2003-November-Malawi

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By Randy in : Foreign Missions // Jul 29 2010

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Overview – this was Acts III’s first journey to Malawi. Randy McEwen was invited there by Wood World Missions to work along side them and to assist Mercy Wood so she would not be in the country alone. Before leaving, Acts III’s board authorized $1,000 to be taken to assist Mercy & WWM to purchase some land. This blog comes directly from Randy McEwen’s journal. What we hope the reader will see here is a lot of spiritual immaturity, missing the direction of God, how flesh got in the way, as well as see how the Lord worked during and after this trip as a consequence of certain decisions. Some of these will be more evident as the story develops over the rest of the trip blogs.

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November 14, 2003 – Saturday
And so the journey begins…not a journey to a foreign land only, but a journey to a new level of faith in and obedience to my Lord Jesus Christ.

All day yesterday on the drive up to Atlanta, all things went so smooth…no traffic, no problems. The Lord gave me a humbling feeling of protection as well as an overwhelming expectation of what He is going to do in Malawi. I think that it is no coincidence that He has led me to a detailed study of the Book of Acts. I use to really wonder if all of the miracles of God were wrought at the hands of the Apostles only…or could He still use fleshly vessels of today?  He has led me to several Scriptures in the past few days that have helped increase my sense of expectation.

The first key I saw was that the early church / disciples were ‘of one accord.’ This fits with Christ’s words, ‘that a Kingdom Divided cannot stand.’

When the Holy Spirit first came to the disciples, several things happened first:

1. They were faithful followers of Christ gathered together in one place for one purpose
2. They were walking in obedience staying put until the Holy Spirit came
3. They continued in prayer and supplication (Acts 1:4). ‘Supplication’ means, ‘prayer for a specific benefit.’
4. Apparently while the Apostles, brethren and women were together in prayer, the Lord must have shown Peter that something was lacking. I believe that the Lord, through the power of corporate unified prayer, revealed to Peter that a piece of the puzzle was missing.
5. Acts 2:1 “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.” (KJV)

I am blessed in that the Lord has recently had to humble me greatly. I believe this has helped me get into ‘one accord’ with my Pastor, Elders and church in general. This is another reason that I have a sense of expectancy that the Lord will do great things on this trip.

**SIGNS IN THE CLOUDS**
Well, on the way to the airport this morning, I almost had a wreck because of what I saw. I was traveling down Camp Creek Parkway from my hotel to the airport and just pondering on whether I should be in Africa or India. I have had such a burden and several offers to go to India, and now I was second guessing my trip. So as I rounded a curve at sunrise, I look up into the sky and see a cloud that is shaped like India, but it looks as though God is painting it and it’s not quite ready yet. I almost had a wreck trying to get my camera and take a picture before it was gone. But I finally got it.

On the plane to South Africa, I sat next to a man born in the Congo, Africa, but now lives in North Carolina with his wife and 4 children. He said he is a businessman that deals in engineering, gold and diamonds. So…with nearly 20 hours of flying together, I was able to share my testimony and what the Lord is doing. He gave me his contact details and said he would be interested in going on a mission trip with me to his home country, and he could be my interpreter. Praise the Lord for that.

While my neighbor slept, a lady across the aisle noticed I was reading the Book of Acts, and started telling me that her Bible study had just finished Acts and were on to Galatians. She and her husband were traveling to South Africa to visit her family. Maybe this is the Lord’s was of guiding me to Galatians next?

November 15, 2003
After we landed in Johannesburg, South Africa, I began journaling and studying to pass the time until my flight to Blantyre, Malawi. Two men approached me seeing my Acts III shirt and began a conversation with me about the ministry. The older gentleman was from London and the younger from South Africa. Over the next hour or so I was approached by three more sets of people the Lord sent to encourage me, fellowship with me, for me to witness to…and to help me stay awake until I got on the plane. I didn’t get a chance to sleep more than 45 min on the entire flight, but it was worth it.

When I boarded the plane to Malawi, I quickly noticed that of the 150+ people on the plane, I was the only non-African / Arabic person on the plane. Maybe it was paranoia, maybe it was real, but I believe I could feel hatred and anger from many of the Muslims and they would walk by and cast glances at my cross, Bible and Christian shirt. I just did my best to smile in love at each one and greet them as they walked by. Some of the murderous glares faded when I did, and others seemed to heat up. So I just a few moments in prayer to pray for myself first not to give back the feeling I was getting, but rather for me to have the love of Christ to radiate from me. After all, these Muslims were not my enemy. I have but one enemy, and he’s not human. Then secondly I prayed for each person on that plane, and third for the Lord to open the door to communicate His love to them.  God certainly gave me chances to speak His testimonies to several people on the plane.

Once I landed and exited the airport, my sister Mercy picked me up with Pastor Felix and his wife Mary. We then started our 2 hour journey to Zomba. One testimony here is that when I was at the airport in South Africa I was considering buying a pair of sunglasses (the cheapest pair was about $35) because my eyes were buring from allergies and lack of sleep, but I opted not to waste the money as I knew that amount of money could feed a lot of people in Malawi.  So anyway, when we got into the van to leave the airport, Mercy reaches in her bag and pulls out my sunglasses that I had left in Ghana earlier this year! The Lord provided!

