Sacrifice for Baby Grem

Another baby came to Hope Village last week after his mommy died when he was just 6 weeks old.  (This is the 7th baby in 2 months and the 6th one because of the mother's death.)

And just when I least expected it, God handed us another baby sponsor on the same day.  Her name is Kaylynn from Florence, Oregon and she is 12 years old. Her father Tom sent me a message today looking for confirmation on this baby sponsorship, saying, “Kaylynn is so excited, she feels like she adopted a baby or something!” So, this blog is for Kaylynn.

Dear Kaylynn, I want you to meet your new baby, Grem. Look at his big eyes! Annie and I both squeezed him and cuddled him and nearly fought over him. He is one of the cutest babies we have been lucky enough to hold at Hope Village.

Grem’s grandparents brought him to Hope Village last week and told us an inspiring story of sacrifice. His mom became ill with a “mysterious” illness and after 6 days in the hospital, she died. They said Grem laid next to her on her small bed and was able to nurse and be close to his mom until her last day.

These are the grandparents:

Grem doesn’t have a father because he “ran away”. (That’s the term used here in Malawi when a man deserts his family). Grem was the only child of his young 19-year old mother.  He will now live with his grandparents and their youngest child, a 12-year old girl (Grem’s aunt).

Annie enjoyed dressing Grem in these new clothes.

We found out that Grem’s family loves him so much, they are willing to sacrifice just about everything to keep him fed.  Luckily, they met someone at a clinic who told them about our baby program at Hope Village, since they'd run out of money and had enough milk for just one more bottle.

Baby formula costs 6,000 Malawian Kwacha each week to feed a baby. Most Malawians who live in the village only earn about 2,000 Kwacha each week (this is the equivalent of $5.). As you can see, it’s nearly impossible for most villagers to feed a newborn in the event that it does not receive breast milk.

Baby Grem's belly was a sign of love and sacrifice!

The grandparents told me they bought formula for Grem the last 3 weeks since his mom died. They’d already told me they were farmers who grew cotton and maize (corn). I know the village where they live and the village lifestyle they have. I know they would not have any extra money for baby formula. “How did you manage to buy the milk to feed Grem?” I asked. “Mavuto,” (with many troubles) the grandfather said.

He said they worked ganyu (or piecework, day labor) every day, 7 days a week. They only took a break for church on Sunday, and then went back out into the fields for work. Their 12 year old worked with them as well, after school and on the weekends.  

To stretch their money, they also stopped buying food for themselves. They skipped meals and were down to one meal a day. Some days they ate nothing. One week, the only food the 12 year old had was the porridge the government gives to the young children at the primary school (elementary school age).

The day I met with them, they’d walked 4 hours to get to Hope Village. And then they walked 4 hours back home. They will do this each week to collect his baby milk! Thanks to you and your parents Kaylynn, Grem will receive enough baby milk to put more weight on his little body, to keep him healthy, to feed his heart and his brain.

God willing, he will grow to know the love of God because your family cared enough about him to sacrifice just a little to keep him fed.

Just as his grandparents did before you.

Just as Jesus did before them.

A Witch Killed My Friend

A witch killed my friend.  Not shot, or stabbed, or pummeled to death; rather, he had a spell put on him.  The witch even admitted the deed, to the village as well as his widow.  My friend, who was a husband, schoolteacher, and father of two, was a popular man in the village. 

This is his picture:

The villagers were outraged at the witch, so set about the task of killing her.  The village police, who are like a citizens' patrol, took the witch into custody to protect her. 

A year ago, I wouldn’t have believed what I just wrote.  Putting spells on people is just fantasy or mind-control chicanery.  But I have learned a lot about an interesting paradigm that inhabits our world: the spirit world.  It’s a world and a power that us civilized people snicker at -- while we roll our eyes.  

I, more than anyone, was a scoffer.  I too rolled my eyes and shook my head at the ignorant people who believed in such things.  Yet here I am, writing about the world I once denied.

I won’t go into all the details of witchcraft here in Malawi, suffice it to say witchcraft has a consuming influence in this culture.  The well educated and professional as well as the illiterate villagers know about witches and their witchcraft.  The churchgoers and the secular both believe in aspects of this spiritual traditional culture, which is steeped in the ancestor’s spirit world.  

It’s believed that roaming, deceased ancestors influence the daily goings on.  They do believe in one god, but that god isn’t bothered about individuals.  That god has too much to contend with, so he just handles the big stuff:  Things like whether it should rain, and how much, and whether he’ll send major calamities to punish, or huge blessings on a grand scale to reward.

