John and Megan Spranklin's Visit

John and Megan Spranklin visited Malawi in 2010. This is their report.

“My wife Megan and I visited Malawi in June and July 2010.  We had both been interested in cross cultural mission for a number of years and decided it was time that we experienced it first-hand.  Our purpose for the trip was to gain some insight into what it would be like to be missionaries in a country like Malawi, and what opportunities there might be for us to serve people. 

We stayed with a number of missionary families and visited various parts of the country including Blantyre, Mangochi, Salima, Nkhotakota and Lilongwe.  Our experience also included a visit to Manyowe Village and Manyowe Baptist Church.  We were warmly greeted by Pastor Julius and the church congregation.  With donations from Eagles Wings we were able to purchase Bibles, blankets and mosquito nets, which were distributed by the church to those most in need.  We were blessed to join the church one Sunday for worship.  The singing and dancing was brilliant, but Aussie blokes really can’t dance like Africans do. 

In Manyowe, as in the rest of Malawi we were confronted by the poverty, the basic way people lived and the lack of health care and prevention.  We were also surprised and almost shamed by the incredible generosity Malawian people showed toward us.  Many of us are very wealthy compared to most Malawians.  We have an incredible opportunity to be generous and to bless people like those in Malawi with far less than us.   What might be a small amount of money to us, can make a huge impact in communities like Manyowe.  There is so much we can do to help. 

We discovered that people are much the same everywhere.  We have many issues and problems we face in life.  Money will certainly solve some of these, but not all.  This is obvious enough in societies like Australia.  Most of us have plenty of money, but we have just as many problems, and people are not really any happier.  We realised that the best things about our own society are the shared values given to us by our Christian heritage (though often not recognised as such in modern society).   Malawians, and people everywhere, need to find purpose in being created by God, they need the freedom of God’s forgiveness through Jesus, they need the joy of knowing God personally and being known by him, and they need the hope of something better in heaven.  This changes how people live, and this is what will change a society in a much more lasting way than just pouring money into it. 

The other thing that became clear to us was that in most situations, local people are the ones best equipped to meet the needs of their own people.  Sometimes our efforts to help people are more of a hindrance because we don’t understand their culture and worldview – we just don’t think the same way they do.   People’s physical and spiritual needs are often best met by those who are most like them, who will understand what they really need.  Sometimes we are better taking our hands off the controls and merely providing the resources for others to do the work. 

It’s 18 months since our trip to Malawi.  I am now studying at Sydney Missionary and Bible College to be prepared for ministry.  We don’t think we will return to Malawi for the long term, but we do hope to see Manyowe, and other communities like it, transformed for the better.” 

Sally Anne's Visit

I am planning on spending the next few posts sharing reports from visitors to Malawi about some of our work there.

The first of these visitors was Sally Anne Timbrell in 2009.

“My visit to Manyowe was truly awesome. In fact, I subsequently visited lots of schools, churches and orphanages all over the central and southern region but none was as moving or as powerful as the visit to Manyowe.”

She describes her wonderful welcome and meeting many people including the Chief of Manyowe Village (pictured right).

“However, the most challenging visit was to the home of a 14 year old girl, a ‘double’ orphan (this is a new term to me - double orphan is a child who has lost both parents, and a single orphan is one who has lost just one). She was caring for 3 siblings as well as 2 children of her own. The poverty and deprivation in this child’s home left me lost for words. The church is caring for them, feeding them and providing what they can for them. She had a baby suckling at her breast - and it was evident that there was very little milk there for the infant. The home had gaps in the roof (another issue for when the rains come), a few clothes were in the corner of one part of the house, and they were sitting eating some insima from a bowl - barely the amount you and I might have for breakfast. I must admit it was at this point that I wept. 

A major issue in the press at the moment is about girls being promised in marriage sometimes even before they are born. A new law has just been passed that a girl cannot get married before she is 16 - an outcry has arisen as women’s groups and health and education organisations believe that even at 16 a girl is not biologically, emotionally or intellectually ready for marriage (often to older men) let alone to take on the responsibilities of having children and raising a family. The girl in the hut is the result of such tradition and law. Unable to provide for herself and her siblings, Pastor Julius Damson said that girls are then forced to prostitution - with the resulting increase in babies and AIDS/ HIV.

