by admin | Jul 22, 2024 | BLOG
In 1 Corinthians 3:6-9, Paul discusses the harmony in which he and another evangelist, Apollos, work. Though the church in Corinth is dividing themselves based on who follows who, Paul clears that up explaining that they are “co-workers in God’s service.” Paul identifies himself as the planter of the seeds while he characterizes Apollos as the one who waters them. Yet despite these categories, Paul gives all the glory to God, saying He’s the one who actually makes things grow. Similarly, Y-Malawi and all who support this ministry work in tandem with one another, planting and watering seeds, but at the end of the day, it’s God who makes things happen. That is why, in Ecclesiastes 11:5-6, we are encouraged to continuously plant seeds.
Y-Malawi’s Economic Empowerment Program provides a way for anybody to plant seeds by giving many Malawians the opportunity to make a living and support themselves. One such instance is found in Bezita’s story. Bezita, a young mother, was struggling to make ends meet. She had no consistent source of income, leaving her constantly lacking essential living materials. At the beginning of 2024, she was given capital to start a business by her sponsor who began supporting her through the Y-Malawi sponsorship program. Not only does this program give sponsors a way to aid and support people who are unable to do so for themselves, it’s also a channel through which sponsors can plant the seeds for people to become self-sustaining.
The business that Bezita started had been going well until her baby became ill and she could no longer devote as much time to running it. Seeing this issue, Y-Malawi stepped in to assist with the business as well as the baby, giving Bezita the time and space she needed to reassess her source of income. She decided to modify her business, which had been selling cloth (chitenje), to then sell rice–an endeavor that was better suited for her lifestyle as a mother of young children. Currently, her goal is to use her profits to buy more land so that she can grow her own rice, expanding her business.
Despite the bumps along the way, the growth seen in Bezita’s testimony is found in the testimonies of many others who are a part of the Economic Empowerment Program. Her story is a testament to how much a little can go a long way. The seed planted by her sponsor when they gave her capital was watered and taken care of consistently, resulting in a completely transformed life. She said “I can now support myself and my family. This is a thing I could not do in the past.” What seeds are you planting?
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by admin | Jun 22, 2024 | BLOG
Y-Malawi runs a program called Mother Groups that is composed of older women from villages in Malawi. They are assembled towards the purpose of aiding younger women and girls by counseling and educating them on various subjects about life, including taboo topics many people don’t discuss. These women also look out for girls in troubling situations in order to do what they can to help them.
As such, when a Mother Group learned that a young girl, Flora, had been sold into marriage by her parents, they immediately responded in trying to rescue her. Flora was 13 when she’d been forced into a marriage with a 36 year old man. Along with his two other wives, she looked after him and the household by bathing him, cooking meals, cleaning, and caring for the children. Before long, Flora became pregnant, adding to the difficulties she was already facing. It was at this point that Y-Malawi was alerted and one of the Mother Groups intervened.
The Mother Group presented Flora’s case before the village chief and then approached the local pastor for help. They both agreed that Flora was too young to be married and joined the effort to rescue her. Because the man had paid Flora’s parents for her hand in marriage, he refused to let her go unless his payment was returned. So with the help of these two figures of authority, the Mother Group convinced Flora’s parents to return the payment, and Flora was taken out of the marriage.
Now at 14 years old, Flora is a mother as well as a student. With the help of Y-Malawi, she has returned to school and is currently doing well. Y-Malawi provides her housing, food, school supplies and pays her tuition. Recently, when visited by a mission trip team, Flora testified that in the midst of her hopelessness, the Y-Malawi Mother Group saved her, renewing her hope and happiness. She went on to say “I had never known love. I could not believe that these people would care for me and my child. My life has now changed. I know what love is. When I graduate school, my dream is to help others in the same way that the Mother Group has helped me.”
Flora is 1 of over 600 girls that Y-Malawi’s teams and groups have rescued from similar situations over the past 8 years. These groups are providing education, resources, and encouragement to more than 1,500 young girls who have had children through childhood marriages or abuse. Through programs such as the Mother Groups, these girls are being given a new hope and a better chance at life.
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by admin | Jun 9, 2024 | BLOG
The Great Commission, given in Matthew 28, instructs us believers to go into the world and make disciples of Christ by teaching them all that he has commanded us to do in scripture. One of the many ways we are called to do that is through leadership. In 1 Peter 5:2, when writing to elders in the church, Peter writes “Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them–not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve.” One of Y-Malawi’s partners, FTS, works to build up such leaders in their Discipleship Training program.
