I wanted to post this blog over a week ago but as you can expect, wifi isn’t really easy to come by here in Africa.
I want to tell you the story of some great friends that I made in Malawi though, their names are Mada and Innocent. They quickly made their way into my heart and pretty much made themselves at home there.
Mada and Innocent live on the streets in Zomba, Malawi. They sleep in the makeshift shops at night and roam around the streets during the day. I’ll back up a little though to explain how we met them. My teammates Jill and Hannah each wanted to get a dread while we were in Malawi so they set out one day to find a place to get them. They came across a small stand that said “Dread Locks Saloon” and decided to check it out. They met a guy named Martin and could tell from the start that he was going to be our friend. It turns out that he actually started an organization to care for street kids all on his own. They come to his stand in the morning where he makes them breakfast then takes them to school. They come back after school for lunch, then head back to the stand once again at dinner time. Martin and his friend Psalms have taken a bunch of these kids under their wing.
The first time I met Innocent, we made makeshift slingshots out of rubber bands and had a ton of fun with something incredibly simple. With Mada, I just remember laughing and loving the huge smile on his face. As the month went on, we would often run into them on our walk to Martin’s stand, or they would be waiting where the taxi would drop us off in town. Wherever we went, they went with us, hand in hand.
We may not have understood each other because of language barriers, but love is something that reaches beyond that. I think one thing that broke my heart the most was that Mada didn’t even know what a hug was. That just seemed so incredibly unfair to me. Every child deserves to know what a hug is, and they deserve to feel love every second of every day.
As I’ve said before, God made it very clear to me that He just wants me to love children who wouldn’t know love otherwise, and I got to do that with these boys. I got to show them love every time we were together. We would buy them fruit, and the occasional donut as a treat. My team and I loved them with everything we had.
My favorite day though was the last Saturday that we were there. We had the day off and got to spend it with them. We ran into them early in the morning as soon as we got into town and just took them around with us. As the day went on, more and more of the street kids started to tag along. We walked around town laughing and having a blast. Making sure that each one of them knew how loved they were. Our squad leader Christina was with us so she got to join in! We ended up taking them all to a little place called Kips to get them a treat. Unfortunately the power was out so we couldn’t get them ice cream, but we were able to get them Samoosas. They’re just little meat filled pastries, but at least they were able to get some protein, which isn’t easy for them to come by. We made amazing memories that day and hopefully made their days a little brighter.
We may not have all had enough money to get them all new clothes and buy them
Shoes, but we showed them love just as God wanted us to. Something I’m learning is that it’s often just small acts that can show big love. Just the act of holding their hands and taking them around town showed them that we loved them. Greeting them with smiles and giving them hugs (even if they didn’t really understand them) showed them the love that God wanted for them. Those boys caused my heart to grow even bigger and I am eternally grateful for that.
Martin is currently trying to rent a house for all of the kids and has had several meetings with the government and other people who could potentially help, so all prayers that for that would be greatly appreciated.
I wish I had had more time with them, but the time that I did have was such an incredible blessing. It was incredibly hard leaving town that last day knowing that we might not ever see them again, but I know that God has them safe in His hands. I know that God is using me and my team to make a difference in the world by loving His children and I am lucky to be able to serve Him in that way. these were not just any children of God, these were children that God designed for me to love.
