The Adventure Continues....

Wow. That is about all I can say about the past 48 hours. I have much to tell and many more pictures to post but I'm not sure where to start.

Monday we met with our prayer group for the first time at 8 am before morning chapel. It was myself, Brett, and Kelly. Kelly is a missionary who lives with his wife here on campus and opened his home for small groups during the week. He is also in charge of the music, so several of the students we prayed with were part of the band.

Afterwards, we had chapel. Chapel is at 9:00 am every morning and is where Carlton brings the sermon on whatever sin is going to be addressed that day and then we break for tea. After tea we break the students up into groups for discussion. Here are some pics from the morning tea.








And here is Brett kickin' it with Yami post tea on the way to discussion group. Yami is a cool guy. He's kinda like the troublemaker, punk kid of the group. We loved him immediately.





*A quick sidenote, the best pictures so far have come from Jennies camera but for some reason blogger does not like their high resolution, so you will have to wait for those. Sorry!! (These include the action shots of Carlton, group photos, and our panel discussion)*

So far the groups have been cool. It's tough to get the students to open up at first but they eventually get goin'. One thing that I'm learning on this trip is that people are people. We all struggle with the same stuff, we all desire the same basic things, and Christ knows no cultural, ethnic, or economic boundaries.

The core of the message and discussion is usually over around noon and then we have the rest of the day to goof off before we reconvene for chapel at 7pm. Monday Jennie drove us into the city and we basically cruised the streets of Malawi. It is amazing to see how many people are around. People will just cross the streets in front of you, children will stand on the side of the highway, goats will run across the street, and people will be bathing and doing laundry on the riverbanks of an otherwise normal (yet poor) looking town. I did not snap many photos on Monday as I was too terrified by Jennie's driving a vehicle on the left side of the road while talking on a cell phone and dodging goats. Just kiddin' Jen, you're the best...:)

Tuesday was marked by the same schedule. We are getting to know more of the students and some have amazing stories. One gentlemen we met, named Thompson, has a family 400 miles away that he only gets to see twice a year on Spring Break and Christmas. He has a great heart and is training to be a pastor but lacks the funds to get home more often. Some of the workers that are employed by ABC walk for hours to get here from villages.

I will probably be posting more about our free time than the meat of what is happening here with the students. One reason is that you all want to see pictures, and I'm not exactly snappin'em off while we are all sitting around talking about anger. But be encouraged that the students seem to be very excited we are here, are being challenged by Carlton's preaching, and have a genuine thirst for God that we don't often see in the states. The week is also impacting my own spiritual walk immensely.

Tuesday free time involved going to a local orphanage where Jennie used to tutor when she lived here. I do not have the name logged in my memory, but it is an orphanage/farm where they house about 35 children - most who are in school- who also help out with the farming. They gave us a warm welcome by singing us songs:





After they took us by the hands, they showed us their rooms and then it was off to see the farm.





Jennie remembered quite a few of the students from when she lived here. The living conditions at the orphanage aren't too bad but it is definitely unlike anything I've ever experienced. The children here are beautiful. You've never seen bigger, more grateful smiles full of white teeth. It's really amazing.

Although the experience so far has been a good one, nothing compares with what we did today. As I noted earlier the college employs Malawian locals for landscaping and housemaid duties. When Jennie lived here she befriended one of the houseworkers named Caroline. Caroline lives in a village about 3 miles from the school and still works for ABC. Jen asked if we could walk with her to her village and she very excitedly said we may.

So today around 1pm we hooked up with Caroline and made the trek down to her local village. This was where we seemingly stepped back in time. Apparently when you cruise through a village a few of the younger locals take notice.





That is Caroline and Jennie in the front, Carol (Carlton's wife) and myself in the back, a bunch of highly interested children all around us, and Brett taking the picture. Carlton stayed back to study for the nights sermon.

After we marched through the village, which was extremely impoverished, we ended up at Caroline's home. Many of the shots of the village are (once again) on Jennie's camera so unfortunately I won't be able to load some of the amazing shots of the marketplace.

Here is a family portrait of Caroline, her husband Yona, and the entire litter in their front yard - along with Jennie. We brought them some food from the kitchen in the house we were staying in, and Jennie brought them some gifts from America. They were very grateful.





While we were there we decided to play a game with the kids. The game is called pizza cutter (I think) and is basically a version of duck duck goose where instead of chasing someone who tags you, the "tagger" splits two people in the circle who have to run in opposite directions and race around to fill the hole first. Did that make sense? Try explaining it to 3, 4, and 5 year olds in another language! They eventually caught on.





Although we have captured some beautiful pictures of both the landscape and people here in Malawi, I must confess the most amazing picture I've seen so far has to be this one.




Can you say beautiful foreign diplomat? That picture belongs in an issue of Time magazine. Sorry, I’m just sayin’.

Romantic tidbits aside, today was an amazing day. What was amazing is how walking through the village brought the story of the Gospel alive. Not to imply that myself or anyone I was with were anything like Jesus of Nazareth, but when the gospels talk about crowds gathering as he entered villages I could not shake the sense that this is how it was. People stopped to look at us and all the children began following us. It really helped me contextualize how similar that had to be when Christ walked into a village in 1st century Palestine.

Aside from that, it was the humbling experience I longed for. The sense of community in the village was amazing, and most everyone had a smile on their face. I get the sense that some people think I should be “shocked” by what I see – but the truth is I’m not. It is not really a sad way of life as much as it is their way of life – a life to which they know no alternative. Granted, impoverished living conditions can be worse than what I saw, with health and sanitation issues that far outweigh my experience here, in which case a broken heart would be in order.

Still, the people here are the most hospitable I’ve ever met. I was thankful that Yona allowed me into his home today and let me sit. It was also amazing to see the joy that he possessed over the little he did have and the amazing family he is raising. He didn’t seem too disgruntled over freeway traffic, his next mortgage payment, or not being the first to get the new iPod.

Not that this is going to turn into some anti-America rant – I love my country and am very grateful, especially now, that I live there. But it is interesting to see the joy of people who essentially have nothing and contrast that to people I know in America who are miserable and have everything.

Today was a day of great joy and laughter and probably in the top 10 of the best days of my life.

God Bless You All,

Cory