Presently I am seated in the breezeway of my host-home – truly lovely and comfortable, my Malawi home away from home. The breezes are warm; the skies are clear and blue, hazy with a few puffy clouds at the horizon; and the jacaranda, bougainvillea and roses promising and fresh: it is spring in Malawi. The birds are chirping, the chicks in the yard are attending clucking hens – and the gardener beams his youthful smile.
My flights yesterday from Indianapolis to D.C., from D.C. to Addis Ababa, and from Addis to Lilongwe were all uneventful and easy – and those who greeted me upon my arrival, in response to my taking delight in the midday warmth, said, “Ah, no. It is too hot!” Malawians, “the warm heart of Africa”, enjoy neither heat nor cold, for they are unaccustomed to either. That is, from an American perspective, they know not the heat of Arizona, Texas, and Florida in August, nor the cold of North Dakota, Upper Michigan, and Maine in January. Comparatively, the seasons here are those of San Diego – little variation.
Again, my twenty-five hours en route were easy – hardly a moment of turbulence – whereby I uttered this morning, “I am truly a blessed man.” And I am, although with my utterance I was reminded of that Jewish experience: to be blessed has meant suffering, thus prompting many a Jewish mama to quip: “Enough with the blessings all ready!”
However, most likely informing my remembrance is my experience of last year, when I left this present home with the unrelenting pain of a kidney stone stuck. Even so, because of that stone, I knew the loving kindness (חֶ֫סֶד) of God through the leadership of Kaning’a CCAP, who provided for me, wisely curtailing my visit, sending me home to the care of “my people.”
This morning, as I remembered their provisions, I thought of the many of you, who, when informed of my returning here, promptly sent emails of encouragement. One such email read: “Praying. Praying. Praying.” As if caught in a sudden, springtime downpour, I know that I am showered with prayer, which will sustain me, whatever the next eighteen days brings. Thus I am reminded of Paul’s words to his beloved Philippians: “I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance (σωτηρία)”[1], and so it will for me and for those about me.
More soon,
Stan
[1] Cf. Philippians 1:19.