Moments from Malawi

As we continue our transition from our time in South Africa to the season we are entering in the U.S., we are intentionally spending time in reflection and prayer. We want to apply what we have learned to what God has in store for us next. Part of that reflection is continuing to document and share our experiences. Last month, I was gifted time in Malawi to spend with some of the families connected to Hands at Work in that area.

“You know, if we were going to this community stay in November or December, even maybe October, there would be no food,” Gideon, my newest friend in Malawi, tells me. My mind spinning at this thought, I started asking more questions: What do they eat in those months? How do they afford it?

“They have to buy, but they are doing piece work for rich people. A kilogram of maize now, during the harvest, can cost 550 to 600 Kwacha ($0.30). In the summer, the same maize will cost upwards of 1400 Kwacha ($0.80, or more than twice as much).”

It makes me reflect on the attitudes of those we pass as we walk. The joy on their faces and in their voices is likely in part due to the food security they have right now. Women sit around ears of dried maize chatting happily and thumbing the kernels off. They toss them in big flat baskets to remove chaff and dust, then lay them in the sun to bleach before hauling them to the neighborhood mill. They are content today. What will their attitudes betray in the months between their stores running dry and the next harvest? This I will not see in the season of plenty.

Consider with me: these subsistence farmers need money for essentials like soap and clothes. In the harvest season, they sell maize to the wealthy farmers at less-than-wholesale prices (200 Kwacha/$0.12 per kilo), cutting into their own food stores. The wealthy farmers or traders store the surplus maize for six months, then sell it back in the markets at inflated price to the poor farmers who no longer have personal food stores. At the same time, they are also employing the poor at slave wages to till, plant, tend, and harvest the fields of the wealthy.

At the end of a work day the poor return home, exhausted, to plant a few seeds they have hopefully saved from the last harvest. There is no time or energy to prosper, no time to try and grow just a little bit more. And their crops are completely dependent on rain. Without the money for a well and a pump, the poor often watch their fields wither and die without so much as an ear of corn to save for the next planting season. The rich farmers, in the position of power, get richer. The poor get poorer.

As we walk the narrow footpath up the hill from the Care Point, the sun sets behind us and the borehole (what we call a water well) is busy with girls fetching water for cooking supper and washing. We arrive at the home of Mary, our host. Mary lives alone with her two youngest sons (ages 15 and 17) and her granddaughter (age 5). The neighborhood is fond of Mary: many people come to greet us, the visitors. They know they are always welcome and do not hesitate to enter Mary’s home or take a seat on the stoop next to us.

After our supper of stewed spinach and nsima, I was asked to encourage Mary by sharing a scripture. However, I was the one encouraged by Mary. I got to witness how the community feels Mary’s reflection of God’s love, easily coming and going and fellowshipping with us. I see the confidence she has in Jesus, and I read aloud Paul’s confidence in Romans 8:38-39:

For I am persuaded that not even death or life, angels or rulers, things present or things to come, hostile powers, height or depth, or any other created thing will have the power to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!

Mary began to tell me her heart was not always this way. Three years ago, Mary was struggling: she felt hopeless and distressed to the point she could not focus, could not sleep, could not care for her children the way she wanted. When she was at the point of despair, the Holy Spirit spoke simply to Mary: “Praise God.” Despite having not many worldly reasons to comply, Mary responded in faith with genuine praise. It was later that week she received word her children were invited to participate in the Care Point, securing their access to resources for food security, education, and healthcare. Mary was obedient, and God heard Mary’s cry.

I couldn't help but notice some striking similarities in Mary’s story and mine. Likewise, I was whisked through an emotional tempest during which I couldn’t focus, couldn’t sleep, couldn’t care for my children in the way I wanted. Eventually I realized I was holding my problems away from God. Once I released them to Him I received His peace: genuine and inexplicable. And now God brought us together; two people who, apart from Him, would never have the chance to meet. God brought us together to share our stories of His deliverance.

