Back in Pemba

I am back in Pemba after my quick 10 day visit to South Africa to write 3 exams - it was a nice break: hot running water, pork ribs - need I say more? :-)

I am back just in time for our annual Pemba conference - the place is a beehive of activity getting the big tent chruch expanded to fit in the extra 3000 people that are coming, and then finding them all place to sleep...



Pemba is blossoming - Summer is coming! The big baobabs are are green, and the mercury is rising and rising... its HOT here!

The sound systems are OK - they survived my absence, although the room was a mess with cables and speakers and stands lying around everywhere - I made my annoyance known and the guys came in and tidied, apologising profusely for being too lazy to pack things away properly... *sigh*

The conferennce kicks off tomorrow night with the JESUS film - and of course at least 2 hours of singing and dancing!

Até Logo! (Until Later)

Sad News

I received some sad news this morning, they said it better than I ever could.

" There are times when we don’t know what to say.
When we feel the emotions, but the words are so few, so,
so empty, or not close enough.

And such is the time now. Baby Lori is home now, in Jesus' arms.
She left us this morning, and, and He took her Home.

She just stopped breathing.

Just yesterday she seemed fine, was her usual darling self,
the laughing, joyous, cute, baby girl we all love so much,
and now, now she is gone and we are left trying to cope. "



You can read her story here: A Little Miracle

I will miss her so much.

Getting to Malawi

Mozambican immigration were being silly and had decided to take the end of Ramadan as a public holiday – this meant that my passport was still in their possession on Thursday when I was meant to be flying to Malawi with Rolland… We called and even sent someone to the office to ask for my passport – they refused to give it to me before 2:30pm. So frustrating!!!

Eventually I had to accept the fact that I wasn’t going to go to Lilongwe for the Iris Central Malawi Conference. I walked back to the little plane and took my suitcase out and sat on the front steps waiting for a driver to fetch me. Rolland and his other passenger cleared customs and took off.

I let everyone know that I was going to be in Pemba for the next four days and set about preparing for the next day. Suddenly I got a phone call – arrangements had been made and a Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) plane will come pick me up in Pemba the next morning and take me to Lilongwe. I was astounded. WOW! Someone had sponsored me a flight!!

The next morning bright and early I was at the airport – it was deserted and the few staff that was there must have thought I was slightly crazy, being there so early when there were no scheduled flights for the next 5 hours. It wasn’t too long before I saw the plane land – the guy at the gift shop kindly let me onto the runway and he also called the immigration guy to let him know I was there. He arrived 30 mins later and stamped me out the country. Finally we were off.

The pilot, Dave, had been working with MAF in Mozambique for 10 years! After we took off he let me fly the plane – quite a challenge trying to keep it level and on course! But it was fun – we had to dodge the clouds because MAF regulations require that they not fly thru clouds - I think that made the flight even more interesting! It wasn’t long before I saw the clear blue water of Lake Malawi below us, the next thing I knew Dave had taken the controls and we had landed.

I was really happy to be in Malawi!

(continued...)

Malawi - Conference in Lilongwe

I was a day late, but it didn’t matter – finally we could set up Rolland’s 2 powerful speakers to help the other 4 weaker ones! (he doesn’t like anyone else using his speakers, its me or nothing)
We gave a new meaning to ‘surround sound’ placing the 6 speakers in a circle around the stage to accommodate all the people staring at us from all directions!

Mo, the base director for Iris Malawi had a really cool worship drum track which we played at full blast to get the people’s attention – they were entertained by Mo dancing to the beat – some laughed and others joined in!


Dancing to the Drums

The Malawians as such a friendly people, and they differ in many ways to the Mozambicans we work with daily, but in some ways they are still the same, for example: The worship times were as usual a mixture of dancing and aerobics lasting about an hour and a half. Preaching translated into the local language, Chichewa, followed the energetic worship time and then we prayed for people and allowed God to move. There were so many testimonies at the end that blew me away. The Malawian culture does not often allow women to participate in church services, much less allow them to testify on stage. One after the other they described how sickness had left them or their families, how even in the face of extreme poverty they have discovered joy they never knew before and how they will go back to their villages refreshed and filled with more of God’s love.


The conference at night

The 3 days flew past – and before I knew it we were having our final service. They had arranged for a little variety concert, a showcase of singing for an hour before church started – young kids, old men, a man with an accordion, a family – but the group that stole the show was a group of women with babies tied to their backs. They started really quietly and had a pretty nice song going when suddenly they stopped and did a little ‘doe - doe - doe - tchaaaaaa” and then carried on with the song. The crowd went wild, cheering and clapping. It was great! Who would have thought, little African ladies being hip?


Me doing my job

We had an interesting time at the airport trying to convince the immigration people that we were on a private flight, seeing that Rolland was not wearing a pilot’s uniform (shorts, a blue Iris T-shirt and a baseball cap doesn't seem to be an acceptable pilot outfit). Also our statements of, “NO, we do not want to check our luggage in at the check-in counter” was met by strange looks. “So how are you going to get those 3 luggage trolleys up the stairs to the departure lounge?” *sigh* eventually they twigged that we were on a PRIVATE flight, meaning our own plane, meaning we had to wheel the trolleys onto the tarmac to get to the plane. They let us take the trolleys through the transit lounge on the ground floor – I got stuck trying to wheel the 2 speakers through the metal detector – it didn’t go off, the speakers were just too wide! But finally we got to the plane, loaded it and took off.

The flight back was uneventful; we missed the 5pm cut off for landing in Pemba by 15mins, so we had to pay the fine for a late landing – all because we had stopped to buy cokes in Lilongwe! (maybe the hassle at the airport was also to blame). But it was nice to be home again!