Foto Friday - Y-Malawi, Day six: Opportunity International Bank Malawi

This day in the field was spent with Opportunity International Bank Malawi (OIBM) and included two very memorable moments for me. More on those in a bit.

When the Y-Malawi partnership began there was no easy access to a financial institution in the Nkhoma/Chilenje area. Due to support from the Y-Malawi partnership, a mobile OIBM van from Lilongwe visits the area once a week to serve their clients. 

Customers lined up on the withdrawal side of OIBM's mobile bank.

Some of the activities during each mobile bank visit include: account opening, deposits, and withdrawals. On average, 110 customers are served during each visit and deposits collected range from MK1.5 to MK2 million off-peak season ($3,409 to $4,547) and MK2.5 to MK3 million peak season ($5,684 to $6,822). OIBM has a deposit book of MK23 million ($52,300) for the Nkhoma/Chilenje area.

A bank employee performing an account verification for withdrawal.

A client receiving his withdrawal from the teller at the mobile bank window.

After observing the mobile banking operations, we accompanied OIBM employees to a nearby village where we listened to the testimonies of some farmers who had formed a co-op in order to take out a microfinance loan from OIBM to purchase fertilizer for their crops. This was where the two memorable moments occurred. Here is a photograph to establish a visual for the scene.

We were gathered under the shade of this tree to listen to the bank employees and the farmers share. I was standing off to the side when one of the bank employees walked up and asked, "Abusa (the word in Chichewa for 'pastor'), would it be alright if I stood next to you?" I replied, "Of course!" What he said next, and the sincere manner in which he said it, I will never forget. "I feel closer to heaven when I stand next to an abusa." As you might imagine, I was surprised by his words but quickly said, "My friend, you are very kind. But, please, let me tell you...I have never felt closer to heaven than I have being with God's people in Malawi." It was a moving exchange for us both, I think.

A short while later, when our time together had reached its end, the bank employees brought out a very special treat for the children - a couple of cases of soda. At first I was very concerned because there were more children than there were bottles. My concern soon left, however, when we witnessed the children's selfless sharing - they passed the bottles around so that no child went without. It was really something to see.

Of course, no day was complete without capturing some photographs of the children who were "on the sidelines."

Up next, the Chiefs Ministry.

Mulungu akhale nanu (God be with you),

Aaron

PS - On World Communion Sunday (October 4th), we had three amazing worship services where we were joined by John and Lori Gash from Y-Malawi for a reunion of the Florida team and together we lifted up the work God is doing in Nkhoma/Chilenje. Here's the best part - 150 additional children were sponsored through World Vision that very morning! Thanks be to God! If God has been piercing your heart for the people in Malawi and you are also interested in sponsoring a child, please let me know. I have a few forms left for children in Nkhoma/Chilenje. There are still more than 4,000 children on a waiting list so every sponsorship matters. Pray about it!

A Word of Prayer - Prayer for our Children

In the wake of yet another mass shooting on a school campus, this time at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, I offer this prayer - hymn lyrics written by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette in response to the Columbine massacre in 1999.

A Prayer for Our Children

God, we have heard it, sounding in the silence:

News of the children lost to this world's violence.

Children of promise!

Then, without a warning, loved ones are mourning.

Jesus, you came to bear our human sorrow;

You came to give us hope for each tomorrow.

You are our life, Lord, God's own love revealing.

We need your healing.

Heal us from giving weapons any glory;

Help us O Prince of Peace, to hear your story;

Help us resist the evil all around here;

May love abound here!

By your own Spirit, give your church a clear voice;

In this world's violence, help us make a new choice.

Help us to witness to the joy your peace brings, 

Until your world sings!

How long, O Lord? How long? Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Amen.

Foto Friday - Y-Malawi, Day five: Back with FTS and Nkhoma Hospital

In the morning on our fifth day, we returned with counselors from FTS to a remote village where "The Jesus Film" had been shown a week earlier. Our purpose was to meet the villagers where they were, ask about the film, and pray with them. 

