Zehandi Missions… if you haven't checked it out already please do! http://www.zehandi.com/ . It is where I will be spending the last 3 months of my trip. Senga Bay… a small city 10 minutes away from Lake Malawi is where I am living. The mission base is on a hill and it is surrounded by villages. Our contacts Johan and Marie have an amazing story, their faith in God is beautiful. They now own 40+ acres of land and they didn't even put any of their own money out… it was all either purchased with money from supporters or given to them by local leaders in the different villages. Zehandi has big plans for the future. God has shown Johan and Marie that He wants them to eventually open orphanages, schools, and help with community development.
This mission is newly developling and has only been around for 3 years. But God has already worked so much in this place. Before when Johan and Marie first moved to start the mission the hill was covered in sand… there was no green grass, no plants, and no trees. Now it is thriving. There is so much green everywhere you look; God has restored it back to life. The villages around are also changing. Whereas when Johan and Marie first moved they were constantly struggling with people trying to steal from them. But now the people are starting to develop trust. Most of the villages that surround the hill are of Islamic religion. Which causes lots of rules for the women missionaries because there are rules for women in the Islamic communities and we want to respect their culture. Us girls have to wear skirts to the knee or longer everyday, we can only wear t-shirts and we cannot be alone with a man.
It is quite a culture shock coming from the Philippines where there was a mall on every corner and stores everywhere that you could walk to… here we have to walk awhile before we can get transport and then when we find transport we have to travel at least 30 minutes to get to a store or local town. Even in the towns though, there isn't much. We are living in tents, eating this food called cema which is flour and water cook different ways for breakfast and lunch. Each of our teams have different jobs each week… Kitchen duty, Animal duty, Hygene duty, and Garden duty. We do that in the mornings and then do outreach in the afternoons. The girls get to play netball with the other girls our age in the villages. It is kind of a different take on basketball, but a lot more contact. I just learned how to play yesterday it is a lot of fun! In the late afternoon after ministry we get to take baths or go to the lake to swim. We have 1 toilet and 1 shower room for 30 of us. We only have bucket baths, so if we want to bathe we have to fetch our own water. The well is about a mile walk there and back. Carrying a big water jug is hard to do but I'm slowly getting used to it.
My first day of ministry the girls on my team and I met a woman named Martha she invited us into her backyard. Little did we know that you cannot spend to much time at someones house in Africa because they immediately feel that they need to feed you. As we were sitting there talking to her she started to teach us how to cook. As soon as we saw the little fish come out we started to freak out but we couldn't leave because in Africa if you leave when they offer you food it is considered disrespectful. So we just stayed and learned how to cook the cema, pumpkin leaves, and fish. When it was done being cooked she serves up 2 pizza sized portions of cema on each member of my teams plate. She then put 7 mini fish and a spoonful of pumpkin leaves on each plate. We all looked at each other and gulped. We then knew if we didn't finish all the food on the plate she would be extremely offended. She took us into her home and we started eating the cema and the fish… bones, eyes, and everything! The worst part was when you would eat the fish and the little bones would jag into the roof of your mouth. I literally prayed for strength that God would help me not gag. Diana finished eating her fish first and next thing you know Martha brings out more fish and gives them to her. We then realized don't finish the thing you dislike the most first.. finish it last. We eventually made it through… but we were so full we could barely move. That was my first experience with ministry and I hope I never have to eat at someones house again because it was extremely hard! God got me through it though!
I love the beauty of Malawi and the fact that I can see God is such a different way because life here is so different. I'm learning to live simply an love fearlessly. I cannot wait to see what else God is going to show me through this time here in Malawi. The people are so beautiful inside and out, and I can only hope that rubs off on me! Everyone that works at Zehandi has a fire down in their soul for JESUS and it is so beautiful!
thank you all for your support!
God Bless,
Beckah.
The beautiful women of Malawi, Africa! (:
