Sunday Again

 Today and yesterday have been fairly quiet for me here in Malawi. The main feature of yesterday was going with Jan Baxter on a visit to see Stalin and his family. Stalin is one of the staff at the VTC in Ekwendeni. At the moment he is waiting for a visa so that he can visit Geneva and report on is work with the young people and with AIDS prevention. Stalin has a warm and vibrant personality, and it was good to meet his wife and children - twin girls, aged five. We had a good two hours in their home. Just before we left the smaller of the twins - Leah -  decided she wanted to try out my hat and camera. She soon found how to use the viewfinder, and took one or two good shots of the room, and of her adopted gogo, Jan.


Today we went to worship at the main Baptist Church in Mzuzu. I had contacted the Pastor, George Mwase, earlier in the week, asking if I could bring greetings from Llanwenarth at the English Service at 8 in the morning. He was delighted - and asked me to preach. It was a very simple service, with about 40 people present - the ChiTumbuka service is much larger. I felt quite at home thee, not least because the text on the pulpit fall was the same as that at the church where I began my ministry in Broughton - Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path (Psalm 119:105)

I preached on the story of the meeting of Jesus with the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well. It is surprising how much more that story means now that I have walked with Watson through the middle of the day, and watched women coming to a hole in the ground to draw water. The comparison between the living water that Jesus offers and the muddy water that the well offered has come alive.

In the afternoon and early evening I went walking. The afternoon was spent beside Mzuzu airport, hoping to get a picture of the great crested crane I had seen there many times as we drove by in the taxi from Ekwendeni. It is a majestic bird - but like the slender mongoose, it continues to evade the camera. The walk was enjoyable all the same - especially the sight f a flame tree in full bloom. Like the poinsettias, this has a bright red flower and no leaves - at least, not in the dry season.

Walking back to the house two sights caught my eye. On one side of the airport road a herbalist had set up his stall in the shade of one of the trees. Here he offered consultations and remedies to any who would stop to take his advice. The potions were highly coloured, and certainly no what you would get from the local homeopath back home. And passing through the market I saw another claim to offer happiness that I would doubt. It is with unsustainable claims such as these that Coke pursues its goal of capturing the soft drinks market in every corner of the globe. They certainly have done a good job of this in Malawi - I have not seen a single Pepsi bottle at any time in my stay here.


In the evening we took our usual Sunday evening walk across the causeway through the reed beds to see Joe - a local resident who runs a small business mending shoes, and who has dug a series of fish ponds out of the the reed beds. Like Bob Baxter, he has a great interest in the local bird life, and it is good to spend time in his company as the sun sets and the birds fly home to roost. It is also the time the marsh harriers and black kites quarter the area looking for food. One of the highlights of this visit was to catch a glimpse of a pair of mouse birds in the reeds.

When we got back to the house, we found that the others had opened and set up the outdoor cinema set up. This came in the container this week, and is intended as a tool for the evangelism department. Included in the equipment are a large screen (as well as the small one they were using this evening), a full set up to show cinema quality DVDs, and a generator - so they can go into communities that have no electricity. With this they will be able to show the Jesus film - based on the Gospel of Luke, and in this case dubbed into the local languages.

There will not be another post until Wednesday, as tomorrow I am heading for Namiashi to visit the Lakeside for two nights. While it will be good to have some rest and recreation, there is no internet connection in the lodge there. Hopefully, when I report back on Wednesday I will have pictures of fish eagles and sunrise over the water.