Moni, Muli Bwanji?
Hello, How are you?
This is a beautiful
country where everyone is so willing to greet you and help you out. At
present, Kylie and I have been going to two schools a day, joining in
with the Student Organisation (CCAPSO) which runs worship services in school lunch breaks and after-school classes. We have been so impressed
with how open these student are about their faith, and how joyful
they are in the Lord. We've been instructed to go and teach the students,
but everyday we find that they are teaching us more and more.
Amy teaching from Lamentations |
I want to try and share
with you our experience at the last school we went to on Wednesday
afternoon, Blantyre Secondary School. Our daily ritual has been to arrive at the school when Joy, the CCAPSO
organiser, finds the deputy principal to tell him
that we have arrived. Then it's only around 30 minutes of waiting while they
inform and gather the students so we can start. Even though there are these waiting times, we are enjoying this time, it's where we can get to
know a little more about Joy, his wife and family, and general day to
day life for people here in Malawi. We are encouraged with his vision
and passion with the youth here in Blantyre, for his desire for them
to have a personal relationship with God and have firm biblical
grounding.
Once the students are
all organised the Patron takes us to the room, where the students
have gathered. Kylie and I have learnt not to have preconceived ideas
on how the lessons should be run, for every school is different, and
we need to go about approaching each one in different ways. For
example Monday afternoon, we walked into a room of 50-70 girls
singing songs at the top of their lungs. Tuesday morning we walked
into a room of 5 students who were very shy and reserved students who
didn't want to sing much at all, but the number grew to around 15
during the lesson. Wednesday afternoon we were led to an empty geography class. So for
the first time we were able to set up the room in preparation for the
students arrival. As the students arrived they greeted us with hand
shakes and hellos, this is sometimes quite cute because whenever we
say "hello", they ALWAYS assume that we ask them how they are, so
normally the conversation goes, “Hello" ... "I am fine thank-you
and how are you?” We don't even need to ask the question, to find
out that they are all fine. After the tiny room was packed with
around forty students, a gorgeous young girl came up the front to lead
the worship time.
Teaching the students an Aussie song |
The young student
leaders are always fulled with passion and zeal, she started with
calling the students to have joy in their lives by following Jesus.
They always seem to have a little saying where everyone joins in. When
the speaker says Hallelujah, everyone else says amen. This young lady
started by asking us to give her a J, “J” give her and O, “O”,
give her a Y, “Y” and what do we have? “JOY”. She did the same
with Jesus. Then she finished by saying “up up Jesus” and
everyone responding “down down satan”. Then we entered the time
of worship songs. It's so amazing to join in with their worship time. They have no instruments, just their incredible voices and harmonies. Everyone dances and sways in time and claps to the beat. How it works
is that one person sings a line, then everyone joins in, they sing
beautifully, and go from song to song interchangeably. Some time it's
in Chichewa, but thankfully at Blantyre Secondary they all sung in
English and there were songs that we had learnt from our past lessons
at other schools.
Once worship songs were
finished, the lesson was passed over to Kylie and me to lead. We
always start, explaining that we have come from Melbourne, Australia,
then go into what we do in Australia and then we show them how far we travelled
to get to Malawi on a world map.
After introductions are
done, we say that we want to get to know the students better, so we
have a short get-to-know-you game, so that we can interact with the
students more. Generally, we just try and learn/hear their names and
what they enjoy doing. Mainly they enjoy watching soccer, playing
soccer, singing, listening to music, and dancing. On this particular
occasion we got some interests that we hadn't heard before, like some
enjoyed watching cartoons and films, watching basketball. We know that lots of houses don't have electricity and most the
people in Malawi can barely afford anything more than their daily
needs.
Kylie teaching on how Jesus calms the storm |
We have had the
opportunity to share with the students our personal testimonies, and
passages of scripture to encourage and build up their faith. We have
been finding it very uplifting, watching how God is using what we
have prepared, and blessing not only us but the students as well. Some of the
topics we have covered have been: living out your faith with
confidence, God's big love for you, then working though passages using
the SOAP method - Scripture, Observation, Application and Prayer.
We've found our time
in the schools a very moving and humbling experience, and it's been an
honour to serve God through this ministry.
Continued prayer is
appreciated as we continue to build on the relationships with the
school and the students. Pray that God would continue to give us the
words to speak and wisdom to know what areas to address and teach. Pray for each of the
Form 4s (last year of high school) who are preparing to sit exams in
the coming weeks.
Blessings Amy and Kylie
Ian and Sheila on way to Rochester to take service. Not easy to see with sun in my eyes. But taking opportunity o catch with what you are all doing. Love to you all, keep up the good work. Finally a few trees to block out the sun, but they won,t last long. Hope your long services go well.
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