DAY 6: Saturday, November 14
For the members of our team this was a life-changing day. We team returned to the Bodza feeding center with high energy and high expectations. Knowing that this was going to be our last day at the feeding center, the team wanted to pour as much of God’s love as humanly possible into these precious and wonderful children.
The drive to the feeding center takes about an hour and a half. While most of the road is paved, the last 30 minutes is on dirt, wash board roads. Think of the biggest pot hole you have ever seen and then triple it. Welcome to driving to the villages in Malawi. In addition to the rough roads, there is the oppressive heat, the desolation with no vegetation, endless lines of needy people, rows and rows of mud hut homes…pretty much stereotypical images of sub-Saharan Africa.
Upon arrival at the feeding center the 200+ children were brimming with excitement. They greeted the vehicles chanting: “Azungu! Azungu! Azungu!” (By the way, azungu means white people). They were anxious to welcome us back and to play, sing, create, learn and love with us. Our time with the children began with Brad telling the story of Noah’s Ark. You have never seen a more attentive group of children. They hung on every word of Brad’s story as the assistant director for Bridge to Malawi, Sabena, translated. It was a humorous moment as Brad described the animals getting on the ark when Sabena discovered that she did not to know the Chichewa word for giraffe.
Following Noah’s Ark, the team decided it was time to decorate the children. Using temporary tattoos and face paint almost every child received multiple adornments to their face and bodies. With the small mirrors that the team brought with us the children were able to admire the handiwork and their newly designed faces.
Today is a “touch day” for the team at the feeding center. We get the chance to put our hands on them as we put on tattoos, paint faces, give endless hugs and give them necklaces and bracelets. For everyone, this has by far been the most rewarding experience of the trip thus far. It has tugged at our collective heart strings and helped us to put a face to who Jesus is referring to when he talks about “the least of these.” In each face we saw a special treasure, loving created by God for his special purpose. How could we not be moved?
Before eating lunch at the center, we passed out cross necklaces to the older children and bracelets to the younger children. On both the necklaces and the bracelets there were colored beads that describes God’s love. Doug led the children through a heartfelt explanation of God’s love, our sin and the sacrifice of Jesus in our place. A local pastor who was at the feeding center told the team “These children need to hear this message.” Is there any greater act of love and kindness that we can give than to share with them the greatest love story of all?
Following a traditional lunch of ground maize, greens and goat, our team had a special privilege. Streets of Africa provided 1,000 mosquito nets to give away while we are in Malawi. We were able to give one to each person at the feeding center. It was as if we had given them gold. While HIV/AIDS gets all of the headlines in Africa, it is malaria that kills more Africans daily than any other disease or illness. These nets will save lives from the first moment that they are used.
An act as simple as the giving of the net…saving a life. A person does not get the chance to actually save a life very often in their personal experience. And today our team had the chance to share new life spiritually and save lives physically. That’s not a bad day…
So, what does it mean to be a “doer of the Word?” What does living as a follower of Christ look like? For that matter, how do we even define our faith? Statistics and research tell us that the lives of followers of Christ in the United States today do not really differ that much from the millions of Americans who are lost, who are far from God. Is the practice of our faith defined by how often we are inside the walls of the church? By the size of the check we write to the church each month? Is the practice of our faith a lifestyle or merely a spiritual “to do” list that we check off so that we feel better about ourselves?
James 1:27 says – “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”
The Christian life – the entire Christian experience – should be marked by a life of servanthood. Over and over Jesus teaches us that the meek and those who give their lives in service to others are “the greatest” in the Kingdom. Jesus teaches that whenever we show God’s love to “the least of these” we are showing love to him. The book of James also tells us that “faith without works is dead.” Simply put, as followers of Christ we are called to minister to – to help meet the needs of – those who are helpless and cannot meet their own needs.
Anyone who seriously studies the ministry of Jesus will see that he continually reached out to those who have been marginalized by society: sinners, lepers, the poor, the oppressed, prostitutes and tax-collecters. And yet, far too often, we have no desire to come close to those who need our help the most. Maybe we will write a check to assuage our guilt, but we don’t engage person-to-person, we don’t put a face to a need. We are afraid to connect.
Why is that? Could it be that connecting person-to-person forces us to come to grips with how much we have that we really don’t need? Or maybe it is the fact that we will realize that we have not truly surrendered all that we have to God and we secretly want to hold our possessions back for ourselves. I could be completely off-base on this, but somehow I don’t think so.
The good news is that it is never too late to start making a difference. You may think that the task of reaching out to those in need – whether in Oklahoma City, the U.S., or around the world – is too big for one person to make a difference. An African proverb says: “If you think one person cannot do anything, try spending the night in a room alone with a mosquito.” You may not be able to do much, but you can do what you can do. God has given you talents…use them. God has given you treasures…share them. God has given you time…invest it in others.
If you want learn about where you can serve, feel free to call our missions ministry at the church. We always have service opportunities for people who want to make a difference in the lives of others. But, I warn you – you’re life will never be the same.
Soli Deo Gloria,
Michael
For the members of our team this was a life-changing day. We team returned to the Bodza feeding center with high energy and high expectations. Knowing that this was going to be our last day at the feeding center, the team wanted to pour as much of God’s love as humanly possible into these precious and wonderful children.
