The Introduction

I was “inducted” (installed) at the Chigodi congregation as the associate pastor when I first returned to Malawi in 2009, so when I was reassigned to the Limbe congregation, I was only to be introduced because it is within the same Presbytery. That was a technicality for the Limbe congregation. They made as much of a celebration of the event as if it were a full induction. I have served as the associate at the congregation for the past 7 months, so the introduction has been a long time in coming. But in that time, I have been serving as if I were installed, preaching regularly, officiating at weddings and funerals, attending meetings, leading cottage prayer meetings, and participating in nights of prayer. The people have come to know me well and I have gotten to know them. So when the official celebration finally took place two weeks ago, it was a big one. We were already ministering together. That is what they celebrated. It was a large celebration.

The worship service was much the same as a regular service, but with a few special elements. The four choirs had prepared special numbers for the celebration, several of them offering wording specific to the event, including my name in them. The sermon was directed at the nature of the pastor-congregation relationship. The Presbytery took over after the sermon to ask the pastor and the congregation the constitutional questions that allow for the official acceptance of the position. Then there was a charge (a mini sermon) to both the pastor and the congregation. The presbytery officials invited my son Thomas to give the charge to his mother, since he was present to witness the celebration. That was a touching moment for me, when he said that he could not give a charge to his mother, but he would remind her of things she had told him about being a faithful shepherd, and he did so in a tender and touching way.

The biggest element came at the time of the offering. After the regular offering was taken, I was invited forward to receive gifts from the congregation. This is where things got overwhelming. Limbe is an incredibly generous congregation by nature. They proved that again in the presentation of their gifts. This was a time for dancing. The sound person played recorded music and groups danced down the aisle as they were called forward to present their gifts, beginning with the senior minister and the session members coming with a new clerical robe for me. After each gift was presented, the members of the group then tossed kwacha (Malawian paper money) at a tray that one for the mvano held for me. The bills were small, 20 kwacha (13 cents) and 50 kwacha (33 cents), but there were many of them. Most of the fun is in the tossing, not in the amount, all the while those tossing were dancing and singing. The senior pastor, Rev. Bona, took special delight in tossing money and dancing. The groups consisted of the geographic areas of the congregation and various organizations within the congregation. The gifts were given with such joy. Some of them were overwhelming. One of the areas gave me the biggest floor fan I have ever seen, but the gift that left me speechless was from the organizing committee of the event. They were the last ones to present their gift and I was glad. I couldn’t have taken more after theirs. They danced down the aisle with a wicker furniture set – a love seat, two chairs and a coffee table. It was chosen to augment what I already have in my living room, to offer more seating when the various church groups come to visit “Manse 2,” (pronounced man-`sa) as my home is called by the church.

I was so humbled by their thoughtfulness and their generosity. I am blessed to be their associate pastor and I am grateful for the opportunity to serve with them. After such an awesome introduction, there is no other reasonable response.

The Organizing committee posing with the pastors with the new furniture for Manse 2 - what generosity!

Fuel Shortage

Malawi has a fuel shortage. Some are calling it a crisis. It certainly feels like a crisis when you can’t get fuel and need to be somewhere. On three different occasions I have either had to beg for rides to be get to planned events or cancel altogether because everyone I contacted was in the same situation as I was. The shortage is unpredictable. Sometimes there is petrol available and not diesel. Other times it is the other way around and sometimes both are absent. There are lots of explanations given for the shortages – foreign exchange difficulties, transportation difficulties, excessive consumption, the increased number of motor vehicles. There is no end to the explanations but none of that changes the reality of no fuel. When rumors come that a certain station will be getting fuel, people rush to get in line to wait for the tanker to arrive. Lines extend for blocks, many times snarling moving traffic in the process. Because of the unpredictability of shortage, people are getting in line whenever they see the lines forming, to be certain that they don’t miss the opportunity. It is a bit chaotic.

Thursday of last week, I had less than half a tank of fuel and knew that I had a busy weekend coming. I asked Maxwell, my trusty gardener/driver, to see if he could find fuel in the city. There were rumors that there were some tankers coming. He found a long line (called a queue here, using the British term) and joined it. The queue inched forward over the next four hours, using up precious fuel, but seemingly making progress. He got to within 10 cars of the pumps and the movement stopped. Those still in line were told that the fuel had run out. He came home discouraged, and a bit worried. He had used a great deal of the precious fluid with no positive result. Later in the day, he came to say that the station just down the road from us had fuel. The queue was long, but he was hopeful. Three hours later he returned with a similar story as the first. This time he was only seven cars from the goal when the flow stopped. But we were even lower on fuel, so the situation was becoming desperate.

Friday I had to go to Limbe church for a meeting in the morning. I had fuel, but knew that I didn’t have much for anything else. On the way back, I saw a queue at a station and called Maxwell to prepare to go again. Again he went to sit and wait. He made steady progress until he got five cars from the pump when he ran out of fuel this time, not the station. He had to enlist the assistance of those around him to push the car forward, until he reached the pump. He was delighted that the station's fuel held out this time and he was able to fill up for us. I was elated when he returned. This meant that I could continue with the plans for the weekend activities.

Early Monday morning, I had to take some visitors to the airport and on the way back I noticed that one station seemed to have fuel, but there were no lines. I pulled in to enquire. Sure enough, they had petrol. I still had ¾ of a tank, but I filled up, since it was available. To be able to “top up,” as they say here, and not to have to wait in line was a great blessing. I’m set for at least this week, if there are no long trips needed. We manage the best we can. We are told that this will be the situation for some time to come so we need to make the best of it. This is becoming part of life in Malawi.