Looking back, I'm not sure why I didn't take many pictures on this particular day, but here is a shot I took from the bus as we were leaving the village.

From the village we returned to the FTS campsite where we arrived to find a World Vision medical team, there to perform circumcisions on young boys from surrounding villages. Circumcision is an important rite of passage in Malawi, and has been practiced for generations. Scientific studies have also shown that male circumcision reduces the chances of the HIV virus passing from a male to a female during sex. However, circumcision has often been practiced in an unsafe way in Malawi, using a single sterilized blade to circumcise many boys at once, leaving them susceptible to infections, including HIV. World Vision has been working with community leaders to encourage them to alter the ceremony so that the circumcision operation can be carried out in the safe environment of a health clinic. Here is a shot I took of two boys who were waiting their turn to be circumcised. The boy on the right had been watching another boy's circumcision through the window.

From the FTS campsite, we returned to Nkhoma Hospital so that we could pray with patients.

I didn't take any photographs while inside the hospital but my friend, Jason Lopez (seen in the shot below taking footage through the windshield of our bus), captured some great video footage.

Jason is a talented filmmaker from California who I very much enjoyed getting to know on our trip. He made a short film called "Visions of Malawi" and he has been gracious enough to allow me to share it here. (At the 2:08 mark, you can see when we were inside the hospital praying with patients.)

Up next, Opportunity International Bank of Malawi.

Mulungu akhale nanu (God be with you),

Aaron

PS - If you are interested in sponsoring a child through WorldVision after reading about what God is doing in Malawi, please let me know. They have provided me with sponsorship forms for children in Nkhoma/Chilenje. Y-Malawi church partners may sponsor more than 5,000 children already, but there are still more than 4,000 on a waiting list. Who knows? Maybe you'll sponsor a child and we'll travel to Malawi together next year to meet him or her! Pray about it.

Foto Friday - Y-Malawi, Day four: Nkhoma Youth Department

On our fourth day in the mission field of Malawi, we were introduced to the Nkhoma Youth Department - led by the incomparable Rev. Richard Kapanda (seen here sporting a Florida Gators ball cap).

Nkhoma Youth Department is a ministry of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP), the largest denomination in Malawi. An interesting side note about this - there are more Presbyterians attending church in Malawi than there are in the United States. Why is that interesting, you ask? The population in the United States is more than 320 million, compared to only 15 million in Malawi. Wow.

Nkhoma Youth Department runs 24 youth clubs in the region, serving nearly 1,500 youth. With a focus on evangelism and discipleship, they also provide training on decision-making and life skills, entrepreneurship, mentoring, and career guidance. Their ministry provides sex education in an effort to reduce out-of-wedlock pregnancies and HIV/AIDS among Malawi's teenagers.

This was the scene when we arrived at the youth gathering in which we were privileged to participate.

The gathering began with youth leading worship in song.

This was followed by a drama depicting a pastor preaching to a local villager. This shot is one of my favorites from the trip.

At the conclusion of this drama, I preached a message using Ephesians 2:8-10 (CEB):

8 You are saved by God’s grace because of your faith. This salvation is God’s gift. It’s not something you possessed. 9 It’s not something you did that you can be proud of. 10 Instead, we are God’s accomplishment, created in Christ Jesus to do good things. God planned for these good things to be the way that we live our lives.

At first, I wasn't sure what I would share with the youth of Nkhoma, in spite of having preached before American youth plenty of times. However, listening to Richard share with me about the things with which his youth struggle, I learned that youth in Malawi aren't very different from our youth at all. As I preached this word, Richard became more and more excited with his translating, at one point indicating to me that I was preaching precisely what the youth needed to hear. Thanks be to God for the leading of His Spirit.

Later in the afternoon, as happened every day of the trip, I was drawn to this young man who was quietly watching the gathering from, quite literally, the sidelines. He is leaning against a makeshift soccer goal.

