LAST LESSONS #102 – MALAWI

 “Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.” Psalm 2:8

In the beginning, Malawi was never considered as a location for a Rafiki Village. Malawi is among the poorest countries on the continent of Africa. In 2001 the population of Malawi was less than 20 million, the average per capita household income only slightly more than $300 annually, and they had 1.1 million orphans from AIDS. Then I received a mysterious phone call from Seattle, WA, that changed everything! I was at my desk at the Rafiki Home Office in San Antonio when the call came and I could tell that the caller was an African, but I did not recognize his name. He identified himself as Egbert Chibambo, Mayor of Mzuzu, Malawi’s third largest city. He said, “Will you come build an orphanage in Mzuzu?” I had no idea where Mzuzu was, I had never been to Malawi, but by the end of the conversation I agreed to visit Mzuzu. Egbert Chibambo was not going to take “no” for an answer!

Egbert told me that Mzuzu had a population of 90,000 with 9,000 orphans. He also told me that Mzuzu was the most beautiful place in the world. He said he would show me everything if I would come to Malawi. I told him that I would come, but in order to consider building an orphanage in Malawi I would need three things: 30 acres of land, someone to help Rafiki be registered in Malawi as a non-governmental organization (NGO) and a meeting with the President or the First Lady of Malawi. Egbert said that would be no problem.

Egbert was true to his promise. When our plane touched down, Egbert was there to greet us. He had an agenda and had made all preparations. He drove us around from school to school where hundreds of orphans were gathered at each stop. Chibambo would introduce me as the “lady who is going to start an orphanage!” As the afternoon went on, the stops became more lengthy and more heart-wrenching. On the last stop the Mayor and I arrived an hour and a half behind schedule only to find nearly 500 children waiting in a drizzling rain, having had no lunch, seated on the ground eagerly awaiting our arrival. Once again, Egbert introduced me, saying I was the “president of the Rafiki Foundation and that I was going to start an orphanage right here!” The children burst into applause with cheers of joy.

Here’s a picture!

Several more visits to Malawi would occur within the coming year, including one in which I got to meet and share Rafiki’s vision with Malawi’s First Lady Patricia Muluzi, and another when Egbert and I looked at the land that the chiefs in the area would make available to Rafiki. It really was beautiful with a 360-degree view of the mountains and forests surrounding Mzuzu. And it was huge! 175 acres! Egbert said to me, “Let’s walk. We are going to put our feet on the land that God is giving us just as Abraham was to walk the length and breadth of the land God would give him.” Egbert took my hand and we walked, and I have never had so much fun in my life!

Leaving on the plane going home I got a bird’s-eye-view of the land and said to the Lord, “I don’t understand. We only needed 30 acres and you gave us 175! We could put a whole village on that much land.” And then it struck me. That’s exactly what God wanted us to do. He wanted Malawi to be a model for all our villages to include cottages for orphans, housing for missionaries, a dining hall, schools, a playground, a place where widows could work, and even a medical clinic. From that time on we built “Villages” not “Orphanages.”

In Malawi Egbert saw to it that Rafiki was registered as an NGO and a partnership with the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP) was established. Egbert was not only the mayor of Mzuzu but an elder in St. Andrews Presbyterian Church in Mzuzu.

In 2002 missionaries Mike and Vickie Koch arrived and began a vocational school for teenage girls who were unable to go to school in the old church that St. Andrews graciously provided. They also began construction on the beautiful property that was given us. The Village (designed and laid out by our own architect Chris Moyer) was not finished and dedicated until April 15, 2005. But on that dedication day, Egbert Chibambo was the honored speaker along with Joyce Banda who later became the first woman president of Malawi.

The Rafiki Village in Malawi has thrived and become a real model, but it never would have happened without Egbert. He helped Rafiki until the day he died from a stroke on February 17, 2022. I really miss Egbert Chibambo, a true man of God.

God gave Egbert a heart for his country and especially a heart for the orphans of his country. I’ve learned that God establishes his Villages where he wants them, but he puts into the hearts of his people exactly how and when he wants them done.