One of the people who have gone through this program is Wickless. He had a desire to share his faith with other people so that they too could have the opportunity to encounter and know Jesus as their Lord and savior. Despite his calling though, he felt ill prepared to take on such a task and did not know how to go about spreading what he believed in. Thankfully, after hearing about the Discipleship Training program at FTS, he joined it and eventually completed the entire course.
Since completing the program, Wickless has started a Bible study group and is currently leading it. When asked about the impact the experience had on him, he said “My life has been shaped, I can now effectively have a relationship with God and lead others to develop intimacy with Him.” His testimony speaks to the wide reach these programs run by both FTS and Y-Malawi have. By aiding one person, we were able to touch the lives of many more people, just as the Great Commission instructs us to do.
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by admin | May 25, 2024 | BLOG
In Philippians 1:4, Paul says “he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” We aim to help bring the Lord’s work to completion with each person that we work with. We achieve this through the programs that we run, all of which are full of opportunities for people to join and better their lives. Some of these programs work in tandem with one another should the participants wish to continue working with Y-Malawi. An example of this can be seen in Joseph’s testimony.
Joseph is a young man who underwent and completed the tailoring skills course at Y-Malawi’s Vocational Training Center (VTC). Afterwards, he joined Y-Malawi’s Economic Empowerment program to continue on his journey to become an independent tailor. Through this program, a sponsor donated the funds necessary for him to start his own tailoring shop in his village. Now, he is able to provide for himself and his family and is even considering expanding into new business ventures in the near future.
Joseph’s testimony, among many others, is a demonstration of the great care Y-Malawi takes in each individual to help them reach their full potential and complete the Lord’s purpose in their lives. Joseph is still on a journey of growth, but through Y-Malawi’s programs, he’s been able to expand and explore new opportunities that the Lord provides.
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by admin | Apr 29, 2024 | BLOG
Jesus teaches us, in The Parable of the Talents, to make good use of what He has given us. In Y-Malawi’s most recent project, that is what we are aiming to do. This project’s objective is to establish a farm with the aim of combating the hunger season in Malawi. Hunger season is a period of time lasting up to several months when the corn flour that Malawians harvested earlier in the year has run out. Since they can only plant corn once a year when it rains the most, they are often rendered hungry if they didn’t harvest enough or it didn’t rain as much.
To aid this issue, Y-Malawi purchased 96 acres of land to plant corn in order to provide nutrition throughout the year. This is part of Y-Malawi’s long-term plan to have the areas we’re ministering in function independently and provide for themselves. We managed to plant our first crop, corn, last year, and with the rains that Malawi received the past few months, the corn is growing well as seen in the picture above.
Our vision moving forward is to plant a second crop after this corn is harvested, using a temporary irrigation system to keep it growing. In addition to this, we have also built a new greenhouse to grow vegetables year-round. Ultimately, both these agricultural projects will allow the people in these areas to be self-sustaining. In Genesis 1:29 God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.” Through these projects, we are putting to good use the seeds and earth that he gave us.
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by admin | Mar 12, 2024 | BLOG
When Y-Malawi works with churches, it also works with the children of those churches by establishing Sunday schools. Y-Malawi presents the opportunity for members of the churches to join programs and Bible studies that teach them more about the Lord and His Word. Once they are part of these programs, they’re able to volunteer at their congregations to take up the mantle of teaching the children’s Sunday school.
Through Sunday school, the children learn about Jesus and Bible stories. The program lays a firm foundation for the children’s faith to be built on so that they can grow in Christ. Just like it says in Proverbs 22:6 “Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.”
The Sunday school program serves multiple purposes. Along with teaching children the Word of God, it gives the volunteers a learning experience by educating the young ones and also functions as childcare during church services. Owen is a volunteer that received training from Y-Malawi as a prerequisite to teaching the children. Though childcare is culturally a women’s role in Malawi, Owen now teaches Sunday school and looks after the children during the church services. Despite the fact that his role is typically reserved for women, Owen is not afraid to be a trailblazer as he serves his community. As seen in the photo above, this program and Owen’s work brings great joy to both the children and the volunteers. This teaches us not to let the norms stop us from doing God’s work.
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