The drive to the feeding center takes about an hour and a half. While most of the road is paved, the last 30 minutes is on dirt, wash board roads. Think of the biggest pot hole you have ever seen and then triple it. Welcome to driving to the villages in Malawi. In addition to the rough roads, there is the oppressive heat, the desolation with no vegetation, endless lines of needy people, rows and rows of mud hut homes…pretty much stereotypical images of sub-Saharan Africa.
Upon arrival at the feeding center the 200+ children were brimming with excitement. They greeted the vehicles chanting: “Azungu! Azungu! Azungu!” (By the way, azungu means white people). They were anxious to welcome us back and to play, sing, create, learn and love with us. Our time with the children began with Brad telling the story of Noah’s Ark. You have never seen a more attentive group of children. They hung on every word of Brad’s story as the assistant director for Bridge to Malawi, Sabena, translated. It was a humorous moment as Brad described the animals getting on the ark when Sabena discovered that she did not to know the Chichewa word for giraffe.
Following Noah’s Ark, the team decided it was time to decorate the children. Using temporary tattoos and face paint almost every child received multiple adornments to their face and bodies. With the small mirrors that the team brought with us the children were able to admire the handiwork and their newly designed faces.
Today is a “touch day” for the team at the feeding center. We get the chance to put our hands on them as we put on tattoos, paint faces, give endless hugs and give them necklaces and bracelets. For everyone, this has by far been the most rewarding experience of the trip thus far. It has tugged at our collective heart strings and helped us to put a face to who Jesus is referring to when he talks about “the least of these.” In each face we saw a special treasure, loving created by God for his special purpose. How could we not be moved?
Before eating lunch at the center, we passed out cross necklaces to the older children and bracelets to the younger children. On both the necklaces and the bracelets there were colored beads that describes God’s love. Doug led the children through a heartfelt explanation of God’s love, our sin and the sacrifice of Jesus in our place. A local pastor who was at the feeding center told the team “These children need to hear this message.” Is there any greater act of love and kindness that we can give than to share with them the greatest love story of all?
Following a traditional lunch of ground maize, greens and goat, our team had a special privilege. Streets of Africa provided 1,000 mosquito nets to give away while we are in Malawi. We were able to give one to each person at the feeding center. It was as if we had given them gold. While HIV/AIDS gets all of the headlines in Africa, it is malaria that kills more Africans daily than any other disease or illness. These nets will save lives from the first moment that they are used.
An act as simple as the giving of the net…saving a life. A person does not get the chance to actually save a life very often in their personal experience. And today our team had the chance to share new life spiritually and save lives physically. That’s not a bad day…
So, what does it mean to be a “doer of the Word?” What does living as a follower of Christ look like? For that matter, how do we even define our faith? Statistics and research tell us that the lives of followers of Christ in the United States today do not really differ that much from the millions of Americans who are lost, who are far from God. Is the practice of our faith defined by how often we are inside the walls of the church? By the size of the check we write to the church each month? Is the practice of our faith a lifestyle or merely a spiritual “to do” list that we check off so that we feel better about ourselves?
James 1:27 says – “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”
The Christian life – the entire Christian experience – should be marked by a life of servanthood. Over and over Jesus teaches us that the meek and those who give their lives in service to others are “the greatest” in the Kingdom. Jesus teaches that whenever we show God’s love to “the least of these” we are showing love to him. The book of James also tells us that “faith without works is dead.” Simply put, as followers of Christ we are called to minister to – to help meet the needs of – those who are helpless and cannot meet their own needs.
Anyone who seriously studies the ministry of Jesus will see that he continually reached out to those who have been marginalized by society: sinners, lepers, the poor, the oppressed, prostitutes and tax-collecters. And yet, far too often, we have no desire to come close to those who need our help the most. Maybe we will write a check to assuage our guilt, but we don’t engage person-to-person, we don’t put a face to a need. We are afraid to connect.
Why is that? Could it be that connecting person-to-person forces us to come to grips with how much we have that we really don’t need? Or maybe it is the fact that we will realize that we have not truly surrendered all that we have to God and we secretly want to hold our possessions back for ourselves. I could be completely off-base on this, but somehow I don’t think so.
The good news is that it is never too late to start making a difference. You may think that the task of reaching out to those in need – whether in Oklahoma City, the U.S., or around the world – is too big for one person to make a difference. An African proverb says: “If you think one person cannot do anything, try spending the night in a room alone with a mosquito.” You may not be able to do much, but you can do what you can do. God has given you talents…use them. God has given you treasures…share them. God has given you time…invest it in others.
If you want learn about where you can serve, feel free to call our missions ministry at the church. We always have service opportunities for people who want to make a difference in the lives of others. But, I warn you – you’re life will never be the same.
Soli Deo Gloria,
Michael
Author's note: Praise the Lord! We have deisel fuel. Thank you so much for your prayers. Because we now have deisel, for the next two days we will be in the southern part of this beautiful nation. Unfortunately, we will not have internet access, so I will not be able to give further updates until we return to the States on Thursday. I promise there will be additional updates and more pictures at that time.
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