Visit Every City

August 19th, 2023

Our goal was to be on the road at 8:30am including making sure both minibuses had picked up the Nkhwazi brethren. With only a few small delays, and a bit of traffic just before reaching the church hall in Mchesi, we arrived with time to spare. It was lovely having combined services with the Lilongwe and Nkhwazi congregations. It usually only happens at the Feast of Tabernacles since it can be expensive and complicated to move a whole congregation from one place to the other. But it is worth the effort occasionally. Before services started I managed to get a few photos of some of the brethren in the midst of greeting people I hadn’t seen for quite some time.

Henry Harold from the Nkhwazi congregation led songs. It’s always encouraging to me to see the young adults getting involved in serving their brethren in different ways. There are always opportunities, but so many times people wait for someone to ask them to help or they wait for someone else to serve. This not only includes running Sabbath services but also visiting brethren, coordinating activities, calling people, and all of the background work that takes place that most people don’t see happening. But when there are dedicated individuals who put into practice what they believe, everything works together and everyone benefits from their efforts.

I managed to capture almost all of the people involved in the service with the exception of myself giving the sermon with Cephas Chapamba translating for me (the credit for the photo below goes to Nick), and the children reciting Bible verses. We were all very impressed and encouraged by the children who very eloquently recited a verse each, one after the other. The children are the future of the congregations and God expects us to teach them the truth so when they are grown they will hopefully also choose to follow His ways in their lives. Our God desires all to come to repentance and receive eternal life as part of His family. What a joyous hope we have!

One thing that I have never fully gotten used to is speaking with a translator. It’s not that I don’t have the experience. I must have given a hundred messages of various lengths this way over the past few years, but it is still a challenge to try and keep to a pace that benefits the listeners and doesn’t overwork the translator. It’s also difficult for me to maintain a thought sometimes in this situation even though I have to pause between statements. And then there’s always the question of whether or not the Bible verses should be read in both languages fully, read in English and then translated, or read in only Chichewa. I usually opt for a combination of reading in both languages and paraphrasing in both languages to hopefully keep a good flow of thoughts going. It’s tough to perceive how this is received. The majority of the brethren in Lilongwe are bilingual, but some are more bilingual than others, and some thoughts might be better conveyed in one language over another.

After services we shared some snacks and fellowshipped with one another for quite a while. I had the chance to catch up with some brethren I had met in Blantyre who are currently in the Lilongwe area for work, as well as hear some updates on the lives of some of the young adults I met back before they were technically adults. The children I met a few years ago are growing up fast and soon enough I will hardly recognize them.

For our last supper in Nkhwazi, Dalles barbecued some delicious goat meat (barbecue = brai in many parts of Africa). We stood outside for a while as the meat cooked, enjoying the sunset, the sounds of the night, and the stars. We let Spike out and tried to teach him to lay down on command. It seemed to work for a moment, but he definitely needs further training. Some of the evening’s excitement (besides the good food and good company) included me leaning against a trail of ants and having to pick them off me for the next several hours, and also some kind of large grasshopper falling on my head in the dark. Spike decided not to eat the grasshopper. We called it an early night since we have to get up early and prepare for our trip to Blantyre.

– Lewis VanAusdle