In the late afternoon, we visited the market in Nkhoma.

Up next, more time with FTS and praying at Nkhoma Hospital.

Mulungu akhale nanu (God be with you),

Aaron 

PS - If you are interested in sponsoring a child through WorldVision after reading about what God is doing in Malawi, please let me know. They have provided me with sponsorship forms for children in Nkhoma/Chilenje. Y-Malawi church partners may sponsor more than 5,000 children already, but there are still more than 4,000 on a waiting list. Who knows? Maybe you'll sponsor a child and we'll travel to Malawi together next year to meet him or her! Pray about it.

Foto Friday - Y-Malawi, Day three: PB&J and Nkhoma Hospital

On our third day in the mission field, we began by returning to the FTS campsite where we listened to a lecture on Islam by Louise Laubscher. The intent of her teaching was to help the FTS counselors better understand the religion and equip them for encounters with Muslims living in the villages where they are spreading the gospel message of Jesus Christ. 

We also spent more time with the local villagers. This is my favorite photograph from the morning - the expression on the face of the little girl looking up at Kylie is precious.

Our next stop was to tour the facility of a ministry called PB&J - Peanut Butter & Jesus. This ministry was formerly part of Nkhoma Hospital and a ministry partner of Y-Malawi that has since established itself as its own entity as it works to meet the standards required of them by UNICEF. PB&J exists to help fight malnutrition in young children, a widespread problem in Malawi - especially when the country experiences droughts and they fail to produce enough crops to meet the needs. 

 
When famines happen, families are forced to ration their food. I was surprised to learn, however, that rather than dividing the food equally among family members so all may eat, they instead feed the family beginning with the father (since he needs strength to work and support the family), followed by the mother (since she has to care for the children), and then the oldest children (since they have survived the longest). If there is food remaining after they have eaten, the youngest are fed. Sadly, there often isn't enough food and as a result the youngest suffer from severe hunger and malnutrition. If the children become ill or frail enough from malnutrition that they are brought to Nkhoma Hospital or a village clinic for treatment, the fortified peanut butter packets made by PB&J can restore them to health.

PB&J makes a mixture of locally grown ground nuts, palm oil, brown sugar, and vitamix...

 

...and packages it in single-serving size pouches.

One box contains 150 pouches, which can save the lives of two children. The cost for each box is about $60. 

From PB & J, we visited Nkhoma Hospital. Nkhoma Hospital has male and female wards with 26 beds each and two pediatric wards. The missionary administration is working to turn the hospital over to Malawian doctors by 2018. This is the mission statement of the hospital painted on the wall inside the entrance.

 

About 15 children are born at the hospital each day and many are born premature. There are no warmers for the premature babies, so they lie on the chests of their mothers for warmth. The goal weight for sending premature babies home is 4.4 lbs but the hospital usually cannot accommodate them that long. If the babies are nursing well, they are often sent home weighing only 2-2.5 lbs. Here is our Director of Missions, Ted Grueser, holding a premature baby.

Nkhoma Hospital is a pay hospital. The hospital doesn't provide linens or food service, so it is up to the patient's families to provide this care. This was taken outside the hospital where patient's families live while their loved ones are hospitalized.

In 2012, there were twelve children admitted to Nkhoma Hospital with malaria per day. Today, that number has been cut in half thanks to the efforts of Nkhoma Hospital and organizations like WorldVision working to educate the Malawian people and employing prevention measures like the distribution of mosquito nets and a village spraying program. This little boy was admitted one month before this photograph was taken with Y-Malawi President, John Gash. Fighting malaria, pneumonia, and malnutrition, the staff didn't think he would survive, especially since he was unconscious for more than two weeks following his arrival! The smile on his face speaks volumes about the tireless dedication of the hospital staff and the healing they seek to provide in the name of Jesus.

Up next, Nkhoma Youth Department.

