Favourite Story

Joel here. We are doing well. We are absorbing a lot in this incredible place and have little time right now to convey anything like a complete picture. Still, I like the following story because when Rev. John Phiri told it, he made me laugh. But he also made me feel at the end that I was reading the book of Acts. And that, to tell you the truth, is how I often feel when I visit these villages and meet people eager to hear the gospel, curious and unbelievably hospitible as they greet us 'strangers' and listen to why we've come to see them. But straight to the story:

Rev. Phiri and some other church leaders went to a nearby village to do some baptisms on a Sunday, but the women’s secret society barred their way because one of the pastor’s daughters had accidentally offended them by fishing in the wrong place. When John and the other visiting pastors came into town, the secret society was threatening to bar their way using a female devil persona and welcome her by singing naked in the village (apparently a common secret society activity in some of these villages). Everybody has a fear that if Men see this, their scrotum will become enlarged, to the point of dragging on the ground! So all the men would cower and lock themselves inside if ever they heard the singing. When Rev. Phiri and company entered the town to do the worship service, they heard word of this threat. Even the other pastors cowered and went indoors because they were afraid. John, with his clerical collar on, was able to talk with one woman who was part of this society and tell her that he was planning to go through and do these baptisms. The woman did not back down. John did not back down. Finally, he had an idea: He took out his camera and he said to her, “If any women come out to block my way, I will take their picture and post the pictures on the internet.” Eventually, she and the other women relented and, as John says, 35 people were baptized in that village that day.