On this van ride, Mercy and I were able to share our collective visions for Malawi, and this is a summary of what I sensed from the Lord up until the conclusion of this discussion:

1. The Lord wants Africa to no longer be referred to as the ‘Dark Continent.’ He wants His light to be shone all over this place. He wants Christians all over the world to answer His call to be the light of the world that He created us for. He wants us to take our light we have been hiding under a bushel and put it on a candlestick to give light to the whole world.
2. The ministry that He seems to be calling me to are the small village type ministries in the rural areas.
3. He wants me to work with Mercy in some capacity to get organized in her African works. We discussed Ghana a good bit, specifically how she has several pastors there but they are not dividing up responsibilities and praying for God’s direction for planning  and goals of the Lord. That may be a big project next year.
4. God keeps confirming in me that I need to use my education degree that He provided along with my vision through His Spirit to develop a model for the churches today…a model for the ‘have’ churches and the ‘have-not churches.’ This call may include the building of schools, training centers, writing manuals, etc.
5. He seems to be calling me to get organized and then help others get organized on a ministry level. One such burden is to create an organization for Evangelical Pastors in Malawi to pray, encourage and strengthen one another, and to learn to envision together. This may be why the Lord keeps leading me back to His ‘church’ before Pentecost…getting everyone together in ‘one accord’ and then the Holy Spirit flooding the group.

I also discern clearly that the Lord wants an office here, but I just don’t know if it is me that He wants to have that office here.

One interesting thing that happened on the drive to Zomba was we passed by a large rock on side of the road that simply had written in paint the name, “D. White.” There is a lady from church named Deb White. Her husband leads our men’s Bible Study on Wednesday and she works with a group called AIM – Adventures in Missions. I tried getting a picture, but couldn’t get my camera ready in time.

Now in Zomba, we were dropped off at the Ndindeya Hotel, and I use the word hotel very loosely. I think our cost is around $3-$4 per night. My room consists of a room about 12 x 12 with two very dirty single beds with mosquito nets over them and a toilet with no seat and a shower. There is probably enough of a gap under the door for my entire hand, wrist and forearm to go under and the windows have some glass and some missing slats and no screens, so the bugs are pretty bad in the room…yet I know that I am blessed to have this compared to what the people are living in here.

Once settled in we began walking around in the local market. What I saw broke my heart. There were children like 4 or 5 years old with a baby strapped on their back walking around all alone. There were children wearing dirty plastic bags as clothing. Children and adults alike wearing tattered clothes that have been tied together. People were selling meat and fish on the side of the road covered in flies and worse. It was a very dirty place, much worse and poorer than what I saw in Ghana. The market itself was a a bunch of rickety hand-made booths out of sticks, cardboard, etc where people were selling cooked food, fruits and veggies, used clothing and shoes, and all sorts of things. These merchants were all native Malawians. All of the large shops (that were in actual buildings) were run by Arabic or Inidan people. Right in downtown Zomba, near the center, was a large green mosque with probably 30 loudspeakers mounted in a circle around the entire top of the dome of it.

We walked into the local bicycle shop to try and change money into the local currency since it was Saturday and all of the ForEx (Foreign Exchange) bureaus and banks were closed. There were two Muslim men in there, presumably a father and son ownership team. I really had a burden for the younger one. While in there, the elder Muslim business man asked what we did. Mercy said, ‘her office is in the U.K.’ I said I was there on a mission trip…but Felix first answered that he was a ‘business man that bought and sold items.’ This really did not sit well with me and kept echoing in my mind.  Talking to us, Felix claimed the title of Bishop and said that he started and operates several churches and that is his full-time job…so why the ‘business man’ answer to this guy? Fear, shame, or maybe he is in the Lord’s work for the wrong reason? …or is it no big deal?  Were they both afraid / concerned he would not change money for us if He knew we were Christians?

While walking around the city, we met up with two Pastors: Frank Maini and Frank Gama. Maini is the Pastor of the church where I will be preaching tomorrow here in Zomba. Gama has a church in a different area that we will preach at later on in the trip. We also learned that Pastor Gama recently lost his brother who was apparently beaten to death while in prison. This was only in the past 1 or 2 days, so Mercy gave him money to buy a casket so they could bury him.

While writing this later in my room my thoughts and attention constantly drift back to my family back home. It is hard to be away and have no way to contact them. I just pray that the Lord hug them and love them for me and let them know all is well.

Between paragraphs of recording the days events, I try to get quiet before the Lord and the Lord keeps showing me the thick dark cloud that looms overhead of this place that is the spiritual warfare going on here. There is a great effort of the enemy to not let go of the stronghold here in Zomba. You can feel the evil in this place, it is nauseating. Yet still I know the Lord’s angels are standing guard and He will protect us as we walk in obedience according to His will. It almost feels like being in a protective clear bubble in the depths of the oceans with all of the oceans hunters circling outside and the immense weight of the water just waiting to crash in at the slightest sign of weakness…yet there is peace.

