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November 16th today. We’ve been in Lilongwe since Monday with the Bowler’s. Steve, Kathy, Amy and Alisa have welcomed us into their home and Andrea and I have been visiting the various projects that they are involved in. We came here with the intention to connect with an “HIV/AIDS Project” but I think we are experiencing a lot more than that. People don’t die from AIDS; they die because of AIDS. What I mean to say is that they generally die from a range of different diseases, the most common being tuberculosis or malaria, after their immune systems have been ravaged by the horrible virus. So, the involvement of Steve and Kathy’s work (in what we’ve seen so far, goes far beyond treating HIV positive patients to a much more holistic approach to health care and loving people in general.

I’ll start with the boards that Steve is on to give you some perspective. There is one that he is the chairman of that he is trying to get off of, so I’ll leave that one out. He is the chairman of NOVOC (Network or Organizations Working with Vulnerable Orphans and Children). The gov’t of Malawi uses NOVOC to implement the National Plan of Action for this particular issue. NOVOC is supported by OXFAM. Their general motive is to network organizations working with children at risk, bringing them together and supporting their cause.

He is on the sub-regional board of REPSI (Regional Psycho-Social Support Initiative) for Namibia, Zambia and Malawi. This is meant to integrate the social and psychological needs of people (particularly children) to help them through the grieving process of death. Death pervades life here. It is common for there to be a funeral of someone you know once a week. We passed one this morning. It is signaled by laying some thin branches across the road so you slow down a bit as you pass the grieving house in your car. There are also coffin making shops, at least five that I have seen so far in our driving around town. What is crazy is that a lot of the coffins are small. It takes a bit for that to sink in but it eats away at you. REPSI steps into this death-induced-culture by creating memory books for the children (called Journey of Life in some circles), showing orphans where they came from, photos of their parents before they died because of AIDS, photos of their care-workers that they grow up with, attempting to build a sense of structure or belonging in the child’s life as they develop. I was impressed by this. I had never thought about these needs. Shelter, food, clothing and medication don’t mean too much without love or without understanding of where you’ve come from.

Steve is also on the board of Lifeline Malawi, which is a Canadian based group doing medical work. This is for the medical side of AIDS. They offer voluntary testing, ART (Anti-retroviral) medication, working through local churches and tribal leaders.

Steve was formally the SOS Children’s home National Director here in Malawi and was for 8 ½ years. Look into them if you can. They’re basically homes for orphans that aren’t meant to be orphanages. There is a ‘mom’ in the home that receives help from donors through SOS to support the home. From here, Steve is an advisor with Villages of Hope which are a copy of the SOS work, but on a smaller scale and with slight differences. Village of Hope will have 12 homes constructed in all. We went there today to visit the ‘House of Promise’ where Kumpanda, the man I met, lives with his wife and two children and 6 other children that they have taken on through the program. It seems like a great idea except for the sustenance. The funds come from external donors instead of from the community. If donor amounts fail, these houses could be in a lot of trouble. It will end up being about $200’000 per year for 160 kids. This isn’t your $30 a month program like Compassion or World Vision where most of the kids live in homes, where their parents aren’t dead. Steve was pretty candid in his response to these sponsorships saying that you really can’t raise a kid on $30 a month, it doesn’t work like that. You can help a child, like Michael Otieno from Kisumu, get his school fees paid for, and some direction from an organization sponsored by Compassion. But, he goes to bed at night where his parents live. It’s a slum but at least it is a home. For orphans without any social structure beneath them, it tends to be a bit more expensive. Anyways, it was a pleasure to see the home. It was nice to see that none of the kids were there, as they were in school. But it was also sad to see another 20 neighbor kids around the house that weren’t in school because the parents couldn’t afford the uniforms or the ‘school development fees’ to the free schools.

Moving on, Steve is also on the board for MANERELA (Malawi Network of Religious Leaders Affected by AIDS). I had to ask Steve to repeat this acronym for me. It is for pastors, priests and imams who are HIV positive. It is a support group to HIV/AIDS in the open, to step out and reveal their status. This is quite easy to type into a blog but a lot harder in real life. Imagine a pastor back home revealing that he had had illicit sexual affairs with someone other than his/her spouse thereby contracting HIV. Now imagine it in a nation that is much more ‘Christian’ than Canada. And I say that with a bit of cynicism because of the contradiction of grace attached to the stigma of HIV/AIDS in the church. I’ve also been informed that although it is a very Christian nation, it is also a very sexual nation, stemming from tribal customs concerning fertility, honour, debt repayment, and just about every other excuse you could think of to have sex. I feel like I’m rambling at this point because I don’t think I’ve really worked it out in my own mind. Basically, there is lot’s of sex, even in the church community. But it’s a very Christian nation, therefore when the negative repercussion of HIV/AIDS bears it’s ugly head, people are shunned, ostracized, expelled and thrown out of their community, and the church community before most others. MANERELA hopes to see church leaders come out and lead as examples of grace when they find out they are positive. Grace, love, grace, love, grace, love, grace. Oh Jesus.

Lastly, he is the Regional Coordinator for HIV/AIDS work for a Canadian NGO called Visionledd. It’s http://www.visionledd.com to find out some more information about this organization.

And these are only the boards that he is on. Next blog and I’ll relay what he actually does. A lot of it is partnering with his wife in the Children of Blessing Centre for children that have developmental disabilities. They are in the process of now purchasing a plot of land for the community centre which will offer rehabilitation services, training for mothers, medication for diseases such as epilepsy, and much more. Kathy is a physiotherapist and she has a huge heart for these kids. As for us, I think we're just happy to be here and find ourselves in a situation where we can love kids and serve in really simple ways. I'm becoming an Access database creator for different social programs as well as a feeder of kids, and we counted pills at an epilepsy clinic yesterday as well.

Please pray that we remain healthy, that we would have energy to serve in effective ways, and that we would be filled with the love of Christ as we love others.

Much love,

Michael (and Andrea)