Mission Moments: Malawi

Facing a food crisis

By Gary Fallesen, Climbing For Christ

Damson Samson was forlorn. He had been called to come to the Japan Embassy in Lilongwe, Malawi to pick up his visa to GO on Mission: Japan 2024. Arrangements had been hastily made to get him to Japan as the visa processing – a month in the making – had been approved at the last minute.

But when he arrived at the embassy, they told him he couldn’t have the visa.

He was shocked. Confused. Disheartened. He made the long drive from Lilongwe back to southern Malawi. “I don’t know if this is His will or not,” Damson lamented.

When he returned home the phone calls continued. He’d been receiving them from family members and others. There was hunger in the villages.

“I had time to pray and then I said I should study the Bible,” Damson explained. From Leviticus 25:35-36, he read: “And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee; then thou shalt relieve him: yea, though he be a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with thee. Take thou no usury of him, or increase: but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with thee” (KJV).

In modern English, as the Life Application Study Bible explains, this is saying “God made it clear that neglecting the poor was a sin. Permanent poverty was not allowed in Israel. Financially secure families were responsible for providing help and housing for those in need.”

Damson felt convicted that he (and we) needed to help the hungry all around him.

He did some research and sent me numbers: approximately 4.2 million people (20 percent of the population) were expected to experience “high levels of acute food insecurity” between June and September 2024, including 56,000 people facing an “emergency” and 4.1 million in “crisis,” according to an IPC report (see attached document). Most of these people are in southern Malawi.

Worse news: The situation is expected to deteriorate during the projection period (October-March), which coincides with the “lean season.”

“Please pray for our situation here,” ministry partner Pastor Duncan Nyozani said. “We are eating buffalo beans and green mangoes right now. These buffalo beans are poisonous.”

Buffalo beans, called Chitedze in Chichewa, are found in the wild. “When you touch them, they cause too much itching to the body,” Duncan said. “I have never heard that they were eaten in the past, but this year people are eating them.

“They become poisonous when they are not well cooked. They must be cooked several hours to remove all that poisonous stuff.”

Duncan’s dinner: two green mangoes. (Photo by Duncan Nyozani)

Imagine going to the grocery store and buying fruit to eat as your daily meal and that fruit was not even ripe. But that’s all you have to eat!

“I felt (hurt) since learning how hard things are with many lives here due to hunger situation,” Damson said. “It has really hit the most vulnerable groups of our people, such as widows.”

Damson and Climbing For Christ have ministered to hundreds of widows in the villages in southern Malawi for many years.

“Now they are living on green mangoes which are just in the developing stage,” Damson said. “I kept quiet about it, but I have discovered God was speaking something. People are dying due to hunger as they have gone days without food.”

Damson acknowledged that this does not fit C4C’s Primary Purpose to GO and deliver the Gospel in the mountains of the world where others cannot or will not, but … “God made it clear that neglecting the poor was a sin.”

Damson sent his appeal to me yesterday and I prayed about it. It was God’s timing and will. The night before, on the eve of Mission: Japan 2024, I was lying awake feeling ill and with a troubled spirit. I asked God, “If I’m NOT supposed to GO to Japan, please deny Damson’s visa” knowing he’d already been approved. He was then refused the visa.

Here we are: Damson in Malawi and me at the Home Office in Rochester, NY, USA. Facing a crisis together.

As my Study Bible says, “Many times we do nothing about poverty, not because we lack compassion, but because we are overwhelmed by the size of the problem and don’t know where to begin. God doesn’t expect you to eliminate poverty, nor does he expect you to neglect your family while providing for others. He does, however, expect that when you see an individual in need, you will reach out with whatever help you can offer…”

God has shown us individuals in need, and we must reach out to help. This is our calling – mine and yours.

Helping hands

If you are moved as I was to help our hungry neighbors in Malawi, please send a financial gift to Climbing For Christ at P.O. Box 16290, Rochester, NY 14616-0290 USA. Write “Malawi Food Crisis” on the memo. Or CLICK HERE to give online via PayPal.

In Canada, make cheques payable to The Great Commission Foundation, and on the memo line add Climbing For Christ CANADA, “Malawi Food Crisis.” Mail your support to: The Great Commission Foundation, P.O. Box 14006, Abbotsford, BC V2T 0B4. Or CLICK HERE to give online.

Thanks for your support!