This July 2024, we are prayerfully planning a medical & educational evangelical mission trip to Mzuzu, Malawi SE Africa. Malawi is one of two countries we are hoping that the Lord will allow us to travel to this summer. We plan to provide mobile medical outreach, screen orphan children with church partners who are seeking our help with their orphan crisis, and evangelize and teach others about Jesus Christ. As I write this post, I cannot help but think of a song that I sang with my choir in my junior year in high school, that comes from a poem by Robert Frost called:
“The Road Not Taken” Here are just a few verses –
“Two roads diverged in a wood, and sorry I could not travel both, and be one traveler long I stood and looked down one as far as I could to where it bent in the undergrowth.”
“I shall be telling this with a sigh, Somewhere ages and ages hence, two roads diverged in a wood and I, I took the one less traveled by; and that has made all the difference.”
On reason for reflection on this poem is that roads in Malawi are unlike our roads in major US cities. Travel in Malawi is a lot harder, longer, more difficult and can be dangerous. In the United States we have a lot of wide roads, often easy driving, inspite of toll fees and traffic. Most roads in Malawi are gravel or dirt roads that are often difficult to travel or impossible, without a 4 wheel drive vehicle. There are alot of hills and even mountainous regions that are especially dangerous after dark. Our journey to get to some communities can be very challenging. However, each time we see God’s faithfulness in so many answers to our prayer.
Another reason is we have one life to live, and also two paths. Jesus teaches us to enter through the narrow path – “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow is the road that lead to lfe and only a few find it.” (Matthew 7:13,14). I began life’s journey, like so many young people on a wide road. At the age of 31, The Lord would transform my heart and my thinking with a love for Jesus, a calling, and also a journey on a narrow often difficult path. That path is also the way to real peace and joy in Christ that has made all the difference.