Unbelievable. But true. 2022 marks the 20th anniversary of our first experience of life and work for the Lord in Malawi.
From Heaven to our hearts
We were young and inexperienced, but Gail and I were both feeling the unmistakeable weight of a burden from the Lord. Not particularly for Malawi, at first, but each of us had a very definite sense that the Lord was calling us to dedicate ourselves more fully to him. For many months it seemed that every passage we read, every message we heard, was a voice from heaven straight to our hearts. (How I long for days like those again!)
The Lord was speaking to his ancient servant Jeremiah – but He was speaking to me. “He that hath My Word, let him speak My Word faithfully.” I am neither an academic, nor a medic. I don’t have a university education, but with those words the Lord showed me that what I do have is of infinitely greater value than anything I could gain in a classroom, or boardroom.
I have the Word of Life for dying souls!
Doors Opening for work for the Lord
In 2002 the Lord was starting to answer prayers and open doors. David & Grace Croudace (Zambia) had been praying that the Lord would send workers to Malawi. It had been 15-20 years since there had been an assembly missionary presence there but in 2002 the work was rekindled when two couples (the Finegans and the Newells) each moved from the UK to make their home in Malawi.
Gail and I began to take a prayerful interest in Malawi and the new workers there. Later that year we had the opportunity to visit and explore the possibility of joining the effort. During that short visit we could clearly see the need, and ways we could help. When the Lord made several potential difficulties simply disappear, we concluded that He had paved the way for us to go. The rest, as they say, is history.
We busied ourselves with language study. Most Malawians speak Chichewa – a bantu language. Although not particularly complicated, its grammar is quite unlike anything I’d ever encountered before. For that first year we grappled with a dozen and a half noun classes, verb stems, pronoun prefixes, tense infixes and mood suffixes – to name a few. Looking back, it was a fun, if sometimes frustrating foundation for what would follow in subsequent years.
Dealing with Poverty in the work for the Lord
Once the initial excitement of a new country and a novel culture began to recede, a new reality took its place. The blackouts, brownouts and thunderstorms weren’t fun anymore – especially when our electronics got fried. We missed family, friends, our favourite foods – and fellowship.
One of the most difficult things was knowing how to deal with poverty – of which there was plenty. Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world and the physical & material need was often (and still is) utterly appalling.
We would ride an emotional rollercoaster. When our hearts ruled our heads, we felt we couldn’t do enough. We would look at those around us and wish we could do more, and they in turn would look at us and wonder why we didn’t. After all, we were white – and wealthy, without limit!
I still recall rebuking our seven-year-old for daring to ask for an ice cream one day when we were shopping. Didn’t he know that a cornetto cost as much as a whole day’s wage for the gardener? One whole dollar! Poor child! How embarrassing!
However, when our heads controlled our hearts, we condemned ourselves for doing too much – for endangering the work by encouraging dependency – and “rice Christians”.
Whether head or heart prevailed, one thing was constant – we always felt guilty.
And often, still do! Although we’ve since become reconciled to the fact that while the world is broken, we didn’t break it – and certainly can’t fix it!
Discouragement
However, there was something else that was increasing difficult to deal with. We had a growing sense that the “assemblies” we were visiting were really no such thing. Not just because there wasn’t much evidence they were adhering to assembly principles, but because many of the “believers” didn’t even seem to understand the way of salvation. Furthermore, several incidents made us doubt the motives, and even the reality of some of the assembly leaders we were working with. We became discouraged. Very discouraged.
Around 2006, we moved to Thondwe (pronounced Tawn-dway) and rented an empty house on one of the estate farms there. It was a bit nearer Blantyre, where our son was to start secondary school, and there was a little village assembly not too far away. We had got to know one of the “brothers” there, so we decided to try concentrating our effort there.
Our landlord was a tobacco farmer, but he had a small plot in front of our house that he didn’t use for tobacco. He was happy to rent it to us, and we started to experiment with conservation farming techniques, using this to reach out to neighbouring communities.
This proved to be useful in a number of ways. First, we were able to give much needed casual work to quite a few villagers, helping them sustain their families. Second, we made good contacts in outlying villages as we visited to demonstrate the farming techniques we had learned. We often had opportunities to share the gospel, even in some of the Muslim villages.
Learning Life
But most of all, although we didn’t realise it, we were learning life – moyo wa Malawi – Malawian life.
More than 85% of Malawians are subsistence farmers. Most eke out a meagre existence from an acre or two of overworked land. Ulimi – farming – is life!
Working side by side with them, we learned the vocabulary of the field – and of life! Seed (mbeu) and soil (nthaka). Sunshine (dzuwa) and rain (mvula). This is life.
We learned to watch – and worry – as they do, although the stakes were never quite so high! As one man told me, we would never really know njala (hunger) like them because we had tea, and sausages, and biscuits!
We learned to grow chimanga (maize – corn) and nyemba (beans). To raise (and ….!!!!) nkhuku (chickens) za veterinary (broilers) and za mazira (for eggs). Yes, we learned farming. But mostly, we learned life.
And death.
Harsh realities in the work for the Lord
Although it has improved over the years, when we first came to Malawi average life expectancy at birth was only 37 years, and one in five new-borns would not make five-years-old. You have not had the authentic missionary experience until you have carried a corpse in your car. Or listened to the guilt-ridden sobs of a dying woman who has travelled the country to be cut by witchdoctors’ razor blades for a cure for cancer. Or taken the funeral of her youngster who died of cerebral malaria or another, drowned in the village bathroom. Such experiences leave indelible marks and change forever the way you see the world. Things that once seemed important – well, …enough said!
Meanwhile, at Mussa, that little village assembly, things didn’t go as we’d hoped. We were getting to know the folks there thanks to a fertiliser scheme we ran to help them – save up for part, then pay up for the rest. But spiritually, there were difficulties. And more disappointment.
Light in the Darkness
However, there was one young man who in time would become a dear friend and colleague. It was many years later that I discovered that Goodson had been saved after listening to one of my stammering sermons. I’d always thought that he was already a believer when we met him. We could tell that he had a genuine interest. He was usually the one encouraging others to study the Bible lessons we left at the village on behalf of the Emmaus Correspondence School (ECS) coordinator. We also found out much later that he often paid the ECS course fee on behalf of those he was encouraging to study.
The Lord also brought another young man into our lives. Harold came to do some carpentry work for us after a mutual friend introduced us. To be honest, we spent most of the time discussing the scriptures – it was time well spent.
Eventually, we decided to change focus from village work and concentrate in the city of Zomba. We opened a Christian bookstore and for the next couple of years laboured there until changing domestic circumstances meant we had to return to the UK.
Since 2011 we have been mostly labouring in literature ministry. This has grown from very humble beginnings to become a nationwide ministry. In 2018, we felt that the literature work had outgrown one missionary couple, so we formed Southern Africa Literature Trust. Over the past three years, the work has continued to grow exponentially, for which we can only thank the Lord ,to whom all credit is due.
(Read about the development of the literature ministry)
Work for the Lord, or the Lord at work?
As I look back over two fleeting decades, the hand of the Lord is unmistakeable. Often imperceptible at the time, gently guiding through circumstance and “chance”, but unmistakeable with the advantage of hindsight. Lessons learned. Experience gained. Relationships formed. Doors opened. Others closed. The Lord was in complete control! And He still is!
We can really see how the Lord has opened his hand in blessing over the past three years. As we look back, we are humbled. As we look forward, we are excited. He is at work in Malawi!
There is still much to do. “Let us work while it is day. The night cometh when no man can work!”