It's Relationships

Malawi – 2009

It’s Relationships: May 20, 2009 I joined eight other Presbyterians to visit and work with Barbara Nagy in Nhkoma, Malawi. This was my second trip to Nhkoma and was excited and pleased to meet friends I had been with and worked with in Nhkoma. Some I recognized and others recognized me, either way the relationships were strengthened. I was strengthened by the long distance relationship and common bond to help others.

Dr. Barbara Nagy is a PCUSA Missionary as a pediatrician at Nhkoma Hospital. She has been there for over five years. She has three beautiful daughters, Melia, Anna and Happiness. Barbara is the main reason for this visit. It is to be with her and her family and help out in a small way to make her ministry successful.

Our team of Presbyterians has been visiting Barbara for five years. The visit was coordinated by Grace Boyer with Western NC Presbytery. Grace was also one of the team members. She provided spiritual depth and leadership to the group. Other members of the group were Tom Kilgore, Teresa Locke, Tommy Burleson, Alice Salthouse, Hong Byun, Hisup Byun and Jonathan Axtell. Tom, Teresa, Tommy and I had been before and were able to assist and share with Alice, Hong, Hisup and Jonathan our experiences and experiences in Nkhoma.

We worked on various task at the Hospital, Barbara’s home and at a village clinic. The work was meaningful but the thing that struck me was that it is not the work but the relationships. To illustrate, we were painting beds one day. I was over painting away, seeing how fast I could paint. On another bed was Kuchpala and Greento. Kuchpala is the hospital maintenance man. Greento is the hospital painter. They were painting but they were talking and visiting the whole time. Then two other men came over and sat next to the bed and joined the conversation. They did not even help paint. I finished painting my before they were even half way done, then I started another. The day of painting continued this way for the day. It hit me at the end of the day, I missed a great opportunity. I missed strengthening my relationship with these men and sharing Christ love with each other that day. It is the relationships and not the task or the things of life. Thankfully, I was able to go to a village clinic with Kuchpala and Greento in the back of a pick up truck and paint a house for the clinic medical director. I was able to share time with them, share a meal, share family stories, and share the love of Christ with each other and with those around us. I thank God for this experience and enlightenment.

Hong and Hisup are from Texas and originally from Korea. They were a joy to be with. They brought song sheets and great voices. We sang most every night after our devotions. They share a special singing of “In The Garden” at the dedication gifts that were brought to the new school. They had such love in their voices as the children played in the background and all were happy to share with others. Hong and Hisup were troopers in leading the climb up Mt. Nhkoma. One of the more special times was learning of the struggle Hong had as a child in Korea after the Korean War with his mother. He saw the children and mothers around the Hospital Guest House where he and others were painting. He remembered sleeping on the ground and little to eat, just like those around him now at the Guest House.

Jonathan also helped with the Guest House, where he met Grace. Grace was one of the guest. She and four or five others would share the one 10’ x 10’ room with out any furniture. Their belongings were simple and few. Each guest is there to care for a person in the hospital. They need to provide food, medicine and needs for the patients. This was Jonathan’s first visit and was eager to learn and absorb. He was our group photographer and helped compile our 4000+ pictures. I enjoyed his excitement and continued connection with this family back home. He was so excited about collecting coins for his children and having clothes made for them.

This was Jonathan’s first visit. It was also Alice’s first visit. Alice had a special mission for this trip. A week before we were to go she was asked to go to Kalamazoo Michigan and learn how to install, run and operate new lab equipment for analyzing blood. Barbara said this lab analysis will save many a lives due to unknown causes of illnesses. Alice was apprehensive and excited about setting up the new equipment. She quickly got the equipment set up and running and working with Femka and Edmond. Femka and Edmond would operate the equipment after we left. They both came to our home and sang and prayed with us. Christ hand working through these works of setting up lab equipment. Alice had also adventure of trading and buying a drum and other items. She and Teresa traded on the street of Lilongwe for a drum the scene was crazy and as the continued to negotiate more vendors surrounded them. Finally Teresa set a deal and the drums were bought. Later Alice negotiated her shoes, bag and other items for vendor wares. Life in the Malawian shopping experience.

