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!
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