#3 Bibles, Bibles, Bibles!

Dear friends,

Our eyes were opened this weekend as our mission really began! We spent the weekend in Mulanje Presbytery, spread around the feet of Mt Mulanje. It dominated the horizon as we made our way across the country, growing ever larger - 3002m above sea level at its highest point.

We arrived Friday afternoon at St Andrews' CCAP, a large church in Mulanje township. For all our preparation, when the time came, everything moved very quickly! After introductions, which are very important in Malawi, we split the gathered group of ~150 leaders from multiple congregations into 4 smaller groups.

Realising a lack of Bibles even among the leaders, we opened up the cars and shared Bibles and bookmarks with all gathered. In pairs, we lead each group through the COMA method, with the rest of the team roaming and assisting where needed. The method is outlined in Chichewa on 8000 bookmarks that we have printed and brought with us, and each Bible is given with a bookmark.

• Context: Who, when, and where does this passage fit in?
• Observation: What does this passage tell us?
• Meaning: How does this add to our understanding?
• Application: What effect should this passage have on our lives? 

Bruce and Miles' group focused on Mark 1:27-35; discussing the authority of Jesus over both spiritual and physical, driving out demons and healing Simon's mother-in-law. The application? Jesus' authority covers all areas of life.

The local leaders engaged enthusiastically and overwhelmingly agreed that this provided an excellent structure to lead Bible studies in their home churches, and with friends and family. It was beautiful to hear Scripture read out in Chichewa and then discussed in groups. We pray that Romans 12:1-2, a transformation of hearts, minds and souls, will spread through Malawi through CCAP churches.

Meanwhile, outside the church, a crowd of girls from St Andrews' Secondary School had gathered around Jean, who spent the afternoon teaching them the salvation story through colours, and making bracelets with them, a bead for each of the colours – grey representing our sin, red representing Christ's blood poured out at the cross, white representing us made clean, green representing new life with God, and gold representing eternity with Christ in heaven. They were keen to hear why we were here, and shared about their own experiences and plans once they graduated.

On Saturday morning we headed out again to four church clusters to distribute the Bibles, bookmarks, hymn books and to continue teaching the COMA study method. Michael, Ben, ST and Bec returned to St Andrews' CCAP and found around 300 Malawians waiting to receive a Bible.

We soon found there had been a mix-up - the church leaders believed we had the list of names for those to receive each Bible, we had thought it would be with the session clerks of each congregation. After thinking through possible solutions we did a head count of all those in attendance and by God's grace found we would have enough Bibles for everyone to receive one. Forgoing the list, what we had thought would be a fairly formal presentation event quickly turned into a joyful and somewhat mad rush as everyone lined up. We set up a frantic production line to unbox Bibles, put the bookmarks in and give them to the Malawi people as quickly as possible. By the end we had given out 286 Bibles... of 288 that we had with us. Praise God.

Ben, with the assistance of Michael, proceeded to facilitate a Bible study on Mark chapter 1 with a group of nearly 300 - not exactly a "small group," but still a deeply engaged group! When Ben asked, "What beliefs do I need to change?" one member stood up and said "I thought it was my pastor who saved me, but today I have learned that Jesus is my Saviour." After, as the people left the building we stood at the door to shake their hands and were moved by the joy on so many faces and countless heartfelt thank yous.

With time to spare Bec revisited the girls boarding at the St Andrews' Secondary School next door that she had met yesterday. Noticing a few of them still wearing the bracelets they had made with Jean, she asked them to explain it to her and was encouraged to see they remembered. Bec then sat with them and went through the creation story by colours, chatted, shared her testimony, and then did colouring in sheets with Bible verses with them, talking through what the verses meant. The girls listened very well. After colouring in they started braiding Bec's hair, took her on a tour of their boarding house and taught her their ball game. It was lovely to spend time with them and difficult to have to leave them so soon, but Bec was thankful for the conversation they did have.

Tom, John and Duan were guided off the asphalt and out along a dirt track into the bush - past local markets, homes, farms and over a river; finally reaching Milonde CCAP. We left with the morning still young, and arrived with the sun high up in the sky, greeted by a great crowd waiting eagerly for us. Representatives from three local congregations had gathered there, and after a formal greeting we were glad to gift every one of them a Bible and a bookmark. For the women, we had cloth carry bags, sown by friends back home. For the Abusas (Malawian pastors), we gifted commentaries on Romans, and to the church sessions we gifted a stack each of Chichewa hymnbooks.

Here, we had a bit more space to spread out and split into groups - one each. Tom's group moved outside, sitting in the shade of the neighbouring school building. We went through Mark 4:1-20 - the secret of the kingdom of God made known through Jesus; and our responses to it. With some warming up to the concept, the group enthusiastically answered and asked questions in return, all resolving to hear, accept and produce fruit - continuing to read the Bibles they had received together in small groups during the week!

Before leaving, the groups recongregated in the church and Duan burst out in Chichewa song and dance, the whole congregation joining him to praise the Lord!

“Look, that’s Bec and Bruce walking along the road,” said Tom. They had left our accomodation at 5:30 am for a 3 hour service at Lauderdale CCAP, and ended up without a ride back home - all the drivers stuck at other churches still!