Teresa has been to Malawi several years and loved during her exercises with Alice in the morning and I think evening also. Teresa has a special gift for the children and had brought beautiful pictures of children to be hung in the children’s ward. Barbara wanted to give examples of children who are alive and well, so many of the children die from malaria, HIV and poor health. Teresa and Tom were our group leaders.

Tom, like Teresa has been there several years. Tom’s gift is painting and has painted murals and the hospital mission statement in many places. This year he helped paint the guest house with the same love and detail he had done the other painting. Tom appeared to be especially excited about the school and supplies we brought. The teachers and students were so excited about the supplies: books, puzzles, pads, learning tools and dress up clothes. Suffer the little children unto me.

The children in Ministry of Hope are all HIV orphans. We stopped and visited and held the babies. I got to spend some time with Chisomo. He is a baby boy about a year old. His birthday is 5/27/08. We told no stories or shared family history. We just shared time together holding and being in the sun. Thank God for the simple pleasures of life. I was also able to visit with Edina Nlahoma and Felesta Harry who are responsible for patient intake. Last visit in 2007, I worked with them doing intake, which I do here in the Free Clinic. This year I brought them a blood pressure cuff and taught them how to use it and set a limit for very sick patients. Later on in my visit Mrs. Harry was working in the laundry and I visited and laughed with her.

Everyone knows Tommy. Tommy is very tall in height and very deep in spirit. He shares his story through life in the NC Mountains, basketball and a life committed to Christ. Tommy has a gift of electrical repair and did a number of repair items in the hospital. Tommy is always the one who the vendors see and he easily shares with them. When we were at the wood vendors, we were set to go and one vendor was pushing an item for he to buy. Eventually, Tommy said yes to the item. It was a word caring of Noah’s ark with all the animals two by two. Then Tommy gets in the van and we pull away. The says, “I really wanted the Nativity scene.” We all laugh and make the new parts for the animals to make the Nativity scene come alive for him.

We had a wonderful trip and experienced the love of Christ through many like: Matrin the cook and housekeeper, Beria, Matrin’s sister and Barbara’s cook, Benson our driver, Rehiner the medical director, the school teachers, the doctor and nurse who came and taught us songs and played the drums, worship in Nkhoma Presbyterian Church, hospital Chaplin and his wife, Philip and his son Happy who made the drums and shields I bought, and Mr. Mkukumira the Mvera clinic medical director.

The most significant relationship was with Barbara and her family. She is in the middle of caring for a community with little supplies and means to care for them. She is adopting Happiness and having to deal with the arduous process of village culture and adoption bureaucracy. I was able to stay with Barbara, Anna and Happy for several days. It was pure joy to see a loving family, time of prayer and devotion and caring for one another. What a blessing to be invited into someone’s home. I will treasure my times there and being a part of this family. I makes me reflect on my own family and the need to be with each one of them. God gave us family as our core support group. God bless our father and have me be the best father possible to my children.

It is the relationships. It is not the doing or the things we have it is the time and love we share with each other. I am grateful for the support and prayers for this trip and appreciate the growth in focus on God’s love verses our material worldly items. God be the Glory, Amen.

Malawi Mission Trip 2009 - Team Report

I once heard a tale of a person who was struggling with faith issues and the amount of suffering there is in the world. In prayer this person asked God, “Why don’t you do something about all the pain and misery in this world, God?” God answered, “I did. I sent you.”

On May 21, a team of 9 Presbyterians boarded a small jet in Charlotte, to begin the 10,000 mile journey to Malawi. We were a diverse group of men and women, each bringing a variety of life experiences to the adventure that lay ahead. This was the fifth such journey for the Presbytery of Western NC but it was my first.

We were headed to a land where life is vastly different from what we are familiar. Malawi is called the “Warm Heart of Africa”. People there are pleasant and friendly even though their struggles are intense. They are kind to strangers and often give beyond their means.

