One mother passed by me with her baby wrapped on her back and I patted it on the head. It woke up and screamed. Everyone in the building roared with laughter including the mom of the screaming baby. I just shrugged my shoulders in surprise.

Pastor's Conference - wives on left / husbands on right

One afternoon during the conference when we had some time off we went on a beautiful boat ride up the Shire River into the Liwonde Game Park. It has over 300 species of birds, many hippos, elephants, crocodiles, baboons, monkeys, and other game to see.

The boat ride was amazing and the scenery great, we enjoyed an on board picnic and the tour guide pointed out many sights for us to enjoy in God’s creation. The weather could not have been better.

Emmanuel International Staff

I sought to make my messages to the pastors and their wives as pastoral and applicable as possible so that when they returned to their people they would have a lot of things to apply to their flocks.

Several of the missionaries who were in attendance remarked that my illustrations and application of the Scriptures would be readily understood by the Malawi people present and thanked me for the ministry. I was greatly encouraged by the comments. The Scriptures are universally good food for God’s people and how glad I was that what I said was clear and easy to be received by these people of another culture.

Local Shopping Centre

The graduation ceremony humbled me as the pastors and their wives came forward to shake our hands and receive their diplomas. Their tattered clothing compared to our fine western clothes, and their flip flops compared to our polished leather shoes, made us feel awkward. But their joyful smiles and firm handshakes caused us to know we were accepted as their equals and as brothers in Christ.

There were no barriers we were one with them and welcomed by them. One poor pastor could only afford a cast off Garfield T-shirt sold on the side of the road for a few pennies from a bale of shirts imported from the west.

Seat belts mandatory inside . . . no rules outside.

After the Pastor’s Conference we journeyed to a conference for the Emmanuel International staff where I spoke to about 50 people without a translator. It was refreshing to be able to speak so freely without interruption.

I preached outdoors in a most beautiful setting of great tall pine trees and it added to the atmosphere as though we were in a great natural cathedral. The message was on the sufficiency of Christ and the people seemed to sense the nearness of the Lord. It was very quiet after the benediction.

Typically loaded bicycle 50-100 kilos!

Then we drove to where the missionary conference was to be held for the next few days and it was a beautiful resort in the mountains. We arrived in the late afternoon and had a good supper. That evening, before I spoke, we had a time of prayer. Among those who prayed was the 9 year old daughter of a German couple, and the girl prayed a most beautiful prayer.

The prayer was sensible, sincere and heart warming. I have never heard anything like it from such a young person. I was truly blessed and drawn into the heavenly places. Later I spoke to her and thanked her for it and encouraged her to do more of the same. I spoke that evening on prayer being an argument with God using Job 23:3-4a as a template for the prayer in Daniel 9.

Thatched Roof Church

There was time for private conversations with various missionaries concerning their issues on the field and I believe it was profitable to them.

I gave the concluding message to the missionaries Sunday morning and decided to make it a worship experience instead of more exhortation so spoke from Ephesians 1 and Paul’s doxology in vss. 3-14.

I really enjoyed exalting the triune God in redemption and the people seemed to all be with me in the message and in the comments after. We sang our hearts out in praise to God in the mountains that morning as we rejoiced in our salvation.

On the Road to Sunday morning service.

Then we broke camp and started out for another Bible School were I was to speak at the chapel service and the rest of the team would speak at a prison.

The Bible School had about 80 students and I was delighted to meet the acting principal and a couple of the professors prior to the chapel service. I was given 30 minutes to speak and spoke on discouragement in the ministry using the story of John the Baptist in prison in Luke 7.

I gave some cultural and historical background to John the Baptist, Herod Antipas and so on. I noticed one professor smiling and nodding happily and wondered why. After the meeting I was informed that he and his wife who both taught there both had double doctorates. He knew very well all that I was saying about the historical background to my text and the characters in it. He was happy to hear familiar things being taught to his beloved students.

I was so impressed that this man and his wife with such wonderful educations had devoted their lives to this small school instead of a big university in a large city where they could make a lot of money and live in great comfort.

Taxi anyone?

We went to a Chinese food restaurant tonight. While we waited for it to open we were entertained by a street fight. Fortunately there was a high iron pole fence between us and the contestants. We had ringside seats although we were standing at the time it broke out.

