In-Person Update

Hi Everyone,







So, as usual, an update has been long in coming, and even now I'm not able to give much of an update.  Hopefully one will come before too long because there's plenty to share about the latest EBCoM graduation, etc.  Right now, though, I'm in the States and heading back up to Canada tomorrow as my wedding date approaches!


 Since I'll be back in BC, I figured I would take advantage of the opportunity to share a little bit about my time in Malawi to this point (an overview update).  It is very late notice, and I apologize to those who would be interested and have not yet heard through other avenues, but it will be on Thursday Aug. 2nd at 7pm in Chilliwack.  E-mail me at gregor_today@hotmail.com for more details if you are interested.  Otherwise, I will try very hard to put up a new update and some more pictures before too long.

Blessings,
Greg

Recent Events in Malawi and A Bit About my Church

The last term of the academic year just began yesterday, so I’m back into the swing of things, but I need to make a little bit of time to give you all a bit of an update.  Plenty has happened in the past 2 months!

            Last term ended with a bang with giving mock exams to the diploma students and then being confronted with 55 exams to mark and only a week to mark them before the grades for the term had to be in.  For my Church History exams, each exam had 5 essays to mark and the students had 3 hours to write, so this was no joke!  I did manage to get through it all, but with the last night being an all-night marking affair.  I’ll get to do the whole thing over again when the students write their final exams at the end of this term.  Only I anticipate that should be a little quicker since I won’t need to be giving the students feedback on their essays.  This term I’m continuing on with the same classes as last term, which is fantastic.  So with my Church History 1 class we’re moving into such topics as the East-West Schism, the Crusades, and St. Francis!  And with Church History 2, we’re continuing on with the global expansion of Christianity from the 19^th century and moving into the 20^th century, the World Wars, the charismatic movement, and the ecumenical movement!  Exciting times ahead!  I bet you wish you could sit in!  I would mention what we’re coving in Greek, but somehow I doubt that will peak many peoples’ interest (and hopefully I’m not just fooling myself that the Church History topics are peaking anyone’s interest!  Church History is awesome!  Say it with me now, “Church History is awesome!”).

My student, Justice Chiphwanya and his family

            During the break between terms I had the pleasure of having my brother, Jeff, and his girlfriend, Stacey, come and visit.  Part of me thinks I just served as a good excuse for them to come down and travel around southern Africa since they spent less than a week with me in Malawi (alas, I was unable to join them on the rest of their travels), but I’ll take what I can get and we had a wonderful time in Malawi.  I took them up to see Lake Malawi, showed them around Blantyre, and escorted them up to the capital, Lilongwe.  I like to think I gave them a full cultural tour, not just your typical, Lonely Planet Malawi expedition.  Of course, you’ll need to ask them how it was.  Since fuel is still a problem in Malawi and the cost of driving is more than the bus, we opted for the bus.  To get all the way up to Cape Maclear by bus, though, was an adventure that I hadn’t yet tried, and had I known what it all entailed, probably wouldn’t have.  On the way there it involved a big bus, which was at times packed to the gills with people standing (we were left standing for the first hour), and a matola (a flat-deck truck that you ride on the back of) to take us the final hour to the cape.  On the way back we got on the back of a regular pick-up truck for the first bit, then a matola, for the next bit, and then a minibus (since the big busses apparently only go at like 4 am from that part of the lake to Blantyre).  Each way we estimated to be about 9 hours!  Traveling around in Malawi is no joke!  Jeff and Stacey were amazing sports though!   The bus up to Lilongwe was much nicer.  While we were up at the lake we visited one of my students who lives in a village up there, and so Jeff and Stacey also got to get a sense of the village experience and got to eat nsima.  They also came to my church.  So that they could at least understand the sermon part of the service, I had arranged it so I was preaching.

