Called To Serve

By Rick Postma

Peter Van Kempen, Peter VanderStel, Bernie Pennings, and I visited South Africa and Malawi during the fall of 2006. This report covers part of our visit to Malawi.

It is Monday morning. Unlike the army, where the bugle only goes off once in the morning, the bugle sleeping next to me goes off numerous times during the night. Alas, sleep is fleeting.

We have breakfast, take a quick look at the Nkhoma synod museum, which includes relics from the time of David Livingstone, and then drive southwest to Lizulu. Once again we enjoy the clear blue skies and the scattered hills pointing like fingers into the sky. Since there are five of us, one of us sits in the third row of the Landrover in very tight quarters. More often than not, this person is Manuel Kamnkhwani, our project director in Malawi, who claims his legs are the shortest. I think it is because he is a very gracious host.

* Everton Kamangire with Computer donated by Orillia Baptist Reformed Church

In Lizulu, we are met by a smiling Everton Kamangire, the volunteer director of the Lizulu Orphan Care Project, as well as several members of his committee, which is under the oversight of the local CCAP church (Central Church of Africa, Presbyterian). The Project has four centres with a total of 360 orphans. There are 3,000 orphans in the Lizulu area, but so many are not being helped at this time due to limited funds. In Everton’s program, there are 40 orphans that are high school-aged and they are all currently receiving secondary education. So far, 20 have graduated, and seven are currently employed (including two policemen). The children come to the centre four afternoons a week, when they are given a Bible-based education and a high nutrition meal. Each orphan child (placed with a host family) also takes home 16 kilograms of corn per month, as well as hygiene-related products. The Lizulu Orphan Care Project was chosen as the first project to launch the new Word & Deed Orphan Basic Group Sponsorship program. Seven orphans receive the benefits of the program for $30 (US) or $35 (CDN). Please see the sidebar for how you can sponsor one or more orphans.

Everton Kamangire is married, has two children, attends the local CCAP church, teaches part-time at a local school, and volunteers at Lizulu orphan care. He is clearly a very capable, dedicated, and godly man. He has organized his life and his family’s life around bringing hope into the lives of 360 orphans. What a joy and privilege to meet him.

I asked him to tell us about his life and how he started Lizulu orphan care. Everton is 36 years old. Two weeks after his birth, his father suffered a stroke and was not able to work until his death in 1991. With 10 children to raise, Everton’s mother struggled to make ends meet. Her brothers and sisters tried to help, but sometimes the family would go hungry. Everton was converted in 1988 through the ministry of CCAP evangelists. His family were members of the CCAP, but Everton just attended through tradition. At the time, he was busy preparing for his grade eight national exams. He asked the Lord to help him do well and place him in a certain school in Lilongwe – in Malawi, students who do well have no power over where they are placed next. The Lord answered his prayer.

Everton moved to a boarding school in Lilongwe, several hours from home. During his four years of secondary school, he was forced to leave school several times when fees provided by relatives were either late or insufficient. Understandably, this was difficult for him. When he was able to return, he had to work hard to catch up. Just before he completed secondary school, he caught malaria and became very sick. He almost died from taking too much of the prescribed drugs. But he graduated in 1994, and the Lord laid Matthew 25:25-40 and James 1:27 on his heart. He believed the Lord was calling him to reach out to the orphans around his home village.

In 1995 he was helping some South African missionaries in Zimbabwe when they offered to support him in furthering his education. He began attending ABC (a Christian college in Lilongwe) where he met Dr. Timothy Monsma and his wife Dorothy. Dr. Monsma had come to teach at ABC for two years and became very involved in orphan work.

In 1997, at ABC, Everton asked the Lord to make use of him in a special way during Christmas break. Soon he received a letter from the Monsmas asking him to assist with an orphan care center. When he arrived, he found he wasn’t needed after all. Rather than give up, he began to reach out to the orphan children around Lizulu. The Monsmas soon began to support his outreach. He started with ten orphans – after two years it was 92. In 2000, the Lizulu Orphan Care Project received $5,750 US of one-time funding and built most of the buildings there today.

Astoundingly, the nearest water source is one kilometre away. Women are paid to carry the water in pails on their head – the center needs 20 pails per day. This system is not dependable and often, the center has little or no water. Word & Deed is now raising funds to drill a well.

During a famine, the price of corn goes up five-fold, as it did in 2005. Thankfully, Everton had purchased extra corn in anticipation of such an event and was able to continue supplying the needs of the orphans at no extra cost. Everton is an exception rather than the norm in Malawi, where people live for the day and have great difficulty planning for the future. We visited the main hall and saw 200 bags of corn sitting ready to provide the needs of the children if another famine should strike. When asked if buying additional bags of corn for resale during the famine at a small mark-up would be a means of income generation, he said that the community would then see the orphan care project as a business trying to make a profit – a wise reply.

The Lizulu Orphan Care Project has had serious challenges from village chiefs and politicians in the past, which have been overcome by prayer, perseverance, and patience. Everton thinks these men saw him as a threat. Now everyone cooperates. A village chief has even given 30 acres of virgin land which needs to be cleared and cultivated.

The Lizulu project is very well-run, includes Bible teaching four days per week, provides food for supporting families, and is very well-organized. You can get involved in supporting Everton’s project directly by joining the Orphan Basic Group Sponsorship Program. Please give us a call today.

Rick Postma is director of public relations for Word & Deed North America