Wednesday, August 10, 2011

A Wonderful First Day in Blantyre, Southern Malawi

Yesterday I arrived in Blantyre. As I got off the plane at the airport and walked onto the tarmac, I waved to Bishop Tengatenga. I was so glad to see him after my long flight (20 hours over two days). Imagine my surprise when I was pulled out of line at customs and taken to a lounge! There I was greeted by the Bishop, the Dean, the head of the Mothers Union and a delightful young girl from the Junior Guild. They gave me a flower for my jacket and welcomed me. I also saw many of our dear friends from the diocesan office here. What a surprise. Then as I was escorted outside where the Mother's Union from several parishes greeted me with singing and dancing!

I was invited to greet them; which I did in the name of Jesus Christ, and told them of my family's and diocese's wishes for them.


We went straight to the Bishop's home where we had coffee together and visited. We spent much of the afternoon talking about Southern Malawi and the country's challenges. We also reviewed our schedule and made plans for the week.  Then we went into town to several grocery stores for some items, and the Bishop explained the economic life of Blantyre.

We had a delightful evening with his wife Josie and their daughter Susan. Susan is a law student and is currently working on an internship. Josie works as an accountant at the International School here. It is a small school with some 400 students. I explained that that would be a very big private school in the U.S. Many of the private Anglican schools here, while not many in number, have 600 to 800 students per grade!

We ended the evening sitting on the back porch doing what friends do ... solving the problems of the world. It has been a great day and the hospitality has been so generous and kind. I am truly overwhelmed by their welcome.

On Thursday we travel to a tea plantation and visit a congregation there.

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Quotes

  • "Christianity is not a theory or speculation, but a life; not a philosophy of life, but a life and a living process." Samuel Taylor Coleridge
  • "Most people are willing to take the Sermon on the Mount as a flag to sail under, but few will use it as a rudder by which to steer." Oliver Wendell Holmes
  • "Perfection, in a Christian sense, means becoming mature enough to give ourselves to others." Kathleen Norris
  • "Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can." John Wesley
  • "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried." G. K. Chesterton
  • "One of our great allies at present is the Church itself. Do not misunderstand me. I do not mean the Church as we see her spread out through all time and space and rooted in eternity, terrible as an army with banners. That, I confess, is a spectacle which makes our boldest tempters uneasy. But fortunately it is quite invisible to these humans." C. S. Lewis
  • "When we say, 'I love Jesus, but I hate the Church,' we end up losing not only the Church but Jesus too. The challenge is to forgive the Church. This challenge is especially great because the church seldom asks us for forgiveness." Henri Nouwen, Bread for the Journey
  • "Christians are hard to tolerate; I don't know how Jesus does it." Bono
  • "It's too easy to get caught in our little church subcultures, and the result is that the only younger people we might know are Christians who are already inside the church." Dan Kimball