On Sunday, July 8 Mark and Michelle went with Mr. and Mrs. Tamale to the Chimpatphale Prayer House. This photo is of a village behind the prayer house. We actually went there on Saturday as well for a Communion Preparation Service as well as a marriage seminar. The prayer house was about 5-6 miles from Nkhoma and we rode bikes to get there! They only have communion quarterly in the Nkhoma Synod, but considering the logistics, it makes sense. There are literally over a thousand prayer houses, but only around 100 ordained ministers to officiate Holy Communion. What happens though is that there are "substation" prayer houses that have larger buildings so that three or four neighboring prayer houses can all meet for the Supper. On the Saturday before Holy Communion there is a Preparation Service, which is essentially a full church service, minus a few elements. Only the communicate members are present and they receive a ticket for the communion service the next day. After this service the married couples stayed behind for a marriage seminar. Mr. Tamale spoke for most of the time, but I was also allowed to speak. Mr. Tamale tasked me with discussing the equality of men and women in marriage, which in a very patriarchal society is something they need to hear. I think it went well!
On Sunday there is a full church service (2.5 hours long) in which I was able to bring God's Word to them. After this first service everybody leaves the sanctuary while the elders prepare the elements. Once things are ready the people are allowed back into the sanctuary upon presentation of their ticket! There is essentially another church service (again, minus a few elements) and then they partake of the sacrament.
Michelle was with Mrs. Tamale and the Women's Guild the whole morning. Here she took a picture of some of the ladies waiting for the communion service to begin.
After leaving sanctuary after the communion service the Women's Guild began to sing and dance outside and got Michelle involved. Here Mark came out to see what was going on and got in a photo.
Here is the Chimpatphale Prayer House and some of the elders. Mr. and Mrs. Tamale are second and third from the right.
We got to the prayer house around 9:15 in the morning and Mark quickly took this photo around 4:45 while the sun was getting low in the sky, hence the photo is kind of dark. But this is the inside of the sanctuary - yes, the pews are made of brick covered with a layer of concrete. Mark sat in a chair up front, but Michelle had to sit on one of these benches for over four hours!
Here is the pulpit of the Prayer House. This is a very common pulpit design in the Nkhoma Synod and Mark loved it! You can really tell a lot about how a church reveres the preached Word of God by their pulpit - big, elevated and unmovable!. Mark noticed that all the men who ascended the steps stopped at the last step to say a little prayer. The placard on the front says (in Chichewa) "God with us."
One night, Michelle was mad it was after she left, Mark made a home-made apple pie from scratch!! It tasted really, really good!
A cool moth on a mat outside a door.
Thanks to generous donations from students and professors of the seminary we brought along a lot of books with us to Malawi to donate to the students and school. Here they are taking a first look at what we brought.
A more formal picture with the students and their new books.
The building next to JMTI is the Nkhoma Synod Museum that contained a lot of artifacts, memorabilia, and documents chronicling the history of the Synod. This typewriter is the actual typewriter used to make the manuscript of the first translation of the entire Bible (from the Greek and Hebrew) into Chichewa.
The Steves walking toward the church in Nkhoma.
Some of the students' children checking us out.
Steve Roberts went with a student, Mr. Damalakunda, to his home church one Sunday. When they were leaving they were each given a live chicken, which we had "to use" sometime. Therefore, we all went over to the Damalakunda's house to have a chicken dinner!
Since we were being shown such great hospitality by the students and their families, we wanted to return the favor. Therefore, we provided an "American Lunch" of Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches for the students and their families.
Rev. Zeze (vice-principle of JMTI) and some students enjoying their PB&Js!
This is a typical Malawian meal - at least what was served to us. The people pulled out all the stops for us when we came for dinner. On my plate in front is Nsima, rice, hard-boiled eggs in a tomato sauce, cabbage, rice, and onions, and then some chips. For dessert we had bananas and some oranges. And oh, by the way - we ate everything with our hands!!
The white food in front is the staple food of Malawi - Nsima (pronounced see-ma). It is made out of corn flour and is kind of bland on its own, which is why there is always a relish. The question almost always came up, "What is the staple food in America?" We had to explain to them that we really don't have one, but depending on where you are in the country, you might consider different things your staple food. But even then Malawians pretty much have Nsima at every meal which at least most of us don't have something constant at every meal.
Mark's final meal with a student, this time without Michelle unfortunately. This is the Chidzulo family.
This is the Siwinda family who we went to church with a couple of weeks earlier.
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