My Church Bangwe AEC

            Since I don’t think I’ve done it yet, now would be a fitting time to say a little bit about my church.  I go to an Africa Evangelical Church, which is the partner church of SIM.  As most of the other missionaries go to the AEC church which is literally right beside EBCoM for the sake of an English Sunday School for their kids as well as the convenience of proximity, I’ve decided to go a little further afield – to an area called Bangwe.  It would of course be much easier to have a 5 minute walk instead of either an hour and a half minibus/walk trip or a 30 minute drive (for those times I opt for borrowing the SIM vehicle) each way, but whatev's right!?  Plus, I like my church much better than the other one anyway.  My church definitely has its frustrations, such as punctuality, long services, and very uncomfortable benches, but the people are lovely.   The service is all in Chichewa, which often times leaves me daydreaming, but there are some things I can follow.  One thing that I have noticed in every African church that I’ve been to, and mine is no exception, is a rather clear and inflexible order of service.  It might differ between churches, but each service at my church follows this order:

• Before the service there is some singing of choruses while the elders (and me) are in the vestry (the time is mostly spent getting the announcements in order) 
• Welcome 
• Psalm reading followed by Apostles Creed and the Lord’s Prayer
• Hymn #1 
• Prayer for the Church and the Country (a man will pray for one and a woman will pray for the other) 
• Hymn #2 
• Announcements (usually followed by a prayer for the announcements) 
• Choirs (typically Sunday School, Women, and then Youth choirs each come up and sing 2 songs apiece) (sometimes followed by a prayer for the choirs) 
• Reading the Scripture passage for the sermon 
• 2 Praise and Worship choruses followed by intercessory prayer (everybody prays out loud at the same time) 
• Sermon 
• Offering while singing one of 3 hymns always sung for offering (followed by prayer for the offering) 
• Hymn #3 
• Benediction 
• After the service, the preacher first, then the men’s side, then the women’s side (yes, men and women - except youth - don't sit together) file out of the church and shake hands (as you exit the church building you shake hands with those already forming a line and then you join the end of the line and continue to shake hands as people behind you do the same).

To keep this order going smoothly, each Sunday there is a convener of the service – somebody different from the preacher.   

          Once a month there is something called a Golden Sunday.  This is different from the Paper Sunday I talked about earlier.  Golden Sunday is also a special offering Sunday, but in it the church competes in its giving according to the areas where people live.  There is singing and some dancing as they do it.  The money from each area is tallied up and the area that gives the most that Sunday receives a little trophy.  I have significant theological problems with Golden Sunday.  Jeff and Stacey now know what I’m talking about since they were there on a Golden Sunday.  The Malawians in general seem to love it.  Anyway, I leave it at that.

           One of my big frustrations with the church is punctuality.  Now, I know this is Africa and it is a relationship-oriented culture rather than a task-oriented culture, but for me it is still a frustration, and even for the pastor it is a frustration.  At one point the pastor tried to make a push for starting church at 9:00 instead of 10:00.  It was unsuccessful except that now church generally starts around 10:15 instead of 10:30, 10:45, or 11:00.  Around the same time as this push for an earlier start was going on, I was leading a Bible study before church.  It was supposed to run for half an hour, from 8:00-8:30.  The elders were supposed to start meeting in the vestry then at 8:30, and the service was supposed to start at 9:00.  People weren’t coming for the Bible study though, and it usually ended up being myself, the pastor, and the EBCoM student who came to church with me.  An additional hour in an already long day of church, when people weren’t actually coming, was too much for me, and so I’m no longer leading the Bible study.  Services can run anywhere between 2 hours and 3+ hours (remember, all in Chichewa), and that long sitting on a hard, low bench with no back support is trial enough for me (see from the picture above).  All that said, I still like my church.  The singing is enthusiastic, the pastor is great (a graduate of EBCoM and also the youth coordinator for the AEC church in Malawi), and the people are very friendly.  Lately, I’ve been opting more and more for taking the SIM vehicle to have only 1 hour of travel instead of 3, and that is much better for my spirits every Sunday morning.  Another missionary couple around my age, the Voights from America, who are wonderful people with an adorable 2 year old, have also been coming to my church and so sometimes it works to catch a ride with them as well.  Anyway, that’s a quick introduction to my church.

