Lessons Learned from Malawi

Now that most of our team is back in the States - Kemp and Kim Ward will remain in Africa until early September - and my body has readjusted to Central Daylight Time, I figured it was time to collect my thoughts and share with you some of things that I learned while in Malawi. While this lessons had a profound impact on me, for many of you these lessons may seem rather elementary, and they could very well be. This certainly give greater credence to the thought that more often than not we are not really learning something new, we are just being reminded of lessons that we have learned previously.

Lesson #1: Our God loves to bless us with serendipitous moments.
Several years ago, Danny and Natalie Gregory were preparing to leave the U.S. to go and serve the Lord in Africa. As they shared about God's calling and the ministries that they planned to be involved in, the Holy Spirit tugged at the heart strings of Richard and Melissa Wilson. As Richard and Melissa contemplated and considered what the Lord would have them do to support Danny and Natalie, they felt led to give them a complete set of battery powered hand tools by DeWalt; drills, grinder, reciprocating saw...the works.

Now, fast forward to July, 2010. Our team is at work in Malawi, fabricating solutions to our drilling problems in Danny's garage. We are cutting pipe, drilling, reshaping...a real testosterone hulabaloo. So, here we are, working away and feeling very manly, when all of a sudden, Danny looks at Richard and said: "Richard, did you ever think that when you gave us those tools that you would actually come all the way to Africa and use them?" It got very quickly became very quiet. Up until then, it had not even dawned on Richard that these were the same tools. It became a very emotional and holy moment for everyone, but especially for Richard.

And isn't that just like our God? Richard and Melissa were simply being obedient to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. And God rewarded Richard's obedience. Richard was able to experience - not just hear about, not merely witness, but experience first-hand - one of the outcomes of his obedience. At the time, Richard didn't really know why God asked them to give a set of tools to the Gregorys, but He did and they obeyed. Now everything had come full circle and Richard was using those very same tools to do ministry in Malawi.

Lesson #2: Sometimes you just have to let it go.
I love my wife Deanna dearly. Next to my salvation, she is the greatest gift that God has ever given me.  I love her so much that to make up for the fact that a mission trip I was going on left on Valentine's Day (thanks, DG) I bought her a pair of expensive, designer sunglasses. While it didn't completely remove the sting of my being gone on Valentine's Day, it did help take the edge off.

So imagine my wife's dismay when she accidentally drops those same glasses in the village latrine in Malawi. Right into a six foot pit that was filled with human waste, excrement and trash. Into a pile of stuff that was so thick that the glasses actually didn't sink...they just rested on the surface. Now, imagine my incredulity when Deanna asks me to fish them out for her. I tried to reason with her, talk her out of it and change her mind...all to no avail. So, I did what any good husband would do, I fished them out for her. (By the way, I used a wire with a hook on the end, not my bare hands. Love may be blind but it ain't stupid.)

Deanna worked diligently to clean those glasses: baby wipes, hand sanitizer, baked them in the sun, and even considered bleaching them. Ultimately, she decided that she would never be able to bring herself to put those glasses on her face again. There were far too many fungi, bacteria and viruses present in that...stuff to ever warrant trying to wear them again, not to mention the stench that seemed to seep into the very lenses themselves.

Now, you may scoff at Deanna's insistence in trying to salvage her Vera Bradley shades, but often we exhibit the same behavior, just in other areas of our lives. We begin to hold onto to things too tightly - a job, a relationship, a material possession, for example - and what was once a benefit or a blessing has suddenly become an idol or a stumbling block in our relationship to God. But we don't just cling too tightly to the good things, we can also place quite a death grip on our past and our mistakes. Instead of turning over those things to God and allowing Him to forgive us and start anew, we vainly try to clean up our own messes. We mistakenly think that we can become "good enough" for God to love us. It is only when we realize that we could never be "good enough" for God's love and that he loves us anyway that we can let go of our sins and our baggage and let God love us right where we are.

Lesson #3: God is far more interested in our obedience than in our results.
A common misconception that I have observed in the church - at least in North America - is that God is depending on us for results. And you know, that is just wrong because in reality, the results are up to God, not to us.

As you have learned by now, we were not able to install a hand-pump at the feeding center in Malawi. That was the goal of our trip. We did everything that we knew to do, we used every physical resource available to us and we simply could not penetrate that rock layer to get to the water that we know we were very close to reaching. In these terms, our trip was a failure but that only looks at the trip through earthly, temporal eyes.

We prayed desperately to God to allow us to get through that rock layer. The times that we devoted to prayer over that well were some of the most meaningful worship experiences that I have ever had in my life...but the rocks are still there. Does that mean our faith is lacking? I don't believe so. If the results were solely up to our team, then we were defeated. But in reality, we know that the results are not up to us. If God had wanted us to break through that rock layer while we were in Malawi, then it would have happened. We know beyond a shadow of  doubt that the One who created the rocks that were blocking our way is certainly more than able to move them if He chooses to do so.

While we may not understand God's decision, we trust that He is faithful. The Bible promises us that "in all things God works for good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28). God wants our heartfelt and willing obedience more than He wants the results. The results God can have anytime He wants them, He is God after all. But when we obey, even when it is difficult and even when we don't see the results that we were expecting it develops and strengthens our faith. We become even more obedient in the future, even when the outcomes are less certain. Besides, if our results were God's primary measuring stick for us, that would tend to make us reliant on our own strength rather than God's. And that is a slippery slope that we must avoid at all costs.

Lesson #4: God is "very zeekomo."
For as long as I have been involved in mission trips - whether as a youth, a youth minister, with adults, or whatever - each trip usually ends up with a signature phrase our memory. For our trip to Malawi the given phrase became "very zeekomo." On it's own, the phrase means nothing that makes any sense. Zeekomo is the Chichewa word for "thank you" and we all know what "very" means. So the literal meaning of this phrase is "very thank you." To most people, this is nonsense. But in the hands of our team's resident linguist and Chich-English expert Kemp Ward, the phrase came to mean anything that was exceedingly excellent or good.

A long hot shower after a long day of drilling? Very zeekomo. Drilling through 24 feet of clay in one day as we began our second bore hole? Also, very zeekomo. But even greater was God's presence with us as we drilled. God's prevailing Holy Spirit that continually encouraged us when we had every right to be discouraged. God providing moments for our team to stop drilling and focus all of our attention on the children of the feeding center. The opportunity to share His unconditional love with children who desperately needed to be loved. It was all "very zeekomo."

From the moment we left the United States, we felt God's hand of blessing on our team. We remained healthy, we were continually seeking God's face and we constantly aware that this trip was about more than just water. It was about God being glorified. God honored our obedience and we honored Him on a daily basis. Why? Because God is "very zeekomo."

Soli Deo gloria.
Michael