During my time in Malawi I attended four different churches. Last week I shared about the first two churches I attended. The third Sunday started a bit earlier than the other two. That week rather than stay in Lilongwe, we went to a church in a rural part of the country. We also took along all the Bible School students to observe the church service. So 16 of us piled into the van and headed out. We didn’t get very…
Continue Reading “Four Sundays in Malawi, Four Unique Churches: Part Two”
When I visited Malawi in January of 2020, I was only able to visit one church, the one on the school campus. This time I wanted to make it a priority to visit different churches so each of the four Sundays I was there, my friend Bern and I visited a different church. Let me say some things in general about churches in Malawi. First of all as a visitor, the churches always treated me very well. They gave me…
Continue Reading “Four Sundays in Malawi, Four Unique Churches: Part One”
It was a sunny Sunday afternoon in Lilongwe, Malawi when Bern asked me if I was interested in birds. His daughter had told him about a bird sanctuary nearby so he thought I might like to see it. Since I had taken him to some activities when he was in Washington, I think he felt a need to show me around Malawi. While I am not particularly into birds, I thought this might be a good opportunity to take some…
Traveling to Africa from the Seattle area is never direct. I was going to Africa for the third time, and the journey would be long and tiring. The first time I went to Africa I connected through London. The second time I traveled through New York. This time I though I would try a different approach and headed to Doha in the Middle East. While Seattle is my home airport, I was traveling with a new-to-me airline, Qatar, so I…
Continue Reading “One Trip, Four Airports: Seattle, Doha, Nairobi, and Lilongwe”
Where do you find travel inspiration? What makes you think, “I want to go there!”? Is it a picture in a magazine or hearing about your friend’s experience? Is it reading a travel blog or seeing some scenic location in a movie? Have you ever been inspired by a book or story? I have, and it’s a great way to gain inspiration for travel. If you think that people are not inspired to travel by such things consider the influence…
Continue Reading “Travel Inspiration: Movies, TV, and Books”
When I began this blog over a year ago, my intent was to encourage people to explore our world. For me traveling is the best way to learn about the cultures and peoples of our very diverse world. While we can read about places and peoples in books, see travel shows on TV, or watch documentaries or movies from different locations, nothing compares to actually being in a place. Places are more than what we see. They are smells and…
There are many reasons to travel. This trip to Malawi was not a trip as a tourist. Because of that II didn’t stay in the usual tourist type accommodations. Instead I stayed in a large walled in compound. The compound was originally built for American missionaries. However, there are none in the compound at this time. However, that doesn’t mean it’s not in use. In fact it’s a pretty busy place. The compound is probably about the size of a…
Since I went to Malawi to teach, getting out to see the sights was not a top priority. However, my one Sunday between teaching did make for an interesting day. It began with participating in a worship service from which I learned a lot about Malawian church culture. The day ended with a quick trip to the best known tourist area of Malawi, Lake Malawi. It was definitely a good day. The church I attended was on the campus where…
I didn’t go to Malawi as a tourist to travel through the various parts of the country. I went to teach. Most days I never even left the compound where I stayed. However, I did get out a few times, and from that I want to share some impressions of this lesser known country. When I mention going to Malawi, often the first question people ask is, “Where is that?” Malawi is in the southeastern portion of Africa. It is…
One of the first blog posts I wrote was entitled “Why Travel?” My purpose was to suggest that there are more reasons to travel than just the traditional idea of business or pleasure. However, after a recent trip to Malawi, I think I have found a variation of one of my reasons. See what you think. To understand my thinking you must understand that I am a teacher. I believe teaching is my calling and gifting. While I made my…
