The Bus From Mzuzu

We arose in the pre-dawn light to make our preparations for our long day of travel and appointments. This day will take us nearly the length of Malawi, so we must get an early start. After a quick shower using nothing more than a bucket of water and a dipper, but thankful to have that, I dressed and head to the bus depot.

Now remember, we are in Africa, where everything is done on “African time”. We arrive at the bus depot before 7:00 am; in order to catch the 7 o’clock bus to the Central region of Malawi. We are lucky to find seats as many will be standing for the long journey with no seat to sit in. In a land of few vehicles, the buses are filled to overflowing capacity with standing room only.

We are told that the bus will leave by 7:30 am, but then this is Africa! 7:30 comes and goes and now it is 8:00 o’clock and we are still sitting on the bus. We are told that there are mechanical difficulties with the bus, but that they are fixing it and we will be on our way soon. But this is Africa!

Just after 9:00 am, the bus engine fires to life, people take their seats, and our journey begins towards Nkata Bay and the Lake Malawi region. We are only one and half hours behind schedule, but then, this is Africa. We are on the Southern Express Bus, but it is anything but an express bus.

Even though the every seat is filled and twenty or more are standing in the aisle, the bus continues to stop along the way to pick up more anxious passengers and their loads, all trying to get somewhere. Men, women, children, chickens, and boxes and bags and parcels of every size and shape are loaded onto the bus. You have seen the picture of this scene on some late night cheap movie, or in some magazine. But until you have actually lived it, in real life, in real time; you have no idea what it is really like.

The bus stops at every village and town; some get off and others quickly get on and take their place. A dozen stops, then two dozen; a hundred stops and then come the Police road blocks. Everyone must get off of the bus, along with all luggage, boxes, bags, parcels, and belongings. Everything must be checked. After a time, we all file back onto the bus and try and reload the cargo and start on down the road to the south.
An overcrowded bus, in the heat of an African sun, is something that everyone needs to experience at least once in a lifetime. Add to this, that at every stop, the locals rush to the bus to sale the passengers drinks, chips, banana chips, fish, coconuts or just about anything else your mind can imagine in the African bush. Anything that a traveler might desire for their travels to the south.

The man in the seat just ahead of me blessed us all when he decided to buy a whole stringer full of fish, and then proceed to hang them in the open window just ahead of me so that all in the bus could enjoy the fish air freshener. They were the fresh catch of the day from Lake Malawi that we are traveling beside on our southern journey, but keep in mind it is now almost noon and they have been laying in the sun for many hours before his purchase. Fish air freshener; I have never noticed that one on our shelves here at home, but who knows???

The first leg of our journey should have taken about five hours on the bus, but with all of the stops has now taken over seven hours. Add to this the fact that we were two hours late in our departure, and we are now way behind on our schedule for this busy day.

We arrive in Salima in the Central Region of Malawi and rush to appointments that we are more than four hours late for. After several more meetings and appointments and visiting with the local preachers and their families, we head back to the bus depot to continue our journey on this long day of work in Africa. It is 9:00 pm and the bus can come at any time. It arrives at 10:00 pm and we board the bus and find the last two available seats in the last row of the bus.

Now we truly are on the Southern Express, as in the dark of the African night, while most are sleeping in their huts in the countless villages and towns, we roll through the night at breakneck speeds down the winding African roads.

We arrive in the South and drop from the bus on the side of the roadway at the mission where we will work the next few days. It is 2:30 am.; it has been a 22 hour day and we fall onto our beds exhausted.


Why? Why do we do this???

I have been asked this question too many times by too many people who just do not understand.

The answer is so clear - it is so obvious.
We arrived at Salima after 4:00 pm in the afternoon that day before. And even though we are more than five hours late for our first appointment with the churches in that region, we rush there to make our apologies for a situation that we could not control. But there, there we find in their small grass and thatched church building, over a hundred people waiting for us.


Most have been waiting for more than five hours in the heat, on hard brick benches, just waiting. Waiting for us to come and share with them the word of God. Most have walked the many miles to the church building or ridden old worn out bicycles even further. None have a car to come and go in comfort.

And they have sat and waited. They have sang songs and prayed. They have shared bible lessons, but still they wait.

We finally arrive and make our apologies and while it is already late, and the sun will be sitting in the African sky in just a short time, we urge them to go; to just go home while it is yet light outside.

But they plead with us to stay and share with them the message of Jesus Christ.
And so we share with them and they listen intently to every word spoken, nodding in agreement. Finally it is to dark to even see to read the scripture in front of me in the little thatched roofed building with no lights, no electricity. And so we urge them once again to go to their homes in the African darkness. They reluctantly begin to leave to walk the miles of roads and paths leading back to their homes.

We continue on to other appointments, to another bus, to a long night of travel after a long day of travel.

And we do not ask; “Why do we do this?”

For we already know why we do this as we looked into the eyes of those who long to know more about Jesus Christ.



Oh, we could learn so much from these simple, quite, dedicated people!

So, another bus, another long day, another opportunity to share Jesus.

THAT IS WHY WE DO IT!


“But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has already come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.” II Timothy 4:5 – 8