Sunday Church and Post-Church Adventures

7-05-09
Thank the Lord it was Sunday…
Jarrod and I went to church at the Senga Bay Baptist church. Last week we sat together but this time to follow what they do I sat with the woman and children on the right and Jarrod sat with the men on the left. Margret (women that runs the Baptist clinic) was there and asked me to sit with her. A man moved up a seat and sat with Jarrod. The pastor is still out caring for his wife who is very sick but the elders of the church did a great job of running the service. We sang and danced for the first hour or so, the children’s group sang and then the women’s group and then the youth choir plus some other individuals. I am finally starting to recognize the songs, I don’t know what we are singing just yet but I can sing along a little and Margret let me read off her hymn book so I could see the words.
After lots of singing… church started with a woman giving a report about the retreat the women went on during the week, what they studied and what they learned from it. Then the sermon, which was on being in the books of the government for and being known in this world but does christ know you and are you on the books to get into heaven. The elder that gave the lesson was very powerful in his conviction and was jumping around and using large hand movments. (he was nice enough to preach in chichewa and english) after he was finished he asked Jarrod to close in prayer, a little confused Jarrod did (most of you know Jarrod’s prayers) and showed his absorbtion and knowledge of the lesson and verses that went with it. Margret then leaned over to me and was just amazed by Jarrod’s faith.
We closed church with a grouping of about 4 hymms put together. As we walked out of church we shook hands with all the elders and then everyone walks out shaking hands with everyone else and forming a circle as we go. Once everyone was out of the building we sang one more hymm as a group and closed in prayer. As everyone started to make their way away from church to start their days most of the men of the church came up to Jarrod to shake his hand and talk soccer. It is so rewarding for all in charge to see that the community is really into the soccer league and support the youth. There are not many organized sports in Malawi so to see the village people excited and supporting it just shows that more community activities can come from this.
After church we walked back to Cool Runnings, Jarrod had to quickly jump in the truck to get to the soccer game and I awaited Magic (the boatman) to return so I could go see the bush babies.
The Lilongwe wildlife center had taken some bush babies from shop owners that were trying to sell them. (very common here in Africa) After some time trying to find their homes in the wild they decided to let them go on Malleri Island with tags so they could monitor them. The week before they had set up a cage at the top of the island and left the babies inside to let them get comfortable with the area. The day I went it was time to open the door. Magic and I were in charge of getting the film crew there. Magic and I took off on the boat to the Wheel House to pick up the film crew and then to the island. Bush babies are nocturnal so the wild life center wanted to open the door at night but Magic didn’t not want to take the boat back at night it was just to dangerous so they agreed to do the release at 4pm right before the sun started to go down. When we got to the top of the island one bush baby was awake and jumping around. Then they opened the cage…now these are wild animals and we need to respect them and there space and let them do what they want to do and not scare them. WELL… the camera crew didn’t think that was right they wanted these great shots of the baby jumping out and playing in the trees and all of that. So the one very stupid camera guy jumped in front of the cage and started dancing around to scare the baby. Well like any wild animal it did get scared and attacked him. The bush baby jumped out of the cage and latched onto his arm and bit in hard. The camera man was trying to throw him off but the baby would not let go. Lee (one of the wildlife crew) gently removed the baby and placed him back in the cage and shut the door. Very angry Lee stopped the whole thing and told everyone to leave. Magic and I walked down the mountain and back to get the boat ready to go as the sun set. About 20 mins late the film crew came down and we were off. I became dark fast and with the ruff current Magic was having trouble steering the boat. Unable to see the buoys he drove right through a fisherman’s net, right away I felt the boat pull and Magic and I just looked at each other. The then slowed way down and we pulled in to the Wheel House and dropped off the film crew. We then pulled the motor out of the water to see that the fishing net had pulled one of our steering fins right off. With nothing we could do just then we decided to slowly drive back to Cool Runnings, the boat pulled the whole way but we made it home safe. We were both very happy to just be back.