Last September, I had the opportunity to spend some time in Malawi. I have been wanting to visit there for a long time but had not been able to until this trip. Early in 2021, Sara, Peter, and I were ready to move to Malawi but that plan was put on hold when we found out we were expecting Nathan. Sara worked closely with our team in Malawi for a few years and had the privilege of visiting them a number of times. Sara loves Malawi and its people. Fast forward to 2022, I finally made it there. The first thing I heard from our taxi driver who picked me up at the airport was, “Welcome to Malawi, Sara’s husband!” Whichever community I visited, all the care workers referred to me as Sara’s husband (although I think part of the reason was because they couldn’t pronounce the click in my name). It showed me how much my wife is loved and remembered there. While I was there, we had leaders’ meetings where we worshipped, prayed, and made plans for our work.

It’s amazing how wherever you are in Africa, the Ubuntu principle lives on. We have different cultural customs from country to country, and even from tribe to tribe within countries, but Ubuntu crosses African countries. One cultural difference in Malawi is that a newlywed husband moves into the wife’s house with her entire family for couple of years to show to the family that he can care and provide for her. Often he is given a big field to cultivate and produce a harvest. I was fascinated by many different cultural things. That’s one of the beautiful things of serving in Africa where the culture is so diverse and so rich. However, often some of the cultural practices are not good and they go against Kingdom culture. 

I had the chance to visit the community of Fosa, where we we had a prayer meeting with our care workers and church leaders. It’s such a tough, poor community with a lot of spiritual things happening. I remember walking to a home visit and while we were on the road, I heard loud voices of men groaning. When I turned around, I saw men walking fast toward us with long sticks and faces painted white and red, wearing cow-skin underwear. I have seen many traditional healers/witchcraft/ancestral worshipers back in South Africa, but this was different. I was with three ladies, one Zimbabwean lady also visiting and two local volunteers, so I got myself ready to stand my ground to buy time for these ladies to run if they needed to. They got closer to us. They were singing and shouting strange things. They continued walking past us on their way to a home where someone had just passed away. They were the men who would do some sort of spiritual cleansing with the body. The local ladies explained it to us. Young boys join this cult to become prophets who can cleanse the community. They have to drop out of school, leave their church and spend time in the graveyard communicating with ancestors before they are initiated. I could share a lot about things like that, which are fascinating, but that I don’t want to be our focus. But this example shines a light into why this community is so tough and why the children that we feed and care for at our care points are at such risk. Our children face witchcraft, rituals, early marriages, alcohol abuse, lack of education, and abuse.

We arrived at the home that we were visiting. There was a family of 17 people there, all women and children, but our focus that day was to visit a lady named Martha, and her 4 children, who are five of the 17. I mention her name here because I felt like God had sent us. The night before, I was reading an article in Ridgewood’s Things New and Old and it was about Martha and those beautiful words Jesus spoke to her. As I sat and heard her story and her struggles with caring for her family with a failed crop and not knowing where her husband is, I was heartbroken and deeply challenged. I can’t imagine not knowing how Sara and the kids are doing. Then I felt the Holy Spirit reminding me about Martha and what I had read. When she was hurting, she ran straight to Jesus with her problem. Then Jesus spoke those wonderful words to her, that He is the Resurrection and the Life. The article likened the forgiveness of sin to a spiritual resurrection from the dead. I encouraged Martha to turn her life to Jesus, run to him with her problem, pray, and believe. Sometimes it’s not easy to see people in such need and only be able to pray, but actually, praying for them is the most powerful thing we can do for them. Sometimes with the little God has given us, we can give and make a difference in people’s lives. When we have done that, we have seen God’s faithfulness; He gives us just what we need when we need it. Once you have tasted God’s goodness and faithful provision, you can be reckless with your generosity. But more often than not, what we physically give doesn’t change their lives. The only thing that will bring real change is prayer and the transforming power of Christ. We continue to pray for Martha and her children. We pray for a good harvest this year, for good health for them. (We had to take Emmanuel, her son, to the clinic while we were there.) We are thankful for the churches that are busy preaching Jesus, for the care point, and care workers that continue to stand for Christ and care for our children and their families. We pray for them and for those churches that their light will shine brightly in those communities.

