On Sunday, July 15, Mark accompanied Mr. Tamale to a "revival service" in a local village. The revival service was outside, and lasted from beginning to end 5 hours! The last hour was really just a time of introductions and short speeches by the distinguished guests that were there. There were four people who preached, and Mark was one of them along with Mr. Tamale and two elders.
This photo is just of a part of the village as we were leaving.
The revival service was about 10 km away, maybe a little more, and he and Mr. Tamale rode bikes to get there. Here is a photo of Tamale on his bike as we were passing people on the road.
There is a public transit system in Malawi. Most of which consisted of these "mini-buses". Depending on the seating configuration these buses took 18-23 passengers (legally) although at times there were even more inside!
When the seats were full in the mini-bus some people even kind of "stood"! This particular bus was kind of nice because the ceiling was higher, but even in the low buses people would still stand. Riding these mini-buses was always an experience!
Rev. Zeze and his family had us all over for dinner one night.
It might be kind of hard to see, but these gentlemen are forming clay bricks and setting them out t dry.
The beautiful landscape of central Malawi.
We were all invited to a local elders house where we hung out for a couple of hours.
One of the treats in Malawi is eating raw sugar-cane. Quite often people will be eating this while walking along the road. The first thing you need to do is peel off the outer bark with your teeth (or a knife), chew off a piece of the inside (kind of a spongy material), suck out all the sugary juices (tastes like really light molasses), spit out the remains and take another bite! It definitely took us a lot longer to do all of this than our Malawian brothers!
Here we all are with Mr. Phiri and his family.
It was mentioned before that there are prayer houses scattered across the countryside. In this particular village we were at, the prayer house doesn't actually have a building, but meets on top of a hill on a big rock. As you can see there was an incredible view! When we walked up there from the Phiri's house the choir was practicing.
Before leaving Nkhoma Mark was told that he needed to stop by the Primary school to say good-bye. So he did and all of Michelle's Standard 6 students were there. They don't even all fit in this one photo!
The first-year students from JMTI. Front row from left to right: Mark Vander Pol, Mr. Kokha, Mr. Phula Banda, Mr. Damalankunda, Mr. Chidzaye, and Mr. Beni. Back row: Matt Barker, Mr. Chagunda, Mr. Chiwaya, Stephen Roberts, Mr. Kabata, and Steve Bussis. These are the students that we pretty much taught all of their classes for two and a half weeks.
The fourth-year students. Front: Mr. Kholowa, Mr. Siwinda, Mr. Kapanda, and Mr. Mkokamasa. Back Row: Mark Vander Pol, Steve Bussis, Mr. Zakeyu, Stephen Roberts, Mr. Tamale, Mr. Chidzulo, Matt Barker, and Mr. Madimbo.
Just a brief word on these fourth-year students and why there are no second or third-year students. All of these students here spent three years at the Theological School in Zomba in Southern Malawi. This is the theological school not only for the Presbyterian church, but also for Catholics, Anglicans, and others. Techinally after graduating from there these students could be ordained and enter into the ministry. However, the Nkhoma Synod sees it wise that their ministers spend another year at their own school to make sure their doctrines are right! That is what these fourth-year students have just completed. There is such a need for ministers in Malawi and the Nkhoma Synod in particular (127 congregations, only 90 some ministers) that the Synod wanted to begin training men for the ministry all by themselves as well. This was the first year for that which is why there is a first-year class and no others.
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