October 5th

Well it was a better morning than evening last. We had ESCOM but no water again. Heated the water in a large pot and poured it in to a larger bucket and added cold to taste. Not bad but not a shower.

Grace was in the mood to cook and we had a very fine breakfast of sausage, eggs and toast with blackberry jam.  Sobo is a concentrate drink of orange or pineapple with a 4 to 1 with water and at that mixture is still is to strong in my opinion. Not fit for a diabetic but everyone has to die of something and it won’t be of good health.

 We stopped by and picked up the Fullfords and headed to church. John should be home Tuesday evening from Tengani. So we invited Darcy and Sarah to go with us. We arrived at Mbulumbuzi a few minutes to 10:00 and several people were there and singing. We had a small attendance but they were a lively bunch. Rackson has been having service each Sunday starting at 2:30 pm. and always had a large number of people. Most were visiting after their morning service and then taking what they had learned back to their pastor noting the difference in teaching. When the time changed to the new we found who the faithful were. Rackson taught a good lesson and had them all prepared for what I was to preach.  I preached out of Luke chapter 10:1-10 and I had a good time. It was very cold today and we had a lot of wind with dust everywhere. I was reminded of Njuli when all we had was a pole church. I got them excited with the prospect of a brick church with a steel roof by next year but it is up to them to get it done. When I was finished I had Rackson give the invitation. One young woman came forward and asked what must she do to be saved? What a glorious question. We took care of that inquiry and the church has a new sister.

 I dropped Sheila off at the Fullfords and went home with Rackson and packed our stuff for our move to John and Darcy’s I will stay till Sheila and Wyatt head home. Grace seemed awful sad but we will be spending a lot of time with them at the bible conference coming up and I plan spending my last two weeks with them before I come home to America. Wyatt is still there as he and Rackson’s two brothers have become fast friends and they are teaching him a lot about Malawi and his new Christian walk. Wyatt is the official photographer for the trip and when I left I did not get the camera back so no pictures with this report but I will send some tomorrow as he and Rackson will be here. We have painting to do at Njuli and a banner to purchase with the church name on It for Mbulumbuzi.

As of yesterday all our electronics worked that we plan to use for the conference. My PowerPoints should be ready for my portion of the conference. I know John is ready ‘cause he’s John.

I have village bible study this week along with soul winning and Saturday service at a pre-picked  area around Mbulumbuzi and I will be at Njuli Sunday so I should have some good pictures. All for now. God bless and keep you. I wish I could have been there for Pastor Appreciation and a meal on the grounds, no wait a minute I do that here. Love you Pastor and you too Mrs. Betty.

 Because of the Cross,

 Bro. Chuck

more pictures for you

The  boys waiting for the Grace and Sheila at the Wool Shop. We needed yarn!

October 3rd

We went to bed last night without ESCOM (electricity)or water and this morning we had the same conditions greet us. I am amazed how easy it is for Grace to go from 2014 back to cooking on hot coals without missing a beat.  (see pictures). She had boiled water this morning so I had my two cups of coffee first thing so as far as I was concerned life is good. Out came the coal cooker on the floor and we had fried eggs, cold “Choc-O-Puffs and milk, hot tea, bread and jam and prayer, not a bad way to start a day.

It is cool and overcast with a slight drizzle but Rackson says it will clear up by noon and we will be going out to soul wining this afternoon. It feels good to be cool. If the ESCOM does not come on soon he will have to run the new generator to keep the food cold. He has it wired for the house and it runs everything except the geezer (hot water heater).

I have to stop for now as I have been informed it is time for bible study and reading of the Proverbs. I’ll get back to you later.

Well I am back and it has been a few hours, we have water but still no ESCOM. Got a call from John down in Tengani while we were coming back from Soul winning. He has ESCOM, this just is not right. Tengani is 7 miles south and two blocks east of nowhere and he has power, go figure.

 John has been waiting a year for the ESCOM. What a great day in the village. We only had an hour or so for visiting but 10 souls got saved. The first 4 we visited were very receptive. They said they were talking and hoped someone would come and tell them what to do to be saved. My hair stood up when Rackson told me that. After we were finished and had a prayer they asked if we would take a picture of them and me. We did.

