WEATHER ALERT:

Due to weather conditions, all in-person daytime and evening programs have been canceled across the church’s locations for Wednesday, except for the Recovery programs and Food Pantry at Overland Park. Decisions for Thursday daytime programs will correspond with local school district decisions and will be posted on the church’s website.

IMPORTANT:

Scheduled programming has resumed for Thursday, February 13 at all Resurrection locations.

Blog 2

11/10/24

Malawi III: November 7-19, 2024

The Malawi Serve Trip days two and three were taken up mostly by travel. Our flight out of Newark was delayed by a few hours due to a reported maintenance issue, but the fourteen hour flight to Johannesburg went off without a hitch. Most of us got at least a little sleep and were also able to catch up on movies using the in-flight entertainment options.

Fun fact: Jeremy had never seen Die Hard until this flight. Once our collective disbelief had abated, a spirited debate on the status of Die Hard as a Christmas movie ensued with the affirmative argument prevailing.

We did enjoy a short night at the City Lodge Hotel in Johannesburg before finishing our journey to Malawi. We arrived at about 11am local time and had a fairly uneventful transition through customs before being greeted by our Opulence partners Hugo, Twambi, Getrude (with one R) and our driver Chifundo, who piled us, our bags and a quarter-ton of books into his striking pink bus, which will be our chariot for the next five days.

A quick stop at the supermarket for a few snacks and a LOT of water preceded the trip to the Chiko Hotel. Along the way we took in the sights and began to appreciate the depth of poverty that is endemic to this place.

The day ended with a delicious meal and communion with the aforementioned Opulence members, including the additions of Rebecca, Michael, Hastings (an intern working with Opulence) and Okhif, before retiring to our rooms for some much welcomed sleep.