Blogs from Lilongwe, Central, Malawi, Africa - page 11

The ladies of Kasiya held a meeting last month. They cordially invited me to attend this meeting earlier in the month but due to another engagement I was unable to be with them. They insisted I join them and they willingly changed the date to suit my schedule. I thought that was so sweet of them and I felt really honored. The morning of October 16th, 2009 Milika, Shupie and I set out for an hour and half drive to Kasiya, in the village of Chimutu, all prepared to spend the night with the women there. I had the generator and lights to string up for the evening meeting. About thirty minutes into our journey we came across a road side market. We decided to stop and buy some vegetables to contribute to the meeting. Twenty ... read more

In 2006 the whole Jensen family made a trip to Malawi. Ed Crookshank had seen the great need to strengthen the many, many struggling bush congregations which are scattered throughout the country away from the large city of Lilongwe. He conceived of the plan to choose four remote locations as teaching hubs. Each was accessible to a number of congregations. Since teachers would do the traveling and the school was not confined to a fixed location, it was called the Mobile Bible School (MBS). We were honored to be the first teachers for this effort. Since the rainy season hampers travel for both teachers and pupils, classes are held six months of the year. This program has continued now for four years and is nearing it’s completion. Jacob and I have returned to give instruction on ... read more

Hi all, Firstly, massive apologies for not writing sooner. The internet here is hard to find and extremely temperamental so I've been sticking to email so far. I don't have much time here at all so this is just a very quick message to let you all know that I am well and having a blast. I'm writing to you from Lilongwe, capital of the poorest African country I am visiting on this trip. We have visited Kenya, Tanzania and Malawi so far. As I don't have any time I am going to direct you towards the Oasis website (www.oasisoverland.co.uk i think). The trip I am on is called Coast to Coast (Nairobi to Cape Town) and the website/itinerary should tell you generally what I am up to. Love to all, know that I am safe ... read more

Greetings from Malawi! I want to share with our readers the wonderful news of one indigenous congregation. What do we mean by indigenous? In the botanical realm, we understand that a banana tree grows well in a tropical climate and can produce fruit. We thus speak of certain plants being indigenous to a particular region. In his fine booklet on “Practical Principles of World Evangelism” brother Rod Rutherford explains how the term can be applied to local congregations. He highlights that an indigenous congregation must be self-supporting, self-governing, and self-propagating (pp. 91, 92). On Sunday we worshiped with the congregation in Bunda. This congregation is not supported financially by outside funds. Over the past about 4 years they have labored together to have their own meeting place. They have worked patiently and steadily toward this goal. ... read more

Chez Ntimbe and Lilongwe Night Life Last night, I had what will become one of the more memorable nights of my life. After a long, busy week of “work†– traveling around town in these little public transportation buses and asking questions to locals – L_ and I decided to go out in Lilongwe and enjoy ourselves. Two days ago we road a minbus with a guy from Pittsburgh named S_ who works for MSF, and decided to meet up with him at a bar in Old Town and hang out for a bit. We started off at a local hang out called Diplomats – maybe there were a few other white people (muzungu) in the bar, but mostly it had a natural feeling of a local bar where the older people go to watch soccer; ... read more