Sunday May 23rd ~ Church and Dedza.
Sunday was likely one of my favorite days in Africa. It started with sleeping in (which is always a plus) and then attending a 10 o'clock church service. One really cool thing about the way churches in Africa operate is that there isn't a set time frame for when church ends. One person in the congregation even told me "I don't understand the way you do church in America. You put a time limit on worship and expect God to show up. 25 mins later, right as the Spirit is about to descend, you stop singing and call that good. That is not good! How can you watch a 2 hour movie and yet put a limit on God." I loved what she had to say! Man, I just ate her words right up.
So, we showed up at 10, and they have set songs for worship too, but the difference is that we just sing (and dance of course) and sing and sing until a large majority of the congregation is weeping or kneeling or seeming to encounter the holy presence of God, and then we pray. The message that followed was on the power of the holy spirit and was soo so good. I soaked it up.
While ending the service in worship (there's literally no time cap on their services), one of the songs we were singing was "Come thou fount". This has definitely been a favorite of mine for a very long time, but while singing it on this particular day, really struck my heart. *Prone to wander, Lord I feel it; Prone to leave the God I love* My heart was so convicted. For a time now, I felt like my heart had wandered away from God, and been distracted with things -- which started off with well intentions -- that I was doing for God. It was as if the actions in my life had somehow become the purpose. Case in point: Africa. Starting last fall, I felt like God was calling me to South Africa. For 7 months, I fasted and prayed over this and in February, I met up with the team from Mission. It was then that the change occurred... the purpose of the trip to Africa had changed from God to "doing." It wasn't intentional, but I had gotten so lost in the vaccines, packing, planning, that I lost sight of why I was really doing all of this in the first place. It was at church on Sunday, in unceasing worship, that God drew my heart back to Him. What a beautiful thing. Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God. Here's my heart Lord, take and seal it for Your courts above.
After church, we hit up the Chicken Inn for some lunch and brought it back to the Somebody Cares headquarters. In Malawi, the power goes out a few times a week... it's a common occurrence there, with no sign as to when the power will go back on (often times it will be out for an entire day). So, with our plan of watching a movie with Theresea quickly swirling down the toilet, she decided to take use on a road trip to Dedza -- a super quaint little pottery place 2-3 hours South (even though I could have promised you we were heading North -- my compass was broken the entire trip!) of Lilongwe.
We drove hours, and as you can tell from yesterday's post, I loved EVERY minute of it! I soaked in the new sights and pondered life... mainly my future. We passed several hut villages, countless roadside stands -- selling tomatoes and golden potatoes in rich abundance, numerous people riding bicycles and even more baby goats. It was lovely. As we were approaching Dedza, it was obvious that we were driving right into a storm -- the clouds looked angry. I was excited! We climbed out of the car, quite relieved to be able to stand, and began shopping for handmade (and painted) pottery. I got Kevin a super cute coffee mug! We then were rained in and sought shelter in their little cafe there! It was so quaint :) the power was out, but they were able to boil water for tea and coffee over the fire, so we enjoyed warm beverages and cake while watching the rain POUR down. Talk about an adventure! I adored it. After spending a few hours there, we loaded up in the van and began the long drive back.
By now, the sun had set and all was black, except for the flecks of orange that peppered the roadside and represented fire. It was beautiful.
By the time we made it home, the power was back on and pizza was in store for all. It was a good night.
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