Mulungu akhale nanu (God be with you),

Aaron 

PS - If you are interested in sponsoring a child through WorldVision after reading about what God is doing in Malawi, please let me know. This week they provided me with sponsorship forms for children in Nkhoma/Chilenge. Y-Malawi church partners may sponsor more than 5,000 children already, but there are still more than 4,000 on a waiting list. Who knows? Maybe you'll sponsor a child and we'll travel to Malawi together next year to meet him or her! Pray about it.

Foto Friday - Y-Malawi, Day two and Fishers Trainers Senders (FTS)

So, my previous blog introduced Y-Malawi, highlighting our first full day in Nkhoma/Chilenge and our first worship experience in a local church. Today, I would like to introduce you to one of Y-Malawi's ministry partners - Fishers, Trainers, Senders (commonly known throughout Nkhoma/Chilenge as "FTS"). Here is an introduction to FTS from Y-Malawi's promotional materials:

Equipping Malawi's future leaders

How would you develop future leaders who cannot afford or have access to formal training, books and other basic training materials that are so desperately needed?

Through FTS, young leaders and denominational leaders alike benefit from the Jesus Model of Life training. FTS reaches out to Malawi's communities with Jesus Christ through prayer, evangelism, discipleship and mission principles, in addition to desperately needed practical life training skills.

Louise Laubscher, director of FTS, truly lives their mission statement every day as she and her team faithfully train missionaries in this generation to reach their present communities and have an impact on the generations to come with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Evangelism is FTS's primary effort. Since they began their ministry nine years ago, they have led nearly 30,000 people to accept Christ. On our second day in Malawi, we traveled to a remote village in Chilenge where FTS was showing The Jesus Film in a church to introduce the locals to Jesus Christ. This is the best photograph I could get, and it doesn't really convey just how many people were crowded inside the church to see the film.

At the film's conclusion, the people came pouring out of the entrance. One of the team remarked that it looked like "kicking an ant hill" because just seconds before I shot this there was no one at all in the clearing in front of the church.

The FTS workers then gathered the children and witnessed to them in several groups like this one.

Here are some images that drew my attention behind the scenes.

I was also drawn to the children who were nervously watching all that was happening at the church from across the road or near their homes.

Often times, however, once you would smile and wave at the children, their looks would change from the above photographs to what you see in the next photograph.

We spent a lot of time with FTS during our trip. They had established a camp site at a World Vision school near where we were staying because they were having an intensive training session for new counselors who, following graduation, would be leading Bible study/kids clubs back home in their own villages. Later in the week, we had the privilege of participating in the FTS graduation. Here is a clip to show their joyful celebration together.

Since we spent so much time at the FTS campsite, I was able to get some pretty good photographs of their neighbors from the nearby village.

Up next, Nkhoma Hospital and a ministry called Peanut Butter & Jesus.

Mulungu akhale nanu (God be with you),

Aaron

Foto Friday - Y-Malawi, An Introduction

Honestly, I thought I would have written my first blogpost about my recent trip to Malawi by now. The reason I haven't isn't because I don't have anything to write about. I definitely do - and then some. I think the reason has more to do with not knowing how to say what I want to say than what to say. That being the case, I have no idea how many blogposts I will write about Malawi. I will only go on record saying that it will be more than one.

Here goes numero uno.

More times than I can count, I've been asked, "How was your trip?" Most often, I have feebly replied, "Amazing!" As if one word could possibly describe the experience. So, here let me offer a few more:

Life-changing, humbling, awe-inspiring, fascinating, intense, incomparable, incredible, remarkable, mind-blowing, world-rocking, stunning, surprising, unbelievable, awesome, unbelievably awesome...

Get the picture?

Speaking of pictures (for the three or four of you that read my blog), you should know by now about my love for photography. Well, Malawi is a treasure trove of photographic opportunities. Every photograph has the potential to be something you might see in National Geographic. I shot more than 1,700 photographs. So, it goes without saying that I will be using photography to help tell the story.

