"Supporting the Light"
2007: Giving Out

Running seminars for one week requires that the pastors, many of whom have travelled long distances, be accommodated at Cuppen Hall. Providing each with a bible is actually the easier part – feeding the 500 requires the greater organisation! Here the cooks and water carriers pose for a photo.

All the cooking is done in the open under a temporary shelter erected especially for the occasion. Wood is purchased from local people who gather it in advance of us arriving. Together with the wages paid to the kitchen staff, this also provides a little financial support for the local community.

You may well ask – ‘What is it?’ I decided that ignorance was bliss! In close-up, it appears to be the horns of the goats being boiled into a glue, but for what purpose, I don’t know… If it was for some sort of aphrodisiac – rather them than me!

As with the goats’ horns (opposite), nothing was thrown out or went to waste! The extra large cooking pots were scraped clean and the remaining maze corn sema was taken home to feed the family.

After our final meeting, Charlie organised a tally of all that was left over – flour, maze, tea, sugar, the wash basins, and even the cane mats. We had made provision for 500 pastors but only 385 had attended, this meant that there was lots of food left over. Hearing this,Charlie arranged a senior citizens' meeting for Satrurday morning!

With the help of our friends from ARO who were acting as interpreters, the widows and widowers from the area were invited to attend a seniors’ service at which they would be blessed with some provisions to take home with them. On the Saturday morning, seventy-two seniors duly arrived for the service!

At the end of the service, our choir, with there newly acquired robes supplied by Charlie, helped with the distribution. The basins and even the sacks were filled with two measures of flour and laid out in a row, nothing goes to waste, and the cane mats were rolled up ready for carrying away.

When the basins with the flour were finished, the maze corn was measured out into the women's aprons. The subsequent forty-eight received a mat and two measures of maze corn. Those who did not receive mats were given bags of sugar and bags of salt along with the maze corn.

As I took this photo, I noticed, that of the five people in the photo, not one of them were wearing shoes – not even flip-flops! Life is hard for the old of Muona Malawi.

There was a little panic when some found themselves at the end of the line but happily, the various provisions were made to stretch until all received a share.

Outside the hall they waited for friends and organised themselves to carry their small blessing of provision home. Because so many attended, it was not much, but in Muona, every little helps!

At the beginning of the meeting, Charlie had shared the Good News of God’s love for them in sending Jesus to become their Saviour. Our prayer is that they also received the greater blessing of Salvation!

Copyright 2007-8 (c) Almond Ministries