I thought that you might be interested in one of the ministries that we have encountered here in Malawi. It is one of the things that are part of what Good News Revival Centre offers, a club for the 'children of the blind'. I have been going along to join them whenever I have been free to since we arrived.
They meet three times a week, starting with a meal together; for some it may be their only meal of the day. They then have a time playing games, a 'talk' which ranges from Bible stories to 'Life skills' such as personal care or how to conduct themselves when begging with their parents... It is very simple but a real support to these gorgeous children who would otherwise be on the streets begging with their parents, as they do on other evenings when not at the club. It has been such a privilege to sit on the grass (praying that no creepie crawlies crawl up my skirt!) with them and hear their stories; of how they have to care for their parents and younger siblings.
As well as feeding the children (when food is available) the club leader, a remarkable young woman called Memory who works unpaid, encourages the children to attend school. She will visit the parents to support this aim and school uniforms are provided along with books as funds allow. The tailor has been sitting on our veranda all week making new uniforms for the children. Being at the club stirs in me that mix of heartbreak and hope that I have felt on several occasions here; heartbreak at the circumstances of these children but hope as I see their joy when they are allowed to play and be as children and as they grasp the importance of education for their futures.
We have had a busy few days here, visiting prisons, the district Youth office and social worker, the Good News youth Centre where we have helped formulate a document about their work to be used for applying for grants etc, and today we have shared with 38 pastors from different denominations locally, worshipping and praying for each other and Mark doing some teaching on leadership. It was a really good morning.
Love to you all,
Miriam
Saturday, 26 February 2011
Thursday, 24 February 2011
Prisons
We have been to various prisons during our time in Malawi. It is unusual for people, especially westerners, to be allowed in, but Nedson is an official prison inspector for the government, which seems to open the doors for us to accompany him. Some of the prisons have been open prisons, whilst the one we visited yesterday was high security and had over 1800 men in it and a female section with 40 or so women, 6 of whom had small children.
The prison conditions are very basic, the prisoners sleeping on concrete floors with anything upto 200 in a cell. They do their own cooking, and seem to have a well organised communal life. The open prison ran its own farm and garden, and so were well fed compared to the others.
Strangely, compared to UK prisons, when we have visited, all the prisoners are gathered together in a courtyard and we join in a time of worship and prayer, led by inmates, and then we speak to them all.
Each prison tries to run a rehabilitation programme which includes primary education as many have not been educated before, and life skills such as carpentry or tailoring, but the resources are scarce - very few educational materials, tools or sewing machines etc.
Yesterday, using some of the money we took from St. Stephen's we were able to take sugar, soap, vaseline, and sweets for the children in to the prison, particularly to the women who were incredibly grateful to Miriam and her husband!! We also visited and gave sugar and eggs to some seriously ill prisoners, predominantly suffering with AIDS or TB, and then took some educational materials to the 20 or so teachers, all of whom are inmates and teaching over 300 other prisoners.
Just looking ahead, on Saturday we are talking to 30-50 pastors, and then on Sunday are speaking at a church in a predominantly Muslim area where there are significant number of Muslim converts. We are then having a couple of days break at Lake Malawi before coming back for the last few days before flying to Christchurch in New Zealand - we understand it is still Ok to go despite the dreadful news of the earthquake.
Mark
The prison conditions are very basic, the prisoners sleeping on concrete floors with anything upto 200 in a cell. They do their own cooking, and seem to have a well organised communal life. The open prison ran its own farm and garden, and so were well fed compared to the others.
Strangely, compared to UK prisons, when we have visited, all the prisoners are gathered together in a courtyard and we join in a time of worship and prayer, led by inmates, and then we speak to them all.
Each prison tries to run a rehabilitation programme which includes primary education as many have not been educated before, and life skills such as carpentry or tailoring, but the resources are scarce - very few educational materials, tools or sewing machines etc.
Yesterday, using some of the money we took from St. Stephen's we were able to take sugar, soap, vaseline, and sweets for the children in to the prison, particularly to the women who were incredibly grateful to Miriam and her husband!! We also visited and gave sugar and eggs to some seriously ill prisoners, predominantly suffering with AIDS or TB, and then took some educational materials to the 20 or so teachers, all of whom are inmates and teaching over 300 other prisoners.
Just looking ahead, on Saturday we are talking to 30-50 pastors, and then on Sunday are speaking at a church in a predominantly Muslim area where there are significant number of Muslim converts. We are then having a couple of days break at Lake Malawi before coming back for the last few days before flying to Christchurch in New Zealand - we understand it is still Ok to go despite the dreadful news of the earthquake.
