Malawi

Have you heard of it? Probably not, but trust me, you will be reading and learning about Malawi more in the coming weeks and months. Our friends, Steve and Scott, just returned from a 10-day trip to Malawi, where they also fell in love with the people, noted projects to adopt and gained a vision of how we as a church (Watershed) can make an impact of loving and serving these people. These pictures are from the guy's trip.

Last night we had some friends over to hear of Steve’s trip and ask a million questions. My head was spinning and my heart, my heart was in deep pain and yet there was this new type of love deep within my soul that took root…a love for the Malawi people.

Malawi, located in southern Africa, is the 3rd POOREST country in the whole world! The average yearly income is only US$600. The country is slightly smaller than the state of Pennsylvania and holds one of the highest AIDS populations in the world. There are over 1 million orphans and out of the million, 700,000 of these children were orphaned because their parents died of HIV/AIDS. It is estimated that 30% of the country’s population is infected with the HIV/AIDS virus…the average age of a man is 43 and for the women it is 42. I honestly cannot believe what I am reading just in Wikipedia. The fact that these things are so publicly known and not much is being done is amazing to me. Steve told us many stories about the children and people that he came into contact with. He told us that everywhere they went the people looked them in the eyes, greeted them and each other with kindness and respect. He had told one of the national pastors that in America most people don’t greet you on the streets or smile when you pass them…the pastor couldn’t believe that people wouldn’t smile.

I couldn’t believe the irony…a people, a whole country that is dying of AIDS and yet they treat each other with dignity and respect, love and kindness…yet in our country there is so much malice, racism, anger, hate.

It has been 10 years since my first visit to India and almost 10 years since I lived in Northern India with a team of Americans. So for 10 years I have had this impression that poverty and disease couldn’t get any worse than it is in vastly populated country of India. My world has been turned upside down. There is a whole country in Africa who is dying due to the AIDS pandemic.