Tuesday was our first full day in the Bethel Circuit of Lilongwe. We spent Monday traveling from Blantyre to Lilongwe. It is a four-hour drive but it took us all day. We were on “Africa time”, which translates to “you will be happier if you just chill.” First of all there was a stop in the town of Ntcheu at the parsonage of the Bethany Circuit. The host pastor, Rev. Smart Msinkhu, and four lay leaders from other churches met with the Daniel Mhone for about three hours to work out some details of pastoral oversight for their churches.
From Ntcheu we headed not far up the road to Dedza and a stop at the Dedza Pottery. Sue loved the place. Every piece of pottery is hand painted with traditional scenes, animals and other “African” motif, and in huge variety, all wonderful quality merchandise. (They also ship to the US AND take VISA! Sorry, Herb) Several hours later we arrived at the parsonage in Lilongwe to meet Rev. Steve Mbewe and his wife Rhoda along with several lay leaders of the Bethel Circuit. We had a warm welcome there and met our friend, Grant, whom we had met in 2006, and who is our current driver. Claude gave him a thorough orientation to our precious car and it is having an oil change tomorrow. Around 9:00 p.m., and very tired, we finally arrived at the Bethany Convent and moved into our room. They had supper waiting for us and then we collapsed to bed. Claude and Daniel took a bus back to Blantyre early this morning.
We were greeted with another sunny day and the view of the lovely grounds here at the convent – all kinds of blooming amaryllis, angel trumpets and roses along with gerber daisies and lots more flowers. They also have a huge vegetable garden at the back. Everything here is spotless, including the gardens! It is an oasis of green and tranquility in the midst of an extremely dry, dusty and brown landscape outside these walls.
We can hardly believe how many churches and boreholes we visited today. Most of the boreholes were donated by people from the United Methodist Church in York, Pennsylvania. We saw churches with roofs, churches with walls under construction, and churches that meet under rustic arbors. We saw bricks drying for church construction and plots of ground where churches will be built. On the road again! Periodically, our very sweet young interpreter, Vincent, would tap Sue’s arm and say, “Mama, we are almost to the village.” We have learned that this is not to be taken literally!
Perhaps the highlight of the day was a visit to a village where there is no United Methodist Church but there is a special borehole. The United Methodist pastor in Balaka, Rev. Ezekiel Kachaje, died about two years ago. Ezekiel was a unique individual. He had visions. He probably would have been called a mystic. In 2004, one of our VIM team members had to be hospitalized for surgery in Blantyre. Ezekiel lived 100 miles away. He had a vision that he needed to go to Blantyre. He had no car or bicycle but he got to Blantyre and found Jeff in the hospital and prayed for him. It was a profound experience for our team and a testament to the depth of Ezekiel’s prayer life.
Ezekiel died in 2005. It has been said that he died of hunger. It isn’t that he actually starved to death but insufficient funds meant that he lacked good nutrition. Ezekiel had no resistance to disease. When he died his wife moved back to his home village of Sunumbe, about 35 miles out of Lilongwe. It is a village so off the beaten track we even had to ask villagers for directions three times. Finally we found it with a bunch of little boys racing ahead of the car to point out just where the road was! Forty-five minutes of bone jarring dusty roads after leaving the good tarmac found us in that village.
Women were busy washing clothes at the borehole that had been put in the village in Ezekiel’s memory by people from Pennsylvania. “Mother” Kachaje did not know we were coming. She came out from her small house next to the borehole and we had the opportunity to share memories of her late husband and what he meant to the people from America who knew him. It was a tender moment. It was a sad moment. It was a time we will not soon forget.
Herb had met her in 2000 on his first trip to Malawi but had not seen her until the visit to her community this day. We came “full circle” both in our special time with our “Mother” and in very literally making the rounds of the circuit.
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