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With a big smile she asked me in clear English “will you teach me how to do that?” as she pointed to the wrap on my head.
“Of course!” I replied as I started removing the wrap from my head.
All the women around us got excited and cuddled in to watch as she tried to figure out what she would practice with as I taught her. Fiki whipped off her Chitenge and asked me to slowly go through the steps with her. She got so excited that it stayed on her head when she finished that she started looking for a mirror to see what it looked like. Pleased, she gave us a couple poses and did a couple turns for everyone to see.
“Fiki is so much fun!” I wrote in my journal that night. As much fun as Fiki is, she is so much more. Fiki is a great women because she is a Malawian fighting to empower the women of this small village and to share the love of Jesus with them.
Fiki understands all too well the struggles for a woman in Malawi. As we walked around the village, I was encouraged as she shared her story and I want to share it with you as well…
“Women in Malawi are not really appreciated, especially if you have not gone to school. Most women here have not gone to school. They get married young and start having children immediately. But I was blessed! God was looking out for me!”
Fiki was born and raised in Lilongwe, the capitol of Malawi. Her family lived in the city until her parents got divorced. Then they moved out to the village. Fiki explained that 3 years in the village was an experience ordained by God to prepare her for what she is doing through Live Love Malawi currently. It allowed her to understand and relate to what life was like in the village.
As Live Love Malawi came to the village it currently works in, a little girl, in confidence, told Fiki that the right of passage was happening in this village and asked for her help. God created Fiki as fireball and that fireball hurled herself straight up to the house of the Chief for correction of the issue. It took some time, patience, and Jesus to soften the heart of the Chief to address the issue, but changes were made. It was a hard road to get to that change though. That little girl who confided in Fiki went missing and she never saw her again. Fiki learned quickly that wielding her fireball spirit was a weapon that could cause unintended casualties if she was not careful. She partnered with the ministry leaders and together they tackled the issues. She was happy to say that this ritual was no longer a standard in this village.
What a great pleasure and smile that thought created, but it faded as she said their are other villages that need that same change.
Even though she spent 3 years in a village where this ritual happened, Fiki did not have to experience the ritual personally. “God sent an angel for me”. When her family moved out to the village, she continued to go to school and bought and sold mangoes on the street to make a little bit of money. During that time, her father passed away. She explained that he had not been in their lives since the divorce, as was the custom in their families’ villages. So the money she made, as one of the four children, was used to help support the family.
One day when she was out selling mangoes a man approached her. “Hey, what are you doing? How are you supporting yourself? Are you going to school? What is your life like?” She looked at the man and felt like his face was familiar, but didn’t know who we was. She answered his questions and finished by saying “I just took my exams to be accepted into secondary school”. He told her to keep in touch and if she was selected, he would pay all of her fees. She was elated and wished that she had worked even harder on the exams, but was selected into a secondary school anyway. As he promised, this man paid for her school fees. It turns out the man was her father’s brother. In Malawi is not custom for the father’s family to associate with the children of the divorced wife. The women from the father’s family told him “She is not in our [side] of the family. She belongs to the mother and will take all she has and earns to support them. Don’t help her. Don’t support her.” But this man did not shake off the responsibility based on custom. He was not deterred.
He was a generous man and a heart for supporting his family. He supported Fiki through high school and college. In college, Fiki studied communication at the African Bible College. And Live Love Malawi recruited her and even finished paying for her education so that she could come work with this ministry.
Blessings on blessings on blessings!!!
When Live Love Malawi relieved her uncle of the responsibility of supporting Fiki, he supported her sister later when entering high school as well.
I listened to Fiki’s story and cried. I thought about how parts of her story were similar to mine and I was so grateful for what God had done in both of our lives. What a story of provision, of protection, of a father, THE Father taking care of His daughters.
Thank you Fiki for allowing me to share your story and thank you, Lord, for the beautiful story You have given to her to live out. This is a story that could have gone so wrong at so many turns, but God had a huge plan for her. This beautiful spirited woman has come from a broken home in one of the poorest of countries with the least opportunities and a culture that was against her. But God has protected her and developed her, loved her and maintained a relationship with His daughter instilling her identity and His truth within her so that she can be His hands and feet to this village community.
He has such a plan for you as well…