We were on our way back from a 4 hour worship service at Nansongole CCAP before noon. Steve, Duan, Tom and Hui left the accommodation at 5:45 am to drop off Steve and Duan at St Andrews' for a 6:00 am service. Tom and Hui continued driving on another 20 mins, about halfway along the dirt track to Milonde for a 6:30 am service. One lady greeted us as she made preparations for church. We were impressed to find hand-made guitars, a double bass and a drumkit waiting for the band to arrive and play.

Meeting briefly with the Abusa and local session, the order of service was confirmed and the service began. It started small, the building a little dark and empty, but as the sun rose further and further in the sky it filled to overflow! The service commenced with readings, recitations and choir after choir singing and dancing in worship.

Tom gave a brilliant children’s address on the Prodigal Son from Luke 15. His puppetry skill captured the imagination of all the 50 or so children sitting attentively around him. Before the children returned back to the pews to sit on the broken cement, Hui played and sang "Jesus Loves Me" with them on a ukelele, then presented it to the church's band leader to encourage and enhance their worship. This is one of the 12 ukuleles generously donated by a retired minister from Flinders Presbytery together with 12 digital tuners. The congregation erupted in excitement before the service continued.

Hui preached on Psalm 23; the Lord who provides all we need, and who guides our paths through darkness to eternity with Him! The minister did a great job interpreting. Hui was thankful to God for the opportunity to preach.

Towards the end of the service, Tom had the opportunity to teach a "big picture" of the Bible: (1) God creates, (2) we sin, (3) Abraham obeys, (4) Moses rescues, (5) Kings rule, (6) Poets sing, (7) Prophets speak, (8) Jesus teaches, (9) Jesus dies & rises, (10) the church is born, (11) the apostles write, and finally (12) Jesus will return. 12 volunteers were each given a verse to read, and each step built on the last, until the congregation was able to recite the full series of steps from beginning to end. We demonstrated how this could be used to help understand any passage of Scripture, asking the congregation for some of their favourite Bible stories and showing which step these passages fit into, how they fulfill what has come before, and how they point to what is still to come.

As we were leaving, Nansongole showed us their new church building, a project that has been underway for years now, but still lacks a roof. They estimate this would cost ~US$2500. Their current building is old and unstable, with cracks in the walls growing by the day. They asked earnestly for us to share this need with the church in Australia.

ST, Miles, Ben and Jean set off an adventure to Chisambe CCAP. Our first task was to find the church as we only knew the general vicinity and it wasn’t on Google Maps. It was quite an adventure using a combination of the limits of Google Maps, stopping and asking local people for directions and Miles' gut instincts after poring over satellite images on Google Earth. After our adventure on wild and rough roads that jostled us all around and demonstrated the expert driving skills of Miles we arrived early to the church. Abusa Faith greeted us and welcomed us to her home and we planned how the church service would proceed. We met our interpreter who was one of the local teachers and then we went to meet the leaders of the church before joining the service.

There were many beautiful choirs who also had simple dances as they sang. They were delighted when we joined them. ST did a children’s talk (the Lost Coin) and the children and the whole congregation really enjoyed this too. Later the teacher especially thanked ST for this talk as he said that it was very powerful for the children and just the kind of talks that were beneficial for them.

Miles preached and Ben led the congregational prayer. Jean was spontaneously asked by Abusa Faith to give thanks for the offering. At the end of the service we were asked to introduce ourselves to the congregation and we were each able to share briefly some encouraging words. Miles explained the COMA Bible study method and the purpose of our trip in bringing Bibles in their own language to the people. The people who had received Bibles the previous day at a special event came forward to thank us. They were so pleased to have received their Bibles and each held them closely. It was moving to see their joy but also confronting to reflect on the small numbers of people out of the whole congregation that had received Bibles. We have 8000 Bibles to gift to the people and that is only a small percentage of the actual number of people who do not have a Bible and who want one.

After the service we went into a meeting with the church leadership and then we went to the home of Abusa Faith for lunch. We were joined by the headmaster of the local school, the session clerk and the teacher who was our interpreter. They shared their community needs with us. This included things like a bathroom for the Abusa’s house, secure fencing for it and the need of the church roof to be painted.

We were able to talk about other challenges in the church community that were of a more spiritual nature like the unfaithfulness of many of the men to their wives, leaving the congregation to have many more women than men. One astute elder described this as a spiritual sickness that affects much of the country.

After these conversations, they took us on a tour of their school. This is a government school, and it was incredibly confronting to hear that it has only 19 teachers, and lacks the practical resources to teach their 1900 students.

The church were very excited to have our visit, especially as they had not received such a visit since 2003 when a Scottish team visited them. It was a very special privilege to worship with this very remote church and to encourage them in doing Bible study.

Monday morning, we drove back to Blantyre, with a stop on the way at the CCAP Likhubula House - a youth training and conference centre partway up Mt Mulanje. We went for a short walk up to a waterfall, where a couple of the team enjoyed a cold dive, and then after a hearty lunch headed home to Grace Bandawe.