It was Monday, the beginning of the second week of August, when the team from Excellence Christian Academy, started off from their busy schedule on their trip to Malawi.

There were eighteen people - twelve students, four teachers, one of which was a senior supervisor, a Pastor and the driver. The school had hired a minibus from one of the local transporters.

Pastor Kalunga prayed before leaving and everyone was excited when the minibus started off at approximately 11h00. We had a stop over at the famous Shoprite here in Kabwe. Finally we left Kabwe at about 12h00. We arrived in Kapiri Mposhi at about 13h00 but left after five minutes. Kapiri town is not far from Mkushi turn off road. Our team learnt many things on the way. The road from this turn off to Isoka is very smooth, so we travelled very well and there was no problem with the minibus.

However, in some parts of our country there is no heavy traffic on the road. We crossed three fly-over bridges before Serenje and two after Kanona. There were many police check points on our way but none of them gave us trouble. Muchinga escarpment was very exciting for the children and trees don't grow well in this area. The teachers explained a lot of these things to the children on the way. These were the activities that were done on the great north road - explaining a lot of things to children. Most of the things that were explained to children, they were able to see for themselves. For instance, the way people destroy the land when using the Chitemene system (cutting trees and burning them so that one may plant maize or millet) and how they do it, as well as the way logs are hipped together on one place.

This helped the children to express themselves in their own way by asking a lot of questions. Among them Suzyo asked many questions. By 15h43 we reached Serenje. One interesting part about towns in the northern province is that they are a miles away from the main road, making it difficult for visitors to see them. Our students saw the Kanona turn off a place were they manufacture bullets for soldiers. After this point children expressed joy when they saw Luswashi Dam, Chitambo mission where David Livingstone died; Tazama oil pipe line, which starts from Tanzania to Ndola in Zambia. This was made for easy transportation of oil. We arrived in Mpika at about 19h00 and we had a stop over at the filling station to buy fuel as we did in Serenje.

From here we went to see the grandpa of Praise and Sarah Kalunga. We all left the bus and entered the house by 19h30. We were introduced to the family by Mr. G. Banda. By 20h00 Pastor Chikubi prayed before we started off from the residence. It was very cool and everyone was tired by this time. Before, leaving Mpika we bought food for our supper, which we ate as we travelled towards Isoka. From 20h00 we travelled for about four hours on the road before reaching Isoka, the road is very smooth. We arrived in Isoka at about 24h00. We all had a night in the mini bus near a shop. After a long way of travelling Lwando and Esther had headaches, then they were given panado. We could not leave very early because of fuel. We kept on waiting for the petrol attendant until 06h00, that is when we inquired from a man who agreed to take us to the house where the man in charge of the filling station lived.

We waited for twenty five minutes as the man was preparing himself to go and start work. We left Isoka at about 06h35 after buying fuel. From Kabwe to Isoka there was no problem. The problem started when we branched off from the main road which goes to Nakonde. We travelled for almost five hours on a very bad road. At this point no cars passed there because of the road. Our minibus got stuck in the sand, so we started pushing the bus, it was terrible.

The road became more and more difficult as we went on. This road took us up to Chitipa border. Racheal Banda was car-sick on the way due to the bad road. We left the border at about 14h42 on Tuesday afternoon. We had a small difficulty with the officers at the border but we managed to get through.

It's a long way from Kabwe to the Chitipa border. But, everyone was happy because we moved in the hands of the Lord.

Malawi is very mountainous, this made our journey in the minibus more difficult. The bus had times when it failed even to pull us as we were going up the road.

It was very dangerous since the roads were gravel roads and the sides were unprotected. At a certain point, we had to stop on top of the mountain because the downhill was very sharp. Everyone including the driver was afraid to go down. After 30 minutes prayer, surrendering our lives and the bus in the hands of the Lord, fear left us and the driver drove courageously down to the valley. From this point, we were sure that the Lord would continue to be with us despite the road and circumstances surrounding us. We went from mountain to mountain and it was getting dark! It was surprising that no one experienced the fear which had caught us up as we were going through the first mountains.