            Perhaps some of you have seen Malawi in the news recently.  You’ll remember from previous posts that both economically and politically Malawi has not been in a very good place.  There were anti-government protests that were particularly holding the President, Bingu wa Mutharika, responsible for the woes of the country and criticizing him for increasingly autocratic behaviour and for loosing Malawi’s foreign aid from the UK, the EU, and the USA by bad governance and poor diplomatic relations.  Anyway, things in the country took a dramatic turn on Easter weekend.  On Good Friday the President died suddenly after suffering a cardiac arrest.  The official announcement of his death, however, was slow in coming and there were fears that the delay suggested that the transition to new leadership might come with conflict.  Constitutionally, the Vice President is to take the Presidency should the President be unable to rule.  However, the VP, Joyce Banda, had a falling out with the President and had been kicked out of the ruling party and had subsequently started her own party.  Bingu had since been raising up his brother, Peter Mutharika, as his preferred successor and functional deputy.  There were some arguments at the time of Bingu’s death that Joyce Banda could not rule since she was no longer part of the ruling party.  Anyway, thankfully the Constitution was honoured and Joyce Banda was sworn in as Malawi’s fourth President on Holy Saturday.  Thank God for a peaceful transition!  Of course, the problems in Malawi have not been instantly fixed, but there appears to be greater hope for the future.  Relations with donor countries, for example, are on the mend, and with renewed foreign aid, the economic problem of foreign exchange should find some relief.

            Well, that’s the latest update.  As I mentioned last time, I have some professional photos to share, so they are up and available here (at http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.563411877726.2041733.180500047&type=1&l=dde89833ae) along with others of my own photos.  Enjoy, and thanks for reading.

And Things Continue in Malawi

           Well, as usual, I show myself to be a very inconsistent blogger.  And there are plenty of other matters that could easily extend my procrastination, but it has been over 2 months and one of my friends gave me the gentle nudge that I really ought to communicate.  So, here we go.  Last I left you, I was sitting in Hartford, visiting Aften before continuing on to BC with her.  Now I presume most have heard through alternate means (most especially Facebook), but for those who haven’t heard, and because I cannot get tired of sharing and celebrating it, exactly 2 months ago today, we got engaged!  It was in New York City, after a little serenade (with the use of a busker’s guitar), and she said Yes!!!  If you want the full story, you’ll have to ask me personally, since to give details of my love life is not the mandate of this blog.  I will at least gratify you (and it is my joy to show off my beautiful fiancée!) with one of our engagement photos taken in Vancouver.

            I got back into Malawi on New Year’s Eve (very sadly sans Aften) and 2^nd term classes started quite promptly after that on Jan. 4^th.  Of course, all the Malawians (students, fellow staff, and those in my church) were eager to hear more about the engagement and asked if I had any pictures to show from the “chinkhoswe.”  Now, in Malawi, engagement doesn’t work the same as in Canada.  It is not a private affair of a proposal just between the man and woman, but is a big public event/ceremony that one has to save up a bunch of money for (in fact, I have been asked by a former student to support him in starting a business so that he can save up for his chinkhoswe).  It includes music, dancing, food and/or at least Cokes/Fantas, marital advice from family, and, depending on the tribe, negotiations between the uncle of the future groom and the uncle of the future bride.  As I understand it, these negotiations conclude with each uncle tearing off a leg from a roast chicken, signifying that they have conferred with each other and if the couple is to ever to have marital problems, they should come to these very same uncles for help (lest the marriage tear apart like the chicken).  So needless to say, I had to tell Malawians that while in Canadian engagements there is a nice romantic story, and the offering of a ring, there is no chinkhoswe ceremony to speak of. 

            This term has been going very well, continuing on with the same courses from last term.  I am especially loving teaching through Church History and am finding that even though I have taken courses on the History of Christianity three different times through my education, I am still learning (and re-learning) a ton in course preparations and it is really helping to solidify things even more and also see themes and discussion points that emerge to help to make it relevant for the students.  For Church History 2 (Reformation to present day), upon the students request, since one of our classes is during the last period in the day and it can often be too hot to concentrate well, we have 2 typical lecture-style classes and 1 discussion class in a week.  That discussion class is more based off of an issue or implication that rises out of the lectures and enables the students to respond practically and theologically to the course content.  I prepare some questions (which we may or may not get through), and then we arrange ourselves in a circle and go for it.  It is a class of 8 and many of them can be quite vocal and so we’ve come to a number of heated discussions that, I think at least, have prompted good thoughts and reflections.  Through the month of February we have a college inspector who is dropping into classes (unannounced) and will be giving a review of the college at the end.  He happened to come to one of these discussion classes (so far the only class of mine that he’s dropped in on), so hopefully he appreciated its pedagogical value as much as I do!