November 16, 2003 – Sunday
Last night I didn’t sleep too long, maybe about 4 hours. I was awoken around 4am or so by this awful noise that was coming from the Mosque over those loudspeakers. It sounded like chanting for maybe 10-15 minutes. Once that woke me up, I just spent time in prayer and finalized the notes for the sermon this morning.

At first, I was preparing the notes from what the Lord was showing me yesterday, but it didn’t feel right. Then I looked over at the other bed that held all of my books & such and saw a book Deb White, a lady from our church, had given me. The title was ‘Bondage Breakers.’ My thoughts returned to that image of “D. White” on that rock yesterday, so I began reading it.  After about 15 minutes of reading, I knew that was where the Lord would have me study.

The book is essentially about empowering believers to break demonic strongholds in their lives. The Lord may have led me to this book because of the over-emphasis in Malawi on generation curses and giving the devil way too much credit and power when he has already been defeated. Last night during my quiet time, I also felt a burden for this verse in Exodus 9:5 “And the LORD appointed a set time, saying, Tomorrow the LORD shall do this thing in the land.”  I am believing this is the Lord saying He will be glorified tomorrow and do great things.  In this case, the ‘signs and wonders’ I am praying for are ‘changed hearts.’  For what greater miracle is there that that of a changed heart through the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the work of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit? I know the Lord wants me to leave Malawi with a bigger family (God’s family) than when I got here.

This verse is ringing loud and clear in my spirit: “The gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church.”  This means that the lost are being held captive by Satan, but he CAN’T stop a unified church that storms his gates and brings lost souls out of bondage. The sad thing is that the church is so busy worrying about his attacks, that they are forgetting they are to be on the offensive.  The Lord has already won the war for us on Calvary’s Cross, but it is up to us to let Him work through us to win the individual battles over every human’s soul.

[[Just a quick note to my beautiful wife and precious children…when I get home I will be a better husband and father, because I will be closer to Jesus!]]

At church this morning we had a great time of worship, fellowship and teaching. There were brothers and sisters  in Christ from three different continents worshipping and working together. While preaching, the Lord seemed to assemble all of the puzzle pieces together for me as I stood up and opened my mouth. I preached on the Creation, Fall and Banishment of man from the Garden of Eden. Then I explained that Adam and Eve being put out of the Garden was not banishment or even punishment, it was actually grace and mercy. What if they had eaten of the tree of life in their sinful unrepentant state? It would have been a curse & not a blessing. Plus, God never banished them from the Garden, it just says there was a flaming sword and two Cherubim keeping the way.  The bottom line is that the Lord left the Tree of Life (Jesus) within reach. We have access, but that access for the sinner is back through the flaming sword. (There is a full lesson of this under discipleship)  But we can’t break our bondage without going through the fire. During the invitation around 25 people came forward, but most if not all came forward for prayer for various things, not for salvation.

During the evening service Mercy preached on Daniel and his 3 friends and how they refused to bow before the King and his idol. Mercy is a wonderful speaker, but I think she shines forth best one on one and not in Power Centre mode. No one came forward again for salvation, but many came forward for prayer. Maybe 250 people were there total. What I began to see and discern was that people wanted to be delivered from individual sins and sicknesses but they confused that with the Ultimate deliverance in salvation.

So as to my diet, well, all day Saturday I felt burdened to fast and pray for the Lord to move on this trip, so my first meal was our dinner after the evening service around 6pm at the hotel. I had chips (french-fries) & rice washed down by Fanta Orange in the old returnable bottles (I guess that’s where all of the old bottles went). And my dear sister Mercy remembered the staple of my diet from Ghana, peanut butter, and brought me a large jar from England.

We also walked into the market to the local ‘grocery’ store called People’s to buy some bread and supplies. On the way there the entire city’s power went out for about 20 minutes and it was pitch black dark. Next time, I need to bring a flash light. After about 30 minutes the lights came back on and we continued our journey. In the store was the young Muslim man from the bicycle shop. We greeted each other and I could sense that he wanted to talk, but his family was urging him to hurry and we were exiting as well.  I really feel like I missed a divine opportunity with him now.

We planned some open air preaching in the rural areas around Zomba for Monday – Wednesday, then we will travel back to Blantyre and look at the church building they want to buy, followed by hospital visitation and crusades Thursday – Saturday. We went to our rooms after 9pm or so.

While praying and waiting on the Lord, He burdened me with two ideas. (1) an image of these Malawians that I had seen carrying entire 10-15’ long saplings on their head that likely weighed more than they did. The burden was that these Malawians have the strength to cut down trees with a dull machete and carry the tree for several kilometers on their head, barefoot, but…can they / will they pick up and carry their cross daily? For that matter…will I? (2) A picture of all of the brick molding I had seen in Malawi. When a brick is soft like clay or mud, it can be shaped into any form…but if it is hardened, it must be chipped, broken, and used for something else.

