Malawi’s First Lady Came to our village

 

About a month ago I was sitting at a local clinic waiting on one of my Malawian friends to be seen by the clinician. On the TV in the lobby was a program about the Safe Motherhood Foundation Launch being hosted by the First Lady of Malawi. It was such an inspiring program and I began to get a sense from the Holy Spirit that I needed to pay attention and take notes. The Foundation is concerned with empowering women and children in Malawi who have long been the most vulnerable and the least served in this country. Women face a difficult life doing work that involves heavy lifting and long hours of hard work starting from their very early years of life. I am always amazed when I see one walking past with at least 50-60 pounds of wood or maize resting on their head and they will walk long distances with this load. I also observe them swinging the heavy hoe or kasu, as it is called here, working the dirt preparing it for planting. This tool is very heavy and they most swing it over and over for hours as they turn the dirt and make the rows for their garden. They are often the first of the children in the family to be pulled out of school due to inability to pay fees or buy books or uniform or just pulled out because there is work to be done and the parents need another set of hands. As they reach adulthood they are then faced with no skills to seek employment or get a loan for schooling or starting their own business. Bare with me while I share a few statistics that I copied down from this TV program.
1,000,00 orphans and vulnerable children.
400,000 double orphans(lost both parents)
of the 2,603,285 households in Malawi 304,202 are caring for orphans or vulnerable children.
Last year 23,606 Orphans or vulnerable children applied for school support; 9,900 were paid.
Of those paid roughly 6,600 were boys; 3,300 were girls
there are 105,855 male headed households in Malawi
there are 198,347 female headed households in Malawi
there are 59,800 elderly headed households in Malawi
ther are no solid numbers on child headed households but they exist in alarming number
there are 10,464 Community Based Care Centers in Malawi
46,772 volunteers work at these centers that feed children Vitameal in the morning and train preschool children after the older ones go to school until around 11:00 a.m.
(Our ministry currently maintains 14 of these centers.)
The Safe Motherhood Foundation is raising money to help build health care facilities, provide funds for education for children, help women get training for employment, obtain loans for starting a business, and teach women healthy living habits.
Before the program was over I began to feel a strong desire to meet with this woman and share with her the difficulties we have faced getting electicity and other needs. I began to pray, asking God if this was from Him and if so to help me find the way. I approached our chief with the idea and he said it could be possible. Within two days he called me to say that the First Lady had scheduled a big event in OUR VILLAGE and that I would get to meet her and share our needs. This event had already been scheduled before I watched her program. Don’t you love how the spirit moves us to be ready for what He has planned.
I worked on a letter of introduction for several days to be sure it shared our needs and gave her the facts. Then the Lord reminded me that He made this appointment and to share from my heart how He was Lord of my life and keeper of this Ministry. I included in the letter the manner I had come to desire sharing with her our needs and that we would give God all the glory for any good thing that came from our work here in Malawi.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of being at the soccer grounds in our village for the event and sitting under the canopy where she sat.  I was seated with all the Members of Parliament present and other dignitaries.  How humbling that was for me.  I am just a girl from Arkansas who was inspired by the Holy Spirit to take a step of faith and be bold enough to ask to meet the First Lady.  I had the pleasure of briefly exchanging greetings with her and the chief gave her my packet that included the letter of introdution, a copy of our Core Values, our mission statement, our goals and our objectives. 

 

During her speech she did mention the needs shared with her for our fine facility called Esther’s House and that she would be giving our packet to the president to garner his help in the matter. The crowd gave a loud cry of support as only Malawians can do and applauded her remarks. I felt holy goose bumps as I looked out at the blue sky and thanked God that He had done far more than I ever imagined. Now it is for us to PRAY this through as we anticipate what God will do. Politicians are pretty much the same the world over and they have many affairs to attend to and are known for their rhetoric. I am not counting on any politician, I am counting on my awesome, BIG GOD to bring the matter to those who will help us.