Why Africa?
By Patrick Tyson

Have you ever laid hands on and prayed for someone that was in there last hours of life on this side of eternity dying of AIDs?

Have you ever held and loved a small child that was miserably sick with Malaria or Tuberculosis (TB)?

Have you ever shared the Love of Jesus and played with a group of dirty barefooted orphans?

Have you ever given a bag of food to an eighty year old woman that is starving and too old to work for her?

Have you ever prayed for a single mother that is taking care of eight children, six who belong to her sister that died along with their father, and the youngest child a two year old is sick with AIDs?

Have you ever watched a mother's face light up that is battling starvation when you give her a small piece of food that was all you had available? But when you left, she along with her son and daughter had the Bread of Life as their Savior.

Has God ever put you in a room at just the moment when a mother loses her daughter to death, so you could comfort her thru Christ's Love?

Have you ever had the privilege to protect thousands of babies from a killer called Malaria?

Have you ever given hundreds of elderly men and women the ability to stay warm on a cold, cold night?

Have you ever led someone to Christ when they come to you and ask "Will you show me how to get to Heaven" "I want to go to Heaven"?

Have you ever stood for Jesus as you face opposition about your Faith in Christ to groups of teenagers who by the Grace of God in-turn give their hearts to Jesus for Salvation?

Have you ever stood and watched day after day as one at a time hundreds and thousands except Jesus Christ as their personal Savior?

Have you ever left your wife crying though she knows it is the calling of our Lord to go to work in the dirt 11,000 miles away to share the Love of Christ in a country starving not only for food but to be told about the Love of a man that died on a cross for ALL, even for that one soul who would seem to be the most insignificant in human eyes?

Images and Sights of Malawi
By Sandy Mills

A lady that sleeps with her goats so no one will steal them at night and for warmth, a line of women weaving their way down to the banks of a stream on wash day, a child's joy at receiving an empty water bottle to play with, the beautiful, harmonious songs of women and children as we entered into the villages, babies sleeping on their mother's backs as they went about their daily chores, rubbing Neosporin on the soles of a woman's feet that had awful weather cracks, and then also on an elderly man's feet and then leading him to accept Jesus as his personal Savior. These are just a few of the images and sights I will never forget as long as I walk the face of this earth. I had no idea just what the Lord had in store for me and the Team of 2010. My Lord spoke to me; there was no denying his voice, guiding me to be a part of the Missions4Jesus Team to go to Malawi for my first time. I "thought" he was sending me to bless and encourage the people there. It didn't take me many hours once our feet hit the ground in Malawi to realize he sent me to be blessed. The hugs from the Malawi people telling me they loved me caused lumps in my throat and tears to fall down my face. These are not words they throw around - each person meant it from the bottom of their hearts. It was so very humbling to be a part of the distribution of seed corn and fertilizer, mosquito nets, Bibles, and blankets. There are no words to paint the picture to you as a reader of the pure gratitude in the eyes of those women and children and men as we got to greet each one individually and tell them Jesus loves them. The eye glass clinic was also a great success and humbling. The experience of watching the person's face and the great big grin that would break out as he or she put on their pair of reading glasses and began to read was awesome. Can you only imagine the expressions and thanks of men and woman as they received a Bible? I am so blessed that the Lord allowed me to be a vessel and serve him in this capacity.

Do You Know What It's Like?
By Sandy Fine Haire

• Do you know what it's like being called by God to go to Africa and not know who will be taking care of your 7 year old?
• Do you know what it's like, answering the call to go to Africa and then lose your job?
• Do you know what it's like to learn to have less, want less and need less?
• Do you know what it's like to be in a place without distractions enabling you to be so close to God?
• Do you know what it's like to be so filled with the Holy Spirit that you are literally choking?
• Do you know what it's like to be surrounded by hundreds of children that just want to touch you, love you, be loved, laugh, smile and praise God?
• Do you know what it's like to almost be stampeded by children just to grab God's word in the form of a religious tract?
• Do you know what it's like to get up at 5:00 am and go till 11:00-12:00 midnight and all you do is, pray, praise, sing, go out and deliver, care packs, seed corn, fertilizer, Bibles, mosquito nets, blankets and help the most grateful people come to know Jesus?
• Do you know what it's like to come back in the late afternoon to evening to a warehouse that becomes your home for 17 days, get a full belly and then pack seed corn and fertilizer and care packs and have a truck loaded and ready to go and do it all again the next day?
• Do you know what it's like to take cold showers with your mouth and eyes shut so tight that you don't get one drop of water in your system that could very well cause you diarrhea, cholera or dysentery?
• Do you know what it's like to work side by side with an African Team of people all infected with HIV/AIDS?
• Do you know what it's like to sleep next to a young woman with Malaria?
• Do you know what it's like to be told there are only 2 loaves of bread to feed 18 people for the evening because the store was out of bread, just to pass the bread truck minutes later?
• Do you know what it's like not being able to communicate with someone due to a language barrier?
• Do you know what it's like to lead a stranger to Christ in the middle of the Market?
• Do you know what it's like to pray so hard and so long that all God's creatures cease to make noise so they can listen?
• Do you know what it's like to become quiet in prayer and then all God's creatures begin making incredible noises?
• Do you know what it's like to realize what a selfish and spoiled Nation we are because we had everything at our disposal and still complain and the people and children of Africa don't have anything and complain about nothing?
• Do you know what it's like to spend 17 days with 18 people in close quarters?
• Do you know what it's like to fall in love and bond with those 18 people you hardly knew and they become your lifelong friends?
• Do you know what it's like to be obedient to God, even when you are full of fear?

I know what it's like, because these are some of the many things I experienced during my Missions4Jesus Mission Trip to Malawi Africa, November 5-22, 2010. I will never forget what I saw, felt, tasted, smelled and experienced.

How Going to Africa Changed Me
By Marian Carmichael 

One night in the Spring of 2008, I was awakened. I thought I heard my grandchildren down the hall. When I looked in the doorway, I saw an angel in the door wearing white lace and a scalloped veil. I closed my eyes. When I opened them again, I saw the angel standing by my bed. I was not afraid and went back to sleep. All through the Summer of 2008, I felt God calling me to go to Africa.

In October of 2008 I finally answered God's call and made the trip to Malawi Africa. On the first day of the Africa Mission Trip, I remember not feeling connected to the Mission Team as I should've been. I now know God was speaking to me and dealing with me.

Actually, the first three days I keep falling down. Falling out of the van ... falling into the van. Looking back on those days, I have no doubt that God was humbling me to repent, because on day four of my mission trip, I was saved! I always thought I was saved. But it took God sending me to Africa and humbling me into true repentance.

It took me a year and a half to realize why I was visited by the angel that night. While at our Spring Mission Retreat to prepare for our upcoming November 2010 Mission Trip, Lee Giles was sharing God's Word about "Vision". Through Lee's lesson, God's word revealed "sight" is temporary but "vision" is things not seen, and is eternal. This helped me understand what the vision God had for me, why I saw the angel and how I was called to Africa ... So God could truly save me. My husband will tell you "one person left for Africa, but another person returned".

Going to Africa truly changed me!