Monday – 11/17/2003
I awoke this morning around 3:45am wrestling with some issues. First, I brought $1,000 to give to Mercy’s Ministry (Wood World Missions) to help buy this building. But I am not at peace with that decision because of the perceived lack of organization and balance here. My first thought was can we buy the church as an Acts III church and then let her ministry use it for free? Next, I am really thinking that my time here might be better spent doing administrative work, helping WWM to get established here and organized. I love doing the evangelism work, but my fear is that we will be evangelizing to people that do not have a pastor and there will be no shepherd to care the flock after we leave. People need to be discipled and not just won…aren’t we called to make disciples and not just converts? Is there a way to do both in this short trip?

4am now and there goes the chanting over the loud speakers. Ugh. I am uneasy with some things I have seen and discerned so far in Ghana and Malawi, but I am not sure what exactly is wrong or how to address them. The pressing on my heart is that things need to be addressed, but I am afraid if they are, it may cause division…yet here I am starting the trip out having a burden for unity and one accord of the believers…yet again, I fear as though I am about to do just the opposite. I really need prayer and wisdom.

While wrestling with this I opened the Bible and it flopped open to Numbers 18:7. It reads, “Therefore you and your sons with you shall attend to your priesthood for everything at the altar and behind the veil; and you shall serve. I give your priesthood to you as a gift for service, but the outsider who comes near shall be put to death.”

This is what I thought about after reading this:

1. God has created me for and called me to a position
2. It is up to me to begat others to serve as well
3. My gift from God is not money, a building, wealth, prosperity, health etc…rather it is an office in His Kingdom to serve in.
4. If anyone else tries to take this office, the Lord will not let them prevail. The fight is His and not mine.

The next Scripture I read was 2 Chronicles 10:7 (there are varied ways the Lord led me to these Scriptures omitted for sake of space). This verse reads, “And they spoke to him, saying, ‘If you are kind to these people, and please them, and speak good words to them, they will be your servants forever.’”

I took this to mean in my spirit that, (1) I need to answer their request and give the funds for the building to Mercy. (2) I need to speak ‘good words’ to them. The only Good Words are the Scriptures spoken in love and humility. (3) If I do that, I will have their support as brothers and sisters in Christ forever.  I also really feel as though within 2 years the Lord will use us here in a mighty way, but I am not sure if that would be on a resident basis or just short-term basis.

So around 8 this morning we hired a taxi driver to take us to a market a few miles away for open air preaching. The driver was the first fruit. We shared the gospel with him and he accepted the Lord. His name is Christopher Mkwinda, PO Box 82, Thondwe, Zomba.

The Lord had me preach the first open air service and more than 300+ souls raised their hands to accept the Lord. Pastor Maini stayed around to collect names and how to contact the individuals for follow up. A while later, another crowd was gathered and Mercy preached. At the end we saw another 200+ souls raising their hands for salvation. Another amazing part of the story was that while preaching, she stopped and said the Lord showed her a person with a large tumor that He wanted to heal. She then touched her own left side and said the Lord has just removed the tumor from this person’s left side.

As it turns out, the lady’s ‘yard’ we were standing in preaching in was apparently the lady with the tumor. This was a prime place in the market and she had reluctantly consented to letting us use the property. Her name is Rachel Jere of Zomba. She said that as she was inside on her floor in pain, that all of a sudden the pain in her left side was gone. People in the house ran outside to tell others and told the pastors what had happened. They told the pastors that the tumor/lump was visible from looking at her side and now it was gone. Once we came inside to talk with her, she shared her story and accepted the Lord right there in her living room.

Tuesday – 11/18/03
Last night I was finally able to talk with the family back home. Praise the Lord. This morning, the Lord woke me up at 2:30am. When I did, I hit my knees in prayer, asking the Lord to show me what He would show me. He started off giving me a vision for the Baptismal service we were going to have. He even gave me a song we all could sing as we were walking to the baptismal site. The song was called, ‘March to Repentance.’ The Lord showed me all of the people that would follow us hearing the song and wanting to come and see what was going on, and how the testimonies of all the people that wanted to be baptized would touch others. As I was rejoicing over this vision from the Lord something strange happened.

My door had a concrete walkway leading right to it. As I was on my knees around 2:30-2:45am, I heard 3 or 4 footsteps of what sounded like dress shoes walking right toward my door that seemed to start out of nowhere. Well, they stopped right outside my door. I could literally feel the enemy outside the door. The Lord gave me a vision of the person on the other side of the door. It was like He was showing me the person like a camera panning from the feet up. I could see the black dress shoes, I could see the dress pants. I could see that it was a thin short Malawian male. But when it got to the face, there was no face. It was like it had been wiped clean, but I could see short black hair with grey mixed in. Even though I felt an evil presence outside the door, I was not afraid…I could feel the Lord with me. So I just began saying, ‘Thank You Jesus,’ over and over again. I never heard any footsteps leaving, but I knew the person or presence was gone.

As soon as I finished praying and journaling this, it was time for the 4am Mosque chanting to begin. The Lord had burdened me to begin praying while the chant was going on. Praying for confusion for the Muslims, for the Lord to draw them and save them. What a blessing it would be to see former devout Muslims to be saved and become leaders, even Pastors, in our churches. While contemplating this, I was reminded of the story of Phillip and the Ethiopian Eunuch in the Book of Acts. Phillip had done many great works in Samaria saving and healing countless then the Lord sent him down a lonely dirt road for just one man. I began thinking of the Muslim man from Afghanistan in the bicycle shop. Maybe he would be my Eunuch?

