It has been so good to have our Malawi mom, Cindy House, back in Malawi! Alyssa and I have been working as the interim Director of Operations for Esther's House, but for the past year and a half Cindy has had that role. Cindy is an incredible blessing to Esther's House--that is a definite fact, but it's something we've all realized even more in her absence! I don't know if there is someone who loves the children, widows, and Malawian people the way Cindy does. As we drove into Esther's House, the children started jumping up and down with excitement when they saw her. =) We've been having amazing evenings of fellowship with Cindy since she's gotten here--I love her and have so much respect for her and for the gifts God has given her to serve in this ministry with!
Driving to Lilongwe to was an adventure--with all the stray farm animals, potholes that take up 1/4 of the road, tons of bicyclists, and illegally slow 5-ton freight trucks, driving is not my favorite thing to do here. There are two radar guns in the entire country of Malawi and somehow I've managed to get two speeding tickets, one being when we went to pick Cindy up at the Lilongwe airport. Once we arrived in Lilongwe our good friend Phynilly helped navigate us through the city to get our errands done; driving to Lilongwe is very different from driving in Lilongwe--I'm very thankful for Phynilly! We had an awesome time listening to Lecrae's music while getting work done =)
I want to share with you the experience I had with the Malawi police while in Lilongwe--it was one of those surreal experiences that was such a good reminder of how great our God is!
On our way out of town after picking Cindy up from the airport, it was decided that I would drive so that Cindy could rest after her long, 2-day trip. There's a major fuel shortage in Malawi, and in Lilongwe there were cues of at least 30 cars at every gas station. There's also a little thing called "police road blocks," where you are supposed to stop and allow a police officer to check your driver's license, insurance, etc if they desire to. As we were leaving Lilongwe a cue of cars outside a BP gas station were blocking the signs for the police road block, and as there weren't actually any officers actually blocking the road (they were socializing under a tree) I unknowingly drove right through it at a very slow speed. Cindy quickly pointed this out, and as I slowed down even further one of the police officers noticed and pointed angrily at me to pull over.
The "warm heart of Africa" was not in this man, that's for sure! I rolled my window down, greeted him in a friendly manner and gave him the biggest smile I could. I asked if there was a problem, and he started yelling in my face, spit flying from his mouth: "YES. YES there is a problem. You are a RECKLESS driver!! You must follow me and pay the fine!" Malawians are typically the most friendly people--I have never been yelled at by one and was really flustered by it, so Cindy got out of the car with me and we followed the officer into the police hut next to the road. If you know me at all, you know that I'm not the most confrontational person! I tried to explain that the cue of cars from the gas station was obstructing the road block, that it was an honest mistake and I would have definitely stopped if I had seen it. It's kind of embarrassing how easy it is to make me cry, but he just refused to listen to anything I had to say and was so harsh that that was about all I could get out. The officer just kept saying over and over, "What do you do when you see a road block? YOU STOP! You are RECKLESS! We will drive to the police station and you will pay! Are we together?!" Cindy asked him repeatedly to show us kindness and mercy and to let us go with a warning, and although he looked like he was close to changing his mind a couple of times, he refused.
The first funny thing that happened was that he could not write out the traffic violation receipt because there was not a single pen in the police hut. He asked if I had a pen he could borrow... yes, of course I will definitely lend you my pen so you can write me a ticket! Cindy tried to convince him that this was a sign from God that he should show us kindness and let us go with a warning, but he refused. He said that he would write it out when we got to the police station. The thing about the Malawian police is that they don't have police cars. So in order to get to the police station, we had to give him a ride in OUR vehicle! Cindy and I were both pretty upset by this point.
Alyssa, Jailosi, and I were riding silently in the backseat when all of a sudden Cindy says, "So...how long have you been working as a police officer?" She went on to ask him about his family, where he was from, and finally if he had a relationship with the Lord. His answers were short and abrupt, and when she asked him about the Lord all he could manage to say was "No comment." That didn't stop Cindy from telling this man about how the best relationship you can ever have is with the Lord, and about how He's changed her life. She continued to tell him about how He is the ultimate comforter and the best friend you can ever have until we reached the police station. The officer tells us to follow him into the station, but as we get to lobby we find that most of the employees have gone home for the day as it is almost 5 p.m. We follow him in circles around the police station as he tries to find a cashier that was still working, but as he tried to open door after door, they were all locked. At this point he is getting increasingly frustrated, and Cindy and I are trying very hard to keep a somber look on our faces and not laugh. After a few minutes of failed attempts to find a cashier, he returns to us and says "You see?!??" Cindy tells him again that this is another sign from God that he needs to show us kindness and let us go with a warning! Unwilling to give up, he drags us around the station looking for someone who can help him.
He finally finds two older police officers standing outside the station and explains the situation to them. He comes up with the idea that we should pay him the fine, exchange phone numbers with him, and in the morning we can pick up the official receipt. Cindy explained to him that we live 3 hours away and couldn't pick it up in the morning; she told him that we would comply with whatever decision they came to, but brought up the dealings we've had with dishonest policemen in Balaka. The older police officers spoke to each other in Chichewa for a minute, laughed, and then said "Just go without paying the fine and take this as a warning. Remember to stop at police road blocks in the future." You could tell by the look on our police officer's face that he was embarrassed by their decision. We thanked them and headed back to our car where Alyssa and Jailosi had been waiting for a long time.
As we're about to leave the station, Cindy rolls down her window and asks the officer if he needs a ride back to where he was stationed. He says that he is done working for the day and is going home, and Cindy offered to give him a ride. As we start driving across Lilongwe, Cindy begins to tell him about the grace and love that God has for all of us, and tells him that she just wanted to share all of this with him because having a relationship with Christ is the most important thing you can have in your life. Alyssa and I are trying to remain serious in the back seat because it's pretty obvious that he is not too happy, but then Cindy pulls out a box of cordial chocolate covered cherries from her suitcase and passes the box around the car and we couldn't help but smile. Sitting in that car with the police officer, eating cordial cherries, listening to the Beatles and to Cindy share the gospel was a very surreal moment. I think the cordial cherries softened the officer up, because he started responding to Cindy and telling us about his 2 children. He was expecting to be dropped off on the road next to his neighborhood, which was about 1/2 a mile from his home, and very surprised when Cindy offered to drop him off right in front of his house. His children were waiting for him on the front steps, and he was so excited to point them out to us. We got to meet his wife before he thanked us and wished us a good trip home.
Getting pulled over after a long, tiring day in Lilongwe was not what we had in mind, but spending an hour in our car talking about the importance of having a relationship with the Lord is exactly what God had in mind for this man. It was a very real reminder of how different our plans can be from God's plans. I admire Cindy so much for being able to look past the frustration of the situation and to share with this man how amazing it is to have a relationship with God. After the infuriating confrontation we had with this man at the road block, it would not have been an easy thing to turn around and show him the kindness and grace that she did without God's help. As we drove away from the officer's house Jailosi said, "If we were to return in a couple of months, I think we would see a change in that man." God works in strange, but very awesome ways.
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