Sunday was an interesting, exciting, and anxious day. The previous night we mistakenly put some petrol into our Toyota instead of all Diesel and we thought what little we put in would make no difference. Little did we know that mistake would account for an interesting day.
We got up and left before 8:00am and picked up Lester in Msumbwe and later Gravazio Chisindo in his village and headed toward a new work that Gravazio is pastoring in the village of Chimongo . We were enjoying the drive far out into the bush until our vehicle started acting like we had bad gas and had no power. At several points in our travel we could only travel at an almost idling speed, perhaps .5 mph. We knew we were going to be late but we kept creeping along until the car died. The decision was made to push the car, which was not an easy task over the Malawian roads, until finally we were able to start the car a little before we arrived in the village and was able to drive in, two hours late.
The service was in a bamboo enclosure with no roof, but a lot of sun and dirt. The service started with much singing and praising God and then Pastor Steve Newton presented an outstanding sermon on the topic of giving our all to Christ, using the examples of Mary anointing the feet of Jesus and later Mary, the sister of Martha, sitting at the feet of Jesus – both giving their all for Christ. It was a very hot day and none of the men, except David, had something to cover their heads, so they definitely all are suffering tonight from “hot heads”.
We left the service, heading toward a village even further in the bush named Msonkhera, pastured by World Phiri – a church David had preached in last year. We arrived with no incident and after a shortened service because of the lateness of the day, Donnie Postell preached a sermon from Isaiah concerning a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and we had a good response in the altar, praying for many who seemed to have made a dedication of their lives to the Lord.
We left heading for another church to visit further in the bush, but the vehicle started acting up again and eventually we were back to our .5 mph speed, being passed by bicycles and people walking along the road and one ox cart. We decided to change direction and head toward Child Legacy, ran by an acquaintance of Donnie’s. So moving for over an hour at about .5 mph and making a stop to allow the vehicle to rest and take a food break, we “rushed” along and were able to arrive at Child Legacy. The caretaker, Lukas, we had met last week and his wife were very gracious and eager to help. There was a mechanic at the place with tools and he and Danny McClung drained out all the fuel (petrol included) and cleaned out the fuel filter and we purchased diesel fuel from him there and with the car running normal, we were able to make it back to our location before night time.
For a while we thought this might have been our first night out in the bush this trip, but God was good and brought us back home, We sat down to a wonderful meal of something put together by Donnie and Danny, but it was good. We must thank Doris Postell for putting many meals together for us so all we had to do was cook them, we have been eating well.
It was a tiring day and every member of the team seems to be getting ready to hit the bed fairly early tonight. Continue to pray for us as we still have some important decisions to make and before we leave for home, we have two-three more trips to the bush; so, pray for our vehicle as well. Continue us in your prayers and we are looking forward to coming home in a few days.
God bless,
Donnie, David, Steven, Danny, Richmond