I was able to preach at a New Harvest church in Zomba about life and death. I explained that death and Jesus did not get along. All 3 times you see Jesus encounter death in the New Testament He defeats death. Jesus and Death cant remain in the same place. We saw another 50-55 people accept the Lord. Pastor Felix led them in the prayers and the pastor gave follow up instructions. After those wanting salvation went back to their seats, the pastor invited others for prayer. I prayed for a few individuals and then came to this lady. I was not sure what to pray, but as I just started with…Jesus…she began convulsing. It has never happened in my presence before. I have seen some questionable things before, but I don’t believe this could be faked. When Mercy saw it, she came over and we both began praying and laying hands on her. We just prayed for Jesus to free her and she began almost vibrating. It was the strangest thing I had ever seen. I just closed my eyes and prayed, and the strange thing was that in an instant the blackness I saw when closing my eyes was lifted by a bright light. When I opened my eyes, Mercy and I just stopped and looked at her and the woman was just sobbing and fell to her knees, but she was smiling.

I was so overcome with the Love of God that I just began hugging everyone in sight and telling them that I loved them as we were all weeping. I did so with Mercy and felix and then came to Pastor Frank Maini. I hugged him and told him I loved him and he began sobbing so hard his body was trembling. He just hugged and cried and began crying out to God in Chichewa (his language) and just thanked God for sending me to Malawi. After a few minutes Mercy and Felix joined in with the hugging and crying, it was such a powerful move of God.

As we left that place Mercy had a pastor giving out candy to the children there. Almost 100 small children ran to mob the guy giving out the candy. I walked over to one small child sitting on a wall and just shook his hand and touched him.  All of a sudden, the vast majority of the kids left the line without getting candy and mobbed me. It broke my heart. They would rather just be touched and loved on than receive candy.

When we left there, things started to not go so well in  Zomba. Mercy preached at another open air spot, and this time two fist fights broke out toward the end of her preaching. After that, the amplifier and all electronics ceased to work. Then we were so late heading to the baptismal service that Felix did not want to sing the song that I wrote for it. It was frustrating, but we have to expect these types of attacks as we serve the Lord, look what the Apostles and Disciples went through in the Book of Acts. Our problems pale by comparison.

We did have about 250 people walk with us to the Baptismal service at the river. We started with around 75. God was still glorified in the service and testimonies. We had around 55 to be baptized. We then went back to the church and took communion with the new believers and the rest of the church. I preached a message on brokenness and tied it in with the communion message.

As we journeyed back, I began realizing that the Lord really made this trip much easier that the Ghana trip was for me.  Maybe the first one was a test to see if I would give up on missions or at least on Africa. It also does me good to know that I have faithful men and a whole church praying for me this trip. It will be great to see how their burdens and what the Lord is doing lines up when I get back.

Before bed, we all met up for dinner. Mercy has so many amazing stories to tell about God’s work. As I listen to her I wonder how to discern between sounding prideful and just giving God glory for testimonies. This is something for me to consider before I get home and get to share.

The last important puzzle piece that I realized as we were all saying our good nights was that Felix was the man God was showing me outside my door! As I stood on the sidewalk I was able to notice his hair, and then his shoes, pants and shirt…it was exactly what the Lord had showed me! So now I have to consider re-interpreting that vision…or do I?

Wednesday – November 19, 2003
I woke up at 4am in time to begin praying just before the blaring Mosque chanting started. Between 4 & 6 I really wrestled with the Lord over what He desired of me in this country. My burden is that these people need solid teaching and discipleship, and not just more hyper-charismatic stuff. So are Mercy and I (WWM & Acts III) suppose to cooperate in this, or what if Acts III operated in the South and WWM in the North, since she has already been there? So what is the answer?  Felix has been telling me a lot of things that concern me, but I am not sure what is true and what is not. They seem believable, but is it real? Was that vision about ‘opportunity knocking’ and not about the enemy?

The Lord provided 47 more professions of salvation in the morning conference at Mercy’s preaching. Afterwards, we went and paid $100 for rent for one year for a church hall right in down town Zomba near to the Mosque. That caused the church elders to be divided as most did not want to have a church in downtown because it was too close to the Muslims, while others and the Pastors wanted it there for just that reason.

It is now around lunch time here and we were just dropped off at Grace Bandawe Conference Center in Blantyre, not too far from the airport I flew into. On the drive down I was seeking the Lord and was led to Proverbs 2 & 3. Already highlighted were 2:1-5 & 3:6. This is how they read: 2:1-5 “1My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee; 2So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; 3Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding;  4If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; 5Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.” & 3:6 “In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”

I know what this says, but I was not sure how to apply it. The issue staring me in the face now is this church I just paid the rent for in Zomba. The landlord, George, said we did not pay him enough and he wants more. My flesh (the enemy) wants to just send the money, get the receipt and let it be in Acts III’s name and let it be Acts III’s church. But the Holy Spirit is telling me to just leave it alone, trust the Lord, pay the money and let the Lord handle things with WWM if anything is not right. I knew that was the right thing to do.

