Oh man! What an experience. It was totally not what I expected. I was under the impression I was just going along to see what the whole Malawi mission was about and act as support. Boy was I surprised at what the Lord had in store for me.
I flew from Cape Town on 2 April to meet up with the mission team on the 3rd in Johannesburg. I did not really know any of the brethren except for Rupert and Carl from Southfield assembly in Cape Town. Being a very quiet and reserved person I was a bit nervous of meeting the other brethren. When I got to the pick-up point we introduced ourselves and we were on our way to a very long journey to Mozambique.
We were told to brace ourselves for going through the different borders on this journey since it can take long and we could pick up some hassles. After going through the border of Zimbabwe, which went very smoothly I might add, we stayed over at Bubi village for the night where we already started to connect as a group. The next morning we were off to the border of Mozambique. After going through the Mozambican border, we realized that the Lord was really blessing us and keeping his hand over us for I was told this was one of the easiest border crossings they have had in the last couple of years.
When we got to Mozambique we stayed over at this lovely family's house. Johan, Anne and their two boys were very hospitable. They made us feel very comfortable and at home. This would be our base in Mozambique for the next 4 days. After having an awesome meal that evening we went to sleep.
After breakfast the next morning we were split into teams. We then had a prayer meeting asking the Lord to bless and direct us and to give us the wisdom and for Him to talk through us. Each team would be going into the different villages. Myself, Dean Botha(from the Bluff assembly) and Allan Hemphill(our team leader) were combined into one team. All the other guys were split into their respective teams. At this point I was asked to try and give my input and preach at the different locations, even if it is just 5 min. As a group we took off to go meet our interpreters since the people we needed to go and preach to did not understand a word of English. This I thought was going to be a task and a half. How do you really get a message across to someone with an interpreter??? We got to meet our interpreter named Bonde. What a pleasure of a man. He was very friendly and could speak English quite comfortably. Off we went to our first village.
After driving for a while we reached our destination. I was overwhelmed by the way they welcomed us with singing and dancing. They were really happy to see us. We greeted everybody and went into their little church. Most of the churches are built out of clay and mud and have grass roofs. For seating they all sit on a log or even just on the ground. They gave us their only comfortable plastic garden chairs to sit on. To start with they really praise and worship for quite a bit. They can easily worship and sing for about an half hour to forty five minutes. Then we formally introduced ourselves and started preaching.
Allan has done this Malawi trip a few times before so we thought best that he should kick off with the first session. At this time I became very very worried since all the way to this church I was trying to plan something to say but could not find anything. Here I was sitting with absolutely nothing to say. I even asked my other team mate, Dean, if he had something to say but he was in the same boat as me. As Allan started sharing his message the Lord laid a message on my heart. How happy I was but I was still very nervous since I have never preached or shared anything to anyone. Even at home at our assembly I do not share. I am always the quiet one who listens. After Allan finished I got up and shared what the Lord laid on my heart. It was only between 5 and 10 min but that was my very first ministry. All I shared about was the Lord Jesus dying for us on the cross and how much he really loves us and how he took our sins to the grave. They really responded well. After me was Dean. What was so amazing to me is that everything that we said tied in with each others ministries. There were also a handful of people that gave their lives to the Lord.
During the following 3 days we covered another 3 villages. What I really enjoyed about all the villages is that the people were very humble and grateful
for the message from the Lord. At one of the villages we even had 2 men wanting to be filled with the Holy Ghost. We prayed for them and will continue to do
so since at that very moment they weren't filled.
After our 4 days in Mozambique, we were off to cross over into Malawi and face another border crossing. By this time we were sure we were going to have
hassles at the border but yet again, the Lord blessed us since it went very smoothly. That evening we reached our destination, the Zambezi mission house. This was our base for the next 4 days. Getting to know the Malawians, I realized they were just as humble as in Mozambique. By this time Dean and I were far more confident in ministering. We found this crowd to be just as responsive to the Word of God for here too we had people responding to the gospel. How refreshing that was. Our last stop of the Malawi leg had around 400 members in the church. There were people peeling out the doors listening to the ministries as the hall we had was too small to accommodate everyone.
All locations we went to in both Mozambique and Malawi, none of them had chairs to sit on. The people sat on either the floor or thin log tree stumps.
This got me thinking of how easy we have it here. They were only too happy to sit there for two to three hour sessions at a time without complaining.
What really hit home for me after I shared my messages from the Lord is how happy these people were to receive this simple message. This is when I realized that these people don't really know much about the Lord. They knew the basic bible stories but not the deeper meaning of any of what the Bible is teaching us. All these people were so thankful to just and hear the basic gospel and principles explained to them. I would say that they really have child-like minds. How refreshing that was to me since it made me realize that we sometimes get so wrapped up in too much detail that we forget what the most important thing is. Just love the Lord God with all your heart, mind and soul and everything else will start falling into place. You can go to church everyday and read your bible for hours every day but if you haven't given your heart to Jesus and seriously fall in love with him the Bible will be like a good bedtime story.
I really look forward to going again and would seriously urge any brethren from the Assemblies to go on this trip. It will not only benefit the people you are ministering to but will quicken your spirit personally.
Lord Bless
Wayne Grove
Montague Gardens Assembly
Elizabeth Mattheetestified that she had recently become a believer and was excited about her new found faith and even though she had just had an operation on her right arm and was all bandaged up, she was not going to let that stop her from being baptised.