But I see from the length of this writing that I’m going on too much.  

I’ll skip to the meat of this blog. 

The witch, a thirty-something single woman with three kids and one on the way, doesn’t look like a witch.  She dresses as a traditional woman, without any visible outward signs of her being anything but a typical villager.  So I was a little disappointed when I met her.  

I was hoping for feathers and furs.  

Traditional Malawian spirit dancers really do
have the feathers and furs.

Instead, I got torn, tattered, and threadbare chitenje (the wraparound cloth used as a skirt). 

This picture of the witch was taken 
shortly after my friend died.  

Her story about killing my friend more than made up for my initial disillusionment, however.  Not that I wasn’t uneasy about hearing how my friend was killed.  A man I admired for his loyalty to his family, which includes a wheelchair-bound seven year-old hydroencephalytic girl named Cecilia with a sunshine smile.  

He was "unusual" for a villager: intelligent, faithful to one wife, and an affectionate doting father.  He read the Bible in the Malawian language for me every week at our Bible study.  

I’m glad Leanne took pictures of him; it was nice to give those to his family.

He did everything he could to make life comfortable 
for his daughter with hydroencephaltis (water on the brain).

Here’s what I was told about the killing.

The witch had a dream visit by other witches one night.  They told her to kill a cat.  The next day, she captured and killed a cat as instructed.  

That day, my friend became violently ill.  By day three, he was vomiting blood and finally died.  Just days before his death, he looked and seemed perfectly fit to me.  In fact, he had just been to our clinic to get medicine for his wife and he looked great.  There seemed to be no known medical reason for his sudden malady, and I’ve treated quite a few serious illnesses here. 

As for the witch dream and killing the cat, it would be too lengthy to explain the traditional religion and role of witchcraft in this region.  The dream visit and subsequent killing is fairly standard though, albeit much more complicated than I’ve written.  As I previously stated, it dominates the culture, so is a book unto itself.  

Her reason for killing my friend was deflating.  She said she didn’t want to kill him, didn’t even know he was the one who would die.  She was under the powers of the other witches, so just did as she was told. 

Fast forward to ending:  God’s redemptive ability has overcome.  Leanne and I encouraged the witch to ask for forgiveness from our Lord and follow Jesus.  She tearfully accepted His forgiveness, with my friend’s widow close by, listening and watching.  Other Christians were sitting next to her as well, encouraging her to live in the light, and leave her dark past behind. 

We sat outside her home on the grass mat to hear her story.

As of this writing, the ex-witch now hosts our Bible study under her big shade tree.  My friend’s widow and her sit on the bamboo mat together, listening to how God rules our world.  And I get to see how God rules, firsthand, watching them chat to one another as friends do. 

So much to say, so little time.

I love to write, but often procrastinate because I have too much to say in one blog and not enough time to put it all down.

So, I rarely write!  Hmmm. I don’t think I will change at 52 years old.

While I “wait” for that elusive time to write my next blog, I decided I was overdue for an update on our activities at Hope Village. So, instead of long blogs (and who wants to read those anyway?)...here are a few brief bullets on why we stay too busy to write!

Don Ministers to a Witch

Every Saturday Don and his translator Dennis drive into “the bush” to share God’s word with the small village of Tamare.  One day his friend in this village died. A witch was arrested for putting a spell on him.  She confessed to the “murder by sorcery” and was released. Don’s recent blog, "A Witch Killed My Friend" tells more about this story, how he embraced her when the village turned against her, about her regret and sorrow, how and why she placed the spell that killed the man.  Best of all, Don will share about her acceptance of Jesus Christ, and how the village—including the dead man’s wife—is now encouraging her, praying with her, and coming beside her as she fights the demons that still tug at her.

Don's first visit with the witch.

Don’s New Passion – Spirit Dancers!

While riding our bicycles through a nearby village last month, Don and I unexpectedly encountered our first Gule Wamkulu (Great Dance).  It is performed by the Nyau, members of a secret society who wear masks to represent ancestral spirits. They believe they are guardians of the dead who protect us and lead us to the “other side”.  Some consider the Nyau to be evil, others see them as harmless. Either way, they are full of cultural history, mystery and intrigue. They do not share their secrets or their identities.  Don, however, is “breaking in”. In hopes to evangelize, he has established a respectful and friendly bond with the local Nyau leaders. They have agreed to share their secrets with him over a period of time, as the relationship is deemed trustworthy.  Don certainly makes for entertaining future blog-writing!  