Mark
Monday, 21 February 2011
Questions about our life in Malawi
Although I have already posted a blog today, I thought I would do a second to answer some questions:
Where are you staying? We are staying in a house in a village in Southern Malawi, not far from a town called Limbe. To get to the house you have to go down a very bumpy mud track, where there are houses/shacks on either side. Miriam and I have a couple of rooms to ourselves, but we have a flushing toilet (when the water is working), a cold shower ( though we are very thankful for a bucket of hot water each morning to wash with) and a table where we eat. Our bed is comfortable and we brought with us a mosquito net to sleep under. No other furniture, so our clothes remain in our bags. The tin roof is noisy when it rains, or when crows land on it at 6.00am, and in the morning the condensation that forms in the cooler nights drip onto us and our bags. But it is comfortable and clean, and the Milanzi family are very caring.
What are we eating? Most Malawians eat Seema every meal, that is a very thick Maize porridge. Occasionally they will add beans, vegetables, chicken or fish to it, and they eat with their hands. We though are getting given some other things like rice or potatoes, and sometimes chips, and they are cooking in vegetable oil rather than ground nut oil, which they would normally use and for which we are very thankful as not good for Miriam's nut allergy! It was good this morning to get some pineapple, and we occasionally get bananas, but all these things are expensive.
What is the weather like? Well we heard from Tom at the weekend that it had been snowing in Sheffield that day, and he was highly jealous as we told him that we had spent the day in Malawi trying to keep in the shade as it was very hot and sunny. However, it is the rainy season, and whilst some days are very hot and sunny, other days we have had a lot of rain. When it does rain, it is still warm and very pleasant. Most days though it will be a mixture of sunny weather and then a heavy rain shower.
What does each day hold? It doesn't seem like sitting down and talking over a meal or in an evening is a very Malawain thing to do, so in the evenings we are left to ourselves and are playing a lot of Scrabble - 4 games all now!! But that means we go to bed quite early, especially when there is no power, and anyway people get up early and are off to work or school by 6.00am or soon after. Some days we are very quickly off to visit different ministries, such as a nursery, a prison, the Good News Revival Youth Resource Centre, a church....and this can be anywhere in the country, so there has been a lot of being driven around. This has meant we have seen a lot of the country, which is very beautiful, but we don't get much of a chance to stop and look at things. Other days we have done very little, staying at the house, which is the Good News Revival Centre, reading or talking to those who visit. Some have good English, it being the second language of Malawi, others only speaking the local language, Chichewa. But whether you speak English or not, the welcome is always a handshake and then "Hello, how are you?' "Fine, how are you?"
What are we learning? At this stage it is too early to really say what we are learning, but we are experiencing so many new things. But in our reading, in our talking to Nedson and in seeing what is happening, perhaps the one thing that stands out is that there is so much need, and that all anyone can do is to help one person at a time, helping to change or transform that life. Perhaps the same can be said for anywhere in the world, we are called to change one life at a time as we share the love of God both spiritually and practically. We are also learning to speak/preach off the cuff, often being told as we arrive somewhere that we will be given an opportunity to speak, trusting on the Holy Spirit to inspire us and using the moment when what we say is translated to pray for the next moment of inspiration. We are learning the need to rely fully on God, and are enjoying spending time together reading the Bible and praying each day in preparation for what lies ahead.
Hope that gives you some further insights on our life in Malawi, which at times does feel a bit like camping at New Wine!!
Mark
Where are you staying? We are staying in a house in a village in Southern Malawi, not far from a town called Limbe. To get to the house you have to go down a very bumpy mud track, where there are houses/shacks on either side. Miriam and I have a couple of rooms to ourselves, but we have a flushing toilet (when the water is working), a cold shower ( though we are very thankful for a bucket of hot water each morning to wash with) and a table where we eat. Our bed is comfortable and we brought with us a mosquito net to sleep under. No other furniture, so our clothes remain in our bags. The tin roof is noisy when it rains, or when crows land on it at 6.00am, and in the morning the condensation that forms in the cooler nights drip onto us and our bags. But it is comfortable and clean, and the Milanzi family are very caring.
What are we eating? Most Malawians eat Seema every meal, that is a very thick Maize porridge. Occasionally they will add beans, vegetables, chicken or fish to it, and they eat with their hands. We though are getting given some other things like rice or potatoes, and sometimes chips, and they are cooking in vegetable oil rather than ground nut oil, which they would normally use and for which we are very thankful as not good for Miriam's nut allergy! It was good this morning to get some pineapple, and we occasionally get bananas, but all these things are expensive.
