April 29-May 4 The Ter Haar’s took Laura, Jena and myself with them and their 6 children to the Missionary Partner Personnel Conference on Thursday. We arrived there in time for the opening dinner, spaghetti and salad. In respecting our grey hair, they placed Maralisa and myself in the choice rooms with private bathrooms and close to all activities. The Africans have great respect for the elderly.
That evening we had devotions and a fellowship time to meet the 60 attendants and the 20 children. Laura and Jena, medical students from the Nkhoma hospital, were in charge of the children’s program.

The following is a summary of the Friday and Saturday Reconciliation Lectures:
Reconciliation is not only between God and man. It has 3 realms – God and man, man and man,
cosmos.
Reconciliation has already been achieved by God.
We are recipients of the gift of reconciliation.
We are the ministers/agents of reconciliation.
Reconciliation is a process as much as an event and a praxis. It has stages which everybody goes
through at their own pace.
Reconciliation involves speaking the truth, healing memories, repentance, justice, forgiveness
and love.
Reconciliation requires a spirituality of humanity and self-emptying, cross-bearing, community
and dialogue.
The following is a summary of the Malawian context.
African traditional Religion adds a fourth realm, God and man, man and man, living and
living dead, and cosmos.
Reconciliation with the living dead is achieved through sacrifice.
Reconciliation among the living is often achieved through mediation, rituals of excuse and
restoration, including paying fines.
Missionaries have acted as reconcilers between tribes.
Telling stories of the past can help us to convey the need of reconciliation (the benefits) and
best practices of reconciliation.
Lessons:
Reconciliation is costly and risky.
Reconciliation is an action, a process and a praxis. Let’s be ware it needs time.
Reconciliation has agents. Jesus Christ is the Great Agent.

We had small group times with questions to answer after the lectures. We also had a tour of the conference grounds which had a great number of herbal plants. The tour guide did an excellent job of telling us what
plants were used for different ailments and gave us an attractive poster of the plants. We had many tea times with cookies and fellowship. Missionaries were from four surrounding nations. Everyone seemed to
enjoy the conference.

I went home on Sunday with Patria Theron, a teacher in the Theological Seminary at Vila Uunlongque in Mozambique. The trip was to get me out of the country, so I could pass over the border to have my Passport stamped for another 30 day visit in Nkhoma. I really enjoyed visiting the city. Patria lives in the
compound of the Seminary, which is landscaped very beautifully. The compound includes 5 staff homes, student houses and a preschool for student’s children, I enjoyed visiting the school which is doing a good job working with the 3-5 year olds. There is also a church there and a number of buildings for the
Seminary. Tuesday morning Patria returned me to the border and helped me pass through customs which usually takes over an hour. One of her students from the Seminary was on the desk on Sunday when we arrived and was there again on Tuesday when I left. He zipped us through is less than 10 minutes each time! We were most lucky to have a jolly fellow at the Malawi border who said Nkhoma was his hometown. He asked me if I was going to visit the hospital there and I said yes and he too just stamped us through immediately. Others had had great delays at the borders, so we were most thankful for our experiences.

Willeke and I had coffee and talked about the hiring process that we will be going through starting this week. We need a Reception Class teacher immediately and a second grade teacher for September.
Tonight I went to our Bible Study on Proverbs. We had a good crowd and a good discussion.