We're back in Malawi! And multiplied!

January 15, 2008
We are back in Malawi with 6 students from Toccoa Falls College – Katie Greer, Anna Bailey, Brittany Carroll, Whitney Luke, Joseph Vinson, and Jordan Treworgy have joined us, doing a lot of medical work and learning a good bit about poverty, disease, spiritual health and spiritual attacks, and cultural issues. We have had a very busy last 2 days, many pictures have been obtained, but most will have to be processed back in the States. Here are a few of them:(NOT - can't get them into the document)
So far, the schedule has been:
Thursday – Friday – Saturday – One long day. Joseph, and Whitney impressed all of us with their separate abilities to sleep anywhere, on the plane, in the airport, you name it – they got their rest. Jordan went the first 2 days without sleep, but got into the sleep zone in the Johannesburg airport. The remainder of us – well, it was one lllooonnnggg day. We played cards at 4 AM, talked, ate granola bars, pretended to rest, and just got through!
Saturday afternoon, we unpacked, organized, and participated in the Wallace family Christmas – every item, whether it was presents from Bob & Daisy, new items brought from Grace Church, or older items brought from the container in Rincon, money brought from the Ithaca CMA church, Port Wentworth CMA, or Shawn’s family & friends, everything was just so exciting.
Sunday, the work started in earnest. We all attended the Chirimba church service. There was singing, dancing, a baptism in the early morning (picture above), and a very strong message by Shawn. Right in the middle of the service, there was a stir, and a large contingent came into the room with a flourish – a member of the Malawi parliament came and sat – ostensibly to hear the service – but actually, he got restless quickly, and sent a message to the pastor that he would like to speak. He stood up, tooted his own horn a bit, talked about how he enjoyed the preaching of the “gospel”, and ostentatiously presented a 5000 kwacha offering in front of everybody (average offering totals 150 kwacha a week. ) He is a Moslem, and his idea of the gospel is to buy converts to Islam. Behind the scene, 2 of his men came to Emmanuel, a recent convert from Islam to Christianity, after the service, and demanded part of the money back. It was an excellent opportunity for Shawn and myself to speak to the church about the darkness that is Islam, and how Eph 5 commands us to have nothing to do with that darkness. We were sorely tempted to burn the 5000 Kwacha in front of the congregation, but stopped short of that.
Sunday afternoon, we were to see a “few” people medically, to get the ball rolling, but ended up seeing a hundred people or so (for which we were unprepared.) What a start! We have made lists of medicines that we need to get from the pharmacy here.
Monday was much better. We walked about 6 miles to the Ndirende church, where some church members had gathered for medical care. We spent about 5 hours, the students alternated between playing games with the children and helping to deliver medical care to the sick. We saw a lot of very deep pathology; malaria, osteomyelitis, chronic mastoiditis, a severe cervical adenitis, a lot of unusual things. We walked the 6 miles back in the late afternoon after making a “house call” up into the middle of Ndirende to see Rhoda, a wonderful Christian lady in middle to late HIV disease who had developed a severe malaria which, for her, was life-threatening. We were able to provide her with vitamins and with the latest malaria treatment. We will check back on all of this. In the evening, we were treated to a Malawian meal of nsima and fried flying ants (some of us had peanut butter and jelly instead – I bet anyone reading this knows what 2 people had PB&J). We then heard a long testimony from Gray and Caroline about forgiveness, restoration, and consequences. We have testimonies set up throughout the week, both from the pastors and from the students.
Today(Tuesday) we have an orphanage visit, with exams of all of the children there, and tomorrow will be a day of rest, trip to Mulanji and then Thursday will be a day to bless Shawn & heather with work around the house, and with shopping for household goods.

We covet your prayers.

Rick & Wanda

I'm trying to get some pictures on here - running into difficulty.