One disputant had the distinct advantage of 70lb and an additional 6 inch reach. The smaller contestant made up in courage for what he lacked in muscle. However it was too one sided and he lost. We went into the restaurant and had a fine meal and left fully satisfied. I was the only one who ate his entire meal with chop sticks.

Distributing gifts on opening night.

Tuesday morning May 25 I started to feel very ill and was unable to go to do the village ministry I was assigned to. In fact I had severe nausea and bowel problems. My hostess was a nurse and sought to give me a liquid drink to help restore my electrolytes but I could not retain it. I was miserable to say the least.

There is nothing like being sick so far from home. I decided that it was time to go home because I only had one more day of work scheduled and it was not likely I could do it at this rate. So we contacted the booking agent in Oakville, Ontario and I got passage for the next afternoon, Wednesday May 26 to start the journey home to Mississauga, Canada.

That evening my hostess had a choir practice in her home and among the choir members was a physician and she came into my bedroom and examined me to be sure I was able to travel home. I passed her inspection and was glad to have her approval to leave the country.

The Future

That night my stomach settled but kept rumbling in a threatening manner. However, I needed to stay close to the bathroom. The next day, Wednesday, my birthday, I was still very woozy but ready to head for home. For the flights from Malawi to Johannesburg and from there to Heathrow I would have the pleasure of two of the team members who were travelling back to the US. That was a great comfort. So I booked seats on the aisle and close to the washroom. This strategic action proved useful on the trip.

Gordon preaching with translator.

My hostess had taken pity on me and packed my bags for me. I had checked three suitcases going to Malawi because of the 400 tubes of toothpaste and 400 toothbrushes. I left one suitcase there for missionaries as it was one I did not need coming back and only had two to check coming home.

The airport in Blantyre, Malawi is very plain and the upholstered seats for the passengers to use while waiting are tired and well worn. The personnel however, are cheerful and accommodating. The aircraft is an old 737 and when it is ready for takeoff the steward goes up and down the aisles spraying something in the air and I was unsure what it was for. However after 30 seconds or so the odour faded and all was well once again. It was a reminder that all the time I was in Malawi there was one odour or another in the air from some source or another. You never had a sense of clean fresh air in that country that I remember.

Want a hair cut? Only one style . . . buzzed!

The flight to South Africa takes over two hours and suddenly you are in a different world. Everything is so modern and clean.

The washroom or “toilet” as they call it in these countries, have soap dispensers that work. No one is walking around in bare feet or with a load on their head. There is no fear of the electrical power failing today. Babies are not strapped on their mothers backs they are in strollers. I have moved into the 21st century. It feels like home.

Was it all a dream? No, I really walked and talked to live people who loved Jesus just as I do and who worked for Him in their own country among people who need to hear the Good News just as my people need to hear the Gospel.

With some of the Missionaries at the Conference.

I really was there and spoke to those folk and exhorted them to excellence in ministry and lifted Jesus up before them. I really heard their enthusiastic singing of praise and worship. Their joyful shouts of hallelujah still were ringing in my ears and I could hear their hearty “Amens” as I exalted Christ in my sermons.

I cannot forget their broad smiles and shining eyes as they leaned forward on the wooden benches while I expounded the Scriptures to them. They drank it in like thirsty people. They pulled the truth out of me and demanded more of the truth they were so hunger to hear.

No, no it was no dream, Malawi has stolen my heart. I may fly away to Canada but that country is still with me and has indelibly planted itself in my memory and in my heart where I will always keep it. I have grown to love those dear people who live so simply and so joyfully in the Lord. I will always remember their powerful harmonious singing of the biblical truths and their friendly acceptance of me the stranger from a far away country.

Malawi do not forget me.

Staff at the Bible College and Mary-Helen, the counselor who is a house guest.

Internet service is not as good in this location and I have to go into town to actually connect and even that is not as good as it was at the Bible College last week. So while I have lots of pictures to share it will have to wait until next week when I am back in that location.

The conditions at the Camp location are more primitive in every way ­ not just the absence of the luxury of the internet. For instance on Monday night my friend Jim killed a foot long black snake in our shower stall!

I am also learning to like goat meat as it seems the only choice other than chicken that you can get around here. Jim has been cooking for us most of this week so we are eating western food for the most part.

