Babies & Border Posts – Lilongwe, Malawi

Since I started this blog, I’ve had quite a few readers ask me questions like “The first time you left your country, where did you go?” or “What was your first international trip like?” The truth is that I don’t remember.

The best people to ask are my parents, Raymond & Kathy. Here is their answer.

Nine months pregnant Kathy, is starting to feel uncomfortable now and we expect that something should happen soon, by God’s grace. We are about 500km from the hospital that she has been booked into, but the Lord knows!!

 

05/08/95

Praise the Lord! Two weeks past the due date, Kathy and I are blessed with another little boy. We have decided to name him Daniel Stephen. His birth was another wonderful testimony to the Lord. Although Daniel was the heaviest of all the children, his birth has been the easiest. The doctor, a precious brother in the Lord, said Kathy would be his ‘tithe’ patient and so we did not have to pay for his services. We were blessed by Kathy’s parents, who kindly met the hospital bill for us. We are truly so grateful for many faithful people, who are so willing to open their hearts to us in obedience to the Lord.

 

Daniel’s birth paperwork was processed at the local foreign affairs office. His birth certificate was stamped…”NOT ENTITLED TO ZIMBABWE CITIZENSHIP”. The miracle of a child birth in the country and rejected by it!!….”

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This is an extract from “Mission Malawi”, a diary account of our family’s amazing two and a half year stay in Malawi doing missionary work. We did not receive financial assistance from any church and had to generate our own income as well as rely on blessings from the Lord through other people.

Traveling through Africa is a very difficult task. Cultures are very different. Ways of doing business differ from country to country and personal communication is hard, not to mention the lack of technical infrastructure.

Moving mainly between the Zimbabawe, Mozambique and Malawi border posts was a real test of patience for us because each border post has it’s unique ‘ethic’. Bribes will always help smooth the way, but we, being there for Missionary work, could not be part of that. Hence, it always took us a lot longer to complete our formalities.

We did however learn one special trick. Our experience in central Africa told us that generally, rural African people don’t like to witness crying babies. It somehow makes them feel uncomfortable. Our youngest, Dan, was only a few months old when we wanted to leave Malawi for a short break in Zimbabwe. It was a particularly hot day as we crossed into Mozambique and the border queue was quite long. After being in the hot sun for more than an hour, Dan began to make his discontentment felt. He let out a large cry. We couldn’t believe such a little body was capable of making such a huge noise.

Sensing our baby was in distress, a lady from behind the Customs counter came to us and asked us to follow her. Our papers were processed immediately and we were soon on our way. Having seen what an effective tool we had in Dan, we wanted to use him to help us get through each border post. The problem was getting him to announce our arrival on time, each time. Well, by the grace of the Lord, we never had to resort to any mean tactics to get him to cry. It was amazing. Each time we arrived at a border post, his little heart would somehow know and in a short space of time, would begin to let the authorities know….”coming thru….”.

Sure enough, like clockwork we were always pushed to the front of the queue and sent on our way – no bribes!!

Today as we read Dan’s blogs, we are truly blessed to see how he has grown and matured over the years. We will be forever grateful for the precious little man that could blast us through the African border posts!!!

Keep traveling, keep safe.

DanVenture Travels

An extract from “Mission Malawi”. The full version can be found at https://adcrucemchristi.wordpress.com/category/time-with-the-master/