Church Alive

Saturday I arrived at Limbe CCAP at 8 a.m. for a mvano (women’s guild) visit to the manse. We were consolidating the visits to one manse so the mvano would not have to travel to my home after visiting the senior pastor’s home. The last activity of the training of the new mvano is a manse visit, where the nearly trained students lead worship and present gifts to the pastor. With the fuel shortage, it made more sense for one person to travel to the group, rather than the group to traveling to one person, since the senior pastor’s house is on the church grounds and my house is 7 miles from the church. The church parking lot was full when I arrived. I was welcomed to the house by the amayi abusa (pastor’s wife) who reminded me that there was a wedding at 7:30 that Rev. Bona was officiating and he would be coming when it was over. The women were gathering and were content to wait patiently. As is the case in all of Malawi, time is not a great issue. At Limbe, people try to be on time, but it doesn’t always happen and they are good about waiting.

There were 33 women who had been studying for 4 months to become mvano. This was the last activity before their graduation. Sunday they would be inducted into the mvano and be given their uniforms during the morning worship service. But for Saturday, they were learning to care for the pastor and his/her home. They had come with a short worship service prepared, all led by the students and they had brought gifts for the manses (both of them), to show their care for the pastors. So it was an official program, but one that would hold until the senior pastor finished with his responsibilities. As they waited, they gathered chairs and took seats on the porch and patio in front of the manse, some sitting in the shade and others in the sun. October and November are our hottest months, so by 8 a.m. the temperature is already up to 80 or above, so this was no small gesture of caring. Once everyone was seated, one of the students began to sing, inviting the rest to join in. For half an hour we sang as we waited for Rev. Bona. The time went quickly. The spirit was joyful.

 Rev. Bona arrived with the session clerk about 8:45. The session clerk reminded the chair of the mvano that there was another wedding yet that morning that Rev. Bona was to officiate so he would not stay long after the function. Actually the second wedding was scheduled to begin at 8:30, but no one really expected that to happen, so they weren’t all that concerned. The mvano program would not be rushed. (Rev. Bona does most of the weddings because they are in Chichewa and my Chichewa is not good enough for officiating. When weddings are done in English, I officiate.)

The mvano students began their program. The singing continued with a choir and a duet. The preaching was well done and then they presented gifts to the pastors – rice, cooking oil, and chickens. This is the common expression of care and support. These are the luxury items in the diet of life here. This is the menu for celebrations and guests. All of this was followed by speeches by the mvano leadership, the session clerks and the pastors. Nothing was rushed. After the closing hymn and benediction, Rev. Bona thanked them all again on behalf of both of us, and excused himself to go to the second wedding. It was 9:50 a.m. The second wedding would be underway by 10 a.m. and no one would complain. As we had been meeting at the manse, I could see the parking lot empty of cars of one group of worshippers and fill with the second group’s; everyone was in place.

The mvano were not leaving. After some drinks of tobwa (local sweet beer – non alcoholic), they were headed to the church hall to set up for their fundraiser on Sunday, a Malawian style yard sale to be held after church. They had plenty of work yet to do. They had to have everything done before 2 p.m. when the choirs came for their rehearsals. There was much more activity for the day, a somewhat typical day at Limbe, a church that is alive.