Robby and Naty’s Africa Weblog

Wow, it’s hard to believe it, but we’ve already been here for over 3 months!  The time has FLOWN by, and we are headed out on the 28th to Johannesburg, South Africa, and then on to Ethiopia from Nov. 9th until Dec. 2nd, when we’ll start our journey back home.

This past week was quite busy.  Naty has been working on finishing up her nutrition classes with Ministry of Hope, as well as doing activities for a double baby shower on Saturday, and the children’s ministry for Kairos on Sunday. On Wednesday, Naty also gave her testimony in our church cell group, and did very well.  It’s amazing to see what God has done in her life, and in bringing her here (with me as well!!)

Wednesday, which was mother’s day, and Saturday were our first 2 missions classes in KLITS.  It went quite well, and we have been able to cover quite a bit of material. Our last class is this coming Saturday and we hope to finish the class.  The students will be having their second exam as well as having to turn in 2 papers….For some strange reason, I don’t think many will have done the work yet though.

I was able to go to the Chipoka farm on Thurday with Pastor Felix, and the church administrator, Raymond-also a good friend of ours here.  We went to check out the new well they had just dug, as well as how the crops were doing.  Also, we had taken along about a hundred blankets that the Uplift team had left for us to give.  We handed out all 100 to orphans from the surrounding villages and to the farm workers children.  Kairos will soon be starting and orphan feeding program there at the farm (which Naty will be leaving a nutritional guide for).  After the census, we found out that just in that village (maybe 200 people) there are 67 orphans. Please pray with us for God’s provision for these kids!

This week is also a busy week for us. We will be finishing up with all our stuff here.  I’ll be giving my testimony in our cell group on Wednesday, teaching the last 8 hour missions class on Saturday, and also preaching in the main Sunday morning service.  Pastor Felix’s bday is Sunday, so we’ll be celebrating that with him as well.  Please pray for a strong finish, and also for our friends here, as our leaving will be tough on us and them.

As I said last week, we were invited by Mustard Seed Ministries to take part in revival meetings and pastors’ conference this weekend in Zomba. Throughout the week, I had been talking with Pastor Chaponda, and he was keeping me updated, but had not yet given me the topic that I was to teach. The night before the conference started, he called and asked me to teach “How to Preach”. I told him that it was not my strong point (the pastors at the conference could probably teach ME on that subject), but offered to teach a missions class that I had been preparing for KLITS.

Friday came, and I headed out to Zomba in minibus (4 hours in car, 6 in minibus, which, by the way, is a truly African experience!).

Naty had been invited to go to Liwonde game park with her friend, Maria Jose. They also headed out Friday morning. The game park was closed to tourists due to an animal census they were taking, but Naty and Maria were part of the group doing the census (counting the animals and number of species, gender etc.) They went on walking safaris, complete with armed guide/guard, and really got to see some animals up close. Liwonde is only about an hour from Zomba, so Naty joined me Saturday afternoon.

After arriving Friday night, I went to the first revival meeting. Unfortunately, there was a black out, but Pastor Chaponda spoke and it went quite well. I then went to where I was putting up, Annie’s Lodge. Saturday morning, the official conference began. There was also a group of 5 teachers and pastors from South Carolina that were giving classes. Bishop Alfred Jackson and his church (I think its Tabernacle of Praise church?) are part of Kingdom Covenant ministries in South Carolina. He and his group teach and preach once or twice a year in Malawi and Liberia. It was great to meet and serve with them.

Saturday, we divided into 4 groups and I taught a 1- hour session to a group of about 15 pastors from the villages. It was challenging to bring the class level down to something they can understand through an interpreter, but it was great to bring the class down to a basic level.

In the biggest meetings there were about 400-500 people packing out the hall, with around 200 of them being pastors. Sunday, I had a chance to speak to the whole group, and they had told me that it would be about an hour to an hour and a half of teaching. Unfortunately, I was only given about 40 minutes, so I had to cut an already short class even shorter (it’s the same 8 hour class I will be giving to the KLITS students). Afterward, I felt that it could have gone better, but we trust that the Lord did what he wanted.

One of the more interesting experiences was the Healing (for physical health) and Deliverance (from demonic forces) meeting. Saturday, I did not get to attend because I was teaching at the time, however, there were several testimonies afterwards. One older man came up (carrying a cane-not using it), and said that he had been crippled and was now healed and he started jumping around. He was also blind, and started to point out things that he was seeing (a bag, a microphone etc.) Even his helper came up and testified for him (many of these people come from far away villages, so they need help to get there). I was still a bit skeptical. However, we also saw something that impacted Naty and I greatly.

