Trinity Presbyterian Church - Winnipeg

This Sunday @ Trinity

Matt — Tue, 15 May 2012 21:38:37 +0000

This Sunday we celebrate the ascension of Jesus into heaven as described in Acts 1:1-11. Easter is about resurrection, new life, the overcoming of death, and the promises of eternal life. But about the ascension? What is its theme? Why is it important that there were witnesses to Jesus going up to heaven? Is it to show us that that too is our destination or is something more going on? If Jesus was bodily raised from the dead, then did his body go to heaven? What does that mean for us?

Cut from the sermon – visitors and friends

Matt — Mon, 14 May 2012 16:50:46 +0000

This week’s sermon, understandably had a fair number of references to my recent trip to Malawi. Interestingly (at least to me), something that really inspired me and was very related to the scripture already selected for this past week got cut out of the sermon.

In the text from John 15:9-17, Jesus tells his disciples that he no longer calls them servants, but calls them friends. A pretty powerful image or the relationship we can have with Jesus.

Our first full day in Malawi we went to Church at St. James Presbyterian. As part of our experience, we visited the youth class, and there, one of the young leaders welcomed us by saying, “we will not call you visitors, but will call you friends.” This had quite an impact on me. We were among friends because we were all believers, and it had the familiar echo of the words of Jesus.

Why was it cut? The metaphor of visitors and servants doesn’t really match up too well, even though the image of friendship was a good one. In the end the story just wasn’t going to fit.

photo: members of our group walking along the road to St. James Presbyterian Church.

Reflections on Malawi

Matt — Sun, 13 May 2012 02:08:25 +0000

Throughout our trip to Malawi, several reflections were posted on the blog. A new category has been created for these reflections, for anyone who wants to go back and read them. Just visit this link: Malawi Trip 2012

The four Trinity members were part of an 11 person team from the Presbyterian Church in Canada. Several of them, have also put some thoughts and photos online. Here are some links:

Rev. Ted Creen in Malawi: http://tedcreen.blogspot.ca/

Colin Carmichael: http://colincarmichael.ca/
Colin took the bulk of the photos on the trip. He is putting a lot of them on Flikr, here: http://flickr.com/carmichaels

Also, don’t forget to come to Experience Africa on May 27 at 7:00pm at St. John’s Church

Going Home – the last of Erin’s African reflections.

Matt — Wed, 09 May 2012 16:58:23 +0000

After four plane rides, two sets of customs, four security checks and a lot of waiting, Kella and I will be home! It seems unbelievable, in fact, we discussed this morning that it may not have fully sunk in that we are here, in Africa, in Malawi, despite the fact that it has been two and a half weeks. We have spent the past two days with Victoria’s family (for those of your following this who are not from Trinity, Victoria is a Malawian member of our church). We have been incredibly blessed by their hospitality. We were also able to spend a few hours with the PCC missionaries in Zomba, Todd and Annika.

I wish I could find a good way to sum up this trip, but I think that will come with time. I know that all four of us have a lot of talking and processing to do after all we’ve seen and that we are very eager to share our stories and our experiences with all of you!

The picture is of Lake Malawi.

Elephants, Impala and Hippos (a reflection by Erin)

Matt — Fri, 04 May 2012 21:50:27 +0000

For the second last day of the mission and study tour our team took time to relax after twelve days of introductions, service and visitations. We spent the night at a place called Bushman’s Baobabs, named after the African baobab tree. Our beds were in tent structures with only a mosquito net between us and the grunting and groaning of the hippos as well as numerous other animals, birds and bugs. In the morning we drove to Liwonde National Park for a three hour game drive on which we saw elephants among other animals! Next came a two hour boat ride down the Shire River to see hippos and more elephants. In short, it was amazing.

So, why spend precious trip time on something so “frivolous”? Imagine if we had left Africa seeing only the poverty and the challenges, what kind of impression would that leave us with? This way we also got to appreciate the raw beauty of it. Further, it is so SO important to take care of yourself while doing mission work. This gave us the opportunity to spend time having fun and decompressing before the long flight back to Canada and the grind of daily life.

As I spend more and more time here I continue to be struck by the beauty of everything. The people are beautiful, the landscape is beautiful, God is beautiful. In short, it’s amazing.

Apatsa School

Matt — Fri, 04 May 2012 18:50:02 +0000

While the group was at Mulanje we visited one of the off sites of Mulanje Mission, the Apatsa school. The school has over one hundred and fifty students, some orphans and some not. PWS&D pays the school fees including shoes, uniform, books and bag for 75 of these orphans. It also provides one nutritious meal per day and a take home meal.

