hold a full seminar here next year. We then take the afternoon bus to Blantyre and Bonface has asked me to preach at his church Sunday. Shelli, Gift is translating for me and I will say hi for you!
Please keep praying for traveling mercies.
Aimee is doing a fabulous job in adjusting to Africa – she is like a pro!
Much love to you,
Sally
Dr. Sally Bryant is the pastor of Adult Discipleship at Saratoga Federated Church and a member of the Empower Advisory Board.