So, since Chris was sick with what we thought was malaria, we arranged for us to meet one of the missionaries half way between where we are staying and the pastor's conference. It was getting close to dark and it is really pretty dangerous driving here during the day it gets really dangerous at night, so Janine just took us to a little village which was the halfway point and dropped us off and went back home and we were going to wait for the missionary whom she knew was not far away. Well in that time I saw a small infraction a car bumped into a motorbike no big deal I think that kind of thing happens all the time here. Well the missionary came and picked us up and took us back to Chipata where the pastor's conference was being held. In the city (it has about 400,000 people in it) it was getting dark and was actually pretty much dark when we got there, and we were going down this really narrow road that was filled with pot holes and people walking on it in mass hundreds of people every 100 yards or so were on the road it was crazy and the bicycles, we saw a bike that had 2 live pigs tied on the back, that is pretty funny. So the missionary is driving the land cruiser just weaving between traffic people and pot holes all of course in the dark, Josh and I look at each other like this place is crazy. Well we get there and we meet then national pastors and missionaries. They had just finished their soccer game, Malawi verses Zambia, Malawi won 2-0, which was always a major topic of discussion. The first night we ate beef and nshima and we went to the mission house to have some fellowship with the missionaries. We sat on the porch and had a good time talking until midnight and then we were super tired so we crashed at the other mission house that was next door. It was kind of crazy going to the next house there were a couple of gats that you had to go through and there was a bit of cliff that you could easily fall off of. And you had to really crawl down to get through a gate, it was pretty strange but we got to our air mattresses and got some sleep.
The next morning we woke up early went to the church to get our breakfast nshima and then we headed out to the place where the conference was. It was at a lodge resort I guess, there were animals there like impala puku and ostriches, which were not fenced in, they were just running around, which I found to be kind of dangerous but apparently they didn't. There were 2 papers for our conference that day, one was an exegesis of Ezekiel 34 by a National pastor and another paper about Funeral Practices of the people of Africa, that was also done by a national pastor who was surprisingly named Chibi. Here is a picture of the conference we were outside on the grass under trees and there was a lake behind us, very nice view.
The national pastors just like the pastors in America, like to talk so there was much discussion to each paper, everyone wanted their 10 minutes to comment on each paper. There were 60 pastors there so it make it kind of hard. They were interesting papers, and we enjoyed hearing them. Josh and I were greeted from the group and during our lunch and breaks the pastors came and introduced themselves and we did a lot of chatting.
The lunch meal was served by the ladies it was neat to hear them singing while they made our lunch during the conference. We had grilled meat for lunch and.... nshima. It was very good. I have a video of them singing, it is too big to upload here from zambia, maybe I'll upload it when I get to the states. They were amazing ladies cooking all that food for all those people.
After that back to the church for supper, there we had sausage and nshima, the sausage was a pretty far cry from anything that I've eaten back in the states but it was ok. I went back for second on the nshima and that was a mistake, I was hurting for the rest of the night. Then we went back to the mission houses. Now I should mention that the 60 people or so are all moving to all these different places by about 4 or 5 land cruisers which are smaller than minivans. I don't think any of the national pastors have their own vehicles that they come to the conferences in, so everyone crams in the back of these cruisers, it is nuts. The second night the missionaries enjoyed fellowship again this time we were not up so late, like 10:30.
We woke up the next morning and just had a leisurely morning as we waited for our ride to Petauke, some of the pastors from Petauke were there and they were getting rides back from the missionaries so we went with them, there were 10 people in the land cruiser and I was in the back facing sideways, it was really bad, they don't make those things for big people to sit in the back, those land cruisers are really amazing and they are tanks nothing stops them but not so comfortable.
Well we saw some of the pastor's homes and were invited in as we dropped them off, it was nice to make friends with them, and then we made it back to Chris' house and heard that he wasn't feeling better and he had in fact been to the hospital and they have taken his blood, he may not have malaria, it might be an infection but they will get back to him and hopefully he will be feeling better soon. I guess while we were gone he had a fever the whole time and just felt miserable. One of the missionaries said that he would take us to Lusaka on Sunday and help us get to the airport on Tuesday so we'll see what happens. Hopefully Chris will be better. Ok, time sign off, Josh wants to get on the computer. -Peter
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