After a long bus ride, Eastbound arrived at our accommodation in the early hours of the morning. We were welcomed by a lovely host, who stays on a banana plantation, and his seven dogs barking their hellos. This would be a time of beauty, hard work, and seeing Jesus in the little details of His Creation.
The ladies helped with pruning the banana trees. This keeps them happy and healthy, preventing insects from getting under old leaves, and weakening the plant. After tasting how sweet and fluffy the bananas were, we found a new perspective on the plant and through it, learnt an insightful life lesson. Anne said, “Sometimes we feel heavy and burdened by the parasites and dead leaves sticking on us, carrying the sins of our past. But once you come to Jesus, he begins to prune us. It’s an ongoing process, and it’s going to hurt sometimes. The plant doesn’t understand what’s happening, and I think we often feel like that too. But we trust the Creator and His process, trusting that we will bear good fruit, just like the banana trees we are working with are going to bear good fruit. So be like a banana tree and allow yourself to be pruned by Jesus!”
The men helped with preparing the ground for new plants that would grow next to the sugar cane plantation. Of course, we all enjoyed tasting them while sitting under the shade of the banana trees, looking at clouds that hugged the hills, motivating us to finish what we started before the rain would come.
A big highlight was swimming in the Malawian Lake, conveniently a walking distance from our host. What a beautiful, refreshing experience it was after our hard day’s work! Our host blessed us with the opportunity to go to Birds Island via a local boat. We were able to snorkel and see the fish that were happy to eat the bread we gave them. This too, was an opportunity for us to learn something about the Lord. The fish must have been curious with this big, loud, scary boat coming their way, but soon swam with joy once they were fed. Similarly we are often in comfort, until all of a sudden, a big, loud, scary event occurs in our life. But in the end, if we don’t swim away or give up, the Lord’s hand will truly bless us, which will help us grow in the long run. The Lord will provide for us no matter how casual or scary the circumstances are. Knowing we are not alone in these situations is such a comfort. We are able to go through absolutely anything if the Lord is with us!
A few team members hiked up a hill for a sunrise quiet time. There, the Lord revealed himself and his creativity to us in the beauty of nature. Seeing the flowers and birds on the way up the hill was such a beautiful reminder that He is so intentional with everything He does. These little flowers on our path were standing proud, showing His delicate love for us.
We helped with the host’s boat called Kairos, meaning God’s timing, and were able to get the boat one step closer to sailing again. We truly saw the Lord’s hand in our stay there. An incredible word of knowledge one of our team members got before we arrived was “shower head” and at this ministry point, we were blessed with a working shower head after a few weeks of bucket showers! It’s so comforting to know that the Lord is working and providing for us while we are still serving at other places.
A vision a leader got for our team is that we are all like different colour paints, and that’s how she saw us in the spirit. We all have unique spiritual gifts and we use them together to reveal a beautiful painting. We definitely saw this come to life. We were faced with some spiritual warfare in Malawi and it was incredible to see how our gifts were used in the most uplifting ways, reminding each one of us that He has His hand upon us, no matter where we are. At a bus station, in a night market, or in a taxi, He is there, protecting us.