Cars queued for petrol at a local station.
This is now a normal scene

Keeping Up

Sometimes it is difficult to keep up with the pace of life here in Malawi. It seems like such a quiet place, at least on the surface, but the reality is deceptive. This past month has been a whirlwind of activity that has included committee meetings, retreats, visitors coming and going, celebrations and funerals. There has been little time for just daily living.

The whirlwind began with the theological selection committee meeting, three days to interview and select 7 candidates for theological training from a field of 52 applicants at a retreat site north of Blantyre. The process included examining their credentials, giving them written exams, which needed to be graded immediately, interviewing each one and then making decisions. Behind the process are the lives of the individuals who are eager for the opportunity to serve the church, to be trained as pastors. Each one feels he is called. It was the committee’s responsibility to discern God’s call for the ones chosen. We worked late into the night and early morning of both nights we were there to listen to God’s leading.

With the decisions made, I headed back to Blantyre and to the airport to greet a group of 13 and take them to my home for a welcoming reception. The complication was that five of the group did not make the first connection and so they would arrive three days later, on Saturday, so we needed to adjust the program accordingly (adjustment is one of the facts of life here). Saturday as I was preparing to go the airport, I got a call from the group saying they were delayed and would meet at my house later, so we arranged for lunch for the entire group once their friends arrived from the airport. Off I went to the airport while Charles and Alinafe, who were staying with me since the birth of Precious, prepared lunch. Once the group was settled and off to Zomba, I prepared a sermon and did the finishing details of the retreat the pastor of the group and I were leading for pastors from Zomba and some of the pastors of remote Presbyteries on Monday through Wednesday. I left the retreat a bit early to get to the airport to meet a young couple, Marty and Melody from Illinois, who stayed with me for 10 days before moving to Mulanje to get settled for a 10 month stay. We had all their paper work and housing to get in order. The group went to Liwonde Animal Park for a few days and then came back to Blantyre in time to catch a plane home. On that arriving plane came a young lady, Kendra, who stayed with me for 10 days, researching sacred and traditional music in Malawi. This was part of a larger trip through five countries in Africa. I had the Malawi portion of her trip worked out and accompanied her on most of her outings. She and Marty and Melody had a great time together. God’s timing was perfect, as always, and they enjoyed games and movies in the evenings and even helped with the cooking. Charles and Alinafe headed home with the new baby to settle into their own lives. In the midst of this more personal time, a small group from Australia arrived. We had a formal welcome for them at the airport and helped them get settled for their program, which included a renewal of their partnership agreement.

Marty and Melody headed to Mulanje and Kendra moved through her program for several days before the group from Pittsburgh arrived for the big 20^th anniversary celebration of the partnership with Blantyre Synod. We had been working on this trip for months from the Blantyre side. This involved the synod and local churches, so I was involved on two levels of preparations, since Limbe church was hosting some of the Pittsburgh folks. There were lots of last minute details to attend to. The first Sunday the group was here, we had the partnership signing for the Australians and the Pittsburgh group attended as a witness to the international nature of the body of Christ. It was a great day that involved lots of eating and music. Monday and Tuesday, I traveled with Kendra for various musical programs, including a cultural night with the Pittsburgh team and the partnership here. Wednesday, Kendra and part of the Australian team left. Maxwell, my gardener/driver/ good at all things fellow, took Kendra to the airport because I was on my way to the lake with the Pittsburgh group to facilitate a retreat for them and the partnership group. While there, we got word that the General Treasurer of the Synod had died. We changed the departure time from the lake on Friday to allow some of us to get to Blantyre in time to go to the funeral. But God and the bus had other plans.  Just a few miles from the retreat site, a wheel bearing of the bus flew off and we were stuck for three hours while the bus was worked on and the partnership folks worked on alternative transportation. We did not make it for the funeral, but everyone had a good time playing with a group of children who gathered to see all the Americans on the broken bus, sitting and chatting and doing a bit of shopping in a small shop that was nearby.

Saturday I was at the airport again with Marty and Melody to meet a group of 12 from their home church and host them for tea and an orientation at my house before they headed to Mulanje. Sunday was the big celebration of the partnership, so there was a gala of activity all day long that included a worship service, communion, covenant signing, cake cutting, speeches and a meal together. Monday and Tuesday saw farewell dinners with the churches and then with the partnership. I hosted people for lunch each day, a Malawian involved in the Pittsburgh partnership and the remaining Australians to talk about plans for the future with their group coming next year. The Pittsburgh group headed to the airport on Wednesday. This was another turn-around flight where I was saying goodbye and greeting at the same time. One of the Pittsburgh group is staying on with me for two weeks to do research on her doctoral project about Malawi Partnership. As the group left, two gentlemen from Virginia arrived to work on research for a musical they hope to do about Silas Ncozona and the coming of the multiparty system to Malawi. Yesterday was a day of introductions. I took the researchers around, introducing them to folks who will hopefully be helpful in their projects and then met with the Illinois group to introduce them to the Synod and the Synod officials before they headed to the animal park for two days.

Today, all of the researchers are off working on their individual programs. They will be staying various places tonight. This is the first day in over a month that I have had no visitors at the house and have been able to get some of my other work done. Tonight instead of keeping up with everyone’s schedule, I’m planning on putting my feet up and resting for a few hours, before the next wave of activity begins tomorrow with departures and arrivals and more celebrations.

Cake Cutting at Pittsburgh Partnership service