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.”
The Makwakwas 