By Luke Voight, SF Malawi
Not too long ago, I heard the ever-so-familiar sound of a little dusty fist pounding on our front door. It was the boys. To my surprise, I only found two of them standing outside. With hopeful expectation in their eyes they said, “Kodi, mukufuna kupita tamanga ku Njira ya Mtanda?” or “Wanna go for a run up the Way of the Cross?” The Way of the Cross is a nearby hike that goes straight up the face of a huge mountain and stretches four miles one-way. At the peak, there is a giant concrete cross. Hesitantly, I agreed and off we went.
On our way there we passed through the nearby township (slum) where all of the kids from our football/Bible club live, so it was great to run through town with many of the families and relatives cheering us on. By the time we got through the mass of people there, I looked behind me to find over 15 of our boys who wanted to join us on our journey.
After a BRUTAL run up the mountain, we arrived at the top and instantly chugged all of our water. As our heads lifted, we found an incredible panoramic view of the entire city of Blantyre. The pictures don’t even come close to how gorgeous it was. As we looked over the mass of people in Blantyre God gave some of the boys the wonderful idea that we should pray. We prayed for the people of Blantyre, for their slum of Chilomoni, and then for their families and friends. Next, we had a time of praising Jesus for all that He has done in the past year. I will never forget it. God is doing a work in the hearts of these kids. It’s amazing to see.
After we had prayed for a while, one of the older boys had another idea. He said, “In light of what we’ve learned on Monday at football/Bible club from Acts chapter 2, let’s put our resources and money together to bless people in this community we are in great need.” Then he quoted the memory verse from the soccer practice two days before, Acts 2:42-47, about how the fellowship of the believers and their willingness to give their possessions and money to the furtherance of the Gospel ended in the Lord “adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.” It was powerful.
The whole group loved the idea and said we should start something called the “Madalitso Jar” or the “Blessing Jar.” The idea is that they can bring anything and we can pool our resources to bring blessing in the name of Christ to the people of Chilomoni who might be hurting. I asked them to think about one person who we can pray for and help in this way and they quickly agreed that we should help a local boy whose mother recently died from a preventable disease. What I love most about all this is that it is totally all initiated by the boys. Not us. We have poured our lives and love into them and now God has enabled us to see something beautiful come to fruition in their lives. They are beginning to get it! The Gospel is taking root and they are getting excited about giving. This is a work of the Holy Spirit. Please continue to pray for these precious boys. We will continue to go up the Way of the Cross to pray and get into shape both spiritually and physically for the glory of the King.