Some more on Africa

I started this over a week ago... and it still is a jumbled mess of thoughts.

I have been wanting to write for a while now but 1000 different thoughts have been running through my mind every time I think about it.  In my head I've written a bunch of different posts all going in different directions.  I've stopped myself before I've even start because I know I wont be able to convey all of my thoughts.  So now that the boys are at VBS (all day!)  I am forcing myself just to sit down and do it.  Because I want to.  If it seems like I can't finish a thought it's because I can't, I have too many.  But I will do my best.  :)

We've been back from Africa for almost 3 weeks now.  Part of me can't believe it has already been 3 weeks, but another part of me feel like it's been so much longer.  I miss it.  A LOT.  Way more then I thought I would.  Miss it like a homesick-missing feeling.  Malawi didn't look like home, sound like home, or taste like home... my boys weren't even there.  But there is just a feeling of being home that I miss.  As more time goes by, and as more life happens here, the noise gets louder.  It took me awhile to figure out what this unsettled feeling was that I have felt since returning.  It is the noise of life.  The noise that drowns out and pushes away the closeness to God that was so present while there.   That is what I am homesick for.  That is what felt like home there.

Since being back I have been asked a lot of questions about our time in Africa (and I LOVE that my friends and family want to know!) but every question session always starts with, "What did you do there?"  I don't really know how to answer that because I feel a little guilty about my answer... "nothing".  In many ways, we really did nothing.  We didn't build anything, we didn't plant anything, we didn't check vision, we didn't shear corn, we didn't teach kids, we didn't administer medicine, we didn't do anything.  We didn't go with a team, so we didn't have a schedule, a task, or a plan.  That for me is hard.  I need a plan.  I need a task.  I need to accomplish something.  But we didn't do anything.  What we did can't really be measured.  We sat.  We listened.  We worshipped.  We learned.  We prayed.  We were still.  We rested.  And it was good.

Now that I am home the noise of life has gotten in the way... I haven't sat, learned, or rested.  I've worshipped on Sundays and prayed some.  And that does not feel good.

I feel like I have so many take-aways from Africa that I don't even know how to start sharing them.  So I will just throw out a few.

Somebody Cares is an amazing organization and I feel honored to have spent two weeks watching them work and worship.  From feeding children, to community development, teaching women about safe mothering and empowering them to generate income and study the Bible… Somebody Cares is spreading the love of Jesus throughout Malawi.

In Malawi time doesn’t really matter.  People will wait and wait and wait.  I waited and waited and waited.  It was so out of my comfort zone. Here at home everything is about efficiency.  I like efficiency.  A lot.  In Malawi it kinda felt like you didn’t have a choice to be efficient, which is hard, but nobody was impatient or frustrated by it.  Things just happened in their own time.  Really what I noticed the most is that people mattered more then being efficient or on time.  A conversation, a prayer… that mattered more than what needed to get done.  People mattered.  What would it look like if we lived like that?  Instead of rushing off to the next thing we stayed a little longer and listened a little more.  What would that do for the person you were talking to?  What would that do for you?  Maybe that would change the expectations of having to be everywhere all the time with all the answers.  Hmmm…. Maybe I can work on that.

The sense of community is so strong both in the villages and with the staff of Somebody Cares.  I LOVED that.  Chris and I have known for a long time that we are wired to live in community, to fellowship daily with others, to do life with others.  It felt good to see it happening so well in Malawi.

I know that I want to share more about our trip but I am going to give myself a little more time to process it.  It’s funny I can dream up what I want to share all day long but when it comes time to sitting down and sharing it the words just don’t go together right.  Frustrating.  I am still amazed that I had the opportunity to go with Chris and visit such a beautiful country and meet such loving people.  I crave to go back.  I desperately do not want to let fade everything I felt and learned while there.  What I really hope to do now is share what is happening in Malawi because of Mission’s partnership with Somebody Cares.  It is a beautiful thing.  It’s exciting.  It’s encouraging.  It drives me to want to do so much more!

Here are a few pictures from our trip... my computer has no "disk room" left? At least thats what it tells me when I try to upload my pictures.  Once I get that figured out I will share more :)

Below: Jewelry the women in the community of Mgona made to generate income

Below:  This little boy got up during class, walked over to the door and decided to pee.  Reminded me of Kai :)

Below:  A school teacher in Chikudzulire teaching about 300 children 6 and under.

Below:  Five days a week the children are fed a fortified porridge.

Below:  Lunch time.  The children get a second meal of beans and nsima 3 days a week.

Below:  These girls wear their princess dresses everyday.  How sweet are those faces?!?!

Below:  Joe (a Somebody Cares staff member) and Chris borrowed Mr. Makina's bike to go visit other villages.

Below:  This beautiful woman is a leader in the community of Chikudzulire.  She helps make the porridge, feeds the kids, and generates income for the widows by making and selling soap.

Below:  While we were there the Somebody Cares staff was blessed with a donation of motorcycles.  This is a HUGE blessing as the staff members will be able to travel from village to village so much easier.

Below:  Chikudzulire Community Center.  When Chris visited 5 years ago he helped lay the first bricks for this building.

Below:  This is a group of 40 pastors, elders and church leaders who get together one week each month for pastoral training that the staff of Somebody Cares offers.  This is an amazing group and an awesome week of scripture teaching.  While we were there the teaching was on communion and baptism.  It was intense.  I absolutely loved it.  At the end of the week 10 people from this group were baptized.  (I will share more on that soon).

 Thanks for hanging with me on these sporadic posts.  :)  I would say, I will post more soon... but we know how that goes!