What is the weather like? Well we heard from Tom at the weekend that it had been snowing in Sheffield that day, and he was highly jealous as we told him that we had spent the day in Malawi trying to keep in the shade as it was very hot and sunny. However, it is the rainy season, and whilst some days are very hot and sunny, other days we have had a lot of rain. When it does rain, it is still warm and very pleasant. Most days though it will be a mixture of sunny weather and then a heavy rain shower.
What does each day hold? It doesn't seem like sitting down and talking over a meal or in an evening is a very Malawain thing to do, so in the evenings we are left to ourselves and are playing a lot of Scrabble - 4 games all now!! But that means we go to bed quite early, especially when there is no power, and anyway people get up early and are off to work or school by 6.00am or soon after. Some days we are very quickly off to visit different ministries, such as a nursery, a prison, the Good News Revival Youth Resource Centre, a church....and this can be anywhere in the country, so there has been a lot of being driven around. This has meant we have seen a lot of the country, which is very beautiful, but we don't get much of a chance to stop and look at things. Other days we have done very little, staying at the house, which is the Good News Revival Centre, reading or talking to those who visit. Some have good English, it being the second language of Malawi, others only speaking the local language, Chichewa. But whether you speak English or not, the welcome is always a handshake and then "Hello, how are you?' "Fine, how are you?"
What are we learning? At this stage it is too early to really say what we are learning, but we are experiencing so many new things. But in our reading, in our talking to Nedson and in seeing what is happening, perhaps the one thing that stands out is that there is so much need, and that all anyone can do is to help one person at a time, helping to change or transform that life. Perhaps the same can be said for anywhere in the world, we are called to change one life at a time as we share the love of God both spiritually and practically. We are also learning to speak/preach off the cuff, often being told as we arrive somewhere that we will be given an opportunity to speak, trusting on the Holy Spirit to inspire us and using the moment when what we say is translated to pray for the next moment of inspiration. We are learning the need to rely fully on God, and are enjoying spending time together reading the Bible and praying each day in preparation for what lies ahead.
Hope that gives you some further insights on our life in Malawi, which at times does feel a bit like camping at New Wine!!
Mark
Zomba
Yesterday we had a puncture in the car we were in, thankfully we were only travelling slowly at the time. People stop and help you if you are in trouble, but it still took quite a few people to change the tyre for the spare, which was almost threadbare, and on which we then travelled for the rest of the day at quite fast speeds!
But having a puncture yesterday has meant that not a lot has happened today as it takes time to get tyres repaired, and added to that there is a fuel shortage in Malawi so very few petrol stations have petrol, and when they do, there can be a queue of hundreds of yards as people wait to fill up, some of then pushing their vehicles to get there as they have run out.
Waiting around can be frustrating, and one never knows what is going to happen. This afternoon we are meant to be going to a prison, but we are not sure if it will happen or not.
However, yesterday we drove to Zomba, where we had been a few days before. During that visit we had gone to see the Dean of the Anglican Theological College who we had been put in touch with through my sister and brother in law. A really interesting visit, and we have an invitation to go back and speak to the students about church back in the UK - he was particularly interested in the fact that I never robe for services, and wanted us to talk about cultural relevance. Not sure whether we will have time to go back, but hope we can.
On that visit, we saw eagles overhead, a snake slithered across the road in front of the car, and we caught site of our first monkey. Can I just add that the spiders are enormous!!
Our visit yesterday though was to a Juvenile Rehabilitation Centre and then to a Youth Offenders Institute. At both Miriam shared about us and then I preached.
The first was an amazing place where they have very little money, the government grants for the last 2 months not having materialised, but the staff just give the young people what they have as they try to educate them and equip them with life skills for the future. Some of their young people have gone on to university or into businesses. We had lunch with the principal and met her sons, who were on fire for God, wanting to give their time to the young people and to serving others. So many people here have very little, but give their time and what they have to helping others with no financial reward.
Eating though is an interesting exercise as most people use ground nut oil to cook with, so Miriam's nut allergy then causes some problems. But people have been very good and thoughtful, and so far no problems. But when people give you food, they don't sit down and eat with you, they leave you to eat alone.