The greatest killer in Malawi is Malaria. One of the most effective preventative measures is mosquito nets. These can cost as little as $4 - and can significantly reduce the death rate and illness. And yet, I did not see 1 mosquito net in all the homes I visited in Manyowe. Not one. Cerebral Malaria strikes with overwhelming frequency and invariably leads to death.
It would seem that there are levels of poverty in Malawi - and this is the deepest level of need that I came across the entire visit. It was heart breaking and left me deeply challenged. It is more than a question of throwing money at the situation - although that is desperately needed. It is about education, health and welfare.

Manyowe was, for me, characterised by the deepest level of poverty I met in all the time I was in Malawi. But it was also characterised by a deep sense of community, where the people are prepared to love and to serve each other. This sense of community emerges with the preparedness for people to find meaningful common goals and purposes (welfare, sharing of scarce resources, education, worship) - and it becomes a rich community because within the community there is room for diversity as well as unity.”

In this picture are: Sally Anne with Julius Damson (carrying the choirmaster’s son), some elders from Manyowe Church and Aise Kachenje (who Sally talked about in her report) with the six children she looks after.

Aise was married to an older man when she was 11 years old. He died and she was left with her own children and also several siblings after her parents died as well. She was 14 years old when this photo was taken.

We re-roofed her one room house and gave her seeds to plant her own vegetables, which she could then sell to make a living.

Manyowe Baptist Church

Mbuye mwayenera.
Lord you are worthy.

Palibe wina ofana nanu.
There is none like you.

Yes of course we can worship underneath a tree, however the Lord laid it on our hearts to build a new Manyowe Baptist Church.

The Manyowe Baptist Church was started in 1972. The Church is now used as a school during the week. Manyowe is a big village (about 9,500 people) so there are a few church buildings. This was our first big project in Manyowe.

Included in this page are photographs of the new church being built and a touching photograph of a little boy who sought shelter in the church.

An Introduction

Moni. Muli bwanji?

Hello. How are you?

The Eagle Wings Christian Family started as a result of my trip back to Malawi, the land of my birth, in 2007. 

Malawi is a beautiful country, but like so many African countries it is also a place of poverty and hardship, of malnourishment and starvation. It is a country in dire need of help, where diseases such as malaria and HIV directly or indirectly affect the whole population.

It was in Blantyre that I met Pastor Julius Damson, a very humble Malawian man. He took me to his mud hut church in Manyowe.

Manyowe Township is an “unplanned” area of Blantyre, this means it lacks basic services like roads, sewage systems, electricity and proper access to clean safe water. Over 70% of people in Blantyre live in these unplanned areas. Manyowe has a population of around 9,500 people.

There was something sort of different and special about the people there, you did not get hassled and they did not beg. The kids laughed and played with nothing but sticks and stones. I cannot describe it!

While I was there Julius adopted 3 orphans. I asked how could he afford to feed them together with his wife and five children. A huge grin appeared on his face and he said, “Madam, God has always provided why would he stop now?”

I was inspired by his vision of trying to teach Malawians to become volunteers and to help themselves rather than being reliant on charities and handouts.

One of the first projects was to help rebuild the Manyowe Church. I organised an exhibition and sent the money from the sale of the paintings. Judy Burns and Ed Marshall then joined me and Eagle Wings was born.

Judy is very organized and patient. She has experience in running her own businesses and has become our treasurer. Ed Marshall is the pastor of my local church. He has a desire to have Malawians come to faith and to see them helping themselves improve their lot in life.

There was no access to free safe water in Manyowe. The people there were dependent on paying for water, if they could afford it. The only other close source was the River Mudi, which is extremely polluted and unsafe, as you can see from this very informative article from The Big Issue Malawi.

http://www.streetnewsservice.org/news/2009/june-2009/feed-188/mudi-river-in-peril.aspx

Now a tap is attached to Pastor Julius Damson’s house, which supplies free safe water, from the mains, to the whole of Manyowe. The tap runs day and night.

The water is free of charge because the water bills are paid for from Australia. This money comes from the sale of all of Shirley’s paintings and some donations that come from people’s hearts. We never fundraise but instead rely on Our Lord Jesus to supply.

Since then Eagle Wings has grown to include two other missionaries, Hassan Stambuli (left) from Lilongwe and Steven Silungwe (right) from Muzu.

I want to use this blog to keep people in touch with the efforts of the Eagle Wings Christian Family and its missionaries in Malawi. I will be posting here about some of the other good work that Julius, Hassan and Steven are doing.