Becky Owen

April was harvest time in Malawi!

Good news is that many people around Blantyre have had bumper crops!  Enough to feed their families for over a year, maybe even two!  This means that prices for maize are low – that is good because…

Bad News is that others living in different areas have had poor to no harvest. So, while our neighbors at EBCoM are amazed and joyful at their harvest, our house worker has nothing to show for the planting and fertilizing she did at her home village farming plot, just over an hour away.  She will need to buy maize to feed her family this year.  Pray that this good harvest in some areas will keep prices low for those who have none and that all will be fed well.

I visited my neighbor to see part of the process involved in harvesting and storing maize:

After bringing the ears of corn in from the field, the kernels must be removed from the ears, then dried for good storage.  Below is the staging area (front porch) where my neighbors are scooping the kernels into bins to take out in the sun to dry.

It takes about two days to dry, depending on how sunny/cloudy it is. The corn is taken in at night and brought out each morning.

As I got down to help spread the maize, my friend snapped a picture so you could see me working – but she is the one who has worked many hours to fill these bags with food to feed her family throughout the year and beyond!

Have you ever tried these delectable delicacies?

It’s GRASSHOPPER season!

Here in a flash, gone in a blink, it doesn’t last long!

We had the chance to give them a try at a friend’s house.

They tasted a lot like the termites of the early days of rainy season — just like popcorn! Mmmmm…. 🙂

Just like the termites, grasshoppers are found in greater numbers at night as they are attracted to lights.  People gather them up wherever they can — I hear the local filling station (gas station) is a great place to gather grasshoppers in the evening hours.  A good source of protein, too! Although it was fun trying them, I’ll leave more for my neighbors to catch 😉

One highlight for us in March was a pastoral leadership training seminar of BIC pastors. Not all pastors are qualified or able to attend the 1-year or 3-year study programs at EBCoM, so seminars like these are critical for the growth and maturation of the church. Students were eager to listen and engage in the topics of salvation, the body of Christ, discipleship, Christ-like relationships and Biblical Truth.

Praise God for this initiative, the attention and response of the pastors and for God’s empowerment and working through the teachers and within the students.

Please continue to pray for these pastors as they complete follow-up assignments and engage in heart-changing learning through the Holy Spirit as they grow in Christ and shepherd the flocks under their care.  The second training just concluded this first weekend in May with more in the planning stages.

May God use these training sessions to transform pastors, families, congregations and communities!

This was written in January 2016 after we returned from home ministry. We still wrestle with these questions as we seek to follow Christ:

We’ve been back on African soil now for about 3 weeks. Jet lag is over, but we are constantly figuring out what time it is for cousins and friends back in Pennsylvania and wonder what they’re up to. We’ve started back into our homeschooling routine for the past two weeks and are finding our stride as much as can be expected. Jonathan is working on a few projects around the house, helping to proctor exams on campus and working on his employment permit. The second semester does not begin until March, so this is a time of preparation and getting to some things that never seem quite possible under a full teaching load.

As we’ve adjusted back to life in Malawi, we’ve heard firsthand about the food shortage, rain shortage and rapid inflation rate. It’s hot. It’s dry. The corn isn’t as high as it ought to be by now. A bad harvest is expected…inevitable. “These are tough times” is an understatement for most, especially in rural areas where it is sometimes impossible to find the maize flour used for making the staple food of nsima. Many only eat once a day, if that. Not enough money. Not enough food.

I grew up seeing infomercials begging the viewer to sponsor a child in the developing world for just $1 a day. Those images and pleas captured my attention for the 2-minute slot they were in, but I could change the channel or go to the kitchen for a snack and tune it out. But now, sitting across the table from our part-time house helper or gardener or night watchman, doing the numbers, knowing that their income and needs will never match up…a feeling of hopelessness sinks my heart.

Well, today was Christmas at the Owen household. Only for just a few minutes, but we celebrated with our workers as we gave them some provisions to help them along beyond their pay. We weren’t here in December for the traditional Christmas when we normally give these gifts, so what better time than now?!

Will these gifts solve their problems? No.

But they sure were gratefully received. One said “today, we will eat!” Another said “God bless them! My business [of selling vegetables] is not doing well.”

The maize shortage, due primarily to the widespread flooding a year ago, has made the “hungry season” before harvest even worse than usual this year. Amidst daily rising prices, we also bought up three 50 kg bags of maize flour to have on hand to help our workers. Last week 50 kg cost 12,000 Malawian Kwacha (MK). This week it costs 13,500MK. That is a significant jump from Friday to Monday! Especially when someone with a full time job may only make 20,000MK per month. We are told that one bag could last a family up to 2 months, depending on the size of family. However, most people cannot afford to buy in such quantity, but get each day’s food that day, so the price will be higher for most as time goes on.