Of course we did go to the famous Dedza market and I was able to enjoy some of the things my wife has told me about. We brought home to Zambia some Irish potatoes, Malawi’s sticky rice, some big fish from Lake Malawi, and some fresh ground nuts. I am always thankful for how our Father speaks to us when we are willing and open to Him. I am so privileged that I get to witness and experience many instances of God’s faithfulness and answers to prayer each week among the poorest who are faithful and hopeful each day. We want to share these stories with you so you can stand with us as Hands At Work and the Makwakwa family in prayer!

“Now unto Him who is able to keep us from falling and present us faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, and to the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and honor, both now and forever. Amen.”

Thank you to so many of you for reaching out to us and asking how we are doing here in Zambia. You have no idea how much it means to us to receive your messages because it tells us that we are in your hearts and prayers. It is so incredibly encouraging to know that you love us from so far away and have not forgotten us. Although our communication is lacking, please know that we have not forgotten you.

Our family has now been in Zambia for almost six weeks. Nathan has had the easiest adjustment. He is a very pleasant and happy baby. Peter adjusted very quickly. He really likes running around our new house and he gets along very well with all the children who live on our property. He loves playing outside with them and is constantly putting his shoes on and standing by the door hoping I will take him outside. It is rainy season here; along with the rains comes an abundance of snails, and Peter has taken to picking them up and trying to hand them to people. He really loves Nathan, but needs to be supervised at all times with Nathan, as his hugs and playfulness is not often gentle. But I am so happy with how much he loves his little brother.

Settling in is taking longer for me. I had not realized how much South Africa had become home for me. I was comfortable, and I had figured out how to navigate life there. Now, once again, I have left home and am in a strange land. During the first few weeks, I was a little homesick. It felt hard to be a foreigner in a strange place where everything was so different. It is one thing to go on an adventure to a foreign land, but it’s a very different thing to uproot one’s family and move. What we were doing felt very big. Thankfully, we have an ever-present Father, who meets us right at our need. I poured my heart out to him and He met me in a beautiful way. I have had to be more dependent on Him than I usually am, and that is such a good thing!

I think most of you know that I contracted malaria at the end of our second week here. Malaria, when caught early, is treatable and does not usually require hospitalization. However, I was hospitalized because the malaria killed many of my white blood cells and my doctor wanted to observe me. Needless to say, it was hard for me to be away from our family for those 3 nights. Xolani did a great job caring for the boys in my absence. It was also hard for me to be hospitalized in a foreign country. I came face to face with how I felt about being in a place that has such limited healthcare. I was in a decent private hospital – very different than America, but it was clean and I was cared for and given proper attention, which is very different than the public hospitals here. The staff all spoke excellent English. The population we serve here could never afford to stay in the hospital I was in and I am still wrestling with that. I have no idea why God has been so gracious to me that I am privileged to afford this medical care and others cannot, but I thank Him for it and I hope that I never forget that. I have since fully recovered and don’t even feel any residual fatigue. My doctor was amazed by how I bounced back. To God be the glory!

As I was feeling a little bit homesick, and then at the same time was stuck in the hospital, the Holy Spirit met me in such a sweet way. I wrote earlier how I was feeling like a foreigner. A lightbulb went on in my head when I realized that I should feel like a foreigner because I am a foreigner. I asked God to send me and I chose to answer His call. Of course I should feel like a foreigner! (Yes, I know, duh!) I shouldn’t want Zambia to feel like America or even South Africa because it is Zambia! My heart and my attitude changed as soon as I realized this. Things got significantly easier for me. Nothing on the outside had changed, but my heart completely changed.

