As I walk around Annie’s Lodge, I find myself a bit torn. The relationships that God has manifested through His will have been outstanding. What had thought to be the main mission was used more as a lure to get us here. God’s glory is revealed far greater by Him orchestrating all of the events that He did. He brought into view those that we are intended to form eternal relationships with. That does not mean we will let Felix and his churches slip by the wayside. The reality i

Today is Christmas 2017, and I am away from my family and miss them dearly. These past nine days flew by. God answered my prayers to redeem my time and make my extended stay valuable for the kingdom. Through his mighty provision, God has provided many things. This morning, Tony and I walked through the house that we are renting. We are going to configure it with the capability of comfortably housing 18 people. That will give us the ability to host 12 youth mission trip partic

Today we were able to visit a couple of additional churches. The first one was Pastor Joe’s church that I spoke at last week. We were there quite early to drop off bibles and bicycles, and Joe, with his wife and two children rode along with me. Driving down the dirt road to his church, I noticed branches with green foliage lying across the road. I had seen that several times before, but never discovered the reason. I asked Joe and he explained, “It marks a funeral taking plac

I had high anticipation for this day, and we were ready to roll just after 8 a.m. To my delight, Bonface was going to drive one of the vehicles today. We lacked one major component of our truck being ready for the road; insurance had not been purchased yet. Fortunately for us, we looked online, and there appeared to be an insurance company open from nine to noon on Saturday. We got there about 8:30 AM. There was a lady cleaning the street and a few other people milling around

Each day I seem to pick up on different insights in Malawian society. I’ve noticed something for the last several days but didn’t become intentional to observe until today. All of the multitude of cell phone conversations I’ve heard there’s something missing. Tony and Joel seem to have the ability to increase their speaking speed 2-3 times at will. To me it almost sounds like the old cassette players that you could hit fast-forward and the voice inflections become too fast fo

Waking up this morning the woman’s Bible study was on my mind. Come to find out they were on a 10 day fast all 300+ praying for their country and peace in the world. And most importantly for more to come to know Jesus. I had no idea the little area where they were meeting was going to be packed so full. We had taken 192 Bibles. That wasn’t enough, he made a second trip and increased the total amount to 336. It was a wonderful time of lively worship and incredible presence of

There are some interesting things about Malawian culture I have not mentioned yet. Men hold hands with each other on occasion. I witnessed several people do it, including Tony. We have talked with them, that in our culture, that usually means a homosexual relationship, however that does not apply here. When men hold hands here, it is more of an act of friendship or respect. I told Josh when he was here, if we really liked each other as friends, we should hold hands, jokingly

I am so thankful that the Lord has surrounded me with people that share in the vision of EchoAfrica. We are able to go in many different directions simultaneously. Rhoda asked me this morning, “How do you keep so many things in your mind?” Then I realized my lifestyle had equipped me to multi-task. Utilizing those skills to the glory of God is so much more fulfilling than anything else I have pursued. Pastor Joe and myself reviewed the documents for EchoAfrica registration. T

We knew that this week would be quite busy, so I was pleased to see that Rhoda and the marvelous school director were waiting for me 10 minutes early this morning. Rhoda gave me a document that she had worked on seven years ago when they had set up a Montessori organization and needed to register it with the government. As I read through the document, I was quite pleased to see that nearly all of her outline fit with our mission. She said, “You can have this to do as you plea

Until I opened my Bible to John 15, I was unsure what my sermon at Pastor Joe’s church would be about. I instantly knew this was the topic I was to talk about. After reading through it, I tied the passage to other verses that I had been studying. Josh had been such a skilled speaker, so I hoped not to be a letdown. This could only be done through the Holy Spirit. When we arrived at the church, there may have only been 20 people there, yet the joy and magnitude of their singin

After the airport shock, I was able to go to the airport and talk to the Ethiopian Airlines representative again. The first thing I asked her was, “How many people do you have to bump today?” She looked at me as if preparing herself for the onslaught of verbal abuse she might receive. I said, “I have good news... why don’t you bump me?” She looked at me with a confused look. I had talked with her the previous day during the rescheduling of my flight and had discovered we wer

Josh and I decided to take a trip to Lake Malawi, and it was the first recreation outing of our journey. We were still intentional with everyone we talked to. All conversations would lead to Jesus. The response to our questioning about a person’s faith has always been received with joy and acceptance here. It is almost as if they feel honored that we care about them enough to ask. It is quite the contrast to what I have experienced in the states. There is no question that God

Yesterday we had talked to Tony about going with us to interview some children, but apparently there was a conflict and a change of plan. In his place, we were delighted to find out that his mother Rhoda was going to be our interpreter. She escorted us to two schools to speak with the students. Rhoda and Tony referred to the area where they live as “the ghetto” but they seemed to use the term in almost an endearing way. I don’t believe it carries the same negative connotation

Today we experienced more memorable interactions. Nazeer wanted me to take a look at his machine shop, so we met at his dealership and checked it out. We immediately identified a couple of areas that could be useful for improving productivity. In machining environments that I have been involved with, indexable carbide inserts are mainstream. The repeatability and ease of rotating to a new cutting edge is seamless. The cutting tools that they’re using are a bit more cumbersome

Today was the first day that we did not leave the hotel for the entire day, so Josh and I had a chance to lay out the basics of our plan. One of the very first steps in establishing a sturdy base in Malawi is securing the right team members. On that front, we were able to interact more with Tony at the hotel, who continues to surprise us with his depth of understanding and wisdom for 23 years old, indicating God’s presence in his life. Josh and I agree that Bible distribution