Seeing the "Real" Malawi

For those of you that may be new to this blog, the reason the Hanlons are here in Malawi is to work with African Bible College to help start up a Masters program to begin this coming August.  The past 7 months has been filled with research, designing courses, planning advertising, interviewing prospective students and a lot of other details.  Bruce has also been teaching 1 course per semester at the undergraduate level and helping out as chaplain and of course working to upgrade the library.  But all of these things happen inside the walls of ABC.  Here at the college we get the best and brightest of Malawi's secondary schools and train them to lead the country with integrity, skill, and in ways that bring honor to the Lord.  Meanwhile, "real Malawi" goes on every day in village after village tucked away on hillsides and valleys across the country.  Recently I (Bruce) have gotten to know one. 

The village of Sonoya is only about a 10 minute drive from the gates of ABC.  I've gone there now about 3 times - once with an ABC student who does an outreach ministry there, once with Walter Mutti (see older blog post), and last week to introduce an ongoing program for the village.

Having gone there a few times and seeing how there is no church or ministry operating anywhere within walking distance, my heart went out to these folks.  Now each Tuesday afternoon at 2:00 pm I go there with Bob (a fellow missionary and friend - see picture) and Stanley (an ABC senior and awesome translator) and we're going through a 15 week chronological study of the Bible.  The village chief and the chiefs from 2 surrounding villages have been coming out and we typically see about 15 - 20 people and dozens of children. 

We meet under the largest tree in the village and everyone sits on the ground together (except the chiefs).  It's a little awkward doing it all to translation but the people all hang in there.  The added bonus is that Stanley will learn the process of teaching this way and then be able to turn around and offer it to others. 


It's hard to describe the blessing it is to drive just 10 minutes and be in the middle of Malawian life the way most Malawians live it.