zikomo-Malawi, Africa: The beauty

Psalm 145

Ecclesiastes 3:11

This is Pastor Paul in his element.

Eating sugar cane.

Pastor Paul knows that when you take people out of their element and make them uncomfortable, you should also make them comfortable. He knows that not everyone can handle being where we were and doing what we were doing, on a daily basis. So in the mist of poverty and pain, he wanted to show us beauty. The other beauty of Malawi. Don't get me wrong, for Paul and many others, including myself, where we were was beautiful, amazing, generous, unimaginable, selfless, and exhausting. I truly did not need to go on a safari to see some spectacular, but it was a once in a life time opportunity, and with 59 people, some of them were home sick, missing their families, the food, the luxury that they were used to, and no one can blame them. Paul made sure that for 8 months before we left, at every meeting we went to he wanted us to be as uncomfortable about where we were going as possible. I found this idea brilliant. One Sunday meeting, Paul put all of the chairs as close as possible to symbolize our seats on the plane. We were not to move the chairs for the whole meeting and proceeded to tell us about some of the stranger stories he has had on these long flights. This day alone got at least 15 people who decided they did not want to travel for 25-30 hours in such a small confined space with others. Another time he reminded us once again that we would be going to the lavatory in a hole in the ground. We already knew this from previous meetings, but I guess some people forgot, and walked out immediately. When we originally got together on our first initial meeting there were over 120 people who were in the room. Over half dropped out before we left. I'm sure not all of them were because of Paul, but I am sure a lot of them were.

Pastor Paul was a big reason why I was not surprised about any situation the happened, but also I personally have been reading a lot of missionary books over the years before going on this trip.
Books likes Kisses from Katie by Katie Davis, an amazing 18 year old girl who started off by wanting to go to Uganda to do a mission before starting college, and eventually ended up staying in Uganda, starting her own organization; Amazima, and she adopted 13 Ugandan children of her own. Her book helped me understand a lot of what I was going to see in Malawi.

Bruchko, by: Bruce Olson, his story about, at 19, living with the Motilone Indians in Venezuela for 26 years and eventually getting captured and held hostage by guerrilla terrorists, and tortured for nine months. He ended up leading many of the guerrilla terrorists and Motilone Indians to God. His book helped me understand the danger I could potentially be in, but never was.

In the end we were brought to an incredibly fantastic place in Malawi, the MVUU safari. Probably a 5 star place. Beautiful huts, animals, food, people, and stars.