Sunday July 26 -worshiping in the open air

View from Luther Cottage

The original plan for this weekend was to return to Lilongwe Saturday afternoon and worship at the Cathedral at the ELCM headquarters. But since we already had the opportunity to meet with the Bishop and he was not going to be there, we decided to worship at a village church. This also gave us another night to enjoy the sights and sound of beautiful Lake Malawi.



When I woke up the women were doing their washing along the lake shore and the men were trying to get the goofy Americans to buy more curios. I did buy some more items. I wish I had more room in my suit case as there were several bowl that I would have liked to have had, but they were just too big and heavy.

We packed our bags and headed to worship at a different congregation within Monkey Bay Parish. Mphatso asked Pastor not to mention to his parishioners that we were coming as we had to "worship and run" in order to get back to Lilongwe in a timely fashion. It took several wrong turns before we found the "road" to the church. We kept driving past it as it wasn't recognizable as a road. Ken proved to be different from American men as he stopped to ask directions from the villagers. Everyone was very excited to tell us how to get to the church. Soon we had several people following us on foot to show us the way.

We are kind of like the Pied Piper - where ever we go, people follow.

This is indeed the winner of the "Worst Road in Malawi" contest.

Seriously! - look at this road - it's just a path!

Although we have been in Malawi for well over a week, I was unprepared for simple starkness of this church. The original church blew down in a storm 2 years ago and they are now worshiping in a grass hut.

The church was overflowing - there are no pew or benches, people sit on the dirt floor.

We were lucky enough to be there to witness 5 Baptisms. The babies are face down, instead of face up!




Pastor Joe's chair
The altar




And as it is in the Vatican in Rome or Notre Dame in Paris or Glen Cary in Ham Lake or Monkey Bay Parish in Malawi : "He took the cup after the supper, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them saying, 'Drink of it, all of you. This cup is the New Testament in my blood, shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. This do, in remembrance of me."

I was asked to say a few words of greeting at the end of the service. My words heartfelt and I thanked the people of the Warm Heart of Africa for welcoming us with such joy, grace and generosity. As Americans, we tend to think of the people of Malawi as being without any riches, but I can tell you that in some ways, they have as much or more than we do.

As always the service was filled with song.