            In the course of the term so far, we have also had Spiritual Emphasis Days, Sports Fellowship, and Work Fellowship.  Spiritual Emphasis Days happen once a year and go from one Monday afternoon through the day of Tuesday, and provide a retreat of sorts from classes and an opportunity to focus on a spiritual theme together as a college, listening to a guest speaker.  The theme this year was “Running with a Purpose” and I found the teachings to be excellent, encouraging, and challenging.  Last term in Sports Fellowship the lecturers won an unprecedented victory in soccer against the students, and so coming into this term’s Sport’s Fellowship, the students were not going to hold anything back; and it showed, with them annihilating us something like 6 or 7 to 1!  Despite the slaughter, it was good fun!  Work Fellowship is another regular activity of each term where one afternoon the faculty join the students in maintenance and upkeep work around the college, which includes slashing grass (in lieu of lawnmowers), filling in potholes in the driveway, etc.  

            There were fears through the month of December, with poor rains, that in addition to the rise in prices due to other economic factors, that there would also be a poor harvest this year.  Thankfully, the rains have just come a little late this year (with the help of a cyclone off the coast of Mozambique), and have come through January in abundant supply so that the harvest looks like it will be a good one.  The last few weeks in Malawi have been especially hot and humid, leading to some discomfort and lack of energy for me, but I’m thankful that I have better adapted over the course of the past year to such things (though, I must say that I absolutely loved coming for winter back to the States and Canada – well, Vancouver, so not really winter at all, but still much cooler and more delightful for me than the heat of Malawi!).  Adding to the difficulty of the humidity is the fact that power cuts and water shortage remain a continual problem.  For example, as I write this, just 10 minutes ago the power went off and will probably come back in a couple of hours.  Since I need power for the internet, you won’t be seeing this blog until the power is back.  The water has actually been out since Sunday this week (usually it’s not this bad), but thankfully as I’ve been writing I’ve heard the sound of it begin to trickle back – ah, I get to take a shower tonight!

            I mentioned about the national economic situation in Malawi last posting and also some of the effects on the students food budget.  The situation has continued and as is normal in the rainy season before the harvest, the prices have gone up even more, and this especially on local grown foods as well.  There is the normal rise and fall, but this year things became drastic where in the course of a week in early January, the price of the staple food, maize flour, used for making nsima, doubled in price!  It has since been fluctuating and prices will vary in different markets.  Now, the students (and pretty much the whole country) eat nsima every meal (except breakfast generally), and so you can imagine the effect that would have.  The students have made even more efforts to trim their budget, but it has been insufficient and resulted in a shortfall.  As it stands, they will not have money to ride out the last 2 weeks of the term.  It is a complicated situation and opinions differ regarding what the solution is or whether any help should be given to the students, but anyway, I mention it so that you might pray for God’s hand to be over the situation and for mindsets and attitudes to be brought to Christian maturity while also physical needs (and possibly even desires) could be met.  It is an opportunity for growth not only for the students, but also for those in church leadership.  There will be an EBCoM Council meeting next Thursday and the matter will be taken up there.

            Aside from the difficulties associated with the food, I have still very much enjoyed joining the students for lunches.  It seems that over the past few weeks there has been a group of students who have particularly become consistent in joining me, and they have also made it their mission to teach me some new Chichewa words every day.  Without writing them down, I’m still very much hopeless at remembering them, but slowly-slowly things come along.  Sometimes we’ll try to speak in Chichewa – and sometimes I ask them to summarize the lectures back to me in Chichewa that I’ve just given them in English.  Other times it is just nice to chat in English and discuss things from why missionaries do things the way they do, pointing out cultural distinctives between Canada and Malawi, sharing experiences, talking about classes, and (a new one for today) them treating me as a dictionary to explain nuances between different English words – which is only fair since I use them to learn Chichewa!

            This coming Sunday is an annual event called EBCoM Sunday, when the faculty and students of EBCoM go out to the various affiliated denominations around Blantyre and lead the services and promote EBCoM.  I will be going with three students to a nearby Zambezi Evangelical Church.  They have an English and a Chichewa service, so I will be preaching in the English service and one of the students convening, while the other 2 students will preach and convene in the Chichewa service.  In the course of the morning, more information will be given about EBCoM, and then an offering will be taken to support the running of the school.  I have yet to prepare my sermon, but it should be a good time, and I know I enjoyed it last year.

