Greetings to All from "The Warm Heart of Africa"!

Time has flown by. It is hard to believe that I have already been here two months, and I am feeling very much at home. There is so much to report it is hard to know where to begin. I have struggled with this letter for over a week, trying to find words that will convey the heart of what I am experiencing in a way that will be meaningful to all of you.

Most mornings I arise early to take a walk with the Lord through the beautiful countryside of Mzuzu. This morning I walked in the rain as it refreshed and renewed the warm, dry land, preparing the soil for a season of planting. The hills of Mzuzu and the beautiful purple and red flowering trees are breathtaking. The nearness of God to this beautiful, poverty laden land and its people is experienced by all who have hearts to experience the presence of the winds of the Spirit.

Four mornings a week are devoted to language study, learning Chitumbuka. My language teacher, Mrs. Betty Gwamba, is a retired school teacher, who grew up at the Livingstonia Mission. She and her husband are always giving sacrificially to help others, their neighbors in need, out of the very little that they have. Loss of job, loss of a daughter, orphaned children to care for, have only increased their faith in God and their generosity. After every language lesson, Mrs. Gwamba always says, let us pray.

The balance of my time is spent serving as a Pastor of the Zolozolo Church (CCAP–Church of Central Africa Presbyterian), a new church development (approximately 2,000 members which includes two prayer houses). In addition to preaching and administering Holy Communion at the Zolozolo Church, I have also preached at the Katawa CCAP Church in Mzuzu, and will preach at St. Andrew’s CCAP Church in Mzuzu on November 15th.

Already I have officiated at one funeral. Funerals are an all to common occurrence, people dying prematurely from malnutrition, unclean drinking water, lack of adequate health care, and AIDS. In Malawian culture funerals are public event, anyone and everyone who may have known the deceased and/or family members drops what they are doing to be present at the wake, the funeral service, the walk to the cemetery, the committal service. The cost of renting a lorry for bringing the casket of the deceased to their city of birth for burial is a cost often shouldered by the Synod of Livingstonia. The Synod recently paid 7,000 kwacha to rent a lorry to bring home a young woman (daughter of a leader of the Women’s Guild) to Mzuzu from Bandawe to be buried. Think of the money that could be saved if partnership churches in the U.S. could contribute out of our abundance $30,000 to purchase a lorry for Synod use. The money saved by the Synod could be used to provide better health care.

The economic forecast for Malawi continues to worsen. Fish are dying in Lake Malawi by the tons from a as yet unidentified cause. The kwacha, Malawian currency, continue to fluctuate downward in worth. The cost of petrol has just increased by 5 kwacha per liter, up to 70 Cents per liter, $2.65 per gallon. The average annual per capita income in Malawi is 8,800 kwacha (U.S. $200) and falling.

The Synod of Livingstonia works tirelessly to help create a viable infrastructure for Malawi. One of its projects is an Office Block Project, office space to be leased to local businesses in Mzuzu. The profits will provide revenue for the ministry of the Synod: schools, hospitals, agricultural development centers. After more than two years, the first story of this three story building is almost complete. Today a local business moved their desks, chairs, file cabinets and other office equipment into a completed wing of the first floor. Nine other business have made commitments to lease office space. The hope is that there will be resources to complete these offices by the end of December. This too depends on your generous hearts, change of life style and sacrificially giving in the name of Jesus Christ.

The renowned, late Rev. Henri J. M. Nouwen, in writing about conversion and compassion in his book, Here and Now, echoes the call of Jesus to downward mobility (pp.100-101): "My whole life I have been surrounded by well–meaning encouragement to go ‘higher up’," and the most–used argument was: "You can do so much good there, for so many people. But these voices calling me to upward mobility are completely absent from the Gospel. Jesus says: "Anyone who loves his life loses it; anyone who hates his life in this world will keep it for the eternal life" (John 12:25). He also says: "Unless you become like little children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:3). Finally he says: "You know that among the Gentiles the rulers lord it over them, and high officials make their authority felt; among you this is not to happen. No; anyone who wants to become great among you must be your servant, and anyone who wants to be first among you must be your slave, just as the Son of Man came, not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:25-28).

This is the way of downward mobility, the descending way of Jesus. It is the way toward the poor, the suffering, the marginal, the prisoners, the refugees, the lonely, the hungry, the dying, the tortured, the homeless–toward all who ask for compassion. What do they have to offer? Not success, popularity, or power, but the joy and peace of the children of God.

When we go by what the media tells us, joy should come from success, popularity, and power,

even though those who have these things are often quite heavy of heart and even depressed The joy that compassion brings is one of the best-kept secrets of humanity. It is a secret known to only a very few people, a secret that has to be rediscovered over and over again. If we lack joy and peace–it may be because we have not given up much–to give life to others–far across the world in Malawi. All that we have is a gift from God to be shared with all God’s children!

Our salvation is intimately connected to our brothers and sisters in Christ in Malawi. We desperately need their warm and generous hearts, their sense of community, their faith that permeates every element of their lives. They desperately need to share our abundance of material resources. And much more than this, more than we can fathom will be the fruit of wholeness and joy–as we share in common all that we are and have in Christ.

Ucizi na Mtende (Grace and Peace),

Debbie Chase

The 1999 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 180