We reached Karonga at night and we thought that was our destiny; we prayed and prayed claiming souls for the Lord and thanking the Lord for our journey. When we finished praying, we asked one of the passers-by where Pastor Msukwa stayed.

He told us that he stays in the next town - about 65km from there! We were not discouraged because we saw the hand of God in the perilous mountains.

We arrived Chilumba Jetty at about 22h30. We found Pastor Msukwa waiting for us. We prayed together thanking God for the safe journey and every provision on our way.

Wednesday we started demonstrating with the children. We did not have a good response in the morning. In the afternoon there were only a few people who came. On Thursday both in the morning and afternoon we had a good response and there were a lot of questions from parents both for the students and the teachers. The parents who came were very amazed with the explanation from the students, they explained the subjects with Biblical point of view, they never missed Bible scripture as they explained things in their academic work.

Teachers explained how the Christian Education built the children's characters for future leadership - in their future homes, future work places and their communities where they live.

The representative from the Ministry of Education said that they had never heard of such type of Education which touched so many areas of life! They wondered why Excellence Christian Academy authority had decided only to demonstrate in one part of the country and leave the rest of the towns; especially big towns.

We explained that this was arranged by Pastor Msukwa who was interested in the Christian Education.

They suggested that in future this could be presented to other parts of the country in order for everyone to benefit. Friday and Saturday, were also successful days. We had a good time of fellowship on Sunday with Pastor Msukwa. We sang and danced, there was also a good new membership recorded after receiving Christ as their Lord on this day.

We started off from Chilumba Jetty on Monday, 19th August, 2002 around 04h40 in the morning. Our main aim was to reach Mzuzu city in the early hours of Monday, the same day. We travelled for an hour when we found a truck involved in an accident covering half the road. Another truck had a break down on the same spot covering the other half. The whole road was blocked making it impossible for traffic to pass. This caused a big traffic jam. We decided to use the side road made by contractors, but we could not proceed either because the contractors machinery was packed in the middle of the road. We remained with no option but to wait for the contractors. We were delayed at this point for about 2 hours.

We arrived in Mzuzu around 11h00. Mzuzu University being by the road (from Karonga) before reaching the city centre. We decided to visit the place as our trip was more educational.

The security guard kept us outside the campus for a few minutes as he was enquiring from the authorities whether to allow us in or not. One of the workers was given the task of taking us around the campus. We discovered that Mzuzu University is only for teachers and it is just as big as Nkrumah Teachers College (one of the teachers colleges in Zambia) except that it is better maintained.

Pastor Msukwa had accompanied us to Mzuzu. He wanted to get some money on credit which would assist us for fuel. However, the money could not be found. The Pastor was very frustrated and at the same time disappointed. Pastor Chikubi took time encouraging him. He assured him that God was going to see us through.

We arrived in Lilongwe between 18h00 and 19h00. Our aim was to reach Lilongwe before 17h00 so that with the help of our High Commission, we could secure a place to spend a night. Having arrived late in the city, we decided to go straight to Shoprite. We met a man from here who knew where we could find our High Commission.

Without even getting out of the minibus, we requested that the man take us to the High Commission. The security guard at the High Commission could not give us a line to the High Commissioner, a thing that frustrated all of us. We were new in the city and we did not know where to go. We threatened the security guard and promised to come back the following morning.

Pastor Chikubi requested the man who had helped us from shoprite to take us to a Pentecostal church if he had known any. Like an angel from heaven, he decided to take us to a Pentecost Assemblies of God Church where there is also a theological college. The Pastor of the church was in a prayer meeting and so a Mr Peter could not allow Pastor Chikubi to see him. The Pastor of that church had also served God in Zambia before moving to Malawi. This made it easier for us. The Pastor just instructed the workers to ensure that we were comfortable. The college was then on recess. 5 beautiful rooms were given to us. All the girls were in one room, boys were given two rooms, female teachers were in one room and the male were in the other.