Xolani and I are considered temporary residents here in Zambia. This reminds me of the first chapter of 1 Peter in which Peter tells us how we ought to live during our time on earth as “temporary residents” (NLT). The writer to the Hebrews, when talking about the heroes of faith in chapter 11, talks about how each one of them “acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth” (ESV). Sometimes it is tough to not feel “at home,” but the truth is that none of us should ever feel at home. We are all temporary residents. We are all living for something so much greater. We are pilgrims just travelling through. Let’s thank God for the hope that we have in Him and remember that this world is not our home, but that “our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ (Philippians 3:20).”

Before I close, just a quick update on what we are doing in our day-to-day work. I am home with Peter and Nathan getting to know our community of international missionaries and local Zambians here. They are wonderful people and have welcomed us warmly and generously. Xolani spends a lot of his time with our team serving in Luanshya. Same as in South Africa, he loves visiting people in their homes and sitting with them as they share their hardships and being able to offer hope to them. The difference though is that he needs someone to translate for him. The days that he is not with the local team here, he is in the office working remotely with our team in Lagos, Nigeria. Please reach out and ask if you have any questions or comments. We love hearing from you.

The last three months have brought a few big changes to our family.

A few of you have asked if we are still with Hands at Work, and yes, we are. Hands at Work serves in both South Africa and Zambia, as well as six other countries. The work we will be doing will be quite similar to what we were doing before, but it is a different place with a different culture, different language, different foods, different people, etc. and a lot of things to learn.

The night before we left, we were singing some songs with Peter at bedtime. They were the normal children’s songs that we often sing but that night, they really spoke to my heart. I was certain of the step we were taking but still feeling emotional about it and nervous about all the unknowns. We sang Trust and Obey together – one line says, “When we do His good will, He abides with us still.” I am standing on this promise. He has promised to go before us, and He has! And no matter where He sends us, He is abiding with us. I stand on the word that God gave to Moses in Exodus 33, “My presence will go with you and I will give you rest.” God has been so faithful to keep these promises to us, and we have every reason to trust that He will continue to keep these promises over our family. We have come to Zambia with our hands open, not knowing what will be, but we know that our Father knows what He has for us, and His plans for us are well-thought out and deliberate and good. We are not expecting it to be easy but we are expecting it to be good. Peter’s favorite song at the moment is This Little Light of Mine. We pray that wherever we are, and in whatever capacity, no matter how small, we will shine the light of Christ in the dark corners of this world. Lastly, we sang Under the Blood as we do most nights as our final bedtime song. I do have fears for the boys about malaria and about Peter’s allergies, but we trust God to surround us with his angels and protect the boys. Even in our simple bedtime singing, God was faithful to meet with us.

We were warmly welcomed when we arrived in Ndola. We live on a Hands at Work property with about 25 other Hands at Work missionaries and families. They have been very hospitable and make us feel like they are so happy we are here. Peter has made new friends quickly and is already comfortable running around the property with them.

We are thankful and expectant.

In the coming weeks and months, we will be doing a series of updates in which we will be sharing a bit more of our story, as well as testimonies of God’s faithfulness. Included in the series will be pictures and video clips that will be posted here as well as in our new social media account. We will share personal stories, cultural differences, our children, our ministry, our work within Hands at Work, families, and stories that have impacted us. We look forward to engaging better with you all. Thank you for all your love and prayers.

He is Risen!

This morning, Sara and I were reflecting on books of John and Mathew. As we took time to pray, we were so filled with thankfulness for what our Lord has done for us. We are sinners, unworthy, yet by His Grace we are redeemed. We are His children! In His great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade (1 Peter 1:3-4). This week, we went through the days before Jesus’ crucifixion. We read how one woman gave the most valuable thing she had in worship to Jesus when she anointed him with her jar of perfume. We were convicted as we asked ourselves if we give our all to Jesus. We read how Peter denied Jesus like we often do when we don’t love people, or by our attitude, or our pride or selfishness, just to name a few. Yet Jesus loved Peter so much. He forgave him in love and grace. We are so thankful for this Jesus who redeemed us out of the pit and loves us with an everlasting love, and showers His grace and forgiveness on us. We praise Him because we are redeemed!

