Mission Moments: Malawi

God can’t sleep

By Gary Fallesen, founding president, Climbing For Christ

“And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” – Matthew 10:30 (NIV), also Luke 12:7

I looked into the eyes of the many widows photographed by Kingdom worker Damson Samson during last week’s food distribution in southern Malawi. I ask you to do the same.

Look. Really look.

Damson wrote about the women above, “They are not understanding the grace of God that has remembered the forgotten.” In other words, they are overwhelmed by God’s love for them. Forgotten by man, but always remembered by our heavenly Father. Below, “unspeakable joy” is what those receiving food relief felt, Damson said.

I told Damson that I praise God that HE can see their hearts. He can see their needs. He knows each and every one of them intimately.

He knows each and every one of us. And He knows what is in our hearts and minds. He knows that we’d rather look away from pain and suffering than look into how we can help.

There are so many faces in my mental photo album. My eyes have seen so many eyes looking back at me – some in need, some in expectation, some in disappointment. I confess I cannot remember them all. But God remembers!

There is a saying in Malawi: “God can’t sleep.” Psalm 121:4 tells us God “never slumbers or sleeps.”

The hunger situation in Malawi remains “critical,” as Damson reported. For the second time in as many months, Damson delivered maize purchased with funding provided through Climbing For Christ. He shared 100 50-kilogram bags (more than 11,000 pounds) of grain.

Then he saw 83-year-old Mage Izeki bending over picking up grain, one kernel at a time, that had fallen on the ground in Namata village.

Mage Izeki refusing to allow anything to go to waste.

“Why are you picking one grain?” Damson asked. “Could you not leave this as you have already gotten 20 kilograms?”

“The situation in our homes is forcing us to care about even the little on the ground,” Mrs. Izeki told him.

Perhaps she knows the teaching in Luke 16:10 (the Parable of the Shrewd Manager): “If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones.” Or, more likely, she knows what it feels like to have nothing to eat. Absolutely nothing.

Every kernel counts.

Esther Chikopa is another widow who knows the feeling of an empty stomach. “She could not stop smiling and thanking (God) for heavenly provision,” Damson said.

Esther Chikopa in Manasi village.

For two days, Damson and those who serve with him met widows from numerous villages. They shared teachings from the Bible. Damson focused on Hosea 4:17 and talked about how it hurts God when we forsake the Word and ask other gods for help. He also used Zechariah 2:1-5 and explained that by God’s measurements there are no boundaries.

“I reflected on how God has given Climbing For Christ the whole world to be reached with the Gospel,” Damson said, “and we might be measured to say we can’t go that far. But we have heaven (to help) reach the world as He instructs us to do.”

There were more lessons. They also prayed with and for the people. And they delivered food.