The Nyau would only allow me to take pictures of their 
Gule Wamkulu after Don gave them some money!

Organic Gardening is in Full Bloom

Since the trip to Kenya earlier this year to learn about organic farming, Don has enjoyed getting his fingers dirty and sinking his teeth into a new Hope Village project to bring vegetable gardens to many people in our local villages.   The greens are prolific and the villagers are using the produce for food, as medicine, to resell, and most important, as a service opportunity to help those who are hungry. It’s a beautiful program that allows the poor to sow, reap and share with the poor.

Don poses in front of the first community gardens at Hope Village 
during the planting stage. 

The Travesty of Malawian Education

I have devoted most of my spare time the last few months organizing tutoring for students during the school holiday, establishing a new Hope Village library for students and villagers, and preparing all of the Hope Village children (those who are orphans or deemed most vulnerable) for school with school fees, school uniforms and school supplies.  According to Unicef, only 13% of Malawian teens attend high school, and of those, only 15% of the boys and 7% of the girls will even finish.  This is a TRAVESTY. I am committed to fighting for the right to education for Malawian children.  I am convinced that while poverty remains a barrier to education, education is the key to finally and fully eliminate this curse of poverty.

The primary school students came to our Hope Village classrooms
for English tutoring over the recent school holidays.

Computer Training

Ten computers were donated to Hope Village from a police municipality in Holland. Challenging as it is, I've been trying to educate the teens in the villages to use Microsoft Office.  The challenge, I quickly realized, isn’t to teach Office, but to teach COMPUTERS.  None of the children have used a computer, or a mouse, or a keyboard.  A space bar? What is that?  How do you move that cursor on the screen?  And what is a cursor, anyway?   Oy vey!  So far to go! But, so thankful for this generous donation.

Fallbrook Visitors

Late in the summer we hosted 2 teenagers from our church in Fallbrook, Michelle Madden and Chase Dugas. They walked in the shoes of the villagers, shared their culture, their talents, their faith. They brought funds for the clinic and Annie’s Closet … among other gifts. Pictures and stories were prolific on Facebook, but I’ll do my best to devote a blog to this visit as well.

Michelle and Chase were serious about doing things
the way the Malawians do them!

Family Visitors

Don’s nephew and his wife (Eric and Amy Taylor) and their friends (Tim and Rana Vincent) spent time here at Hope Village in August.  We crammed in a lot of Malawi activities into one week, but the most notable was a little training from Amy.   Amy works in speech therapy in San Diego public schools, so used her network to gather donated resources for special needs children.  She unloaded 2 extra suitcases here full of games, activities, and devices—all for children with autism and cerebral palsy. We have been busy putting these to use with special children here at Hope Village over the last month. Great stories and pictures to follow.

Amy works with Salome who has cerebral palsy

Hope Village Goodbyes

We said goodbye to Paul and Esther Rombout and their 2 children Ezra and Anna last month. They have lived and worked here as missionaries from Holland for the last 7 years. They were committed to this project from the very beginning, and left a legacy of unselfishness, faithfulness and love (not to mention changed lives in the children and villagers they adopted and cherished as family). We are praying for their “re-entry” into the Western world, for a life that God will reward for their years of sacrifice.

The Rombout family

At the same time, we are getting ready for a goodbye to our close friends, Hope Village director, Paul Gill, his wife Tracy, and 2 children Chloe and Benjamin. They will be gone for 3 months on their first missionary furlough in years.  We will miss their companionship and friendship, and pray for God’s provision in keeping the home fires burning in their absence!

The Gill Family

Annie’s Work

Annie must write a blog for herself (she takes after me procrastination in the blog-writing department), but I can say she has been busy with school, baking, helping in the clinic, dressing kids from Annie’s Closet, serving when and where needed, and enjoying a plethora of Malawian teenage friends. Most of all, she has been enjoying her "bestie" Chloe Gill, creating lasting memories since their dreamy days as next-door neighbors are limited.

Annie has been blessed with a life-long best friend in Chloe.

For more on Annie, here's my last blog: Black Coffee and 9th Grade

That’s all for now! If you are reading this, I thank you for visiting this page, for your interest in how God is working in Malawi, and for your prayers for our family.  We will be home in January!

Love from all of us – Don, Leanne, Annie

We took a day off of work last month to visit the tea fields with our visitors.
Malawi is beautiful, in so many ways.