We arrived back to Malawi this past Thursday after being away in Zambia for the last three weeks. We went for 20/20 training, which is an orientation to life in Africa for new IMB missionaries to Sub-Saharan Africa. We learned and experienced so much over our 3 weeks in Zambia, and we want to share a bit of that with you here.
Before we began our 20/20 training, we decided to take a couple of days and drive to Livingstone, Zambia, the site of Victoria Falls, the world's largest waterfall. After 18 hours on the road, spread out over two days, we finally made it! It is such a magnificent sight! The Zambezi River flows into the falls, and at the height of rainy season, the volume of water is much greater. Nevertheless, we still got some great pictures and had a wonderful time enjoying the beauty of God's creation!
After we visited the falls, we went of a self-drive safari through Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park. Unfortunately, we did not see any of the big animals, like elephants, giraffes, or rhinos. It is now rainy season, and lots of the trees were green and full, preventing some of our views. We still did get to see lots of animals in their natural habitat, like zebras, warthogs, wildebeests, and several kinds of monkeys.
After our two days in Livingstone, we traveled back to Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, to begin our 20/20 training. There are three main components of this training: the urban experience, rural experience, and a 3-day village homestay. For our urban experience in Lusaka, we went out into different compounds (areas of the city, similar to Chinatown, Little Italy, etc.) to complete our daily field assignments, or DFAs. In order to get to these locations, we negotiated fares and rode on minibuses. All in all, this is not a bad way to travel, except if you are over 6 feet tall like I am!
Our wonderful national helpers assisted us in talking to people about topics such as health and medicine, death and funerals, and what they thought the role of a missionary is. Our last DFA in Lusaka was spent sharing Creation to Christ with people. It is amazing how wonderfully easy it was to share, because people are so open to talking about spiritual things. As a result of our group's sharing, one person trusted in Jesus as their Savior! On our final day in Lusaka, most of us went to church with our helpers and were able to worship alongside of them.
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| My helper "K" and I |
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| Lily's helper "C" on the right |
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After saying goodbye to our helpers in Lusaka, we left early the next morning for a town about 5 hours away to begin the rural experience of our training. When we arrived, we met a new set of helpers who live in the area around the town. Lily and I were paired together with a helper who assisted us with a new set of DFAs for rural life. One day we met the commissioner of the district, and the next day we talked with people about traditional medicine and witchdoctors. Two of our days were spent in our helper's village, talking to his neighbors about life cycles and the traditions associated with the different stages of life (birth, puberty, marriage, and death). The next day we were able to go back and share our testimonies with people there. One of the other groups had the opportunity to lead another person to Christ!
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| A lady Lily spoke with in the village |
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| Our helper "R" |
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The culmination of our whole 20/20 experience was a village homestay. So the next day we packed up again and headed to a village about 30 mins away to live in the home of a Zambian family for 3 nights. We stayed with a pastor, his wife, and their seven children. It was a great help that the pastor spoke English, although we could communicate with them some, because their language (Chinyanja) is a simplified version of the Chichewa we have been learning.
This experience truly opened our eyes to see how a majority of Africans in rural villages live their daily lives. It is definitely a much slower pace of life, with some new experiences for us. We successfully navigated bucket baths and "squatty potties." Lily helped to make nshima, the staple for most African meals, pluck and gut a chicken, and wash and prepare some cow organs (heart, liver, stomach, and intestines). Even though there was lots of time sitting outside in the shade and talking, we were also put to work doing some physical labor. Lily had the pleasure (!) of drawing all the water needed for the day from the well and filling up the containers. Then she got to carry one of those back on her head. On our last day in the village, we went out to our family's fields of maize and peanuts to help weed them. When we arrived, there were about 30 other people there to help, because they heard the white people were coming, so they wanted to see us work and help alongside of us. I know this was a blessing to us and this family, because his fields were all weeded in one morning! One of those people there to help told the pastor that they have never seen white people (or any other missionaries) do the dirty work of African life before, like drawing and carrying water or bending over in the fields weeding with a hoe. They were amazed that we would humble ourselves and work alongside of them like that. What a great testimony we were able to have with those people!
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| Our host family with 5 of 7 children |
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| The pastor and his wife |
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This whole 20/20 experience has really helped us fall more in love with Africa! People are so warm and friendly, and they are always willing to receive you for a visit just to talk. We have been equipped with some tools that we now bring back to Malawi and apply to our ministry here. Please be praying for us as we seek out a church so we can begin intentionally doing ministry in that surrounding area. Pray that we might find national believers to partner with us so more people can hear the good news of Jesus Christ!
.JPG)
