Greetings to my faithful and awesome supporters/blog readers!
This past month has been an amazing one for me and I wanted to share with you some of the great experiences I’ve had. But first let me set the scene.
So, originally we were not supposed to go to Malawi. We were scheduled to go to Mozambique but due to some logistical challenges, we couldn’t make it there. So AIM diverted us to a country between Tanzania and Mozambique named Malawi. To be completely honest, I didn’t even know that Malawi existed until a week before I got there. It’s a small country, but what it lacks in size it more than makes up in beauty and culture.
We arrived in the capital city of Lilongwe on February 28, after 4 crazy days of travel that involved a 36 hour bus ride plus a night spent at the border between Tanzania and Malawi. It made for quite the adventure. Anyways, we finally arrived in the capital and soon met our contacts for this month, Albert and Brandi. Albert is a native Malawian and Brandi is an American woman who has been living in Malawi for many years now. They are a married couple who has been working with an interesting ministry for quite some time – the street kids.
So who are these street kids? Well, as the name implies, they are children between the age of 6 to 18 who live on the streets and survive through begging or stealing or, often times, both. Stealing is, of course, illegal in Malawi, but so is begging. As you can probably guess, this often leads the kids to having trouble with the law and a lot of them end up in jail for several years. There are also other dangers of living on the street. Older boys will often attack the younger ones and young girls are easy prey for sexual abuse. To top it all off, these children are viewed as vagrants by the rest of society and are quickly shunned.
So how do these kids get here? Well, there are a variety of answers and each one has a different story. Some are orphans. Others go to the streets to escape abusive families. Some beg on the streets to make money for their families. There are even some kids that we talked to who were there by choice, though, I suspect their family situation at home may be influencing their decision.
So how are Albert and Brandi helping the situation? Well, their goal is to ultimately get these boys off the streets. However, this is a lengthy process that is not always easy. Many of these boys have bad habits that have been reinforced by a lifetime on the streets. To start off, they build relationships with the boys, showing them love that they haven’t experienced and being parent figures to them. After building these deep relationships with the boys, they give them the opportunity to enter a boys’ home. This is where the real transformation happens. These boys are turned into men of God through discipleship, education, and character building while under the care of both a mother and father figure at the house (affectionately titled “Auntie” and “Uncle”).
So this month, we’ve been working alongside Albert and Brandi. We help them with the kids on the street as well as working with the boys in the home. One of the coolest things is seeing the boys in the home. There is a huge difference between them and the kids on the street. It’s just another example of how God can radically change lives! The guys in our team also got a chance to visit some street kids who had ended up in prison. This was one of the most memorable times on the Race. Me and my two male teammates brought our guitars and played some songs, did some games, and gave a short message to about 100 inmates in a Malawian juvenile prison and afterwards, we got a chance to talk to some of them one-on-one and pray for them.
We have been truly blessed to spread the kingdom of God on the streets of Lilongwe. It’s given me a picture of how Jesus operated during his time here on earth: loving the unloved and making disciples through his teaching and compassion.
Anyways, that’s a quick look into what life’s been like for me the past month. It’s always an adventure – especially when God’s involved!
Next stop – Swaziland! Stay tuned for more exciting adventures!
