Feeding Orphans in Malawi

 After implementing a plan to help the widows of the Mzuzu, Malawi, Baptist Church become self-sufficient, we are joining again with that church to teach the forty or so orphans of that church how to feed themselves and learn a trade. This plan takes advantage of the skills of Francis Kisebe, the minister, who has a degree in agronomy. He is a trainer for Agrihope, an international ministry based in Iowa that teaches “Farming God’s Way” to African farmers.  In a recent newsletter from Agrihope, Francis described how “Farming God’s Way” changed the life of one farmer. He helped a local farmer to increase his corn production ninefold through “Farming God’s Way,” and to develop a vastly different lifestyle in which he has provided for his family and transformed their lives by lifting them out of poverty.

As Francis tells it, “Dignity is a wonderful thing. So is depending on God! Many here in Africa depend on other people for their sustenance. We get handouts for food, clothes, medicine, and much more. While this is a nice gesture, and sometimes needed in cases of war and famine, it has a dangerous effect on our minds and hearts. We get tricked into thinking that God doesn’t care for us like he does for the people providing for us.” The farm proposal will foster that dignity in the lives of the orphans of the Mzuzu Baptist Church.

In the spring of this year, several anonymous donors in Providence provided the funds for the Mzuzu Baptist Church to purchase a ten-acre farm, which had a water source and a number of banana plants already growing there. In addition, the donors purchased a hand tiller. These actions set the foundation for their Mzuzu brothers to plant a crop in November, the beginning of the farming season in Malawi. To accomplish this, they need basic funding. Francis has asked us to provide the following gifts to help them cultivate the land:

$80      4 packs of maize seeds (the country’s staple food)

$750    10 bags of fertilizer

$150    2 packets of bean seeds, tomato seedlings and insecticides

$200    banana suckers (seedlings)

$800    20 goats

$200    40 chickens

$800    housing for chickens, feed, etc.

Total:  $2,980

Seldom do we have such an opportunity to change the lives of others through a relatively small gift. But with Francis’ skills and the gift that we have already given the Mzuzu Baptist Church, we have a rare chance to give hope to the orphans of this church. During the month of October, we are asking our members to do God’s will by taking these children “far beyond all that we could ask or imagine by His power at work within us (Eph. 3:20).”