SUNDAY THOUGHT - Street Children in Malawi

Protect the orphans and those who have been hurt.

Don’t let powerful people drive us from our land!

Psalm 10:18

When I was in Blantyre, Malawi, I attended  the City Pentecostal Church (CPC) on Sundays and today I would like to tell you about the children’s street work that goes on there.  My daughter Judith helps with this work.  It started over 20 years ago when a group of people started helping prostitutes get off the streets and then they also discovered that there were a lot of street children either totally orphaned or who had a parent/s but those parents daily pushed their children on to the streets to beg.  So this is what happened on my first Sunday I was at this church.

Judith and I arrived about 8.00am and when the children arrived, they are all given a number and put into different rooms depending on their ages.  Each room has a person who teaches the children about Jesus’ love for them and they sing songs.  

While this is going on, we along with some Malawian teenagers get the food and drink ready for the children.

Each Sunday morning an average of 115 street kids attend the special children’s church. Once a month the children have a cooked meal however the other 3 weeks they have 2 mandesi and a drink that you see above.   They are also provided with soap, clothing and other necessities of life as they are available.

These are some of the children waiting their turn to have something to eat. That day, Judith discovered that one of the children was not well.  He was being sick and had a temperature. 

This is Judith talking to the children and the little boy who was sick, was 8 years old and has the bowl on his knees.  We found out that he and his brother had walked one and a half hours to get to church.

We can see that all the children were concerned for the little boy who was being sick.  As well as this Sunday work, they have a Village of Hope School.  They are expanding the school and the primary school will soon house nearly 200 students (the goal is to eventually have 300 – 400 students in our primary school). The expansion is occurring in stages to ensure success. They are praying that the Lord will provide sponsors for the school children who will be coming from nearby villages to attend our school!!

Before the children are given any food, their hands have to be washed. Some of them are very dirty as are there  clothes. It is such a humbling experience to see these children and they are so grateful for the food.

They sit on the floor to eat and as the little sick boy was not getting any better, we decided to take him home.  He did have a father who was out working at the markets.

I went downstairs in the church to get the keys of the car and found the worship group practising for the adult morning service.  My son in law, Jon plays the bass guitar and is second from the right.  When not doing that, he works the sound desk on some Sundays.

We took one of the young Malawian men with us so that we could find the little boys home.  We would never have found it any other way.  We had to make our way along this road very slowly!

Then we had to abandoned the car and start to walk on foot weaving our way through the alleys and houses.

I did not feel I could take many photographs especially when people were about.  We found the father and explained to him about his son.  We asked him to take him to the hospital the next day if he was not better and we gave him money to be able to buy medicine if it was needed.  There was basically 2 make shift seats in the room and a broken table.  Nothing else.

The last few shots were taken on our way back to church.

On the way back Judith told me that the youngest child that had come to the church and was begging in the streets was a 2 year old!  I could not even imagine a 2 year old on their own on the streets. Can you?

What I did learn was that through the Street Kids Ministry, a boy called Ken, who began as a street kid 9 years ago is now in his last year of secondary school and works as a cleaner at CPC. The church do their best to help street kids attend school.)  Sam, another one of the street kids, just graduated secondary school, has applied to enter medical school. They are believing God to provide a sponsor to cover fees, etc. so Sam can realise the call of God on his life. These are just two of the amazing stories that are coming out of the Street Kid’s Ministry.

I turned this shot into B & W and I think it works better that way.

This is not one of my usually posts for Sunday however it is a true story that I wanted to share with you.

Thank you for visiting and  also many thanks to all those who leave comments.