Where in the world are we?

Dan accompanied Pastor Kelly from the Seattle team out to Nkhoma for a pastor seminar last month. While he was there, he met a pastor of a church about an hour and a half outside of Lilongwe. Max Joy was so excited to meet Dan and he invited him to come out and preach on Oct. the 5th. We couldn't really figure out why it was such a specific date, but Dan agreed and so yesterday, we set out to find Max Joy's congregation. Of course, we got directions from a Malawian who works here at ABC and had been there before....but, that doesn't mean much, we've learned. He had us crossing rivers and taking turns here and there. We left our house at 8:30 am. We left the pavement (tarmac) and drove on a dirt road for 3 hours!

Now, when I say dirt, I mean a very bumpy rocky dirty road.

Still power lines....we hadn't been driving for very long at this point.


Anyways, we continued to drive, thinking we would find the church at any moment.


We went over the directions again and again, and after a while, began trying different things in case the man who gave directions didn't know his left from his right.

(this is what all the fields look like. everyone is burning their fields preparing for planting)


We started to call Max Joy and tried to find him. He even sent out someone to find us carrying a poster that read 'Madalitso CCAP". Still, we could not find this church!!! Where in the world are we??????


Finally, we decided to meet MaxJoy all the way back at the tarmac. By this time, we had turned around so many times, we passed by the same people 4 times and they all started to look at us like we were crazy.At one point, we passed by this group of young girls, and hoped to ask them if we were going in the right direction. When Dan rolled down his window, they all squeeled and ran away! I think that some of the younger children have never seen white people before...we were that far out!


So, we went back to the tarmac and couldn't see Max Joy! It was then that we realized, we were on the wrong road all together! We finally found him much further down the tarmac road and followed him to his church. It was 12:30 when we arrived. Dan was supposed to preach at the 10am service, but it was alright because we found out that there were two services that day, one of which was the Holy communion service!

Here is a picture of the church building. Very simple, made of brick. All of the CCAP churches (at least the ones we have been to) are cross shaped with two sides in each part. One section of the cross has the men and women, divided. Another section has all the elders and cheifs who attend. Another section has the youth and choirs and the pulpit is in the top part of the 'cross'.



Dan is reading from Genesis. You can see the Holy communion table with the white table cloth over it. This was a very beautiful service, very quiet and reflective. I loved the singing which was beautiful but also kind of quiet and hushed.



Everyone was very excited to have us visit their church. We made it just in time to be introduced at the first service. Introductions aren't just a "Hello, these are my friends the Robbins..." but they introduce you once and then again and again!!! Each time was more in depth. It was so funny because they kept calling Dan 'Robbins' as if it was his first name. Elijah was pretty fussy as he was in the car for 4 hours (most of the time he slept, but then was awake for the last 1 1/2 hours). The ladies of the church kept passing him around. I was thankful for the break.

This lady in particular became Eli's grandmother for the day. She didn't ever want to give him up!


Everyone wanted their picture taken with Elijah and me. I really have no idea who this is, but she was really excited about being in a picture! She organized other pictures, and would pass Elijah around to different women for the photo shoot. It was pretty funny.
Once he finally fell asleep during Dan's preaching.I was holding him, apparently the wrong way :)
This lady decided she knew better, and grabbed Eli out of my arms to show me how to hold a sleeping baby properly. Of course, Elijah was startled by the sudden movement (Malawian women aren't the most gentle with babies) and woke up crying. After a few women attempted to quiet him, they gave him back to me, fussy and tired. I was a little frustrated, but I know that they meant well. Here are the women of the church (the women's guild). They all wear white and black for the special communion service.



I took this picture as we were leaving the church service. You can see the 'pews' made of cement. Yeah, not very comfortable, especially after 2 1/2 hours of sitting!
This lady is the sister to Max Joy. She also didn't want to give up Elijah once in her arms.


Robbins with Reverend Max Joy.
Over all, it was such a blessing to be there. Max Joy was so excited that we actually came, and I can see why. They don't get many visitors. I think they felt blessed to see a little American family trek it all the way out to their little humble church. It is a blessing to be an encouragement to the church here in Malawi, but we always find that we are WAY more encouraged by them and their steadfast faith in the Lord through trials we will most likely never have to endure. We hope to go again soon, now that we know where it is:)



Finally, here are some funny videos taken while we were trying to find this church. I think we just got so frustrated that it finally became funny to us.....enjoy!