            Anyway, that’s all from me for now.  No new pictures right now, but a little while back a professional photographer who’s a friend of one of the missionaries came and visited and took some pictures around our different ministries, so I’ll try to get my hands on some more of those and post them.  He also did a brief video thing of me explaining a little of what I’m up to here, so if anyone’s interested in that, it can be seen below.  Thanks for reading!  

Greg

New Academic Year

I am now in Hartford, spending the days quite laid back while Aften is at work, but it gives me the opportunity to catch up a bit on blogging.  As I mentioned in the brief last post, things went quite well this term at EBCoM.  It is a full college this year with around 70 full-time residential students and 70 extension students.  It was great to be there for the start of an academic year as the returning students got back and we got to catch up on how the break was and also to get acquainted with the new students.  I was already familiar with several of them since I had been involved in the interviews, but now was the opportunity to get to know them better, both in class and over lunch.  It was fun to see their reactions as I joined them for lunch on the first day.  They weren’t quite sure what was going on that one of their lecturers would be eating with them.  One of the students even asked if I was a student!  Too funny!  Well, once the new students realized that I was joining them, the table I was sitting at became packed, and they began to grill me with questions about Canada and differences with Malawi.  Without fail one of their first questions is, what is the staple food in Canada?  And I have to explain to them how spoilt Canadians are that we don’t have just one staple food which we eat 2 meals a day, every day, and that Canadians love variety and wouldn’t think of eating the same thing twice in a day unless it was leftovers or something.  Another typical question is, what is Canada’s cash crop?  And again I have to explain that Canada doesn’t work like that where its economy is based on one particular crop. (For Malawi, the cash crop is tobacco, which has become a significant economic problem in recent years as global demand has gone down.  Furthermore, there was a poor crop this year, adding to Malawi’s present economic woes – see more below).  But anyway, back to the lunch table…the students were grilling me with so many question that one noticed that I wasn’t even having time to eat, and so told the others to back off a bit, and I assured the students that I would be with them every day, so there would be plenty of time to ask away, which they've been doing!  As Chichewa has become a little more familiar, it’s been a little better memorizing the students’ names.  Something like “Chikondi” or “Kachepa” or “Kaziputa” is much easier to remember if you already know the word means “love” or “go and become less” or “go and begin things” (respectively).  Others like “Mkandawire”, even if you don’t know what they mean, become easier once you’re more familiar with Chichewa.  And others, generally among first names, are just plain easy.  For example, around the table on the first day I had names like Justice, Happy, Master, Marshall, and Thompson.  Some of the new students are trying to tackle calling me by my last name (which is the normal practice in Malawi), but as they find it very difficult (and I like to think also because they are on more casual/personal terms with me) most stick with my first name, which I am completely happy with. 

The church for Misasa

Another good experience that I got to have this term was going to a church camp-out, or what they called, Misasa for the Africa Evangelical Churches (which is the denomination that SIM is partnered with and which I go to) in Blantyre.  There are 8 AEC churches in and around Blantyre, and so they came together at one of them, Soche, for a weekend camp-out.  I didn’t go the whole weekend, but I went from Saturday afternoon to Sunday and took two EBCoM students with me.  They rotate between the different churches, but this one in Soche seemed like an odd choice since the church doesn’t yet have a roof; they just put a large plastic sheet over whenever they meet.  That made the camp-out part quite interesting since we were just sleeping on the church floor.  Most of the other SIM Missionaries just came on Sunday morning for the church service to end it; I was the only one to brave spending a night.  It wasn’t the easiest thing, but I’m glad I did it.  The night wasn’t the most restful.  I was surprised to find that the Malawians, who tend to be fairly early-to-bed, were quite chatty as they all laid on the church floor.  They were cracking jokes, telling gossip, etc. with no pretences of hushed whispers.  It was after midnight before things settled down, and the morning was set to start before 6 am.  Throughout the weekend there were different sessions filled with choirs and preaching (on the topic of Giving – which tends to be a favourite topic in Malawi and with the implication being on the church offering, which tends to be a great shortcoming in Malawi).  [I’m not convinced though that more preaching on the topic changes peoples’ habits in any way though].  Anyway, there was a Lot of long hours of sitting on uncomfortable brick rows and listening to Chichewa that I could not understand.  Also, there was a generator for lights and a PA system that wasn’t working very well but was placed right by the door (both funneling a lot of noise pollution as well as general pollution into the church, with me sitting right close to the door).  So much of those two days was very hard for me, but there were other things that were very good to experience, like the baptisms on Saturday (over 20 youth), the ordination of one pastors (whom I know quite well since he also works in the SIM office), and fellowship over food (which each church arranged for their own church).