The Y-Malawi team, from six different churches in California and Florida, traveled to the Nkhoma/Chilenge region of Malawi, Africa, from July 30th to August 15th, to serve with its six ministry partners who are there on the ground working tirelessly to spread the good news of Jesus Christ to the least, the last, and the lost.

The writing on this building says it all. A few years ago, when members of Trinity UMC sponsored more than 300 children through World Vision and were assigned children who live in Nkhoma/Chilenge, an unlikely partnership with Y-Malawi was born.

I will highlight our work with each of the six Y-Malawi partners in future blogposts but for this entry I'm simply going to share with you some of my first impressions from our first day.

We arrived in Nkhoma late Saturday evening, so the first thing on our agenda Sunday morning was to worship. It was arranged for us to go to a small church attended by some of our friends in Fishers, Trainers, Senders (a Y-Malawi ministry partner). On the way to the church, I was speaking with an FTS counselor, Lamech, and he surprised me when he asked me to pray for the church in Malawi; specifically, that they would learn to "get beyond their gatherings and go out into the world to spread the name of Jesus." I think I surprised him when I shared that the American church needs the same prayer, and while I would pray for them I hoped he would also pray for us.

After a short ride, we arrived in the village where we were going to worship. I must confess that when we arrived, I was not prepared for the warmth of the greeting we received from the villagers. In fact, that was something I never really got over the entire time I was in Malawi. The hospitality of the Malawi people is unparalleled and demonstrates why Malawi is known as the "warm heart of Africa."

The children, in particular, were always excited to see us. Whenever we would pull up, they raised cries of "Mzungu! Mzungu!" (Mzungu = white person) They especially loved our cameras and iPhones. It was great fun to take their picture and then show it to them in the display. Their laughter upon seeing themselves was precious and something I won't forget. As it turns out, one of my most favorite photographs was one I took on that first morning.

After spending a little time with the villagers, we made our way to the church where they had already begun a Bible study about the Holy Spirit. The passage they were discussing was from Romans.

"The same Spirit agrees with our spirit, that we are God’s children." - Romans 8:16 (CEB)

The depth of their discussion was astounding and two moments stood out to me. The first, knowing their context, was the discussion about the difference between the Holy Spirit and the "spirits." The Holy Spirit leads to righteousness whereas the "spirits" are of darkness (witchcraft, etc.). The second was when a young man stood up and offered a correction to the conversation - that the proper question is not "What is the Holy Spirit?" but "Who is the Holy Spirit?" I felt so blessed to have witnessed their discussion.

From the Bible study, we moved into a time of worship. Let me say this - when I thought of traveling to Malawi, I never expected to encounter the living God as tangibly and powerfully as I did during worship. To quote one of my friends from the trip, I am convinced that in heaven the people of Malawi will be leading worship. Their singing is some of the most beautiful I have ever heard. It cannot possibly convey to you what it was like to actually be there, but here is a short clip of the church's pastor and his family singing an offering together to help give you an idea.

Shortly after this, the pastor invited me to share a word with his congregation. This was a sign of respect, so as much as I wanted to hear a word from him, I knew I had to graciously accept his invitation. I don't think I have ever been more nervous to preach in my life. Thankfully, having my words translated from English into Chichewa gave me sufficient time to think about what to say next. (This was the first of three times I preached in Malawi. By the third time, I was more confident and really enjoyed the experience.) I shared a word about Acts 2:42-44 and how grateful I was to be in their community - to be one with Christ, one with each other, and one in ministry together.

The most moving moment for me happened during the time of prayer. The entire congregation was on their feet, crying out to God. At first, I thought they were praying in tongues. Then, I realized they were voicing aloud their prayers to God and all together at once. It was something to see.

So, I've done my best to give you a glimpse of the first day. Up next, I will introduce you to the first of six Y-Malawi ministry partners - Fishers, Trainers, Senders.

Mulungu akhale nanu (God be with you),

Aaron