That Saturday, a blind woman came up to testify that her foot had been healed. Someone helped her to the stage, and you could clearly see that she was blind (her eyes were sunken in and discolored). After testifying, she also said she was seeing some flashes of light, something that normally did not happen. After this, the meeting was over and everybody went home. Sunday, we came back to the meetings, and after a long morning, the same woman came back to afternoon meeting. She could see! Her eyes were completely normal, and we could see a physical difference in her face! It was really amazing to see something like that, and Naty and I could only give glory to God!

For us, this experience could only be compared to a spiritually blind person having their eyes opened by the Spirit of God and recognizing their Savior. Salvation (bringing a person from spiritual darkness to spiritual light) really took on a new, more real, perspective for us after seeing a physical healing of a blind person, and the change that it brought about in her life.

This coming week I will start the missions’ class for KLITS, on Wed. and Saturday. Please pray for clarity and strength. Naty will be finishing up her work with Ministry of Hope, as our time here is coming to an end! Thanks always for your prayers!

This week, we had the privilege of going to Blantyre, the next major city after Lilongwe. It is known as the commerce capital of Malawi. We went to visit Pastor Willie Chaponda, his wife, Doris, and their family. Pastor Chaponda has a ministry called Mustard Seed Ministries, and Doris also has a ministry called Women of Victory.

Mustard Seed is a ministry that mainly works in the villages. Pastor Chaponda told us that real need in Malawi is in the villages, not in the cities. What he has done, as of now, is plant about 85 churches in as many villages, with about 15,000 members total. Another big part of the ministry is his radio ministry. Many people (around 20 million) listen to his radio program throughout Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia. The amazing thing is how God is using this program to change lives. They have heard stories of whole villages converting, coming together to form a church, and then sending a leader to Pastor Chaponda so that he can train him and send him back as a pastor of the church. Because of this ministry, Pastor Chaponda is quite well known, and many doors have been opened to him, even in Muslim areas. Besides these ministries, they also have an orphan feeding program and private school, and pastoral training program. In 2004, there were reportedly more than 11,000 orphans in the part of Blantyre where they live, which is not a large area.

It was our privilege to participate in the Wednesday night services of 2 such village churches. The first church meeting was in a house, and about 50 people were packed into the house, almost all leaders in the local church. I was asked to give a 30-minute exhortation to the people, and it went quite well. Immediately afterward, Pastor Chaponda took us to the church that meets in his house, where there were about 60 people. He had told me that some would be non-believers, so I gave an evangelistic message. By the grace of God, 18 people accepted Christ for the first time, and another 5 people rededicated their lives to Christ! The Pastor and his wife will now plug them all into churches in their own areas and villages. It was really an amazing experience and we thank God for letting us take part in it. Once again, straight from this meeting, we headed to another meeting where we met up with some other church leaders to talk about putting together a RREACH conference for Malawi. By default, I was the one who presented it, and afterward everyone seemed pretty excited about it.

Thursday, we visited their private school. It was originally set up like any other private school, however, the kids could not afford it. So, they decided front the bill and have an orphan school. There are around 100 kids that they provide for uniforms, books, and lunch everyday. Naty was able to give a lesson during their meal. We also visited another village church, and were able to give them a word of encouragement. This particular church has around 150 members and is praying for money to buy land to start a hospital in their area. The nearest hospitals are 4 kilometers on each side, and by the time the people are sick enough to need to go to the hospital, they are not able get transport and resort to “traditional” healing or end up dying.

Even though we had so many opportunities to minister, we also had time for some tourism. We were able to visit a small game reserve, where we saw giraffe and some other animals we hadn’t seen yet. We also visited Mt. Mulanje, which is the second largest mountain in Africa, after Mt. Kilamanjaro(sp?) in Kenya (I think!). In that area there are large tea fields and it really is a very beautiful place.

We thank everybody for their prayers. We did not experience any witchcraft, although it is very apparent that it is a very real thing in that area. We heard some very crazy stories of what they have gone through and experienced in these villages. This coming weekend, we hope to go to Zomba, another southern city, where Pastor Chaponda has invited me to participate in a conference and evangelistic crusade. Once again, we ask for your prayers of safety and that God will continue to give us courage, strength, and boldness in the witnessing of His gospel.