Skip to main content

Don Wahlig's Photos and Reflection


Certainly the highlight of the trip for me was the experience of sharing my faith and a gospel lesson with prisoners at Nkata Prison.




Thank you, Gabriel and Dennis, CitiHope Malawi staff and our wonderful hosts for our mission trip!



As is so often God's way, this life-changing opportunity to help lead our wonderful group to Malawi seemingly came out of the blue. It soon became clear that God had a transforming experience in store for all of us!



For a team of 10 folks who didn't know each other well at the start, we sure bonded in a hurry. (Dennis, Trin & Mo - Fryball, anyone? 8>)

Before leaving, friends and family expressed a sense of fear, bordering on dread, for the despair and devastation they (and I) assumed we would meet in Malawi. "It will be so hard to see that," they often said. Well, they were right, but not in the way they thought.
Our first day with the kids at the day care center run by the Presbyterian Church in Mzuzu, St. Andrews Church. What fun!



This set the stage for the jarring contrasts which soon became the hallmark of the entire trip: joyous, hope-filled kids in the care of make-shift families and volunteer-run day care centers & orphanages struggling against malnutrition and the ever-present spector of HIV.


This shot pretty much sums up the trip experience for me: look closely at the picture. The kids are munching away on the USAID food which CitiHope delivers (and Martha hands out!) to help them stave off hunger another day. Do you see anything peculiar in the background? Those wooden boxes, perhaps? Yup -- they are coffins, products of one of Malawi's top-three industries. The kids play, sing and laugh in front of them, oblivious (or reconciled) to the fact that they or any one of their friends may be in them before long. Now, how's that for a contrast?

And here's the thing that struck us: how warm, faith-filled, hopeful and even jubilant the people of Malawi are! Despite the disease, despite the poverty, despite the death, reminders of which are everywhere as this picture shows, they greeted us everywhere with dancing and singing. We felt like rock stars going into to each village, everyone wanting to touch us, to take their picture. Dennis and I were even presented with a live chicken! (Michael said it was tasty ...)



And how to describe the sheer joy that we experienced at worship in Livingstonia, the compound created by legendary Scottish missionary, Robert Laws?


And bringing soup and soap to prisoners, hungry for both food and gospel. Will I ever be able to top the experience of preaching on the Loaves and Fishes as they sat in rapt attention? (A captive audience, I know!) Thanks to God and the team for making this call-affirming experience possible!

We saw the face of AIDS and innocent suffering in Malawi. It was hard to miss. But, we saw something even more powerful, still: the power of faith and hope. Upon reflection, that is what made our experience so impactful. Experiencing daily the emotional poles of life and death, joy and despair, may take some time to process. But this I know for sure: Christ calls us -- all of us -- to be in the midst of this struggle. Matthew 25 tells us we are to see Christ in the faces of "the least of these" and to treat them as Jesus. The first step is a step of the heart. Wanna come?
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Liberation Spirituality: Henri Nouwen and Gustavo Gutierrez in Dialogue

Liberation Spirituality: Henri Nouwen and Gustavo Gutierrez in Dialogue Lecture Notes: Presented by Michael J. Christensen, Ph.D.,  Associate Professor in the Practice of Spirituality and Ministry,  Drew University;  and  International Director, Communities of Shalom, The United Methodist Church Introduction “There is a little man in Peru, a man without any power, who lives in a barrio with poor people and who wrote a book.   In this book he simply reclaimed the basic Christian truth that God became human to bring good news to the poor, new light to the blind, and liberty to the captives.   Then years later this book and movement it started is considered a danger by [the USA, or Rome], the greatest power on earth.   When I look at this little man, Gustavo, and think about [the President of the US, or the Pope], I see David standing before Goliath, again with no more weapon than a little stone, a stone called A The...
Read more

First Generation Lambs Club Reunion

Fifteen of us gathered Saturday night at the Lambs Club for a 35 th year reunion of those who helped start the Lamb’s Church in Times Square in the mid to late 1970’s, including: Rev. Paul S. Moore , Founder of the Lamb’s Church of the Nazarene, and his wife, Tamara Dr. Michael J. Christensen , charter member and former associate pastor, and his wife Dr. Rebecca Laird Fr. William (BJ) Webe r, former Associate Pastor and Director of the Lamb’s Residency, and his wife Sheila who lived at the Lamb’s Jim and Dustee Hullinger, who were on staff together and made the Lamb’s their home for over 25 years Effie Canepa , who was the church pianist under 3 pastors, and her husband Peter Shirley Close, who attended the Lamb’s in the late 1970’s while studying, performing  and teaching music and voice Carl "Chappy" Valente , former associate pastor Rev. Bob DiQuatto , lead singer of the Church’s “Manhattan Project” and staff member of the Lamb’s, and his son Jason Rev. Gab...
Read more

Let the River Flow: Why WorldHope Corps digs village wells

  Sunday Sermon at the The Water's Edge in OB , San Diego, CA. "Woman at the Well" (John 4:7-15) When you think about the gospel story of the Samaritan woman with Jesus at Jacob’s well, I’d like you to picture this Woman at a similar well in northern Malawi. Sitting and talking with Pastor Dennis Singini about water. Her name is Nyang'oma, which means "drum." Her Christian name is Mary Botha. She is 85 years old and lives in a village in the Kampenda area of Northern Malawi. She has cared for 11 children, two of whom have died. And her husband has died. When Dennis and I first met Mary in 2008, her village did not have a deep well or access to clean water. Nor did the six surrounding villages with over 1,500 people. Women and children had to drink with animals from shallow seasonal wells or walk about of 5km away to drink from the closest stream. Sometimes they would get sick and complain of stomach aches. Cholera and dysentery were widespread, and m...
Read more