As each of us signed up for the trip, we were unsure what tasks we would undertake. I was told that the purpose of this mission is more about being together and building friendships than it is about what we will do. I knew that we would be serving the needs of the Nkhoma Hospital where our missionary, Dr. Barbara Nagy is stationed and I knew we would be delivering supplies to the new school where Barbara’s daughter, Happy, attends. What I didn’t know was that I would get to participate in an amazing miracle that will save the lives of many Malawians.

Nkhoma Hospital has a catchment area of about 250,000 people. Malawians often travel great distances on foot to seek medical care there and many times people are brought to the hospital by members of their family. Malaria is a devastating disease and joins forces with AIDS to leave the countries life expectancy at 35 years of age. Parasites and infectious diseases that are virtually nonexistent in the U.S. are common place there. Children and adults suffer the effects of malnutrition and starvation. It is difficult for me to comprehend the pervasive nature of the sickness in this land.

Two weeks before we were scheduled to leave, I received a phone call from the Presbytery office. I was asked if I could install some laboratory equipment in the Nkhoma hospital. I had worked in laboratory medicine for twenty years but I have been away from the lab for the past eight years. While I was concerned about my ability to do this, I was excited about the prospect of it all.

Over the next few days, it was determined that I should travel to Kalamazoo, Michigan for training on the instrument to be installed in the Nkhoma hospital laboratory. All the years working in the lab were still there and I actually remembered what was needed to get the job done.

To make a long story short, suffice it to say that there was a sequence of events that took place in Malawi, the US, Holland, and Korea that enabled the much needed laboratory equipment to be delivered and installed. This long story involved:
· finding the most appropriate instrumentation for this 3rd world setting
· getting the money to purchase the equipment,
· having a person available who possessed the education and ability to install the equipment who just happened to be coming with a mission team
· getting funding to send that person to Kalamazoo to train on installing the equipment
· bringing a medical technologist to the Nkhoma hospital laboratory from Holland to work in the lab for a year to develop a fully trained staff for the long term,
· having that person present to be trained by the one installing the instrumentation
· bringing a Malawian from a neighboring village who has a lab background to prepare for working in that lab long term

This sequence of events took place in less than 3 weeks. It would have been difficult for anyone to put all these things together over six months or a year. For God, the pieces of this puzzle came together quickly and were neatly fitted together showing a beautiful picture.

During our time in Malawi, this was not the only project executed by the team and it definitely was not the only time that the miraculous power of God was acutely evident.
We delivered school supplies to the Ebenezer School mentioned earlier.
We visited and delivered supplies to the Ministry of Hope Crisis Nursery. This is a place where abandoned babies (birth to 2 years old) are taken and feed and nurtured until they are adopted or reach 2 years of age at which time they are sent to an orphanage.
Two new oxygen concentrators were delivered to the hospital.
We cleaned and painted the Guardian Houses at the hospital. This is an area on the hospital campus where families of patients sleep and prepare meals while a loved one is cared for in the hospital. It is also the place where women who have high risk pregnancies stay so that they will be near the hospital when they go into labor.
We repaired many things in the hospital that were broken.
We painted hospital beds.
We delivered money that would help build new classrooms to the Ebenezer School.
We did all these things and much more. But, as I said earlier the things that we did were not the best part of the mission. The best part came when we stood in church and sang hymns and prayed with the Malawians with one voice. The deep joy came when:
· We had Malawian friends over to eat dinner with us,
· When they showed us how to wrap our heads with scarves the way they do
· We had devotions and sang song together after dinner
· We went with Barbara and Happy on a hike to the top of Nhkoma Mountain
· We acted like children and got the giggles after lights out in our cots at night
· We played the drums with the nurses and teachers after a meal together
· We listened to the deep rich voices of people walking on the road singing praises
· We realized that in the midst of suffering and hopeless situations, Jesus shows up and gives hope and life just like he did when he called Lazarus out of his tomb

It truly is more about the being than about the doing. We left that place knowing that the lives of the people there would be improved because we came. We left knowing that our lives would be improved because we went. God is good – All the time.

Malawi 2009 Summary

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NY Anna 2009

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