Naminjale Church Service

What a wonderful visit we had with Kayla’s dad! We were excited to welcome Rick back last Thursday (Jan. 12^th) and have another week to spend with him in Malawi. On Saturday, we traveled to the Naminjale church, which Kayla and I hadn’t been to visit since our trip last year. The day started out a little hot, but that was just a precursor to the rain, which helped to cool it down a little bit. We piled into the minibus, having to leave a few people behind because we didn’t have room; and proceeded to Naminjale. Immediately, the women in the minibus started to sing some choruses. Just as I was thinking of ’99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall’, Kayla leaned over and said she was thinking of the same song. In talking with Rick later, we found out he had had the same thought! Great minds think alike (or we’ve just been on too many American road trips J). It is just over an hour ride to Naminjale and the ladies sang choruses the whole time. Kayla and I were impressed. We recognized a couple of the choruses and tried to sing along, but mostly we listened and enjoyed their singing. Last year, when we arrived, I remember thinking that this must be how it is to enter heaven: angels singing and welcoming you home. I had that same sensation once again, only it was stronger because this year, I recognized the ‘angels’ faces and was just as eager to greet and hug them as they were to greet us.

Having Rick as a guest speaker was not the only exciting thing happening during this service; TV Malawi (TVM) was present to videotape the service and it just aired in the morning on Jan. 21^st. The special music was wonderful as always – Kayla and I were once again included in the women’s choir, though we only knew one of the three songs that we sang. Pastor William translated once again for Rick as he shared a message about the story of the prodigal son – another powerful message that seemed to resonate with the congregation as they heard it. Pastor Nihaka said that he would get us a DVD of the taping and I am excited to see how it came out.

After services, Kayla and I were able to talk with two boys who had been at camp in December, Misheck (who we found out was the pastor’s son) and Ganagazi. They were both a lot of fun at camp and it was wonderful to see their familiar faces at church! Kayla and I also appreciated that they came to find us after services – it seems they were just as excited to say hi to us as we were to see them again. The other children present at the service were also a lot more engaged with us this year. Last year, it was all we could do to coax a little smile out of them. This year, they couldn’t stop smiling and they loved having us twirl them and show them the pictures we took of them. I have a precious picture of one infant on his mother’s back. I tickled his leg to get him to smile and he has his head leaning against his mother’s back – priceless!! I’ll try to be sure and post that on Facebook next time I’m online.

As we said goodbye to the members at Naminjale, we headed on to Mwanza, where we were going to stay for the night at the Chairman’s lodge. We ate lunch at the Chairman’s home last year and during the very first weekend with the teachers this year. We were excited to finally be able to stay at his lodge because we knew he was glad to have us stay. An added surprise was realizing that the other pastors were also going to stay with us; they wanted to have a meeting/discussion with Rick. So we had Pastor Nihaka, Pastor William & his wife, Chrissy, Pastor Weyja (Naminjale pastor), Pastor Nkosi and Pastor Kunje & his wife together with us for the weekend. We enjoyed a delicious lunch and fun conversation at the lodge’s restaurant before going to a conference room for the meeting.

Funny story about lunch: I had mentioned in my previous post that we went to an Indian restaurant for lunch in Blantyre. I had some left overs that I was excited to eat later, but when we got home, I saw that I had been given the chicken that came from the Chairman’s meal and he was already back in Mwanza with my left overs. I was a little sad at first, but Kayla and I both gave our left overs to Dorothy to take to her children and I didn’t think much else about it. When we got to Naminjale, the Chairman and I had a good laugh over the mistake and he said he still had it in his fridge! That made me smile, but I didn’t realize that he had intentionally kept it for me until he had his cook bring it out for me to eat at lunch – nice and hot! I was so happy and humbled that he would save that for me – I felt a little bad for not saving his chicken, but at least I had given it to children and not just eaten it myself. He is such a kind and thoughtful man; wanting to share in the blessings God has given him with others.

We heard some other funny stories at lunch – I’ll save those for another post though. J