Last summer, Melanie Stoll (father Wade of Stoll’s Taxidermy; mother Rosetta of The Wild Whisk) began her quest to go on an 11-month trek with The World Race, a missionary organization based in Atlanta. After earning the more than $17,000 she needed to provide pay for travel, lodging and food, this North Carolina transplant left Wyoming and the U.S. on quite an adventure.
You may read her blog at melaniestoll.theworldrace.org if you’d like to follow along and look at photos she has posted there. For those who don’t have access to the Internet, below are excerpts of what she has blogged so far. Once the column is caught up on the dated submissions, her blog will be run here as they come in so anyone who is interested can keep up with the young lady’s adventure.
This is Part 5 of an ongoing series chronicling Stoll’s travels.
Dec. 27 – Hugs from Africa
Things have slowed down a bit with the nursery and the primary school since everyone is on holiday till January.
We are focusing more on prison ministry and kids club during the afternoons now and plan on painting the primary school next week.
On Friday, we did a Christmas program on the birth of Jesus for the nursery kids. Afterwords we gave everyone gift bags (courtesy of our host) and had a meal of rice and beans, with sweet biscuits for dessert. The kids loved it and it was good to see them get a filling meal on their last day.
On Christmas day, my team and other volunteers at the hostel all brought a dish of food and we had a big Christmas dinner together. It definitely wasn’t what I was used to, but the food was yummy and the main meat dish was goat. I missed being with my family but it was so cool seeing everyone come together and be a family with people from all over the world.
It’s hard to believe we have a week and a half left in Malawi. The days are long and slow but they go by so fast.
Jan. 4 – Leaving the Heart
This last week in Nkhata Bay, Malawi, has been organizing and decorating a library at the primary school before they re-open on Monday.
In the same location of the school they raise maize to sell at the market in town. Our team spent a large part of the day hand fertilizing about an acre of corn. Each plant received two types of fertilizer, one to make it grow tall and one to help it produce fruit. It was cool getting to see a small part in the way they farm and how much work they put into it. We have hard working farmers in America, but they are so blessed with resources.
We also spoke and prayed for a small group of people with disabilities. It was an eventful meeting and I am currently working on a separate blog for that, so stay tuned.
Tomorrow at 6 p.m. we get on a bus for Zimbabwe. We should arrive at our location Saturday night or Sunday. Please, please pray we have smooth traveling and get through all the boarders with ease.
Like the previous 2 countries, I’m leaving behind a piece of my heart. Malawi truly is the heart of Africa and tho it has a part of mine, it has also filled it up and made it expand.
Jan. 9 – The Day
God Let Me Down
My team and I walked into a small hut where about 20 people sat inside on the concrete floor. There were three women lining the wall that could neither speak or hear. A small child who was deaf and mute was sitting on her grandma’s lap. The grandma had problems with sore knees and high blood pressure.
In the corner was a young girl who was paralyzed in her right leg and her right hand. A man sat on the floor, his legs weak and in braces. He wore a pair of flip flops on his hands so he could drag himself around in the dirt. Someone else had a limp because one leg was longer than the other. And yet another guy was marked by burns on one hand and had no ability to move his fingers. A handful of others in the group dealt with epilepsy, or knee and stomach issues. This was the prime setting for an abundance of miracles.
We greeted them and told them we wanted to share Jesus with them. My teammate Ethan shared how God wants a personal relationship with each one of them. He told them how they don’t need to feel alone when they are sad, discouraged and broken, and how Jesus loves them so much and wants to take their pain and suffering. Ethan asked if any of them wanted to accept Jesus as their Savior. A handful of them raised their hands so we prayed with them as they surrendered their hearts to Him.
Ethan asked if anyone wanted to be healed. One by one they came up and we put our hands on them and poured out our hearts, begging for healing. They prayed with us and their faith was so evident as they asked God to restore them.
“Does your pain feel different?” We would ask each person after the prayer for healing. Always a smile and a nod but nothing physically evident. Social cues said a lot of them were just being nice. I kept thinking, “God why aren’t you doing something awesome here?”
“Is it better now?” I asked a lady after praying over her sore knees. She responded with a grin and proceeded to kick her legs in the air to show off her knee movement. “They good! Better! Better!” The whole crowd cheered and clapped for her.
I whispered a thanks to the Lord but pushed back feelings of discouragement as I watched the little mute girl “Miracle” staring at me with wide eyes. Why didn’t He allow her to hear and speak? Why didn’t He give movement back to the cripples? And why didn’t He allow the man with weak legs to get up and walk? I kept thinking, “God this whole village could be changed if you allowed just one big thing to happen.”
The Bible clearly says the blind will see, the deaf will hear, and the lame will walk. There is nothing too small for God to fix. I just needed to have faith, right? So, what did I do wrong?
That day I didn’t think anything huge happened, but the angels were rejoicing over the five new people that had just given their lives to Christ. A lady was praising God that she could lift her knees without any pain. I was sad that I didn’t see a huge miracle.
I don’t understand all the “whys,” but I’m thanking Him for giving me and my team the opportunity to unite as one and allow all those people to see how big our faith in Him is. I thank Him for providing us a translator at the last minute.
I thank Him for giving those people open hearts to hear about Him.
I thank Him for giving us words of truth to speak into those wonderful souls.
Most of all I thank Him for always being faithful, for always being true, and for always being good.
In all honestly, I was feeling like God let me down. I put myself out there. It’s not easy getting out of one’s comfort zone. I asked Him to heal and He barely came through.
At the end and of the day I went home and crawled in my tent. Once again, I quietly said to Him, “I had faith you’d heal so why not?” He put His hand on my shoulder and said, “It’s not about you, it’s about Me”
This journey isn’t about me, you, or the poor kid on the street. It’s about showing Jesus’s love and letting the whole world know He is real and He is God.
Jan. 19 – Zimbobbing Through Africa
Zimbabwe has been packed with kid’s clubs and youth ministry at churches and schools!
Each week we go to a new section of the city to run kid’s club. Kid’s club is basically a three to four-day vacation Bible school, full of Bible stories, worship/dancing, games, life skills and English lessons.
My team mates and I rotate between the clubs and preaching at the high school assemblies.
It’s been so much fun getting to know the kids and teens of Bulawayo as well as our awesome hosts Abraham and Ana! They have welcomed all of us into their home so graciously and don’t mind hosting seven people in their three-bedroom, one-bath home. Including their three kids, there is 14 people inhabiting the facilities.
This is a quick over view of what’s been happening this month! I also wanted to show one of the faces I have come to love so quickly.
Jan. 26 – Re-tweet
Today was our last full day of ministry here in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe! Monday we head to Victoria Falls for debrief with the rest of the squad, squad leaders, mentors, and coaches. With this debrief comes TEAM CHANGES!
I have mixed feelings on it, so please read in the words of my teammate Jessica...
I am nervous. Team change is coming up.
For those who don’t know the setup, I’m on a team of seven ... four guys, three girls. My squad has 19 people on it, and during team change, they switch the members of the teams we work alongside for a few months.
I have grown to love these six other individuals I’ve been on a team with for these past first four months of the world race.