The questions swirl in my head –

When does helping out actually hurt the long-term situation of poverty?

When is it emergency relief?

When is it just my plain responsibility to serve my neighbor?

These questions are not easily answered, but cross my mind daily as I am confronted by beggars or greet our workers or merely peer out my window at the children playing on our alley.

What is my responsibility?

How can I love like Jesus would?

I have been digging in the dirt for most of my life.  Growing up on a Christmas tree farm with parents who planted a sizeable veggie garden each spring ensured I got plenty of practice pulling weeds, getting dirty and enjoying the fruits of our labor.

Most people in Malawi garden as much land as they can possibly utilize to grow food for their families.  Curiously small and narrow strips of soil will be planted with a couple rows of maize (corn) if that’s all that’s available here in the densely populated city.  We have not been very successful farming vegetables in our four years year, but delight in supporting other local veggie salespeople.  It is just one small way we can support the local economy.

I remember in our first few months here when we first started employing our househelper.  I did many tasks alongside her at first to see how she was doing and to direct her in what I expected of her (and to be an example of work to the kids).  One day, we worked in the yard sweeping up leaves.  As I went around the yard raking, I’d pull weeds if I saw them.  All of a sudden, I realized I was being watched — my househelper stopped working, stared at me with a big smile and said:

“Where did you learn how to do that?!?!”

I was stunned at her question.

She was stunned at my ability.

Here I was, a privileged (read “rich”) white American, doing the work of a common laborer.  Surely she assumed that I had never needed to work outside in my life.  Yet, that is how I grew up – we all pitched in and learned how to work the land, even if in a small way.  That is not the picture she had in her mind of me.

Not too long after that we  hired a part time gardener who keeps the grass cut, weeds pulled and plants watered (as needed and able).  This is a wonderful service to our family!  However, a little over a year ago, I realized that I missed working outside.  So, I started to work on a small, out of sight plot of our terraced lawn that wasn’t growing anything.  We had tried maize our first year – it didn’t do well.  We tried other veggies the following year — they didn’t amount to much.  It has laid bare since then, eroding away with each rainy season.  It was a particularly discouraging time for me (not because of the garden, just life in general).  I felt down, unmotivated and a bit depressed.  One day, I decided to use some leftover bricks we had from a drainage project to make a path for the kids to explore in the lowest terrace.  So, I started planting bricks.

Bricks won’t grow, even if planted (just FYI), but I found great uplifting energy and release in working the land and being outside.  I had no need to work outside since we had a gardener, but this was something he was not assigned.  After planting bricks in several lines through the triangular shaped plot, I watched how delighted my kids were to follow the paths and play in this otherwise vacant place.  I decided to plant something that really would grow – plants.  I dug some out of friends’ gardens (with their permission), I bought some, I rearranged what plants we already had.

I began to shape beauty.

I began to feel much better.

God delights in beauty and creativity.  I found such release in digging in the dirt, arranging plants and feeding them.  I could tell my kids enjoyed it too, and it warmed my heart to see them exploring nature, helping out and being kids.

After returning from home ministry, I’ve returned to the garden. I’ve planted more bricks and more plants.  My little helpers have taken a deeper interest in God’s creation and appreciate the beauty they discover as they explore plants, insects and animals in our yard.

I’m calling it a prayer garden right now – modeling it a bit after the one at Roxbury Holiness Camp, for those of you who know it.  Maybe I’ll paint Bible verses on big rocks throughout the garden, too!  It’s a somewhat hidden part of our property (if no one is climbing on the wall or cutting firewood from trees on the other side of the wall) where you can feel separated from the rest of the world, take a deep breath and listen for God’s voice.  Slowly following the brick pathways helps slow down my thoughts and re-center on God. Nature has always been a place where I have felt drawn to God and able to listen.  This small piece of it has been a gift not only to me, but to my children as they join in the creative process and notice God in new ways.

Brick making in Malawi

Here’s a little glimpse of where bricks come from in Malawi.  They are made of wet dirt packed into a mold, then left out to sun. Some people use them like that (it’s less expensive, but not as sturdy). For fired bricks, they are then stacked, leaving spaces for fires to be lit under.  The bricks closest to the fire are worthless because they get too brittle.  We stopped by the side of the road where we saw these brick ovens and bought 100 bricks for about $2.00