It's about the people

While not every member of the team has been able to post their "now that I am back home" reflections, many have done just that. As you can see from the eloquent, passionate and moving thoughts shared, the Malawi Partnership of Hope is something very special. Every year our trip to Malawi is amazing and inspiring. This year exceeded all expectations. In previous years we arrive in Malawi, load up the bus and head to the hotel. This year (unbeknownst to the team) we left the airport and headed to the village where the borehole funded by the Lenox UMC was located. Welcome to Malawi everyone. That afternoon set the tone and energy level for the rest of our time in Malawi. Every day was overwhelming. Sometimes uplifting and sometimes hard to comprehend. "We have to do more" is a comment made over and over again. Abject poverty is everywhere. As we travel for hours on the bus that is practically all you see. People everywhere just struggling to survive. But....Those same people (up close and personal - like at the churches we visit) show a strength of faith and hope that is humbling and sometimes more than a little embarrassing. It is easy to say we have so much and they have so little. The fact of the matter is it is just the opposite. Not only is their faith strong in the face of great adversity, they welcome the opportunity to share that faith with all of us. They know what's important (faith, family and community). We know we need more stuff. Always the stuff. I can say with complete confidence every member of this year's team came back saying " I need to do better about not so much stuff". It's hard. Stuff is everywhere. Phones, cars, clothes, houses, boats, RV's and on and on. Not saying stop it all, just saying create "Malawi moments". When you are coveting that next cool thing stop and take a deep breath. Do you REALLY need that iPhone 5q or whatever the next cool thing is? Moderation would do wonders. In spite of all that there is one more certainty in all this. We all come back filled with joy, hope and a stronger faith.
As you read through the posts below you will see the following over and over:

LOVE - FRIENDS - PRAY - RELATIONSHIPS - PRESENCE - JOY - MUSIC - CELEBRATION - BLESSING - PEOPLE.

The final word is "GO!". Josh said it best when he said  "Please go".

Peace and Blessing to all of you and thank you for your ongoing prayers and financial support. There is a team that goes to Malawi but in reality the team is the Ankeny FUMC. In the finest Methodist tradition " Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow".

Dennis

Malawi 2013

For those of you who read these posts, I am here to say that this truly is a life-changing experience. I urge everyone of you who haven't had the opportunity to travel to Malawi, PLEASE GO. You don't realize what our presence there means to the people of Malawi. The love that we felt on this trip was something that I was in no way prepared for. We were treated like family literally everywhere we went. Our presence there gives them so much hope. To know that we came all the way to Malawi to spend time with them, create relationships, praise God with them. It means so much. It will also mean so much to you. You will witness many acts of genuine love. Love towards you, love towards God, love towards the simplest things we take for granted here in the states. It will change them and it will change you. All for the better. It is hard to explain this concept. to people once you've been and they want you to share your story. Questions like, "What did you build?" , "How many wells did you dig?", "What kind of animals did you see?". The cock-eyed looks I get when I say, "We built relationships." Not many have understood when I tell them this and a lot shake their heads as to signal "Oh, I get it." I can tell that they don't. But that's okay. That is exactly why we have a responsibility to come back and share our amazing stories and spread the word about Malawi. Of course money and gifts and supplies are needed and accepted with open arms, but the relationships,  the friendships mean so much more to them. And it means so much to those of us who have been blessed to go. It is such an accomplishment that our church has been able to send all of these teams to Malawi for the past several years. The only way this can continue is by participation of our church members. I ask you, look in your heart. Is there something missing? I know that I felt like something was missing. I witnessed how people with so little praised God so much more than I ever had. It woke me up. It set off some alarms. It has absolutely made me a better person. To God be the glory!

Josh Matics

First time for everything

My trip to Malawi held a lot of firsts for me : first 3rd world experience, first time eating chicken gizzards, first time peeing over a hole in the ground, first time trying pineapple fanta...  I'm sure there's many, many other firsts I'm forgetting to mention, but I have never been to a country where it's common place to express joy and the celebration of God openly at such an intense level.  Where people are put first and where giving God the very best is always most important.  This open atmosphere allowed us to let loose in ways that we would never dream of doing at home and I have to say it's really liberating to just be yourself without feeling judged - especially with regard to appearance ('cuz there were a couple days where no clean clothes made it a bit ugly).  Regardless, seeing the contrast between their way of life and ours was eye-opening to say the least.  Dennis said 'Perception is everything.' and man is that the statement of the century.  My perception of many things has changed since Malawi.  I value people over time constraints more now than I did before, I'm not as focused on money because I have a new outlook on the phrase 'God always provides', I appreciate the luxury of hot showers, flushing toilets and toilet paper like you wouldn't believe.  Most of all, my perception of faith has changed.  I have a new appreciation for the 'big picture'.  We are all just vessels in God's big plan and everything that we do makes a difference whether we see it or not.  Our presence in Malawi makes a difference and with each passing year, our impact becomes more visible.  I pray that I will make it back to Malawi again so I can reunite with friends and see the changes that we have created on the Farm, in Mzuzu, and the communities that benefit from each new borehole we drill.

