Wonderful and difficult moments

A lot has happenend in Malawi recently, more specific in Kwanjana!

Good things, but also a lot of suffering.

Good things: the start of the nursery school, with 20 children. Great to see how enthousiastic the children (and their parents!) are. But also: it is a great responsibility to admit the children. Who can enter the school, who not? And why not, how can you explain this?

Inside, there is a voice: if only we could help more people...

Some more good things: this week we could stop the challenge of finding a Malawian teacher for our nursery school. Great to see that from the 5 applicants, we could hire a fine teacher!

On the other hand, what a suffering there is in Malawi...

Nobody could possiby have missed the fact that Malawi is in a state of emergency because of heavy rainfalls. 45,000 households were affected, over 225,000 individual people. A lot of houses of poor quality collapsed. Over 30 people died. The need is huge and it is impossible to put this into words. In the Netherlands, the news is already pushed to the backgroud by other news messages, but in Malaw, reality is still raw and pushing the people down.

By means of diverse media, emergency aid has been given attention. As For a Change Foundation, we are surprised by the generosity of our loyal supporters, making it possible to give direct emergency aid to the people of Kwanjana. Exactly on the time when it was needed to the most.

But for our field workers in Malawi, there is another side of the coin. They are very grateful that they could help so many people in need, on the other hand: they had to deal with so many questions, and difficulties. Where do they have to start? All around them, there are so many requests for help. Our fieldwokers are not able to help all the people they are willing to help. Every evening, they have leave the people of Kwanjana with all their needs, when they go to their own homes.

This is the reason why prayer is so important!

For all affected people in Malawi and surrounding countries.

For our fieldworkers - let us be a praying wall around them and pray for wisdom, courage, and strength, to be able to help whereever this is needed. So that they can do their work in deep dependence on the Lord. May the poem that I read recently be our comfort:

“I asked for strength

and God gave me difficulties to make me stronger.

I asked for wisdom

and God gave me problems to solve.

I asked for prosperity,

and God gave me brains and muscles to work with.

I asked for courage,

and God gave me threats to conquer.

I asked for love

and God gave me people in need to help.

I asked for support

and God gave me chances.

I did not receive anything I asked for

But yet, I received everything I needed."