Mary's youngest son at the Care Point

Mary is now doing better than many in her community. She has managed to purchase a few chickens and a couple female goats which, at night, share the lowest of three mud huts on her small square of land. She is trying her best to breed more goats but has had a couple disappointing starts. Despite this, Mary is full of hope. Mary is an active participant in the Care Point. She tells me of her gratitude that her sons and granddaughter have a safe place to play and the security of one meal a day.

Gideon, Richard, and I spent the night crammed into the boys’ bedroom with them. The five of us slept on the roughly eight-foot by ten-foot dirt floor with the thinnest of woven grass mats to keep our blankets clean. Some small mammal was busy making its nest in the thatch roof above my head any time I woke up from hip pain and tried to turn to a comfortable position.

Breakfast, warm thobwa

In the morning, Mary served us a breakfast of warm thobwa, a drink of spalted, boiled millet. She and her sons ate no breakfast. Mary had so little to offer us as she welcomed us into her home for the night, but she gave generously and joyfully. As we shook hands and said goodbye, I was filled with joy to know Mary and her family, to see God at work in this community through Mary.

It’s been a whirlwind the last three weeks since I returned from Malawi, packed up my family, said goodbye to so many new friends, and traveled to the other side of the world. As Ashley and I reflect on what it looks like for us to return to community in one of the most secular regions of the world, I keep coming back to the life of the Care Worker. I want to be like them because of how they strive to be like Jesus. Each day the Care Worker volunteers their time to feed children and to build relationships with the brokenhearted. To bring hope and life to their community.

I’m not entirely sure what shape that will take, but I know it’ll be hard and require sacrifice. It will take the sacrifice of time. Instead of doing things for myself, I will strive to continue spending the time serving others. It will take the sacrifice of comfort as we enter uncomfortable situations. It will likely cause me to pursue people who have suffered trauma and do not yet know what love looks like. But that’s what Jesus did. Won't you join me?

As we extend this invitation to serve, support, and advocate, it's important to remember that it is not by works that we hope to earn or achieve salvation, but by grace through faith. No amount of good works would ever be enough to restore the broken relationship that we had with God, but by His grace and through our faith we can receive the gift of restored relationship with God because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. - Ephesians 2:8-10

It's no mystery that we love and want to support the work being done globally through Hands at Work. We plan to continue advocating for and supporting them as we are able even through this next season. Some of the other practical ways we hope to serve within our own community are: serving vulnerable families in crisis through an organization called Safe Refuge, and actively participating in needs of our own church community.

We are revamping our give page yet again to point toward some of the organizations that we know, love, and personally believe are excellent avenues to send financial help. We are extremely grateful to God and to those of you who have given to support our time in Africa and hope to reignite that partnership should we ever have the privilege to venture overseas as missionaries again.

Extras:

• Zac lost another tooth while we were in London. Gross and cool. Neither the Tooth Fairy nor the Tooth Mouse visited him. Poor third child.

• We spent a long layover with Eric's mom in London and visiting Ashley's cousin Jordy in Oxford

• Our travel plans from London back to the Bay Area include:

  • Traveling through and staying with family in Dallas, TX (Ashley's brother Lex),

  • Albaquerque, NM (visiting Ashley's other cousin Molly),

  • Time with Lolo & Lomi (Ashley's dad and step mom) in Oro Valley, AZ,

  • Chilling in the Las Vegas heat with some of our favorite former-Californians Rick and Jeanette

  • And then, Lord willing, home to the Bay Area on Monday.

• I asked the kids what they want most when returning to the Bay and they said "play dates!" So know that they are all anxious and excited to play with their friends again soon.

• Since returning to driving on the right side of the road we have struggled with mixing up our turn signals and windshield wipers as they have again been switched on us. Otherwise, no exciting road incidents to report. (Praise the Lord!)

• Song rec for this session: More than Able (He's Not Done With Me Yet)