Dzenza CCAP

We headed out early Sunday morning to meet Good at his house before church started at 7am. Of course, we were a little bit late, but everyone is late to church in Malawi. When we arrived, there were probably only 35 people in the whole building, but by 7:45am, the church was packed. I sat with Eli on the women's side and Dan sat with Good on the men's side. We sang songs and worshiped in Chichewa even though it was the English service. I didn't mind though because they were songs I know. Visitors were called to the front to be introduced and welcomed by the church. It was our first time to be welcomed and rejoiced over because we are white. Usually, it is the unspoken truth that the congregation is excited and honored to have white people worship with them on any given Sunday. This time, the elder had no shame saying it right out. He said "We are especially honored and thankful because we have two mzungus here with us today. We are always thankful for visitors but today, we thank God for bringing two mzungus to our church." Everyone burst out laughing and cheering. It was hilarious. Later on, Good realized that the elder should have said three mzungus, but we told him that the elder must have known that Elijah is actually a Malawian stuck in a white baby's body.

Eli didn't want to be in church at all. I took him outside for some fresh air about 40 minutes into the service. We met a nice lady who had a one year old boy named Ongani. The babies played, hit each other, threw rocks and ate dirt. They were pretty happy with each other, so you can imagine the disappointment when it came time to go back in. The service continued to drag on as it was youth Sunday. The youth were just really enthusiastic about leading I guess. People were already coming for the Chichewa service, bringing their harvest offerings and preparing for worship. Eli made some more friends who loved holing him and calling him "Eliya"Finally, by 9:15am, they started singing the last hymn.

We hung out by the door for the last 15 minutes (they sing a hymn, then they have announcements).

Eli proved this to us again by chowing down on our delicious chicken, greens and nsima lunch. Lunch wasn't served until after 1pm. Eli hadn't napped and was a little crabby as you can imagine. We have really been stretching him this weekend with all the activities and graduation but Sunday was the longest stretch of all. 8 hours without a nap!!! What a little champ. Oh, and he got attacked by their cat, but he was asking for it by pulling it's tail. I was thankful for Christina's two youngest kids who played with Eli and kept him entertained while we waited for lunch.


After we ate, we quickly gathered our stuff and headed back to ABC. Eli was at the very very end of his little rope and was about to completely lose it, as was I. Good, Christina, and her sister asked us for a ride to a mini bus station. We figured it wasn't far from their house and that we would just put Eli in his car seat after we dropped them off. Well, after driving for 10 minutes like this:
...we asked Good how far the station was. "Oh, you can drop us at ABC" he said. Hmmm...ok. I took a moment to coach myself through the situation in my head. I thought "Felxibility. Trusting in God for safety." and a quick "drive safely, honey" to my husband. God did keep us safe during the last 15 minutes to ABC. As well, it isn't really breaking the law to have your child out of a seat belt. I think they are trying to change it. I often see little toddlers climbing around the car while driving.

Anyway, it was a long long morning, but we had a great time with Christina and her family. Eli and I slept for 2 hours that afternoon and recovered well. Now it's Monday and our last full week of school. Please pray for us as we prepare for finals and try to wrap up the year with our students. We are tired and ready to see some familiar faces, but we know there is still a lot of work to be done.