The shower water is cold so I have learned to take very quick ones! The lady who does our laundry does an amazing ironing job but she must iron everything because bugs get into the clothes when they hang out to dry and it’s only when you iron the clothes that they die!

Otherwise the pastors and their wives are very friendly and that’s great. They have all asked me to come back next year.

I preached today and had a great time. So things are going well and I am enjoying the experience.

Please keep praying that the ministry we are doing will be effective for the salvation and spiritual growth of the people.

The pastor/interpretor's motor bike that he used to go to the church and Bible school.

I will be back at the Bible College a week Monday but will be in Blantyre next Saturday, which is the city we landed in last Saturday from South Africa  and there are lots of e-mail connections and servers there!

Men pounding corn inside the sacks to separate the kernels from the cobs. Then they take the kernels, soak them in water and spread out on sheets of bamboo to sun dry. They then treat the kernels with an insectiside called actellic to protect against weevils. The corn is stored in 50 kg sacks until it's time to take it to the mill to be ground into flour.

On Saturday May 15th I head 2 hours north to Lilongwe which is not quite half way up the country to a retreat centre. I will preach there on Sunday. I will then do a one day Emmanuel International conference staff ministry, and a 3 day Malawi Pastors conference with about 250 pastors.

We will give them blankets as the annual gift. It gets cold at nights and they need them. This apparently will please them very much. For some reason the College and Career conference has been cancelled. Plans change here on a moments notice and you have to be prepared to go with the flow.

Please pray for us as we will have some opportunity for prison ministry this week also. This will include some gifts for the prisoners to help them out.

The following week I will be coming back to the Emmanuel International Headquarters at Zomba and will travel an hour and a half each day for ministry at Palombe. May 28th we are going on a boat ride through a national park to observe wild life and relax before flying out May 29th from Blantyre. We fly from there to South Africa, then to the UK and on to to Canada. We arrive home May 31 landing at midnight in Toronto.

I have been doing a lot of pastoral application as I have been teaching the Life of Christ so the pastors I am lecturing to will be able to take the material and apply it to their people when they go home to their villages. They seem most appreciative of the work I am doing with them.

Photo of a dress shop.

I met a man at a Bible Study last night who grew up in a mud hut. Somehow the people in the village school saw potential in him and helped him get through high school. He went on through university in Malawi and got his Phd at Leeds in England and now lectures here in Malawi and works for the UN on behalf of his people. His siblings, 8 of them, still live in the village, where he grew up. I will be maintaining contact with him. We had a most rewarding conversation.

One poor student at the school in his late 20’s sold the family goat and radio to come to school for this 2 month term. He worries about his wife, 3 girls and little boy back home in north Malawi and how they will get on without him for the 2 months he is away.

He teaches and preaches in his home church. He desires to be a full time pastor. He grows maze to feed his family and works for others in their maze fields when he can get work. He is highly intelligent and asks very good questions and looks at me intently as I speak.

He takes copious notes as I speak. I cannot help liking him. I was given some funds when I left for these people and feel he may be one I should help. Pray for him. He is sacrificing much for his Lord and so is his family.

Here is entrance to pastor's house in the courtyard inside the wall.

My morning went very well. It began at the Bible College at 7:30 am where the students were ready and waiting for me. We have 10 students from all over the country. The church pastor is an excellent translator. The students are very keen and some speak some English and so hear the lesson twice. Seems I got through my first day pretty well in the time allowed. I gave time for questions at various times and every time they had a half dozen good questions.

It is interesting the lack of Bible knowledge they have. I cannot assume very much. One student is especially keen I love him. I want to follow his progress. He asks intelligent questions. I think he has an especially good mind and he dresses very well. He is the only one with a tie. His dress shirt has a Coca Cola logo on it. But he looks very sharp indeed.

Afterwards I had lunch at the Pastors home. These people are so poor, there are no doors inside their home, just curtains hanging down, ragged at the floor. The homes have tin roofs and the streets have chickens wandering along them and no cars can drive down them.

Corn maze is eaten at two or three meals a day as the main dish. Then as a special for me they had fried eggs complete with a sauce. The eggs were scrambled and eaten with your fingers. The maze is like a very thick pancake, so you break off a small chunk and dip it in the sauce and eat it. There was a vegetable that looked like spinach but did not taste like it and fluffy rice.
Before eating my host held a basin out and a pitcher of water and wanted me to wash my hands. Then i did the same for him. After the meal this was repeated.

