26th February, 2009

LENA JOHNSTONE

Last year, I had the opportunity to travel to Malawi in Africa. I had never been to a developing country before and while many of my friends and even my husband had been to Malawi, this was to be my first opportunity.

I was to visit a close friend, Robyn Casey, who four years earlier had begun a work amongst the villages. She had seen the great need amongst the pre-school children, many of whom were only receiving a meal every third day and felt compelled to do what she could to help. This had led her to begin Mphatso Children's foundation which now feeds around 1,000 children a week and around 700 pre-school children five days a week.

NEW FRIENDS: Lena with Poniso who she met during her trip to Malawi last year on the shores of Lake Malawi. "What I found in Malawi was what I had expected to find. Preventable poverty, lack of basic sanitation, lack of food, an education system in shambles. One in three of the people I met had AIDS, every day I heard of someone incredibly sick with Malaria. Yet what I hadn't expected to find was a people who are extraordinarily resilient and resourceful."

I knew when I visited her that I would be confronted by poverty. I knew the statistics of disease and unemployment and that they had a poor education system. Those who had gone before me had warned me and having spent many hours listening to Robyn speak of the people over there and the work she was doing I felt that I had prepared as well as I could but I still left with a feeling of trepidation. I had often taught others about our need as Christians to become involved with standing against injustice and speaking on behalf of those who have no voice, yet this was to be my first experience of living among people who face the realities of this every day.

What I found in Malawi was what I had expected to find. Preventable poverty, lack of basic sanitation, lack of food, an education system in shambles. One in three of the people I met had AIDS, every day I heard of someone incredibly sick with malaria. Yet what I hadn't expected to find was a people who are extraordinarily resilient and resourceful. A people who are truly grateful for all they are given, who are incredibly generous and a people who are filled with joy. What I also didn't expect was that these people would get under my skin and creep into my heart.

I knew what I would encounter but what I didn't expect was that I would come to care so much about these things. Their poverty matters now, their malaria and their AIDS distress me. It disturbs me that they only have access to Panadol at their medical clinics. I'm concerned for those who will never have jobs or an income beyond what they can scrape out of the land.

What disturbs me most though is that I hadn't expected to care so much. It speaks of a paralysing apathy. I knew the need and yet though somehow that it wouldn't touch me. I can only assume that like so many in the West I had become desensitised to the nameless mass that face these conditions every day. I knew, and I did care at one level, but not the way I do now. You see now they're not the nameless mass. They are Tawonga and Amos, Esau and Poniso, Alic and Peter.

Visiting Malawi has given me the opportunity to move beyond 'giving because I should', to 'giving because I love'. I only wish I could have been in this place earlier, that I could have grasped God's intimate, individual love for them sooner. Of course I have known it, but now I have experienced it, I have seen these precious ones and God has placed His love for them in my heart.

I knew I would be changed when I went to Malawi and I was both scared and excited by it.

I was right to be.

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