Dear Family, Friends, Supporters and Prayer Partners, I am safely home and rested from my 17 day trip to Malawi, and want to thank you for your prayers, support and “atta girls”! There were a total of eight flights and I can’t even tell you how many hours of travel (we made all of our connections) and every piece of our luggage arrived safely! This year, as most of you know I traveled with Sue Kerrigan, an RN from my sister’s church in the Seattle area. We hardly knew each other before the trip, but we traveled well together and she did a phenomenal job partnering in the teaching and was a very fast learner. It was a joy to observe her effectively teaching every point in the material. This was her first trip to Africa and she is eager to go back again. Thanks to a little help from the homeopathic “No Jet-Lag” medicine (and a good first nights’ sleep) we were able to hit the ground running and start our trainings the very next day. Our first training was in Lilongwe, the capitol city of Malawi*, and we partnered once again with pastors Harrison and Miriam Kamanga (Revival Pentecostal Church), though we had many pastors and church leaders from other churches. We had the luxury of teaching both of our workshops there, Created to Belong and Healing From Trauma, over a 5 day period. There was enthusiastic participation, and one of the pastors will translate the trauma book into Chichewa this year. One highlight was the presence of Bishop Peter Chirwa, who traveled many hours from the “lake country”, to join us at the HFT training. My sister continues to make wonderful African puppets for me to take and it was so cute seeing the Bishop being trained in putting on a puppet show to help children resolve their trauma! He requested that we go to his area in the north of the country where there are about 50 churches in close proximity. While in Lilongwe we went to Harrison and Miriam’s home for dinner and it was humbling to watch the work it took to make “sima,” the primary staple food, (kind of like a firmer cream of wheat but less grainy) over a charcoal fire being stirred with a thick (and clean) stick. In addition to sima, we had about eight other dishes and it all tasted so fresh. Another evening we went to a bank official’s home for a “ten minute” coffee (two hours later…) and all the power was out so we had coffee and scones in the dark! We were quite comfortable in our rooms at the motel….except for our toilet leaked onto the floor everyday and the cold showers…our mosquito nets kept us safe at night though! From Lilongwe, we took a five hour bus ride south to the city of Blantyre and had some excitement on the way. Suddenly our bus pulled over to the side of the road where it stayed parked for a good 30 minutes. Apparently the President of the country was going to be passing through, and all the villagers lined the streets hoping to get a peek. While stopped, since it was market day vendors boarded the bus with their fresh vegetables to sell: beautiful and huge cauliflowers; red and juicy tomatoes and bunches of garlic. Fortunately they kept the dead chickens outside, as well as the long skewers with broiled rats and bats on them!
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Once we arrived in Blantyre, we were met by Pastor Arnold Mphulupulu Phiri and a driver, who conveyed us on the two hour journey to the village of Mulange, at the base of beautiful Mt. Mulange, where we stayed at a Presbyterian conference ground. Pastor Arnold, of Amazing Grace Pentecostal Church, is the one who translated Created to Belong into Chichewa. He has been an invaluable partner in our work there and asked for special permission to invite 50 pastors and church leaders to the trainings, rather than the usual limit we place of 30. It is a joy to stay in the village because you really get the feel of life in Africa. To keep our expenses down, women from both locations did all the cooking on site over wood fires and of course they served us first and had silverware for us to use (most Africans eat with their hands). The women come around with a pail of water which they pour over peoples’ hands beforehand, so that they are freshly washed for the meal.The trainings in Mulange went very well and we had between 40-50 participants. The bathrooms are holes in the ground surrounded by high grass that is lashed together but in our guest house we had plumbed toilets. I had a new experience while in Mulange in that I was up before dawn just getting in the shower when the power went out, so I had my first shower by flashlight – but at least it was warm! In both locales, the leaders’ response to the trainings was engaging and encouraging and it was wonderful to see so many “lights going on” in the participants’ minds. The singing in Africa is filled with joy, movement and devotion to the Lord. We are invited back to each of these two places and I told our participants that I would only return if they took the materials and began teaching it to others; then we would return with a master class to refine teaching methods, and go more deeply into the material. They all agreed and we have heard some very exciting reports of ways that has already begun. I preached each Sunday I was there, first at the church in Lilongwe, and then at Divine Fountains Pentecost Church in Mulange. (The latter had a dirt floor and maybe two or three Bibles!) This was a “growing edge” for me as it is definitely outside my comfort zone. |
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Sue held an impromptu women’s health “clinic” at each location where women were free to ask any health related question that came to mind. It is never easy to entirely capture the essence of our experience, but here are a few of the responses to the trainings: “I never knew that losing two of my daughters to malaria was considered a trauma. This is life changing!” “God has seemed so silent in my life this year and others tell me that my current suffering is my fault. But it was so helpful to learn that sometimes God ‘stays silent’ so that we can grow and love Him just for who He is and not just for what He does for us.” “It was helpful to learn about the Dark Night of the Soul and that NOT everything is caused by a demon.” “This not only will help us with the orphans all of us have taken into our homes, but also with our biological children and even understanding ourselves.” “This training could change child rearing practices and influence the future of Malawi.”
Indeed, the mission statement of Empower is: Our model is a Train the Trainers (T3) model, so that the nationals can personalize the materials for their own cultures and most effectively equip and empower their own people. Thank you sincerely for your partnership with me in this endeavor. Always, I return home feeling like I have been given so much more than what I gave. In His Worldwide Love, Linda *For those of you who know Tim and Jackie Strong : they just bought a home in Lilongwe as they continue in ministry there, though we did not see them as they arrived in one city, the same day we flew out in another! |