They have a different way of handshaking. They grip your hand in the usual way and shake it then without a pause they slide up and grab your thumb and squeeze it and expect you to do the same and then they slide their hand down into another handshake.  At first when some of them did it i did not know what on earth they were trying to do!! Then i got used to it. At first I was dropping their hands and stuff, it was funny. Guess I confused them too.

My hostess can hoist a 50 kilo sack of maze grain onto her head and walk a couple of km to the mill to have it ground to use at home. While she walks she does not need to touch it with her hands!! That is more than 100lb. I am astounded at the strength of these women.

Here is the street where you go down to the pastor's house and where that church is on. My driver stopped by the church and let me off to walk down to the gate into the courtyard to the pastor's house as the street was too narrow to drive down. Chickens were pecking out a meal along the way.

These people sure love to sing. 3 Choirs and they sing lustily! Even the choir with 8 sang like 50. They all had a verse in English for us. Lots of repetition, fabulous harmony, rhythm and clapping, some body motion. About 1 hour 20 minutes of choir and congregational singing. I preached for 40 minutes incl. translator who was great.

A breeze blew in through the windows that did not have glass in them! No insects encountered yet. The women had colourful dresses on and only the leaders on the platform had ties and jackets on. The children wandered around, ignored by all during the service that lasted over 2 hours. There were all ages of people in service, about 200 people in all.

People walking on side of road wave at you as a signal for a ride. Even many very poor homes are made of brick as clay is plentiful and wood scarce.

In the afternoon we drove up the mountain about 3,000 feet on a narrow paved road with lots of switchbacks to a beautiful resort for tea. We saw monkeys and baboons on the road and in trees en route and lots of natives selling fruits of various sorts and potatoes on the roadside. The resort was very lovely with fabulous landscaping and magnificent scenery, you can see the mountains for many miles. Near the resort there are 25-30 vendors with amazing wood carvings and paintings for sale. Each has lots of wares and a thatched roof over their merchandise.

Here I am all settled in for 7 days in  a very comfortable home with the “boys” who will disperse tomorrow morning early while I stay here til next Saturday doing my week of teaching at the local Bible School on the Life of Christ. We are 6 hours ahead of you so as I write it is 4:30pm our time and 10:30 am yours.  My host and hostess are highly experienced in their role and maybe 5-6 years younger than me.

I slept little either night as sleeping in the upright position is impossible for me even with lights out as they do on the plane. The second leg from Heathrow to Johannesberg is 10 hours and decidedly uncomfortable so several times I walked the floor while the rest of the passengers tried to sleep. I had a bulkhead aisle seat with no one beside me so it was good on the DC 747. Food was tasty and always served with a smile. I was always seated beside or across the aisle from my buddies. The flights were very smooth.

This is the active church at the end of the street where the pastor lives.

At the airport two Malawi young men commandeered my buggy with my 4 suitcases and briefcase and sought to push it for me especially as it was old and i was obviously having difficulty steering it. I did not realize at first they were doing this for a tip. My guide who has been coming here each May for 20 years whispered to me, “Gordon let them do it, they want a tip.” So I immediately backed off and happily gave them the job of pushing the cart and asked my guide how much to tip them.

Then we drove 70 km north from Blantyre where we landed to Zomba where we are staying and the roadsides have many people with stands selling fruit, sticks of wood, carvings, etc. Stopping at a petrol station girls ran up trying to sell cards for phone credits. Again it all had to be explained to me what they were selling.

The mountains are old and not high but beautiful. The roads winding and not well paved. Pedestrians are all over the place. Women walk along carrying large loads on their heads. it is so very primitive.

The Malawian driver jockeys the van along and there are so many near misses you just get used to it and realize he is a real car jockey. Otherwise you end up a nervous wreck.

My hosts have two huge dogs, a mastiff and a great dane who are very friendly. A house guest with them is a long time psychotherapist and supervisor with specialized training and is down here for a few weeks seeking to help orphans with the love of Jesus. She is retired but anxious to make a difference. Lives near Toronto.

It is fall here below the equator but still in the upper 20’s. it will cool down tonight and I will need a blanket to sleep as we are in the mountains at about 2,000 feet above sea level. I will have to pull the mosquito netting around my bed tonight and tuck it in under the mattress tightly to keep them out.