So as I am in my room reading with the door open for a breeze, Mercy comes in and we begin talking about the new church in Zomba and how it seemed to be causing a division. So I asked her what she would do if the elders rejected it, so she asked if I had a heart for Church planting. So I showed her a Vinn Diagram outlining WWM, Acts III etc, and maybe how we could work together on this. I mentioned the whole North / South thing but she did not seem interested. But she did say something else. She mentioned India! I had not told her or anyone about the cloud. She said she was not called to India, her burden was for Malawi and Ghana, but maybe I should go to India.

Well, the more time I sit and think the more I just have a deepening love for Pastor Frank Maini, but I could never consider taking him from Mercy’s ministry unless she saw it as being from the Lord. Ironically, the rooms here at Grace Bandawe that they placed us in have us sharing one ‘block’ that has a common outside door leading into a 3 room building. Her room is to the left, and mine is to the right and the common bath is straight ahead. These are the only rooms they have available. It seems that even our rooms are a message of how the Lord wants us to cooperate.

Just after 12:40 Felix came back from his house with a list of things that he would need to form Acts III Global Ministries in Malawi. We had never discussed this. Was this a sign or presumption on his part? Just after he left, Mercy came and got me and we went to lunch at the hotel. We spoke more on plans and visions for ministry. I spoke of a Church and School, but if there was no open door here I would focus on India. Mercy then went and called Felix to come and get us so we could go and look at the church building for sale in Ndirande. It is for sale because the previous church split. Symbolic? We went out looking at the church and spent the day in town. Finally got in bed about 6pm and slept til 10pm. Good nap. Prayed for a while then back asleep until 4am. Almost 8 hours sleep.

Thursday – November 20, 2003
The plans are that I will be preaching today open air in a small village near here and then Friday I will be preaching at the Hospital in town, Queen Elizabeth. Mercy will be preaching open air both days as well. Saturday we will have 4 times to preach, 2 each, and then both of us will preach Sunday. Monday & Tuesday we will be heading to the local Christian Radio station in town and recording several 7 minute messages.

This morning during my prayer time, the Lord gave me several Scriptures though I am not sure what they are for yet: Matthew 7:13 – straight gate & narrow way, Mark 11:19-the barren fig tree, Hosea buying his adultress wife back, Peter, Do you love Me?, and a few more.

When we left the hotel for our first engagement, Felix cornered me again about the paperwork needed to get Acts III in the country as a registered NGO.  He said he has 20 other churches he oversees besides the 7-8 Power Center churches he oversees for Mercy. He is trying to convince me that these churches need solid teaching.  So is he reading my mind? Is this a sign from the Lord? Or is this a trap from the enemy?  Is he tempting me with what can get me to bite like he did with Eve in the Garden of Eden (Gen 3)?

Mercy preached at the first stop at a parade ground in Ndirande. 225-250 people raised their hands wanting Jesus. I can see that the white man draws a big crowd here. Mercy then prayed for a young man that had severe head aches and numbness in his limbs. He was a school teacher and said he walked out of his class without a word to anyone and come to where we were without knowing why. When he got there he followed the voice of Mercy’s preaching and felt led to ask her to pray for him. After she prayed, his headache and numbness was gone and then he accepted the Lord.

We left there and went to Queen Elizabeth hospital. This was the saddest thing I had ever seen. It is a government hospital with people laying all over the ground outside waiting to get in. Some were laying on the sidewalk groaning in pain, while others were apparently dying on the sidewalk out in the hot sun. People would just cover them up until they could get porters to come and get them on stretchers. It was my turn to preach here to a group of doctors, nurses, and sick individuals alike. When I opened my mouth the Lord truly filled me wit His Word and His Spirit and anointed me to preach like never before. I was overwhelmed. I preached about the faith hall of fame, reading the names, until I got to Rahab…a harlot of Jericho. (See Discipleship for this lesson I taught). There were probably 100 people there and around 25 surrendered their heart to the Lord. After that, we stayed and prayed with people.

There was one thing that bothered me. I overheard a small child talking with a pastor through an interpreter. This child had a very sick mom at home that was dying. This pastor told the child to go home and essentially smack momma on the head and say, ‘be healed in Jesus name.’ It really angered me. Was that great faith on the Pastor’s part or great irresponsibility? The child never confessed faith in Jesus. There was no reason to believe the child has the gift of healing.  What if that child went home and followed the instructions and mom was still sick? Would that child ever be able to have faith in Jesus? This really bothered me.

We then went and looked at property for both our ministries, but the lack of equality in the suggestions irritated my flesh a little.

Friday – November 21, 2003
I awoke at 3am to a bad dream dealing with this whole land /purchase issue. There seems to be a covetess spirit on both parts. Physically, I feel like I have a ball of broken glass in my throat. I believe it is infected.