Came next to a large group who invited us to speak and we said we would be happy to.  As introduction were being made I told Rackson I did not have peace with this group but started to preach Jesus but this one man and a young girl kept interrupting. Again I told Rackson I had no peace here, he said there might be one who wanted to hear about Jesus and to try again, I did with the same results. I closed my bible and put on my light jacket and bid them good bye. Rackson was in agreement and we shook the dust off and went on our way. A few steps on  our way and one young man who was in the group came after us and asked  would we please tell him more as he needed to get saved. I did and he did and went on his way rejoicing. While I was preaching to him a young man stopped by the way and was listening. Collins  took him aside and preached Jesus to him and he came to the Lord. We stopped at what was to be the last house. We had passed it by at first and a woman call us back and said she saw us praying with the last young man and asked why we passed by. We went back to her home and she and her husband and I think daughter ask that we give them words of encouragement. They said they were saved but did not like where they were attending and asked to visit us this Sunday. As we were leaving the daughter said she was not saved so Rackson lead her to the Lord. It was a great day.

Got home after dark and was ready for a meal. Noel, Rackson’s brother fired up the generator and I heated some water and took a wonderful bucket shower and ate a LARGE plate of spaghetti and a cold bottle of water and five little coconut cookies. Life is good. God is good and maybe we will have ESCOM

In the morning. God bless and good night.

 Because of the Cross,

Bro. Chuck

October 2 Wednesday

Awoke early morning to the sound of silence, no ESCOM no fan no sleep. As I lay there cooking in my own juices I thought great thoughts of yesterday.

The day starts with me, Rackson and his brothers and Wyatt in the front room where I read the Proverb of the day and a section of John to start the morning right. It is a good way for them to see/hear English and improve their ability to translate when visitors come.  We were in the planning stages of the day and had been trying to get hold of Joseph in Ntcheu all last evening and early this morning and were beginning to worry and so was Harry as he was to go up and spend the rest of his time there with the new construction.

While we were eating our nsima, bacon and toast Harry called from the Fullfords and said Joseph called with a borrowed phone as his was lost; we had new plans for the new day. After breakfast we went to pick up Harry, Sarah along with Sheila, Wyatt, Rackson, Grace and last of all me. The van was getting full but not full enough. We added 15-20 one gal. cans of paint. Harry’s suitcase and a hula hoop. Now we were ready.

We took the Zumba road north from Njuli for four long hot hours, hours that were full of laughing, singing and many, many tall tales of past adventures. Rackson had a thumb drive full of Redeemed, Kurt LaBouve along with the 4 Blind Boys of Alabama. We made several water stops or I should say Fanta stops which meant we would get Coconut Biscuits (aka cookies). Life is good, God is good.

We arrived at a little after high noon and lunch was waiting for us. Rice and goat with bread and sweet butter and cold drinks. Joseph has a very nice house but it is traditional living-no furniture so we sat on mats on the floor, at 70 the floor was a long way down for me and longer getting up. I used the fly method I crawled up.

on the front porch of Joseph's

After a good meal and a lot of catching up we went to see the new construction. It is about 3 weeks from finish. It is the same size as Njuli 24X36 meters and finished off with plastered walls inside. It will be a very fine building and a good service to the Lord. Ntcheu was/is very hot and after an hour of oohing and awing it was time to head home. It was very hot and with the windows open HOT air beat us to death, not much laughing, singing chatting but lots of sweating and whining(Chuck did the most). We made many water stops but when the van was not moving it was tough. An hour after sundown (5:45) it began to cool and life was better. We arrived home at 6:30 dropping off everyone except Sarah and we drove her to her compound and came back to a waiting dinner of rice and beef (don’t ask don’t tell). It was still early about 8:00 so I took a cool shower and I was going to chat a little with Rackson and Grace but went to bed to read. The phone rung and praise the Lord it was Pastor. What a nice way to close out a hard day.

Just a side note if you ever plan coming to Malawi and need a generator don’t, I repeat don’t shop with Rackson you will go nuts. He will haggle over 5 kwacha (nothing) all day. He got a great generator at the VERY best price but I would have folded my tent and went home a long time earlier in the day. To say he is frugal with the Lords money is an understatement. More later, love and miss you all.

Because of the cross,   

Bro. Chuck and the gang