May God bless you on this wonderful Easter Sunday. We are so thankful for all of you who continue to write us, call us, message us, and pray for us.

Love, Xolani, Sara, and Peter

The last few months have been quite different for us here in South Africa, as it has been for each of you in your respective places. 

March started out with the sad news of the passing of my Aunt Edith Blumhofer.  Peter and I were able to fly to the US to attend her funeral.  We miss her and we are sad for the loss, but we are thankful for the hope we have in Christ to know that she is with him in Glory.  We got to see many of you!  We see God’s hand in the timing of this, as my aunt was still able to have a proper funeral, and we were able to be there for it.  We are so thankful for His provision and His grace to allow us to travel to the US and back again.  I was so happy to introduce Peter to some of you.  We hoped to see more of you but had to rush back to South Africa, as international travel bans were being imposed.  We made it home just 18 hours before the border closed!

A few days after we arrived back home, our government set out one of the strictest nationwide lockdowns that has been seen across the globe.  It was to last 21 days, but as in most other places, it has been extended.  A number of rules have been lifted and some have changed, but we are still in this lockdown and don’t know when it will lift.

As you know, Hands at Work’s five care points in Oshoek each have between 50 and 100 of the most vulnerable children in that community come for a meal each day.  They come for a meal, they play, they are cared for, checked on, and loved by local community care workers.  Hands at Work is considered an essential service, so we are able to continue providing food for children.  However, with the rules of the lockdown, we couldn’t continue running our care points as usual.  Kids could not come in crowds and eat together and stay to play.  What would we do?  After debating whether we should continue to cook or if we should instead deliver food, we decided that we needed to continue operating each care point in order to be a safe haven for these children.  It would have to look very different than normal in order to follow social distancing and rules of hygiene, but we needed to keep these care points open.  With schools closed, our children would not be receiving the meal at school that they normally receive, so they would be even more desperate for food.  With extra family members home, and women and children remaining behind closed doors, domestic violence can increase and no one would be able to check on the children.

Each of the five care points in Oshoek remains open and serving children.  Xolani travels there every other week, and visits the closer communities the weeks he is home.  Peter is unable to leave our property, so one of us always needs to be home with him.  I am sad that we will have to wait to go as a family to Oshoek, but we know that this is a small price to pay and we are learning to be patient.  None of our communities has been touched by the virus yet and we pray for God’s hand of protection over each of our care workers, children, and their grannies.

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This virus and subsequent lockdowns have meant many different things for God’s people around the world.  Some of you have experienced loss and grief; some of you have been sick; some are experiencing extreme loneliness, heightened anxiety, etc.; some of you have lost your jobs; some of you have been on the front lines for two months.  I don’t pretend to understand what any of you are going through but please know that our hearts are with you and we are praying for you.  God’s ways are not for us to understand but we trust Him and we pray that His name will be glorified throughout the earth at this time.

We are so thankful for each one of you – your prayers, your messages, and your support are an encouragement to us. You truly are our partners in this ministry. Many of you prayed for our family when we were expecting our baby boy, and we are thrilled to introduce to you Peter Samuel Makwakwa. Our lives have changed drastically in the last two and a half months but our mission remains the same – to shine the light of Christ in some of the darkest of places.

Peter joined our family on December 18, 2019. We praise God for a smooth delivery and a healthy baby. We know that this is only by God’s grace. My mom was with us for most of Peter’s first month and was a huge help, as you can imagine. I have been home with Peter for the last couple months. Our plan is that I will stay home with him until he has a few more immunizations, and then we will go to Oshoek together as a family, and we are excited for that. Xolani goes to Oshoek every other week. Peter and I are happy to release him because we know that he brings Christ to those we love (and God loves infinitely more) there. The weeks that Xolani is home with us, he visits the communities close by. For the most part, I have enjoyed this transition to motherhood. We know that Jesus loves children, and that He often invested in just one person at a time, and it helps me when I see motherhood that way. Of course that doesn’t mean that it is easy, but I pray that our home will be a place where Christ dwells and that Peter will feel safe and loved here and grow to know Christ and His love.

