Foto Friday - Y-Malawi, Day eight: Sunday worship, Nkhoma Youth & Chief's Ministry

Day eight was our second Sunday on the ground in Nkhoma. The day began with the privilege of worshipping in a small rural church led by one of the young people from the Nkhoma Youth Department.

Taken inside the church before the service.

As always, the children gathered with great curiosity about the "mzungus," or "white persons." This is one of the few times I saw a child with a toy.

Following the service, we went to another building nearby to meet with a group of young people from the Nkhoma Youth Department. The youth gathering began with worship in song - the singing in Malawi is something I will never forget.

After the singing, some of the youth who had attended the church service put on a skit based on my sermon. I had preached on one of my life verses, the passage that is the inspiration behind this blog.

"So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you." (Romans 12:1-2, MSG)

The skit included them simply sharing what they had taken away from the sermon but with the addition of one funny element. One of the young men was portraying my father and the great pride he felt because of my preaching the Word of God.

The skit.

Two of the youth who were part of our group, Will and Kylie, then shared their testimonies with the Nkhoma Youth.

After the gathering, we played with the local children while we waited for the bus to pick us up and reconnect us with the rest of our group.

Like everywhere else, there was a child watching from the sidelines.

From here we traveled to another village where the Chiefs Ministry had gathered for worship. They honored us with a lunch of chicken, vegetables, and nsima (maize) in the home of the group village leader.

After lunch, we spent time with the villagers. We watched the men play football (soccer) and the women play net ball (basketball). Some walked to the nearby market while others simply shared fellowship with our hosts. 

Knowing I had only a couple more days left to shoot photographs in Nkhoma, I explored a bit.

I shot this behind the long drops, or outhouses, of all places. It is a good representation of the terrain.

This is how they fire their homemade bricks.

Another young man on the sidelines.

I loved seeing the excitement of this toddler about the buzz of activity going on in the village.

Something I found quite touching was the display of affection between the boys in Malawi. You would often see them unashamedly holding hands, like the boys pictured here, as a sign of their brotherly love. 

One of the last shots of the day from the bus. This man is laboriously pushing a load of charcoal on his bike uphill so he can sell it at market.

Up next, World Vision!

Mulungu akhale nanu (God be with you),

Aaron

PS - At the beginning of last month, we had three amazing worship services where we were joined by John and Lori Gash from Y-Malawi for a reunion of the Florida team and together we lifted up the work God is doing in Nkhoma/Chilenje. Here's the best part - 150 additional children were sponsored through World Vision that very morning! Thanks be to God! If God has been piercing your heart for the people in Malawi and you are also interested in sponsoring a child, please let me know. I have a few forms left for children in Nkhoma/Chilenje. There are still more than 4,000 children on a waiting list so every sponsorship matters. Pray about it!