Visit Every City

August 16th, 2023

There have been times when Nick reminisced about the beans served at breakfast in Zimbabwe. Lena and I sometimes recall the porridge served at the youth camp in Malawi in 2017. If I remember correctly it was a rice porridge, slightly sweetened with Malawian sugar and flavored with groundnut (peanut) flour. This morning I tried to recreate this breakfast delicacy by putting sweetened peanut butter in the rice porridge that was served. While it was still very tasty, I think the texture wasn’t quite what I was going for.

The original plan for today was to head to the district commissioner’s office to try and complete the paperwork process for the church property. The process was disrupted a few years ago by elections, reorganization of offices and personnel, as well as global circumstances. Based on past experiences, we felt it would be better handled by Cephas personally. Things took more time than anticipated, although the process was made more clear than in the past. Even though there’s still more work to be done, the end of the paperwork is in sight. God has a way of working things out for His people in His time. I think we as shortsighted human beings have a tendency to become impatient with one another and with situations outside of our control. Particularly when we think we know best how things should be done.

Since the paperwork process took longer than we had hoped, the Bible study with the Nkhwazi congregation was postponed until Friday afternoon. This gave Nick and me plenty of time to catch up on some planning, study, writing, and walking. While it is good to do as much as we can with our limited time while visiting brethren in different countries, it’s also good to take a walk once in a while. Thankfully Rachel, the youngest of the Chapamba children, took us for a walk around the neighborhood. Spike, the family dog, accompanied us outside the walls, through the empty garden plots, and to the fish pond. Unfortunately there was some damage to the waterline that feeds the pond and most of the water is gone. Frogs, tadpoles, mud, and the pants of some local Gule Wamkulu now lay where once there was a pond filled with cichlids. In addition to walking, visiting, and working, I washed my clothes. If my calculations are correct I should have just enough clothes to get me to Ethiopia.

Gule Wamkulu are Chewa men who dress up like animals, sometimes covering themselves in mud (which is why some had left their pants in the muddy water and will most likely retrieve and wear them later) and perform traditional religious dances. These men are part of a secret society (really an ancient African religion based on spiritism and animism) who actually believe they become the spirit of the dead they dress as — whether human or animal — while they wear a mask and costume, and perform a dance. The spirit world is very real, but the reality is that the spirits which this secret society dabble in are evil and rebellious towards God. They don’t seek the good of mankind but rather attempt to thwart the perfect plans of God to make us part of His family. “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians‬ ‭6‬:‭12‬). If God is with us then we don’t fear those who practice lawlessness and wickedness, but if we start looking elsewhere for power and wisdom, we open ourselves up to only heartache and death.

I’ve visited the UCG property here twice before. Probably a few more times if you count coming and going. The first time was for the Feast of Tabernacles in 2019. The ground was dry and dusty and the meeting hall had a mud floor. The brethren were cheerful and very hospitable. Lena got sick the first night and was sick until the end of the Feast. She hasn’t been back to Africa since, but I hope to bring her with me on my next visit. The second time I set foot on the property was in 2022 when grass had grown there and the hall had been built up more. I had come with our nephew Matt Hernandez during the Passover to visit the brethren. I had the pleasure of baptizing two individuals from the congregation on that trip.

After a second walk in the afternoon in search of cherry-plum flavored soda in the village, and after a few phone calls with brethren in the US, Cephas and Rachel drove Nick and me over to meet some of the brethren at the property. There were about ten men who met us there, most of who Nick had met when he and his wife Megan lived in Malawi in 2019. It was a joyous reunion of friends! A few of the men we both had met for the first time. It’s an understatement to say that Nick was so glad to see these men, and also see how well they were maintaining the land. We walked around for a while, seeing the grounds, identifying various trees, and visiting with our brethren.

Just before dinner Cephas and Rachel took us on a walk out to the fish pond. Again we took Spike with us. Nick and I both own dogs and were able to give Cephas and Rachel some tips on training him. When we got back to the house Patricia informed us that the power had already been off for half an hour. A few solar lights were on and George had brought a large car battery inside to power an additional light. We sat and chatted for a while, joking that we might as well go to bed early to avoid the mosquitoes. Just about the time the power came back on, a strange looking winged ant creature that appeared to have a stinger, flew into the bottom of my foot from under my chair. I jumped a little and then examined the creature. Eventually I ended up sending photos of it to Matt who enjoys a good bug. Between him and us, we figured out this was a male driver ant, a type of African army ant, who lives a rather unfortunate but crucial existence in the world of ants.