One of the difficulties of this past term is that Malawi seems to be sinking deeper into a very difficult economic situation.  I’ve mentioned before about some of the political factors contributing to it and foreign aid (and thankfully things seem to have gotten better on that front), but the Malawian Kwatcha has been devalued and is likely to be further devalued, and the prices for things are going up.  I’ve mentioned before how a lack of foreign exchange reserves in the country prevents certain things like fuel to be imported in large quantities, and the fuel crisis continues in a big way.  But this also affects other businesses and transport, and has a vicious cycle of crippling the economy.  Fuel has gone up well over 30%, but also grocery items in the stores have gone up as well, and it is really affecting people.  For the students at EBCoM there had been new arrangements set in place by their donors to increase their food allowance to better provide for them.  Things started off great with a meal of rice in the weekly menu and even a small provision for meat in the menu.  As the term went on though, the students had to scale back and scale back so that they even had to reduce their menu to alternating between two relishes – beans, and rape vegetable and an egg (i.e. they had to cut out fish because of the expense).  Their amount for food will be up slightly in the second term because of a provision from the sponsors for the normal annual peaks in costs during the rainy season, but for the third term it will go down again and is likely to be a great struggle for the students.  I was pleased with the students’ resolve not to strike like they did last year, but I sympathize with their situation especially since I know the sponsor organizations have already made their budgets for the year and cannot just increase the amount they give the students.  Please pray for the situation in Malawi!

That’s all for this post.  Some new pictures can be seen here (http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.550654548516.2039466.180500047&type=1&l=cbea5b0107).  I doubt I’ll have another one up before Christmas, so I’ll take this opportunity to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! 

A Visit Home

No, I have not died.  Apologies for absolutely no communication for some months now.  I think I mentioned previously how this term was going to be a busy one.  It was indeed that!  At the same time I thoroughly enjoyed it, and am happy that these courses run through the whole academic year, so I get to continue on with the same courses (with one more small addition) through the next two terms.  As of today the term is already over and most of the students have gone home already.  It has been wonderful getting to know the first year students and to have the returning students back.  I feel as though they also enjoyed the courses that they had with me and would like to think that they learned lots too!

I will be writing a longer blog post hopefully soon, but for the time-being, the other main development that I wanted to share is that I too will be going home in this term break for Christmas!  Actually, most of my trip will be spent in Hartford, Connecticut to visit my girlfriend (whom I mentioned in a previous post).  But we will then be coming together to BC.  There I will get to see a new addition to the family - my new niece, Lucy!  Now, to avoid disappointment, I need to warn you that our time in BC will be short and family-centred so it will not be possible to get together with as many as I would have liked.  Still, I am very much looking forward to seeing some of you again before I head back to Malawi.

But as for now, I must be brief, particularly because I fly out tomorrow!  In fact, in 24 hours I should be getting ready for takeoff!  Lots to do before then!

Greg, meet Tanzania

I have uploaded the pictures from Tanzania now as well.  They can be seen here (http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.544348665556.2038044.180500047&l=c9d7cf49c6&type=1).  I won't say anything more about it, but let the pictures speak for themselves (with comments of course).  I'll only add that the picture below is a panorama of the Ngorongoro Crater (for some reason I was not able to put it up on facebook).  Enjoy

Graduation and My Parents' Visit

As usual, I must start with apologies for long-overdue blogging, and especially when the last one was leaving you in the lurch with political unrest.  There is so much – too much! – to talk about, but it’s high time I get back into this.  Plus, the next academic year begins in less than 3 weeks, and my course-load and responsibilities are really very heavy (close to double last term with added library responsibility), so the time is now.  I hope to let pictures do most of the talking, especially for travel stuff. 