The youth prison was very different as again they have no money and have not yet been able to set up education and skills training. Nedson is hoping that the Good News Revival Centre will be able to help with this shortly, but apart from some gardening in the morning, the prisoners are then shut away in the prison courtyard for the rest of the day. They sleep in cells of 40 or more, all on the concrete floor, and have very little. A few of them were allowed out after service to play football against a local village team, which we stayed and watched for a while. It was bright sunshine, but behind us Zomba Plateau which rises thousands of feet above the town was surrounded by dark cloud and thunder.
Mark
But having a puncture yesterday has meant that not a lot has happened today as it takes time to get tyres repaired, and added to that there is a fuel shortage in Malawi so very few petrol stations have petrol, and when they do, there can be a queue of hundreds of yards as people wait to fill up, some of then pushing their vehicles to get there as they have run out.
Waiting around can be frustrating, and one never knows what is going to happen. This afternoon we are meant to be going to a prison, but we are not sure if it will happen or not.
However, yesterday we drove to Zomba, where we had been a few days before. During that visit we had gone to see the Dean of the Anglican Theological College who we had been put in touch with through my sister and brother in law. A really interesting visit, and we have an invitation to go back and speak to the students about church back in the UK - he was particularly interested in the fact that I never robe for services, and wanted us to talk about cultural relevance. Not sure whether we will have time to go back, but hope we can.
On that visit, we saw eagles overhead, a snake slithered across the road in front of the car, and we caught site of our first monkey. Can I just add that the spiders are enormous!!
Our visit yesterday though was to a Juvenile Rehabilitation Centre and then to a Youth Offenders Institute. At both Miriam shared about us and then I preached.
The first was an amazing place where they have very little money, the government grants for the last 2 months not having materialised, but the staff just give the young people what they have as they try to educate them and equip them with life skills for the future. Some of their young people have gone on to university or into businesses. We had lunch with the principal and met her sons, who were on fire for God, wanting to give their time to the young people and to serving others. So many people here have very little, but give their time and what they have to helping others with no financial reward.
Eating though is an interesting exercise as most people use ground nut oil to cook with, so Miriam's nut allergy then causes some problems. But people have been very good and thoughtful, and so far no problems. But when people give you food, they don't sit down and eat with you, they leave you to eat alone.
The youth prison was very different as again they have no money and have not yet been able to set up education and skills training. Nedson is hoping that the Good News Revival Centre will be able to help with this shortly, but apart from some gardening in the morning, the prisoners are then shut away in the prison courtyard for the rest of the day. They sleep in cells of 40 or more, all on the concrete floor, and have very little. A few of them were allowed out after service to play football against a local village team, which we stayed and watched for a while. It was bright sunshine, but behind us Zomba Plateau which rises thousands of feet above the town was surrounded by dark cloud and thunder.
Mark
Thursday, 17 February 2011
Having had the Malawian version of "Delhi Belly" for the last few days we are now back to normal! Today we were therefore able to get out and have visited a children's nursery in a village in the middle of nowhere. This is run by the Good News Revival Centre where we are staying and is one of 15 such centres run by them in the district. There were about 50 children there, many of them orphans who live with foster carers nearby. The school provides them with education but also with food, for many of them the only meal they will get in a day.
The room the nursery was in was completely devoid of any furniture, books , pictures, toys..., just a bare floor. The children learn by rote from teachers who have had very little training and aren't paid. It was a very humbling experience, making us realise afresh how fortunate we are in the UK, how much we have. The welcome we received there was wonderfully warm, a song and dance for us!
The deprivations that we feel in not having our own things, food that we are used to, reliable electricity and water supplies, comfortable chairs... seem insignificant in the light of seeing these children. In the evenings when the power is down our aging eyes are not good enough for reading by candlelight; the only letters they can register are those on Scrabble tiles, so we are playing a lot of that. It's 2 all at time of writing.
We are in the rainy season here, so this has curtailed our travelling around a bit but today is very hot and sunny and the red dust soon makes our clothes very grubby. But enjoying the warmth as we think of Tonbridge in early February!
Mark
The room the nursery was in was completely devoid of any furniture, books , pictures, toys..., just a bare floor. The children learn by rote from teachers who have had very little training and aren't paid. It was a very humbling experience, making us realise afresh how fortunate we are in the UK, how much we have. The welcome we received there was wonderfully warm, a song and dance for us!
The deprivations that we feel in not having our own things, food that we are used to, reliable electricity and water supplies, comfortable chairs... seem insignificant in the light of seeing these children. In the evenings when the power is down our aging eyes are not good enough for reading by candlelight; the only letters they can register are those on Scrabble tiles, so we are playing a lot of that. It's 2 all at time of writing.