When I first came to South Africa, I was struck by all the challenges of our children here in community. These challenges are present from birth. For many of them, their parents have passed away, and many more have been abandoned by their parents and left in the care of other relatives. You all know that we work with a ministry that feeds children and provides access to education and healthcare for children, but it is so much more than that. We have been called to bring Christ and his love to children who have been orphaned or abandoned. It is a huge responsibility, and one that is much more difficult than providing a plate of food, but we trust that God’s name is being glorified. A 16-year old girl close to our family gave birth to a baby boy just a few weeks after Peter was born. She went back to school almost immediately and her mom now takes care of the baby. The dad is not in the picture. The baby’s grandmother loves him, but the fact remains that he won’t have a healthy bond with either of his parents. We have a responsibility to this girl and her son to be the hands and feet of Jesus to her. The hope we bring is our hope in Christ – that in showing His love to her and her son, they will know him and they will experience his healing in their lives.

I can’t help but compare Peter to this baby boy and the many other children we know and love. We are thankful that Peter has been blessed with so much. By having a present mother and a present father, Peter already has so much more than the children God has called us to. Many of the children we serve don’t have identification, which means they will have limited access to schools, clinics, travel, and much more throughout their lives. By merely having a birth certificate, Peter has access to so much more than our children here. On top of that, many sleep on the floor of cold mud houses, making it difficult for them to maintain good hygiene. Often a baby’s mother might not have good nutrition, and then you can see it in the baby’s growth. Some of us are born with everything at our fingertips, and others are born with everything stacked against them. This is one of those things that I won’t understand until I am in Heaven. But rather than try to make sense of it, I choose to be thankful. There is nothing good in any of us. There is nothing we have done to bring us to where we are. Peter will grow up playing with children who have much less than he does. I smile when I think of him being friends with this little boy. We pray that he will not see any difference between them. We pray that he will have a thankful heart and always remember God’s grace. Of course, I can type this now but still forget over and over how bless I am and complain way too much. I need this reminder far too often. Let’s be thankful!

We have another choice too – a choice to use the gifts God has given us for His kingdom or not. Peter instructs us to be faithful stewards of God’s grace. I should probably take this and be excited to use gifts for his glory, but instead it really convicts me and even makes me nervous. Jesus said that “everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” When I list things we have been blessed with, I realize that a LOT will be required of us. Please pray for us in this. We know that God has sent us here and we know that He has more for us to do. Pray that he will show us, and please pray that we will follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. Also pray that we would lean on God for everything, that we would know that it is only by his Spirit that anything can happen. It is only by remaining in Christ that we can bear fruit, but even though we know this, we still try to do things in our own strength. When Xolani and I look back on last year, we can see specific times where we tried to do things in our own strength and where there was no fruit. It is our prayer this year that we would daily remember our weakness and daily ask the Holy Spirit to be in us and that we would just be his vessels.

I could do a whole post on why we named our son Peter Samuel, but for now I’ll just say that we pray that little Peter will come to know the grace and forgiveness of Christ the same way the Apostle Peter did. We pray that he would be sensitive when he sins the same way Peter was. And we pray that God will fill him with his Holy Spirit and use him for His kingdom. Thank you for praying for us and for little Peter. We love you all.

“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and I will heal their land.”