The school was AMAZING. It was started by three retired teachers, all now over seventy, who still run and teach at the school. It teaches the children not just reading and writing but also valuable life skills and awareness of social issues. The classes I visited were learning about addictions and accurate information about HIV/AIDS in addition to biblical knowledge and math. The children put on a presentation for the group showing us their skill in drama, acrobatics, singing, dancing, and poetry. Some of the donations the people of Trinity sent went to the children of Apatsa.

Erin’s reflections on Zomba Theological College

Matt — Fri, 04 May 2012 15:51:50 +0000

Imagine a place where 80% of Christians don’t have a bible and 80% of those preaching in churches are lay people with no formal theological education. That place is Malawi. With internet access being spotty at best and little contact with the outside world, theological education is of extreme importance. Although it doesn’t get the drama, excitement and prestige of things like water and health theological education is vital to the church and the people of Malawi. Theological College trains ministers for the three synods in Malawi. It is partially funded through money from PWS&D which sends money for salaries and student tuition. The Presbyterian Church in Canada also has a missionary, Rev. Todd Statham teaching at the College.

The group went to morning devotions at the college, at which Matt preached, and heard a professor speak about some of the challenges of theological education in Africa. We then attended a class with the students. I went to Christian History with Dr. Statham in which he was discussing the affect of the industrial revolution on western Christianity.

What amazed me most at the college was the issue of books, because as some of you know, I love books. The college has a small library however it lacks recent theological publications and must serve all 120 students. Further, the school cannot afford to give the students textbooks. That means that when students graduate they have no resource materials to take into their ministry with them. No commentaries, no reference books, just them and their Bible.

I don’t have a good conclusion for this post. No easy action item. Just thoughts, reflections and prayers.

Interesting thing about Malawi: everyone drinks Coke and Orange Fanta, there is no Pepsi (also, no root beer)

Erin’s reflections feeding program

Matt — Fri, 04 May 2012 06:35:08 +0000

Saturday morning the group from Canada helped out at a feeding program at one of the Presbyterian churches in Blantyre. Each Saturday morning the women’s guild meets for worship at eight and then feeds about one hundred area children who are vulnerable or orphaned. The team assisted with cutting meat and vegetables, chopping fire wood, stirring a giant pot of nsima and taught the children the song “My God is so Big”. Kella taught some of the children how to play “red rover” after watching them play a game which was a combination of red rover and duck duck goose. What amazed me most is that the congregation spends almost half it’s offerings on this program and they do it every week.

Erin’s reflections Mulanje Mission Hospital

Matt — Thu, 03 May 2012 20:35:53 +0000

Monday afternoon the group visited Mulanje Mission Hospital a 220 bed hospital at the foot of Mulanje Mountain which is supported by PWS&D and is partnership with the Blantyre Synod. The hospital had a labour and delivery ward which included the ability to do cesarean sections they also do a lot of pre and post natal care. It had a children’s ward including an icu, a men’s ward, a women’s ward, emergency room and surgery. The hospital has the ability to do dental care, radiology, lab work and many, many other things. Why is this so amazing? Because this hospital is without power every Monday as well as random other times throughout the week. They have generators but can’t use them because of the fuel shortage. This means in plain terms, babies die on a regular basis because the oxygen machine runs on electricity. They are constantly short on medications, gloves and money for salaries. It struck me how much hope there was though and how much good the hospital was doing for the 78 000 people in their catchment area. The hospital is working on putting in solar power so that they are no longer dependent on the grid.

You can read more about the hospital at www.mmh.mw

Oh, did I mention the hospital also had no doctors?

Erin’s reflections mountain climbing

Matt — Thu, 03 May 2012 11:37:46 +0000

Tuesday morning most of our group ascended Mulanje mountain. It was amazing! The climb took almost an hour but was extremely worth it. We certainly didn’t hike to the top but stopped at a gorgeous waterfall and pool. The Winnipeg people were the only ones in the group crazy enough to swim in the cold cold water but all four of us were super glad we did. So amazing to see God’s creation so untouched and perfect.

Interesting fact about Malawi (since I haven’t posted one in a while): When you drive down the highway on the prairies you can go for ages without seeing another human being, when you drive down the highway in Malawi you never stop seeing people. They’re everywhere. It’ll be weird to get back to Canada where population is much less dense.