The bedding was provided and also other college facilities such as warm water from the geyser. For the first time we had a very, very comfortable night in Malawi. At this point the driver was convinced that God was with us.

Early in the morning the male staff woke up to pray. We spent about 2 hours. Initially we planned to leave the premises before eight. However we left after eight.

Soon we were at the High Commission. We wanted to seek help to change our currency, and secondly to ask for assistance for fuel money. At the main gate we were made to wait for a while before we, the delegation leaders, were finally allowed in, leaving the children by the gate. The acting High Commissioner, Evangelist Peter M. Akupela told us that we were supposed to write to the High Commissioner of our going to Malawi so that security and other logistics could be put in place for the visiting team.

He further said before reaching his office, that we were supposed to meet the first Secretary to the High Commissioner. Pastor Chikubi responded by saying we as a team were learning and asked for forgiveness. The High Commissioner further said that most of the Zambian nationals who visit the High Commission go there for financial assistance. This statement disturbed us as we had gone there for the same. At this point Pastor Chikubi introduced the team and explained the purpose of our going to Malawi.

Upon realizing that it was a team of Christians coming from a Christian school, the High Commissioner became interested. He opened up and introduced himself as an Evangelist, he said he was not serving as a High Commissioner only but also doing the work of God, that is planting churches. He then called all his co-workers at the High Commission to greet us. There were Mr. Mutale, Mr Kabwe and Madam Ruth.

Since the High Commissioner had some work to attend to, he decided to pray for us before sending or handing us over to Mr Mutale, the first Secretary to the High Commissioner. Pastor Chikubi requested to pray for them as well. The presence of God was felt strongly. By the time Pastor Chikubi said "Amen", the High Commissioner could not release us. He instead gave us a prayer request. He said he was going to have a crusade at a certain village and witchcraft being one of the strongholds in that area, he requested for prayers against such a spirit and the like. By the time we stopped praying, the joy of the Lord had filled the entire High Commission. The High Commissioner could not hold on to the money on his pocket. He decided to give it away saying God had impressed upon him to do so and confessed that it was not a mistake or loss.

Children were later allowed in and Mr. Mutale addressed us in the conference room. We left the High Commission around 12h00 with a lot of excitement.

We managed to change our currency, and children were given time to do the shopping up to about 16h00.

We then started off for Mchinji border Post around 17h15. As we were travelling along the road, the children noticed that there was a rail line on the right side of the road and the children were very happy to see the rail.

Mchinji road from Lilongwe was very smooth such that we did not notice the distance or the hours we travelled because the journey seemed too short.

Soon we reached Mchinji District market place. We briefly stopped over to exhaust all the Malawian currency we had left on us. This place looked very busy and a lot of business was carried on over there. We started off and after travelling for about 10 minutes, we reached Mchinji Immigration border Post. The driver stopped the bus and Mr Banda accompanied by Pastor Chikubi went to have the documents checked and processed by the Immigration Officers.

As we were travelling to Lusaka, we passed over the Luangwa Bridge and the children saw the Luangwa river which is the longest river in Zambia. We also passed through the Luangwa Check Point without any problems. We passed through another check point before we finally reached Lusaka, around 12h00. We stopped over at Manda Hill shopping centre to buy food for lunch. We started off for Kabwe at about 12h30, and before we reached Kabwe we passed through prospect check point and finally we reached Kabwe.

The Principal Pastor Kalunga offered a thanks giving prayer as soon as we arrived at school. We then off loaded our luggage from the bus and we had a team prayer. We praised and thanked God in our prayer for the travelling mercies and all that he provided during our journey to and from Malawi before dispersing to our various homes in the Mighty Name of Jesus.

ITEMS FOR PRAISE

ITEMS FOR PRAYER