ABOUT 7 MONTHS LATER….
After sharing with various people over this period of time, I have heard from the Lord. He desires that I keep “writing down” our experiences. So, with a renewed heart and spirit, it’s my prayer that the Lord will bless mightily, all those who read these thoughts and words. I pray too, for Gods anointing as I write. May only His words be written on these pages, to the glory of His Majestic name – not for our glory. Amen….
We tried a few business ideas but none seemed to work out. One day we decided to try making some food at home and selling it in the city centre. This began to work and God blessed us with customers as we prayed daily.
He sent us men and women who wanted to learn the word. Some were paid a small wage and others only had their needs met through the business as opposed to earning a monthly wage. Each day this little food business provided a wonderful platform for teachings. The Word could be taught and then practically outworked at the same time.
From this business, many refugees and Hobos were also fed, not only with physical food but with spiritual food. In the months of operation, the business never made a material profit, (spiritually of course, it was different), but our needs were somehow always met. Thank you Lord. Each day we had enough to buy the next day’s materials for business and the balance was enough to buy food and toiletries for us all.
It was very difficult to live this way, not knowing each day what would happen. We had to eat the staple foods because that’s all we were able to purchase. God provided. We grumbled, (just like the children in the desert!) because we had to get used to a different way of living. We quickly came to realize the difference between ‘our needs’ and ‘our wants’. God will always provide His children with what they need, but often we misunderstand this because of our sour and selfish hearts.
As I left the young men packing away the restaurant, I went to the local PTC Supermarket to buy our requirements for tomorrow’s restaurant. I only have enough money to buy exactly what we need for the restaurant – not enough to buy some toiletries Kathy has asked me to get. On my way I meet Mr. Banda outside the supermarket. We greeted and he told me he had been looking for me since we had ministered in his house three weeks ago.
He said the Lord had told him to give my family K20.00 and proceeded to give me a K20.00 note! I couldn’t believe my eyes! Thank you Lord- I can buy some toiletries for the family – just at the right time!
We had no electricity and had to cook everything on open fires. Our washing had to be done by hand, or feet when we were tired. Ironing was done with a coal iron.
Life was certainly different and hard, but God’s grace was greater than the situation and He poured out His love and strength on us.
We drew very close to God and began to understand how He was working. Hein and Erika’s parting had left a great gap in our lives and we had little fellowship with other people of our culture for some months. Much was being revealed to us.
The situation in David’s house began to deteriorate very rapidly. With so many of us living together, sharing everything, it was understandable. David had asked me to disciple him closely in the same way that he had seen us being discipled at Nottingham Road. When I discussed how difficult it was, he still insisted we go ahead. I felt that Zelifa was not ready for this method of discipling, but again he assured me she was willing. She was becoming angrier by the day. Communications broke between us which made things very difficult in the house.
Many of the things which we had brought with us from S.A. had been stolen. Every time we went out of the house, we came back to find that our personal belongings had been gone through. Wayne and Theresa-Anne’s school bags went missing. We were getting very angry and upset. God was really showing us how our hearts were set on the importance of worldly things. It’s not that we should be careless with the things God entrusts to our stewardship, but our hearts should not be tied to those things. This was the Lords way of showing us where our hearts truly were. After all, if we really believed they were Gods things, why were we getting angry?
The way the Lord had showed us to live was difficult, especially across the culture barrier. As agreed, I was to control all the finances with Kathy controlling household purchases. This angered Zelifa even more, because she had no money of her own. We tried to share that this was part of the discipling process and God wanted her to be reliant on Him, not on money. A man came to the house one-day asking for K400.00 owed to him by Zelifa. David knew nothing about this. It was discovered that certain secret businesses were going on without David’s permission or knowledge. We now could see why Zelifa’ s anger was so great – her deceitful ways were being exposed!
Our money was now finished, except for the emergency reserve, which my lack of faith caused me to hold on to. However, the Lord was working in our hearts and we were slowly learning to trust more. I had tried many kinds of ways to earn money, but without capital in this third world economy, we were not having much success. We began to prepare traditional food at the house and then take it into town to sell. Our first day we made K65.00 and so decided to follow that path.
Frank, the Pastor asked if he and his family could help. I explained that we could not pay a salary because profit margins were too fine but that we would all share food bought with the profits. It was agreed and the business slowly grew. We took the Combi and trailer into town and set up a ‘mobile restaurant’ on a daily basis. As Zelifa’ s anger grew we had to prepare the food at Frank’s house and then proceed to town at about 11 o’clock each day. I would help ‘set up shop’ and then leave the brothers and sisters to do the business.
Some weeks before, when Hein was still here, we had visited the ‘Chinese Gardens’ in central Lilongwe (a kind of park), where we found a group of Malawians apparently praying. It sounded as though they were praying in tongues but we couldn’t be sure.
We decided to join them and were immediately blessed. After praying they looked up and said, “Where did you come from”? We explained and they were shocked. It turned out that that was their last day of prayer in a fast seeking the Lord for His will to be done in their group. They asked if we could come and teach them on a regular basis, so we began doing this daily after dropping the ‘restaurant’ off. Timing was always perfect, as the ministry was finished, I picked up the restaurant. I took the ‘takings’ and went to buy the next day’s requirements for the restaurant. There was just enough left over to buy some of our needs, such as soap, meal, bread and milk.
“…Time with The Master…”