Working Trip to Tete

Drear Mom and everyone,
I left here on Friday and stayed overnight in Blantyre with Heidi Hannah before traveling to Tete. Just after I left the Malawi boarder on the Tete side I called Peter and Lavenda Kalimambondo, Zambians who are missionaries to Tete, to have lunch with them. I figured that once I was in the hands of the IUBM (United Baptist church) I wouldn't have a chance to visit with other people. Just after I finished talking on the cell phone to them, Viagas called. Viagas is the brother in law of Pastor Rabo, is now the IUBM provincial superintendent for Tete province. He is the one who invited me. He wanted me to come for lunch. Well, I said that I couldn't do that as I had another appointment and would arrive about 3pm at his house. I had a nice visit with the Kalimambondo's and their neighbors Jeni and Michiel Bister then crossed the bridge to the other side of town to the house of Viagas and his family. The church had planned to have a welcome for me, so I loaded the family up in the car and we went to the church. I would say that about 50 people were there to welcome me. We had a little service where we sang and I said a few words about coming back for a visit for a week. We returned back to Viagas's house where we then began by eating the lunch, which was cold and then just as we finished that we were served supper which was hot. They have a new house which is still in the process, but mostly finished. I was given a room with a brand new bed and mattresses. It is better than my bed here in Lichinga. The bathroom was still a room outside, but because it was hot, I didn't have to go during the night. Sunday we went to church where I was asked to preach and then after the service they had cooked food for everyone. One thing that Viagas said at the meeting was that the church had been wrong and had repented and that was why I was able to come for a visit now. It was good to see some of the same faces still in church. I do think that there are some people who need to have Christ reign in their lives, but at least they hear God's Word by coming to church. I think that there were 75 to 100 people in church. I don't want to be deceived to think that they always come, but it was nice to see so many there.
Monday morning we started on our visit to the churches in the rural regions. We, that is me and Viagas, traveled all day to reach a place called Zabwe in Zumbo district. It did seem like we traveled to the ends for the world, but maybe we could just see the ends of the world from there!! We slept there and then the next morning had a meeting with the local Christians. Viagas divided the group into two group: leaders and others. We then each taught both groups. I taught on sin and repentance and what it means to walk the Christian life repenting when we sin. In the afternoon we proceeded back the same road to Kapangula, doing the same thing, arriving at dusk, meeting in the morning. Then proceeded to Fingue, where we had planned to have a meeting at another villege, but the local leader, changed the plans for his advantage, to the extent we couldn't change them, so had supper at his house and then the next day a meeting at the church. This was now Thursday and we return "home" to Tete. Friday we travel up towards Songo where the Cabora Bassa Dam is and had a meeting at Estima. Here is was impossible to divide into to groups as there was no other place to meet except at the church, other places we had meetings under trees or other shelter. It was nice to be in the class and to hear what Viagas was teaching. He taught on prayer, using the TEE book that I had taught him and others while I was in Tete.
Saturday we left Tete to go to Kanga near the Malawi border, so I said good-bye to Viagas' family as I wouldn't return to Tete after our meetings.
We arrived to be given a really royal welcome, even putting reed mats down for us to walk into the church on. Here we began with breakfast, meeting lunch and then the afternoon was a bit free, I took a nap in one of the houses until the ants woke me by crawling all over me. When we had been out in the villages I had used my tent. It had worked very well as people didn't have to move out of their house to let me sleep. Here in Kanga, their children had moved out and there was lots of room. But my greatest fear is the things that crawl around in the night, bugs, mice and rats, so I wasn't very happy to have to sleep in a house, and Viagas suggested that I sleep in on of the houses. THEN I heard that about a week before they had started sleeping outside because of the heat. It was nice outside, so I slowly convinced them that this would be okay and that I would like that.
So it ended up that I slept on one side of the car and the family slept on two other sides of the car and Viagas slept over near the house. The only unsettling thing was just as we all settled down, the owner of the house said. "hopefully the field mice will not bother us too much" Oh dear here I had fled the houses to avoid the mice only to find them outside. I prayed that God would put a boundary around the grass mat I slept on and help me to sleep. It was a beautiful night with lots of stars and I did sleep, only to wake in the morning as people were starting to get moving.
Sunday we were going to the last church on our round of visits, I started hearing them talk about a walk, maybe 30 minutes, well that was okay, even if the 30 minutes was 1 hour I was still okay. Off we went in the car.
Arriving at the pastors house for our second breakfast, which was a real meal, and then he said that the road was repaired and we would drive. I fell once again for that line and off we went for the church. After traveling a while, I was beginning to wonder who had fixed the road and if they knew what fixing meant. The road became worse and worse until I said I would not go further, we would walk. Well the walk from the place we parked was at least 30 minutes because we had gone the long way to use the road.
After arriving at the church preaching and then lunching, we returned to the car. On the way the local pastor asked if I could return the way we had gone? I thought I might be able to, but was there another road? Yes, a bit longer but better, so off we went. A long time later, on better roads we arrived at the main road. Was I ever glad to see a tar road again. I bid the pastor and Viagas farewell and headed to Malawi.
To be continued after I do some work at the office this morning.
Love Janice