Serving in Mission
Periodic fuel shortage has been a part of life in Malawi for a long time, but this time it started in mid 2009 and is still continuing. Not only continuing, it seems to be getting worse. The photo above was taken just yesterday (23rd December 2011). As I was observing the usual chaos as the vehicles queued up to the local fuel station, I noticed the words on the front of a lorry, and I could not resist taking a picture. And here is a video clip from 11th December 2011. EBCoM Academic Year 2011-2012 Term 1 is half-way through. Our mid-term break was only Friday off, but because of my regular ‘study day’ (lecture-free day) on Thursdays, I had a good long-weekend. What did I achieve?
I feel quite tired after all this, but I am glad of what was achieved. Yesterday was EBCoM graduation day to conclude the academic year 2010. As usual (or perhaps a little more than usual?), the last 2 days before the graduation were quite chaotic, but thankfully everything came together.
Graduation day is my (megumi’s) once a year occasion to wear suit and tie. When I came out of house to leave for the college this morning, 2 younger dogs barked at me as if I were a stranger. I guess they had not seen me in suit before, but do I look that different…?
Above all else, it was great that all the graduating students showed the quality of their character which can only come from God. They wanted something different from the college’s traditional/official protocol, but instead of insisting on what they want, they willingly accepted the college decision. In this day and age, this sort of behaviour is rare, and we are very glad that our graduates have shown that they are different.
When I woke up this morning, I found various parts of my body was aching. It must be that chair carrying I did. Perhaps I will let others do that next year. After queueing all day and getting no petrol on Thursday last week, I drove our car to the local BP station at 3:30 am Friday morning. About 10 other vehicles were already there. Some were probably left over night from Thursday. Our car stayed there for 4 days (3 nights), and finally yesterday (Mon) I was able to buy some petrol at around 4:00 pm. Some say the trouble is over and everything is getting back to normal. Others say the present limited supply is no more than temporary and the worst is yet to come. I don’t know what the truth might be. There is one thing I thought about over the last few weeks. As I queued for diesel and petrol, I thought how happy, encouraged, secure and privileged I would feel if SIM Malawi’s country director had said, “Don’t worry, because I have secured 10,000 litres each of petrol and diesel for SIM members.” Well, he hadn’t. But Jesus said something similar, along the line of “Don’t worry, because God has secured all necessary supplies, and He will supply all your needs.” Why then wasn’t I feeling happy, encouraged, secure or privileged? Perhaps I was ‘of little faith’. I repented. As I spent much of the day time since Friday at the filling station, I met a number of people I did not know before, and had good time chatting with a friend/colleague who lives in the neighbourhood. It wasn’t a waste of time. I think it was the time well-spent for character building and connecting with people. Still, after a good night sleep (without having to be alert to any signs of a fuel tanker arriving), today was a day to attend to things in life other than queueing for fuel. First, I had a dental appointment. I walked to town, and had my tooth sorted out. Then I walked to a hardware store and bought a 5-litre tub of rubberised bitumen. I came home, changed into work clothes, and went up on to the roof over the back porch with a paint brush and the tub of bitumen. The roof has been leaking, so I wanted to fix that. After lunch, I needed a little siesta, and then I made a start for fixing a chair that has been broken for over a month. The repair will have to continue tomorrow.
As I took Elizabeth to the horse riding session one day last week, I thought we might all have to be learning how to ride horses, if the present fuel shortage in Malawi continues much longer. Today, we had an interesting experience of witnessing our American colleagues prepare for their thanksgiving celebration. During our home assignment in 2008-2009, we often spoke about Angela, a little orphan girl visited by a Home Based Care team of volunteers from a local church in Blantyre. In 2006, a family from Australia joined the team in visiting and met Angela. On our visit to Australia in 2008, we had a privilege of visiting the family in their home, where we saw a large portrait of Angela drawn by their elder daughter as a part of her Art course work at school. It clearly showed how talented she was, but it showed more than that; she continued to ‘speak’ of the little friend she met in Malawi. This morning, Helen invited me to join her for the home based care visit, as Angela was one of the ‘patients’ scheduled to be visited. I had only seen her in photos and the drawing, so I decided to go. Angela was the last on the list, and when we reached her house she was not home. She wasn’t at school, as this is a holiday time for government schools. Her grandmother told us that she was playing with friends outside. That was great. She was well enough to do that. We gave the grandmother a picture of Catie kneeling next to her drawing of Angela. We explained how Angela is remembered, introduced to others, and prayed for by many. The grandmother looked very happy and proud. She showed us Angela’s recent school report, which placed her in the top 3rd group of her year. She also wanted to know if that Australian family will return. We told her that they would like to someday.
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