I keep wrestling with a lot of things in my mind that I am not sure what to feel about. I have been taught one thing in the church and classes back in America, but I am seeing something different here. For example:

1. Women leading the church and preaching. This is contrary to what we are taught in the US that the Scriptures outline. Yet Mercy is bearing fruit.
2. Our church does not focus on ‘power’ as much as more charismatic ministries like Mercy’s does (e.g their churches are called Power Centres). I know that Jesus told His disciples, ‘not to glory that the demons were subject to them, but rather glory their names are written in heaven.’ But…
3. There does not seem to be an effort made in making disciples only converts. Most of the charismatic churches I have seen here only talk about the gifts and power, not the teaching that is needed.

But really, is it my place to judge or critique. I know there is fruit though there is a lack of what I see has focus and perfection…but I certainly am not there either.

During my quiet time before breakfast, the Lord reminded me that each and everyone of us has a personal Exodus to go through. This was something that I knew would be a foundation stone of my walk with and ministry to the Lord.

After breakfast, we left for our first engagement in the village, another open air preaching time. I could barely speak for the sinus and throat infection, but the Lord got me through it and He saved another 200-250 people this morning. Felix stayed behind to instruct where the church was and how to contact him. I started feeling much worse from there. We then went back to Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Mercy preached this time. She reported another 20-25 people accepting the Lord. We split up from here. I went back to the hotel to try and rest and pray and overload on vitamin C.

Before we split up, Felix approached me and told me he knew that I was the one to get things organized and turned around in Malawi, and that Malawi needed Acts III Global Ministries. So hearing what sounded like a confirmation, I poured out my vision to him. He suggested that I not tell Mercy we talked. I told him I could not hide that.

After our conversation, I was able to call Julie and talk with her. Bless her heart, she has really gone trough the ringer while I have been here. She did not want to tell me. She has been under such a great attack. Give her strength Lord. Give her wisdom and peace Lord. Grant her rest and to cast her cares upon you in prayer.

After lunch, when Mercy returned, she and I had deep talks regarding our two ministries working together in Malawi. It was an emotional conversation, but ultimately we both felt that both ministries were needed in Malawi. It seems like a partnership would benefit all, but she did not see it that way and was worried what William would say. We concluded our talks as they had to leave at 4. I tried calling our board back home to give them updates and ask for advice.

When Mercy & Felix got back, they came in and prayed with me for being sick. They told me that 30 adults and 150+ youth accepted the Lord at their last street crusade. Praise the Lord for that. I passed out finally around 7:30pm.

Saturday – November 22, 2003
I tossed and turned all night until about 1 or 2 because of this infection. I couldn’t swallow, breathe or get comfortable. So I started wondering why I wasn’t better? ‘Praise the Lord in all things,’ came to mind. So that’s what I did. I got on my knees and praised the Lord for all things going on…including the trials and sickness. After a while, I got back in the bed under the mosquito net, and the Lord granted me almost instant sleep. As I drifted off, I could feel the Lord’s hands heeling my throat and sinuses.

When I awoke about 6am, all the pain in my throat was gone, but I still did not have my voice back yet. I began praising the Lord and asking the Lord to speak to Mercy and I about this situation regarding our ministries, the land purchase, etc. Pastor Felix came to see me early and told me that he and his family have agreed to work only for me and not Mercy. He gave me a letter to read later that essentially accused Mercy of many things. At that time, Mercy came out of her room and told me in tears that the Lord spoke to her last night to release the Pastors and churches in the south to Acts III Global Ministries, and for her to focus her effort in the North. That was what I thought was best, but I had tremendous guilt seeing my sister in tears like that. Was this the Lord’s will? Did I push an issue that should have been dropped?

As they left for the crusade, I went back to bed and slept until after 1pm. I really needed that. Thank you Lord. When Mercy returned back to the hotel after their crusade, we spoke for many hours about organization, projects, salaries for pastors, her plans in the north, how we could assist there, etc. Eventually and question was posed that asked, ‘what shall we call ourselves?’ Well, this led us into a debate/argument regarding gifts and the office of Apostles. Again, all that I had been taught and read in Scripture clashes with WWM doctrine. Yet, it never should have turned into an argument or debate. It should have been spoken in love.  With that, we called it a night.

Sunday – November 23, 2003
Awoke about 2:05 am. I have been preaching a sermon in my head for several hours, and my sinus drainage confirmed it was time to get up and start writing this down. As I finished writing and read back over it, I realized this wasn’t a sermon, it was an attack based on the debate from the previous night. It was a dirty laundry list. While I do believe it was true and accurate, it was not a fruit of love or of the Spirit.

After a lot of prayer and wrestling with flesh and spirit, we headed to the church around 8:30 a.m. My symptoms are a little better, but still not 100%. We will see if my voice holds up for preaching at church this morning. As we got to the church, my voice was completely gone so I asked Mercy to preach instead. Before the service, the young man that had his headache healed came and asked if he could give testimony to the church. He did and it was a blessing. His name was Macdonald Mmadi of Chiradzulu, Malawi. He had a powerful testimony. Before his salvation, he was a practicing Muslim in a family of Muslims. He had been suffering with these symptoms for a while. After he was healed and saved, he went home and preached to his family, and both his parents and siblings were saved and converted.

