Reflections from Lizzy

I am not going to lie; I was really scared to tell my story about my experience in Malawi. I wasn’t really sure what things I was to tell and if I even knew what experiences had an impact on me. But as I have talked about it with friends and family it has become so much easier. Talking about it opens up everything in my heart and I can now begin to formulate a story.

Reflecting back on the two months we spent in Malawi, there are a few things that will stick with me forever. The first and probably most important is how faithful God is. Never in my life have I experienced the faithfulness of God like I did in Malawi. Praying and seeing my prayers answered. Knowing God was going to work out all of the crazy situations. Something the people of Malawi taught me was that you don’t put God on the backburner until you really need a miracle, you trust him to work out all situations, big or small.

The second thing I learned in Malawi was probably the hardest lesson to learn. I began to understand the importance of life only after really experiencing the pain of death. During my second week in Malawi, a little boy was brought into the hospital dead. This was the first time I had seen death so real and right in front of me. This wasn’t the last time I saw death in Malawi, but this particular experience will always be with me. To think that this boy had his whole life ahead of him, but it was ended by a preventable disease.

Whenever I had to face situations that I thought were horrible. Or whenever I had to do things I would never want to do. I thought back to what Christ said in Matthew 25. Knowing that by serving the people of Malawi I was really serving Christ changed my heart. It isn’t about how much I did to change these peoples’ lives. It is about how much I laid down my own pride to serve them and in doing so served Christ. That is a lesson I will hopefully continue to learn. And my hope is that God will continue to shape my heart into the heart of a servant.

"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'
"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'
~Matthew 25: 34-40

Thank you so much for your support and prayers. They really made a difference to me throughout all I experienced.
God Bless,
Lizzy