'For I was hungry'
Feeding a small orphanage in Malawi, Africa
Orphans from the Far & Wide Children's Home near Migowi, Malawi enjoying food God provided through Climbing For Christ.
The e-mail, marked urgent, came from a brother in Christ and included a plea for help. It was a Sunday night in Malawi, Africa. “I am writing this night because one hour ago a thief came and broke the room where we keep food for the orphans, and he has robbed all the foods that were there,” Pastor Duncan Nyozani of Searchlight Orphan Care wrote on Oct. 25, 2009. “There is nothing left for the orphans.”
Duncan’s small orphanage is in Migowi, a village in the southern part of this Central African nation. Landlocked Malawi is one of the world's most densely populated and least developed countries, with 85 percent of the population living in rural areas and relying on agriculture. As a result it is one of the poorest countries in the world with an average annual income of US$800 per person (ranking 218th out of 229 nations, according to the CIA World Factbook).
“We used to care for 40 orphans in the past, but due to financial problems we reduced to 15 orphans,” Duncan said about his Searchlight ministry.
He sent am inventory of what was stolen: 7 bags of maize, 2 bags of beans, 5 liters of cooking oil, 20 packets of sugar. And kitchen utensils. The food, he said, was worth K68500 (or less than US$500).
“We need $450 to feed them for a month,” he said about the orphans.
We are called to “look after the orphans and widows in their distress” (James 1:27). Climbing For Christ, which will be visiting Malawi with Pastor Duncan as part of Mission: Kilimanjaro 2010 in January, sent US$500 to help the orphanage in its time of need.
Bags of rice, corn and beans purchased for Searchlight Orphan Care.
<>We asked our members to pray for the children. And for those who have stolen from them. As Duncan said with a forgiving heart, “I pray for them to receive Jesus.”
A week later, the children were fed with food purchased with what God had provided through Climbing For Christ.
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