There were also 5 singers there, young men that had a singing group. They stood and gave testimony as well. Mercy had prophesied over them on her last visit to Malawi that the Lord would let them sing in front of the President of Malawi. And they did! Just a few weeks ago they were invited to come to sing at one of his functions. There were others things there too that got me thinking. I really had to question my position on a lot of things based on what I had seen this past week. I had to quietly bow my head and ask the Lord to help me understand.

The two things He showed me was that (1) Teaching seems to be the least sought after and utilized, particularly in Malawi. It is said that people here have a faith that is a mile wide, nut only an inch deep. I can see it. I thought of Adam & Eve in the garden, the Apostolic letters. What’s needed here is Teaching and Exhortation, training in Righteousness. (2) There is much danger that comes with gifts of any kind. They can easily lead the recipient into pride and the fall. (This includes teaching as even knowledge puffs up). Anyway, for now, I quietly and internally resolved to be content with the gifts of teaching, evangelism and administration.

When we arrived at the 2nd church (after a 30 min bus ride then a 45 min walk), it was in a small private school in the pastors village. My heart sank a little as there were only 4 people that were not on the bus with us in the church. There was one small lady with a tiny baby and 3 young men, maybe in their 20’s. I had to check myself for being upset at the small crowd being there and all the travel time to get there. I had to remind myself of Phillip and the Eunuch.

I poured my heart out regarding the absolute necessity of teaching and the consequesnces of it lacking here in Malawi especially. I preached my heart out like there were 5,000 people there. At the end, when all my energy and voice was spent, I closed in a raspy voice with a simple, ‘that’s all I have.’ Right then everyone broke into weeping and 5 young men came forward (3 that were waiting in the church and 2 that rode with us) and said they wanted to answer God’s call to be Bible Teachers. Praise the Lord. After church we went back to Felix’s house and they made us lunch. I had boiled potatoes and rice. The best Malawian meal yet.

After we got off the bus near the hotel, Mercy led a young Muslim boy to Jesus.

Monday – November 24, 2003
So far while staying at this hotel, we have met missionaries from Ireland, Scotland, London, California, Georgia, Arizona and Australia. That has really been encouraging. Today was just out and about looking at property. It was difficult to find anything. Everywhere we turned, things had just been sold. Later we went to Blantyre for lunch and I actually had a PIZZA. That was such a blessing. It was a small restaurant called Kips.

We spent a lot of the day meeting about the registration and paperwork for forming the NGO and waiting to see who owned the lands we were looking at. When I called Julie to check in, she told me they found something on Mom’s Kidney. We prayed about that as a group. After a lot of studying, I finally went to bed and got some sleep.

Tuesday – November 25, 2003
I awoke early in the morning to find a note that had been slid under my door. It was from Mercy. One side said that she was woken up by the Holy Spirit just in time to kill a big insect (millipede) that was on her, and then she thanked God for the Holy Spirit. Then on the back side, she wrote me a note that said, ‘even though [others have] cut me off because of my gifts, that you should not.’ She also wanted me to know that her baptism is free to receive if I ask her. She also wrote that there would be a certain time that I will need that gift. She said that I, ‘will need it for the work I am calling you to do.’  So I was curious if this was the Lord speaking to me through her or was it her referencing her work for me?

She also gave me these Scriptures: Hebrews 13:5, Luke 11:10-13, John 14:14-19.

Here is the interesting thing, the night that I saw the same millipede, this is what I journaled, “I don’t fully [or even partly] understand what God is trying to show me regarding faith, gifts, miracles, etc.”  So days later she sees the same bug, kills it, and then writes me a letter and slides it directly under my door in the same spot the millipede came thru at answering the same question I was asking God in my journaling. Coincidence?  I had to ask the Lord for forgiveness for my pride, judgmentalness and doubt. And FYI, I also just finished my daily devotion for the day, it was on ‘leading a Spirit-filled life.’

The rest of the day was spent talking with Mercy, fellowshipping with pastors and planning with Felix and ultimately packing up as I leave for home on Wednesday.

That evening I went outside and told Mercy that I did want all that the Lord had for me and any gift He wanted to give me…I sorted of expected her to lay hands on me and pray but she didn’t, so…I just told her good night and went to bed.

Wednesday – November 26, 2003
I go home today. None of the land deals worked out. There was a lot of confusion and price increases once they learned it was a white man asking. But we went to town and did some last minute shopping and went to Kips for a last meal. As I was sitting there, there was a Muslim man that kept staring at me from behind the counter. I guess he is the owner or manager. I kept getting this overwhelming burden to just go over and shake his hand. It was so strong. So as we left, after fighting it as long as I could, I just walked up to him, offered my hand and when I did, the man grabbed it with both hands like he was holding on for dear life, and just started weeping. I planned on telling him thanks for the great food and service, but that didn’t seem to fit anymore. So we chatted for a few moments and I told him I was on the way to the airport and I would be back in a couple of months and that I would love to come by and meet him again. His name is Asif and he is the manager. He was born in Pakistan but has been in Malawi for several years but his wife and daughter are still there. He is lonely.  This simple action might have been my most important action yet in Malawi. Who knows how the Lord will use it.

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