So, even though the next academic year is about to start, I never actually shared anything about graduation at the end of last academic year!  During the week of graduation the campus seemed like a completely different place from the week before.  For starters, throughout the whole term the second year students were away on term-out ministry assignments, which placed them all over Malawi and even a few in Mozambique.  On the Sunday to start the final week, they all returned to the campus.  At chapel on Monday they each had a few minutes to share a little bit about their experience, and it was magnificently encouraging!  Almost all of them were re-ignited with a passion for ministry, and this passion was contagious for the rest as they shared.  Many found new focus and direction in what they want to pursue after graduation.  Some observed for the first time and were struck by the prevalence of nominal Christianity, and in seeing it they felt keenly the need for outreach, evangelism, and discipleship.  Several whom I talked with expressed how much they could see after this term-out experience that they had something to offer – that their education to this point has equipped them to minister, yet they also felt the need to continue through their final year of studies and learn more to become better equipped.  I heard of a couple students as well who gained such a sense of passion and felt the need for ministers that instead of returning home in this break between terms, they returned of their own accord to the areas where they had been for term-out!  You can imagine then how the second years returning had a great impact on the general atmosphere around the college!  Needless to say, I was greatly encouraged and their words really helped give me renewed vision, recognizing that although I’m not doing the pastoral or evangelical work on the ground per se, my teaching role is contributing a lot to enable others to do it. 

In the final week, final grades had to be submitted in to the Academic Dean by Monday, classes ended on Tuesday, and graduation was on Friday.  Even though there were classes on Monday and Tuesday, since grades had to be in already and final exams had already been written, I used the opportunity to allow my students to raise any questions they might have, whether related to the content of the courses or not (since they were 3^rd years, this would be their last opportunity to have this sort of discussion in the classroom with their fellow students).  So, we discussed stuff like end times, military and pacifism, witch doctors and traditional doctors, etc.  Good times.

From Tuesday through to graduation on Friday it was the time for the students to party.  There were still preparations for graduation to be done and cleaning up the campus and rooms to be done, and these were, but otherwise in the evenings different clubs and groups that met throughout the year had year-end parties.  I was invited to two of these – one I was asked to come and preach at, the other was one I participated with throughout the year, and I could just come and enjoy.  It is quite interesting how the students here celebrate a year-end party.  Budgets are tight, of course, so one cannot splurge as one might in Canada, but they do splurge to the extent they are able: Cokes and Fantas and some sort of snack – mandazi (Malawian doughnuts), a bun, or biscuits.  Besides that there is singing of praise choruses, prayer, and a short sermon!  On Thursday night was the big year-end party though, and for that they really splurged.  It started off with some speeches, some singing, and a sermon.  Then we had a great chicken and rice dinner (note: their food budget for this term was very frugal, no longer even having rice once a week and certainly no meat).  There were also Cokes and Fantas a-plenty.  After all that the real fun broke out with a big dance party!  It was super fun, went on for a good couple of hours, and many were quite surprised to find me to be such an enthusiastic participant!  (I'll restrain myself from putting up video of that)  A couple of things I found particularly hilarious and entertaining: as soon as the dancing started, out came the cell phones (and a few cameras) to take pictures, and when people were having their pictures taken, they would continue dancing as they posed together (pretty much ensuring that the cell phone-quality pictures would be blurry).  Here's a video of us posing for pictures:

The Graduating Class of 2011

The next morning was the graduation ceremony itself.  It was outside under a tent, but it ended up being a very cold day and even misting a little bit.  I was reasonably cold, even in a suit, but many of the Malawians were outright shivering cold!  In the ceremony, very much like in Canada, there are grad gowns (though no hat with tassel), a procession, speeches, a sermon/address, and crossing of the stage to get the certificate/diploma.  Unlike a Canadian graduation, the procession and crossing of the stage are danced.  Also, once the graduate received his/her certificate/diploma, they were congratulated at the front with hugs by a receiving party.  It started off where just the husband or wife of the graduate would dance up to hug congratulations to him/her, but as it went on it became a whole crowd of close friends/family – making for a lot of congestion, disorder, and delay, but mostly joy!  After the ceremony the graduates lined up and everyone congratulated all of them, then there were some refreshments.  Within an hour or two, though, most of the students had left for home and the term was officially ended (though still with some very long meetings for lecturers and a staff retreat in the following week).

The break has been a very good length (2 months) and has genuinely been a good break.  From what follows you'll see that there have been several highlights.  The biggest highlight for me, though, I won't even talk about apart from this mention: I now have a girlfriend - Aften Wilson - and I am so happy!

