When I got to my seat for the flight to Africa I began to weep – they were tears of joy that I was going, and they were tears of sorrow, with painful awareness that this longer journey could only happen because my husband Bill had died in July. This has been a healing time.
When I stepped off the plane in Blantyre, I entered another culture, and it is a Third World one. Malawi is beautiful and the people are warm and wonderful, and they face, day by day, such challenges. I return with appreciation more than ever for the life we have in the United States and with a deeper love of our Christian faith as we live it in the Episcopal Church.
I bid you: do not take for granted anything you have. I mean by that many things: 1) our freedom of religion, 2) our freedom of speech, 3) our freedom to assemble, plus 4) our ability to turn on a tap and drink water without boiling or treating it, 5) our sense of safety, 6) our security that we can have enough to eat, 7) our health system.
Now, you will tell me that all of our systems are not perfect, and that I well know. But I pray with thanks to God for the overall orderliness of our lives.
I saw the desperation in the faces and lives of Malawi’s people. They have about 85% unemployment. Yes, you read this right, 85%. Only about 15% have salaried,
mostly secure positions and the rest make their living the best they can, about 80% of them as subsistence farmers. Others have small businesses, selling produce, sewing on a trundle sewing machine, doing seasonal work on tea estates, having a take-away food stand, doing day labor. Malawi struggles economically as one of the ten poorest nations in the world. They are a democracy that is clinging to its people’s rights with a leadership that shows tendencies to repression.
I had the privilege of living in the home of Bishop James and Josie Tengatenga while there—they are passionate, joyful, bright, faithful leaders. So I got firsthand experience of their daily lives (Well, with the out of the ordinary visit of the Archbishop of Canterbury in their diocese for three days!) Much is good in their lives and in the diocese. I met and observed in action diocesan leaders doing ministry to improve the lives of people. I shared ministry on Sundays with fine ordained and lay leaders leading beautiful worship.
My time with our sisters and brothers in Christ in Malawi has opened me to learn more. Among their gifts to me are their witness of faith and their hope, founded on the love of our Resurrected Lord Jesus Christ.
Janie+
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