We are in the rainy season here, so this has curtailed our travelling around a bit but today is very hot and sunny and the red dust soon makes our clothes very grubby. But enjoying the warmth as we think of Tonbridge in early February!
Mark
Tuesday, 15 February 2011
African timing!!
African timing is very different to English. It was planned that i would speak, maybe at two celebrations for new chiefs on Sunday. Having got to the first, everything was running very late and wasn't going to start until 1.00pm, so we went to Pastor Nedson's home church, in the village where he was brought up and arrived as a church service was happening. After a while Miriam was invited to say a few words of introduction and then I was invited to preach, off the cuff and translated by Nedson. They normally have sermons lasting upto an hour, but they got a truncated one that morning!!
We then headed off back to the celebrations calling briefly at one and then spending the next few hours at the second. I was ready to speak but the celebrations went on much longer before the official part, and so ended up not speaking at either. That was a relief as there were all sorts of dignitaries there and thousands of people, but we had fun watching some traditional dancing and singing, and were once again given a good welcome and some of the best seats in the house!
Yesterday was a quieter day, reading in the morning and then helping out with a club for the children of blind parents in the afternoon, at which Miriam gave a 10 minute talk and we played games with them. There were about 20 children there, who would otherwise be on the streets begging.
Today we were planning on going to a juvenile offenders centre which Nedson visits regularly, and again we were meant to speak, but were only told late last night. However, it has been raining hard all day and the roads would be bad, so it was cancelled, which I was quite relieved about, as I have got a dodgy tummy today, and can't be too far from a toilet! Please pray for our health as we are going to all sorts of places and being offered food and drink which we know nothing about - with Miriam's nut allergy this is a problem, but also whether the food has been prepared properly.
So many things planned or talked about, but it doesn't all happen...which can be frustrating to our western minds and way of working, but who's to say we have it right, everything here is much more laid back.
I would put up photos, but the internet here isn't fast enough, so these will have to wait until we are elsewhere.
We then headed off back to the celebrations calling briefly at one and then spending the next few hours at the second. I was ready to speak but the celebrations went on much longer before the official part, and so ended up not speaking at either. That was a relief as there were all sorts of dignitaries there and thousands of people, but we had fun watching some traditional dancing and singing, and were once again given a good welcome and some of the best seats in the house!
Yesterday was a quieter day, reading in the morning and then helping out with a club for the children of blind parents in the afternoon, at which Miriam gave a 10 minute talk and we played games with them. There were about 20 children there, who would otherwise be on the streets begging.
Today we were planning on going to a juvenile offenders centre which Nedson visits regularly, and again we were meant to speak, but were only told late last night. However, it has been raining hard all day and the roads would be bad, so it was cancelled, which I was quite relieved about, as I have got a dodgy tummy today, and can't be too far from a toilet! Please pray for our health as we are going to all sorts of places and being offered food and drink which we know nothing about - with Miriam's nut allergy this is a problem, but also whether the food has been prepared properly.
So many things planned or talked about, but it doesn't all happen...which can be frustrating to our western minds and way of working, but who's to say we have it right, everything here is much more laid back.
I would put up photos, but the internet here isn't fast enough, so these will have to wait until we are elsewhere.
Saturday, 12 February 2011
Arrived in Malawi
It’s a while since I last wrote, and at the time we were in Scotland. We arrived in Malawi yesterday and it’s almost as mountainous, very green and beautiful. It was a long journey and we were glad to get here and to get settled in to Pastor Nedson’s home with his family. They are very welcoming, but arriving in the dark was not easy as the power was down and has still not come back on, apart from briefly in the middle of the night – we had left our light switched on and so were suddenly woken by brightness!!
After a good night’s sleep, apart from being woken also by drips from the roof on to our heads when it started raining, Nedson today took us to a large gathering of several thousand people at which two men were crowned chiefs of their communities. It was a long ceremony full of speeches, singing and dancing. We didn’t understand much of what was being said, but the formality was led by three government ministers, including the brother of the President – every time he stood, everyone had to stand! But there was also lots of informal exuberant celebration. It was full of colour and was a privilege and delight to be at and watch – we were the only white faces.
Tomorrow is Sunday and Nedson says there is another celebration at church – I think the President’s brother is coming to that, and scarily Nedson has suggested I preach!! I better stop this and find out more, before it goes dark and then I won’t be able to see what I am doing, unless the power returns.
Thinking of you all at St. Stephen’s and will be praying for you all tomorrow as you worship together – although as the power is down and no internet, you may not get this until Monday!
Mark
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