I will try to communicate every few days complete with a couple of photos.

Blessings,

Gordon

Emmanuel International has invited him to preach and teach at several conferences including international missionaries, Malawi pastors and their wives, Malawi nationals, a youth conference, with church ministry on weekends, a week at a Bible school teaching the Life of Christ, possible prison ministry, and some local village ministry.

It will be a very busy schedule. The Lord has graciously provided the funds for this trip and we are thankful for this remarkable fact.

Another bit of exciting news is that the Rumfords are moving June 30. Burlington will be our new home and we thank God for how things have fallen into place for us in this move.

We have long anticipated a move and the Lord has kindly provided this new venue for us and we thank Him for guiding us to this new accommodation that suits our needs so well.

We will continue to fellowship at Oakridge Bible Chapel and Gordon will be preaching at various churches around southern Ontario. His schedule is being booked into 2011.

Gordon’s son Grant Rumford and his family moved to Haiti in September last year to help establish the emergency department of a medical clinic at Mission of Hope, (which is just outside Port au Prince on the national highway).

They have been extremely busy since the earthquake of last January. Many times Grant and Sandy have been interviewed via Skype on CTV since the event. Grant is an employee of the Halton ambulance service as an advanced care paramedic.

Through Grant’s efforts two ambulances have been donated and shipped to the mission. A medical clinic in Austin Texas has “adopted” the clinic and has shipped many hundreds of thousands of dollars of surgical equipment to the clinic, sent surgeons on locums and is helping to finance the building of a hospital for the mission.

It encourages us to see our own children helping the hurting and influencing others to do the same. You can Google “Grant Rumford Haiti” and find many sites to learn more about his work.

We are so privileged to have many of you as faithful prayer partners helping us serve as we do and we thank you for remembering us in prayer.

The Lord has guided us through some difficult times this past year with serious health issues both for myself, and two other family members. We are grateful that the grace of God sustains us in all circumstances and we have felt the prayers of His people.

We thank you also for the gifts that come to us to help keep us in the ministry that we love to do on behalf of people who need our counsel and have no one else to turn to in their time of need.

Remember to check our updated website and listen to one of the messages posted there. Visit rumfordministries.org. We are adding new messages regularly. Please note our new mailing address.

THE RIGHT PERSPECTIVE

John the Baptist had boldly declared that his younger cousin Jesus was the coming Messiah that would be the Reformer Who would burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. He had been the fore runner who had prepared the way for the coming One and declared in no uncertain terms that the Messiah was about to lay the axe to the root of the trees.

The message was one of judgment and a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus had come and now for a year John had been in a dark, hot horrible hole of a prison as the reward for his preaching.

Reports had been brought to him of his cousin Jesus being the darling of the masses. Great crowds thronged to hear Jesus preach. The One he had predicted would purge the world was healing the sick, becoming more and more popular and being loved by all but the leaders of the temple and synagogues. Jesus had yet to openly proclaim that He was the Messiah.

John could not understand it. Could all that he prophesied be wrong? His preaching brought him under threat of death and he was being constantly tormented. Jesus was riding the crest of public popularity. Something was terribly wrong with this picture. He had been so certain of himself when he had baptized his younger cousin. He had seen the Holy Spirit coming down out of heaven like a dove and heard the voice of testimony himself.

Circumstances had the better of John and upset his thinking so he sent a couple of his disciples to Jesus with the question, Luke 7:19 “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?” Jesus gently addressed John’s problem by doing a number of miracles and then telling the disciples to go back to John and tell him what they saw Him do.

The point was that John needed to get his eyes off his own circumstances and onto Jesus if he was going to rise above his current feelings. Heb. 12:2-3 tells us to fix our eyes on Jesus so that we do not become weary and lose heart.

Also Jesus told His disciples that His works bore powerful testimony to Himself. (John 10:25,28; 14:11). So reading the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ miracles can help us when the events of everyday life seem overwhelming and confusing.

If we can look up at the Lord, who He is and what He has done, before looking out on the world around us, we can get the right perspective and the beginning of the journey to “abundant joy” that Jesus wants for us. And sometimes it takes the help of loving friends like John had, or a counsellor to get us started.

Press play to start or right click download link and choose “Save link as…”