Anyway, onward.... As I mentioned in my previous post, there was an SIM Spiritual Life Conference – basically a week-long retreat for all the SIM missionaries in Malawi.  It was in the central region of Malawi in Kasungu, and was a wonderful time of rest, fellowship with the other missionaries, and some good teaching sessions.  Howie Brant, A third-generation missionary who has spent most of his life in Ethiopia, was the speaker and brought up some very challenging content along the theme of “Expanding your Vision.”  I was especially challenged by some of his stories from his time as a missionary, such as discipling a group of 6 as communism came to power in Ethiopia and what God did through them after he was kicked out of the country.

My parents, me, and 2 other SIM short-termers, Rahel and Salome, at Lake Malawi

The day after the retreat ended, my parents arrived to visit me in Malawi.  It was an absolutely wonderful visit.  I was able to take them up to Lake Malawi, and on the 4-hour drive up there they were able to see quite a lot of the Malawian countryside.  They also came to my church.  Upon finding out that my parents were going to be there, the elders in the church decided that I should preach, so my parents didn't even have to sit through a sermon in Chichewa.  My parents also got to meet many of my friends out here, whether EBCoM lecturers, SIM missionaries, my bible study group, or others.  I think my parents were very comforted to see that I have such a strong community around me here.  Aside from just being able to enjoy their company and show them around Malawi a little bit, my parents also wanted to treat me (and themselves!) to a bit of a vacation too, so we also went up to Tanzania for a safari in the Serengeti/Ngorongoro Crater as well as a visit to Zanzibar.  I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking, but it was tremendous.  We saw so many animals!  And very many of them we saw very close so that even though none of us have amazing cameras, we still got some really great shots.  To just give a short list, we saw giraffes, zebras, baboons, antelope of several varieties, wildebeest, buffalo, elephants, hippos, hyenas, lions, cheetahs, and leopards!  Not bad, not bad.  Then being in Zanzibar was like shifting to an entirely different context.  There is a strong Arabic influence, the islands are 95% Muslim, and we were there during Ramadan.  Zanzibar is known as the spice islands, and we got to enjoy those first-hand while there.  We also enjoyed some fresh seafood from the night market.  After all the travels my parents proceeded on back home to Canada and I flew back into Malawi, where I was expecting to be greeted by anti-government, country-wide protests that had been scheduled for the day….

As I mentioned in the previous post, there have been some troubling things going on in Malawi during the break between terms.  The issues have not yet been resolved, but there is peace on the streets and the riots that I posted about ended by the third day after they had started.  One of the issues is a lack of foreign currency in the country, and insufficient export credit to fund the necessary imports.  This, however, has been coupled with the recent loss of foreign aid to the country due to other political issues.  It's led to an increased cost of living, which many find difficult to cope with.  One very noticeable import is fuel.  While the vast majority of Malawians don't have vehicles, for businesses and the transportation of goods it is essential.  Since the country cannot import it in large quantities, there is a general shortage, which means most fuel stations much of the time do not have either Petrol or Diesel, or both!  When one of the stations does get something, a huge line-up is bound to form fast, leaving people in the queues for hours and hours with the possibility of the fuel being out by the time they actually get to the pump.  Thankfully there has been a little relief to this the past week, so lets hope it remains that way.

A glimpse at the chaos.  Sucks for cars just wanting to drive past!

When we were traveling to Lake Malawi, we were using a diesel vehicle, which was (and still is) in short supply.  We had to resort to alternate means of getting fuel in order to get back to Blantyre – i.e. fuel purchased in and transported from Mozambique.  Whether one wants to call this “black market” or merely “a helpful service”, I leave that to you (though I prefer the former for the sake of the story!).  There were more protests scheduled for the 17^th of August (the day I returned from travelling with my parents), but because a UN delegation has been sent to help discussions between NGOs and the government, they were called off.  Should there be no headway made, though, more protests, including marches, vigils, and striking are scheduled for the 21 of September.  Please continue to pray for peaceful resolution to the situation, and a genuine desire on both sides to seek the good of the country.

Right, so I think I'll leave the rest for pictures with their comments.  I'm putting up two different albums.  The first is Malawi-related (EBCoM graduation, some other randoms, and my parents visit to Malawi), and the second is the Tanzania trip.  Sorting through pictures is taking longer than expected so the Tanzania ones are still to come, but the Malawi-related ones can be seen here (http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.544223281826.2037989.180500047&l=55d928fdcb&type=1).  Thanks for reading!