Cherann B.

To God be the Glory

Going to Africa has been the trip of a lifetime. I've made new friends, tried new food, sang new songs, slept in new places, traveled in a bus for 8 hours a day, drove around the side of a mountain, experienced pineapple fanta, had some admirers, and shared laugher and tears with my Malawi family.

It's really been a huge blessing to have been a part of this partnership and something much more than I can't even understand. Everything that I've done and everyone that I have bonded with in Malawi with always be a part of my life and that is something that will stay with me forever. That is a huge thing to think about because I have things and ideas and messages that I can hold on to and share with the world.

My favorite message from Africa, is to always put forth the effort to make a change, even of it wil be tough, because something bigger than this world can be the result of your actions. "God is good. Praise the Lord. To God be the glory. Halleluia, Amen." These are words that I will take from my Malawian family and share with the world around me. This has really been the trip of a lifetime. ~Anne Marie

I miss Malawi.

More then I ever thought I would.

I miss the nature, I miss the animals, I miss the simplicity, but most of all I miss the people.

Never in my wildest dreams would I imagine that I would miss the people so much, but those little kids.. I cant even find the words to tell you all what an impact they had on me.

I want to be back,

and I know I will find my way back to Africa for a much longer period of time... its just a matter of getting through school and finding the funds.

On my first post I said that this was just the beginning, the first chapter, the first few stamps in my passport.

Because Africa, or any 3rd world country in need, is home.

I pray for the well being of all of those living in Malawi.

I hope to return to see them soon.

Much love,

Mallory Petsche

I want what they have!

In getting ready for the trip to Malawi, I read all I could find.  I left that July day thinking that WE have so much and THEY have so little.  I came home with the opposite feelings.  You see, the people of Malawi have SO much joy and WE have so little time to do that with all our responsibilities
 and commitments.  Life does not get in their way and I really think their set priorities better than we do!  I want the time to share my joy for life.   I want to be able to dance and sing to show my love for God and not be afraid what people of thinking.  I want what they have.  Thank you Malawi

Ministry of Presence

What are you going to do? What DID you do in Malawi?

I've wrestled with those questions before and after each trip with our Malawi mission team.  In a results-oriented culture, our brains are trained to measure the impact of a mission trip in buildings built, walls painted and boreholes dug.  By those measures, everyone of our Malawi teams has failed miserably.

We haven't dug any boreholes, but we've visited several that our church has funded.  We haven't built anything, but we've visited churches, a tailoring school, a solar water pump and several other structures our church has funded.  We haven't painted any walls, but half of us did fertilize some crops for half an afternoon this year. (If you're a certain member of our group, you find bottoms of doors that catch on the floor, leaks in PVC pipes that need to be sealed and other miscellaneous projects that need to be done.)

By those measures, we don't really do anything on the Malawi mission trip.  We did do two three-hour sessions of Bible school and provide a meal for the children--although we just bought the ingredients, we didn't even cook it.  But even those two days of Bible school don't count for much when measured by the "spreading the gospel" definition of mission trips.  It was maybe 100 kids and 30 adults--that's only about 8 people per team member.

And somehow, the impact of the trip is far greater than anything we can do.

Rev. Daniel Mhone describes the partnership between AFUMC and the Malawi UMC as a Ministry of Presence--and that is exactly what we do on this trip.

Think about the single person that has had the greatest impact on your life.  The person who helped you turn your life around or the person that brought you back to church after wandering away.  Think about the spouse or mother or father or grandparent who taught you what it means to love and what it feels like to be loved.

If the United Methodist Social Principles did not discourage gambling, I would bet they did one thing above all else:

They were present in your life.

When you hit bottom, they were there.  When you failed a test in high school, they were there.  When you got married, they were there.  When you needed advice or someone to turn to, they were there.

That is what we do.  We go.  We visit villages.  We visit old friends.  We participate in a tailoring school graduation, in a church service and Bible study, in a cooking demonstration.  We disconnect from Facebook, from Twitter, from the trivial things in life.  We might stay in contact with home, but during the day, we are fully present.  And  when we go, we bring the presence of an entire congregation with us.  It's not really us and our team that go, it is the love and the prayers of an entire church.

I don't know the verse, but it constantly comes to my mind, "Wherever two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am also."  When we are present, when we allow ourselves to listen to God and go, when we join together with our brothers and sisters in Christ in Malawi, God is present.

The thing about a Ministry of Presence is that it's not about making God present in the lives of the people from Malawi.  It's about making Him present in all our lives.  God's love is not debits and credits.  If I give you X love and you give me Y, I don't have Y - X and you don't have X - Y. Somehow love gets multiplied.  We both come back with far more than we gave ourselves.

So if you want to know how you can experience Malawi without going, do your best to be present in all you do.  Don't multitask.  Do your best to be fully engrossed in the lives of the people you love.  Be present, and God will be there also.

I did my best to bring home enough presence for everyone.  I hope you don't mind if I didn't have time to wrap it.

Phil