This Thursday was our second in the book of Romans. We got as far as verse 6 of chapter 1.
The trip out was difficult as I was feeling sick but at least the roads were not wet and muddy...well, not as much as they usually are. On arrival, we had a wonderful time of prayer. It is amazing to see the growth in prayer that has taken place with this group of leaders. We can sense the power of God as we pray and the singing is nothing less than amazing. Mr Nkhoma is sick but still comes and so his nephew Yowasi leads. His voice is just full of intimacy. You just know that He knows the One he is speaking about. I always count it a privilege that I can be a part of this type of worship...because sometimes in town, we are taken up with song words on brochures, or the wrong key that the keyboard just hit...or that could just be me. Things like that distract me. Things like spelling errors in the song words and microphones that suddenly stop working. Not always but sometimes, I get distracted. In the village, it just seems so simple...focus on God, worship Him because He is worthy to be praised. And that we did.
Our first order of business was to see whether everyone had done their homework of memorising their scriptures. Romans 8, verse 1 and 2. There was applause as one after another men and women, young and old recited the verses. 31 were flawless, 11 were able to say one and 11 others were unable. Each group received encouragement and admonition as was fitting. Of the 31 flawless was Nadiyango, who is a lady from Kasakula (in Kalimbira). She is illiterate but because of the availability of the talking bible, she is able to hear the word as well as recite it. when she recited her verses the room was filled with cheering! She now comes to the class with her chief who is a believer. What is beautiful about Group Village Headman Kasakula is that he sits amidst his fellow leaders (somewhere in the 5th row), never looking for special treatment. He is an eager student, raising his hand and attempting to answer questions. When I think about the people that he is over and how we find myself teaching him...it is a little unsettling. I guess that is the beauty of the Kingdom...the cross is the great equalizer...we are all one in Christ.
16 of the 31 that flawlessly said their two scriptures did not have bibles and were given Full Life Study Bibles as it is the standard bible for the class. It affords the group a concordance and articles as well as commentaries. We now find people from the village able to tell you when a book was written, why and the main theme of that book...you are just blown away. Though bibles have doubled in price in the last year most of the class has still been able to have one. It now costs 60% of what it costs to feed a family of.
The highlight of the day was an old granny who had not memorised her scriptures but told us how much she loves the class and how people are even asking her now where she learnt all that she knows, “I may not be able to memorise but I love this class, I love learning.” It was a warming testimony. She became my granny. I love having grannies....
In our teaching we covered being equipped for the calling of God. We talked about being in a foreign country, like Mozambique but having Malawian Kwacha. “You cannot use Kwacha in Mozambique. You will find yourself sleeping on the street, going hungry just because you have money but it is not for where you are. God has supernaturally equipped us, He has graced us to do the work that He has called us to but that grace of for what HE has called us to. There is not grace to sin...in the sense that there is no empowerment from Him, now favour, now supernatural ability to sin. There is grace to make it out of sin. Walking outside the will of God is like being in Mozambique with Kwacha. The wealth that God has deposited in you will only bless you and others when you are where He has placed you, when you are fulfilling your destiny.”
We also talked about how nothing is made without purpose. Everything has a purpose before it is even made, and that goes especially for us that are made in His image. Our very existence in this day speaks to the truth that we have purpose in this day.
We left with a sense of purpose, of humility in realisation that we need God to constantly keep us on the path that He has set for us because our hearts were filled with this awareness that we WILL stand before Him to give an account as to whether we lined up with the purpose for which we were created.
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