As I shared with you on Wednesday, I was expecting Thursday to be a tough day for me. And it was – for so many reasons. The boys had to come face to face with their abuser and I had to face an old friend who has hurt so many of us. I should have been angry and wanting to fight, but when I saw him, the only thing I saw was sadness. I saw my responsibility to pray for him, as well as to pray for justice for the boys. We serve a wonderful God – a God who is faithful, full of mercy and grace, a God of justice. We may not always understand how to reconcile these characteristics but that’s okay because we don’t trust in ourselves; we trust in a faithful, merciful, and just God. Thank you sincerely for your messages of support and prayers, both on here and via WhatsApp. Sara and I were very encouraged. We never feel alone as we continue to speak for those who can’t speak for themselves, for those who are oppressed and have no voice (Proverbs 31:8). Your prayers mean the world to us. At the moment, the plan is to pick up the trial again in April. We will keep you updated.

To update on another prayer request, we are so thankful that it has rained all week. We are starting to see rivers where there was just a little standing water. We see some green. People can now plow their fields! Thank you so much for standing with us in prayer for rain. We continue to pray for more rain to fill the dams, for the rivers to flow again, and for people’s fields to yield a harvest.

Luke 9:23 – “Then he said to them all: ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.'”

This is an update from us on one particular issue, as well as a plea for your prayers on our behalf. Tomorrow, I will be standing in court on behalf of three boys who were abused repeatedly by a close family relative. Sara and I were very close to their mother who passed away last November after a long illness. She was young and left three sons. She was a care worker in one of our communities and a friend to us. (Some of you who have come on teams met her, and all of you would have met her sons.) We visited her often in the months leading up to her death. One numerous occasions, she asked us to continue to love and care for her children after she was gone. We had walked with her for a number of years and she had come to know Christ. Now she is with our Father in Heaven.

After her death, a close relative of theirs went to live with the boys in order to take care of them. He was a friend of hers, and also a friend of ours. We had known him for about a year and we trusted him. We had hopes for him. Xolani invested time in him. In February, the boys told us that he had been abusing them since he moved in, and even earlier when their mom was sick. We didn’t want to believe it but there were a number of factors that led us to believe that it was true. We were fearful at the time but we knew that we had to fight for justice and go to the police. Often, communities and families want to hide things like this. They want to deal with it themselves and pretend nothing has happened. But we knew that God wanted us to stand up for the boys, His children. So we did. This has been a long process, and now the trial has begun. I have been called on to testify in court tomorrow.

When we think of discipleship, we often mix it with teaching, but it’s actually so much more. Of course our greatest example is Jesus, who took 12 ordinary men and invested so much of his time and energy in them. They often misunderstood him, they often thought of themselves and not him, one betrayed him, one denied him, some didn’t trust him. Discipleship is costly. Discipleship is about doing life together. It is a deep investment in someone, especially when that person could very well fail or hurt you. It is about being devoted to prayer for the person you are discipling. It is about sharing honestly with one another, and being accountable to one another. We see this often in the early church and the apostles. Accountability was important – a tough example of the importance of accountability is Ananias and Sapphira. Acts is filled with rich teachings of fellowship, which is a basis of discipleship.

If I could choose, I would choose not go to court. Well, if I am being honest, I would choose that this never would have happened, but especially that it would not have been done by a friend of mine. This man is someone I trusted, someone I invested time in, someone I hoped for, someone I prayed for, someone I had committed to. Even today I pray that he will have a repentant heart tomorrow even though he hasn’t shown one this whole time. As I think about my relationship with him, I question myself and wonder if it was really true discipleship. When we decide to commit to people, we need to remember that it will cost us. I think it is part of taking up our cross daily. Look at Jesus’ disciples, how they hurt him, and even us how he gives and gives and gives to us and how often we turn our backs on him or deny him. Discipling others can bear fruit or it can hurt us, probably both. We know that the harvest is plenty but the workers are few. Our cross is sometimes heavy but it is always worth it. Tomorrow I will be face to face with this man, and I know that I have to speak out against him for the sake of God’s children.

Please pray that the truth with come out. Pray for a change of heart for this man. Please pray for the boys. Please pray for peace in my heart. Please pray for God’s peace to reign in the whole situation. We serve a God who is both just and full of mercy. Please pray for both of those characteristics to shine through tomorrow. We are so thankful for God’s sovereignty and that is where we place our trust.