Moni anzathu!! (Greetings friends
of ours)
We've had a pretty busy yet restful February! There have
been a few moments of stress and anxiety, but many more times of fun, rest and joy.
We've really had fun with church this month! There have been
quite a few events which have brought us lots of joy. For example, there was
the first CCC sports social! I haven't played football since arriving, so was
pretty pumped for it. We went to a nearby pitch after church and had a game of
football, the frisbee being thrown around, and a smaller ball also being kicked
about.
It started off with quite low numbers, but before we knew it loads of
local kids had joined in and it was pretty packed! The community spirit was
great and I really enjoyed that it was so chilled, without strenuous planning
or rigid programming but happened naturally. However, I do have to apologise to
Dumi who put about 10 chances on a plate for me and I wasted nearly every one
of them…so sorry, pepani.
Men's and Women's meetings have also recommenced for 2020. I
think we've mentioned them in our blogs before as a real blessing for us both.
We love being able to hang out with our friends there, have chances to open up
and also to encourage one another.
Men's was pretty casual last week, we met at our place and
had leftover cake, coffee and rooibos tea with too much sugar (I'm looking at
you Stephen!). Bekah had a much bigger meeting with women though as all the
branches' women gathered together for a day of fellowship and fun. She had a
pretty great time, there was a lot of dancing, gift giving and cute kids to
play with! The location was quite far off, which meant she did a fair amount of
driving on very poor roads, and she absolutely smashed it (in a good way, not the
car!).
But even the supposedly not so "fun" things like
leadership meetings and planning meetings have been full of joy, laughter and
friendship. For example, to plan for an Easter celebration service some of our
best friends here came over to our place. We made zibwente (deep-fried,
battered potatoes - my fave), ate lots of futali (sweet potato with groundnut
powder - another fave), laughed at Stephen's funny road directions, chatted
with little Hannah Monjeza, discussed fish and also did some planning! It's
times like this where we're sharing life together with friends that really fill
our hearts with joy and make us so grateful to be here.
One moment of tension during this month was the impending
court judgement on 2019's presidential election - see Bekah's last
blog/Facebook status for more details. As a precaution, lots of schools shut
for the whole week. Whilst this is a shame, it did mean that we had the
opportunity to hang out with two girls (Abigail and Anna) from church as we
looked after them for the day. Their Dad was a pastor of the church when we
first visited 4 years ago, but sadly passed away the following year. But the
family still faithfully attend church and it is a privilege to be a part of the
kids' lives.
As the oldest child around on a Sunday, Abigail regularly
helps and is often our interpreter, so a big shout out for her! They are both
so sweet and we really loved hanging out with them! They helped us discover the
home of the local tortoise which had eluded us since arriving. With Bekah's
help they baked lemon drizzle and managed to drop an entire bag of flour over
themselves/the floor. We played new variations of various board/card games
which mostly ended up with them putting the shuffled cards back in the correct
order…
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| Don't fall Bekah!! |
Zomba Plateau (a big
mountain not too far from us)
We got to go to Zomba Plateau twice this month for some
R&R which was so great! There are some retreat cottages at the top of the
plateau which are fairly basic but also fairly cheap and have the most stunning
views (the pics below are all taken from the lounge/veranda area). Like many
things in here, you only know they exist through word of mouth, and can only
book them if you have their WhatsApp number! Fortunately we've been helped to
finds lots like this over the past few months by an English couple (Tom and
Sarah, along with their super cute 10 month year old) who serve at a local YWAM
base.
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| Above the clouds (and sometimes inside them)! |
Our first trip up to Zomba this month was actually with them
as Tom arranged for us all to go there for Sarah's birthday. Then a couple of
weeks later we also went for three nights as just the two of us, which
coincided with my birthday. As I said, the views are absolutely top notch, so whilst
we did do a couple of walks, we spent the majority of our time just sitting outside
eating good food, reading old books and
admiring (+ taking too many pictures of) the view! I know it's silly, but at
one point I felt so relaxed and happy that I nearly cried. And then to make it
better, there were also lots of monkeys!!
The only minor stress was a lack of power for most of our
stay due to a HUGE thunderstorm on the first night we were there as just the
two of us. However, whilst it was a tad impractical, it resulted in one of the
most unique and special settings I have ever had/will ever have for my birthday
- with Bekah on top of a Malawian mountain with candles, fireplace, lights from
the city of Zomba below and delicious fajitas that we'd just cooked on a log
fire in a hut next door. Only negative is that boiling our water in this hut
made our cups of tea incredibly smoky - tea is not one of the things that is
nice "smoked".
One last little note on our friends Tom and Sarah. Back in
October I had a moment of really missing friends back home and had a little cry
one day after getting home and feeling a bit lonely. It was actually just 10
minutes after this little cry and pray that I got a message saying that an
English couple wanted to meet us and hang out - I'm attributing that one to
God, He is v kind! Turns out Bekah had actually messaged Sarah before arriving
due to a mutual friend too! We've really loved hanging out with them and have
found out a few other coincidences too - Bekah and Sarah both grew up in
Bristol; both Sarah's Mum and my Mum went to the same international school in
India when they were young; Tom and I went to the same sixth form college in
(beastly) Eastleigh (just a few years apart).
This week we're attending some Trauma Healing training led
by a guy from our church who works for an organization that helps churches to support
orphans. We're praying it will be a real blessing to us, members of the church
and the local community as there's lots of pain in people's lives here (and also
generally in the world). Please do pray that it goes well!
Also Lindsay Cressey (our very good friend from Grace Church
Nottingham who's lead previous trips here) is arriving on Saturday to visit us
for 9 days - we're pretty excited! Do also please pray that she arrives safely.
Sorry it's a long one. I tried to cut it down but ended up
adding extra bits…oops!
Tionana!
B&B
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| It got very red one night - dusty! |
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