Empower Minister Linda Ikeda recently returned from Africa. She and Sue Kerrigan changed lives in Malawi and Rwanda. Here is her report:
By God’s mercy and your prayers, I am safely and healthily home from my recent travels in Africa. This trip, my twelfth and Sue Kerrigan’s fifth, was particularly fruitful.
We taught all three classes-Created to Belong, Healing From Trauma, and Women’s Health and Anatomy (the latter authored by Sue Kerrigan) in both locations.
Our first stop was in Mzuzu, Malawi, about three hours north of the capital city, Lilongwe, and nine hours northeast of the Mulange area where we have taught on our previous Malawi trips.
Mzuzu is the third largest city in Malawi with about 130,000 people and home of Mzuzu University. Polygamy is still widespread in Northern Malawi and creates complex problems for individuals and families, especially children.
We were hosted by the Apostolic Church of Great Britain in Malawi, led by Pastor Nation Munthali. During the five excellent days we spent together facilitating CTB and HFT seminars, 29 different churches/organizations were represented, most from Northern Malawi but a few from Zambia as well.
The participants were engaged, asking good questions and making appropriate life applications. One example was a pastor coming to understand the concept of “object constancy” which usually occurs about the age of 5 when a child learns that a person can be both, “this and that,” all at the same time. In other words, “Mom can both be angry at me and love me all at the same time.” He then told me: “As a pastor people expect me to be only one way all the time–perfect! If I say ‘I don’t like that,’ a person will accuse me of not being a Christian! But Lesson 5 helped me to understand that all of us are made up of many parts which construct who we are.”
We met Minister Lusungu Simba, age 23, who is from Chitipa, Malawi, part of Word Alive Ministries International and founder of Apulikene Initiative. He told us, “My passion is to see parents and children connected and families having a tight bond/relationship with each other. I have seen many young people drop out of school and go into prostitution. So I did some assessment and [discovered] they did not have strong or good relationships with their parents. This material will help me equip parents to better meet their children’s needs.”
Pastor Daniel Blackson Phiri, secretary of the Mzuzu EIM committee and also our excellent translator, said this at the follow up meeting with the committee: “I have been to many conferences and seminars, including ones on counseling and this was number one, the best of all that I’ve been to.”
Our Malawi Director, Arnold Mphulupulu Phiri continues to serve faithfully. His faithfulness, oversight and strategic approach has helped multiply the effectiveness of Empower’s work. He created three Empower committees in Mulange, Phalombe and Mzuzu. While in Mzuzu, we met with their committee which organized and oversaw the smooth operations of the workshops. They did an excellent job planning, honored our budget, and provided the tasty meals by delegating a group to do the cooking (outside, over an open fire!). They are a group with vision, motivation and creative ideas, comprised of four men and one woman. We feel like we are leaving the materials in good hands.
On to Rwanda
Our next stop was Byumba, Rwanda (pop. 75,000) .We drove 1.5 hours north from the capital city of Kigali through lovely country: 3000 feet up green hills terraced with rice and banana fields.* Almost the entire road was paved this time, making the journey less dusty and unpleasant, but still through small villages with markets and loads of food shoppers. We were hosted by Bishop Emmanuel Ngendahayo of the Anglican Church and stayed at the Diocesan Center along with our workshop participants. Bishop Emmanuel oversees 26 Anglican parishes in the area and is a humble man of vision, with a servant’s heart who cares deeply about the people of Rwanda. Being with him feels like it might if I were sitting with Jesus!
Our African Director, Frank Michael Tweheyo, arranged the details of our stay and he is highly respected by the Anglican leadership in Byumba. He did a great job of overseeing our stay and is a great and effective champion for Empower.
Pastor Thaddee Nshimiyimana was our “on the ground translator and orchestrator.” He has been tasked by the Bishop to equip all the parishes in his Diocese with our workbooks and then to take it throughout the country. The Bishop’s presence at our certificate ceremony and his delivery of an inspiring message to the participants, both validates and endorses our programs. He had this to say at a meal we shared together later, “Your work is so important to us and different than any other counseling trainings we’ve had because it gets to the heart of the people. It goes deep where real change can happen.”
Women’s Health Class
In the past the Women’s Health class has been offered only to women which has made it a safe space to explore intimate issues and voice very personal questions. Some of their feedback this year was, “We have never heard anything like this before,” and “Thank you; this really makes a difference.” We have valued offering this space to women to both learn about their bodies and be able to ask difficult questions.
So we were taken off guard in both Malawi and Byumba, when male pastors strongly encouraged us to include married male pastors in this class saying parishioners frequently come to them with these kinds of issues and they (the pastors) need education. In Mzuzu we said we’d have to think about it, but in Byumba we decided to give it a try. Out of the 50 participants we had 4 men, but because our time was abbreviated and there was little time for questions, it was difficult to assess the impact of the men’s presence. Our dilemma, of course, is that with men present, most women may not feel the freedom to ask personal questions, yet we want the male pastors to be equipped to minister to their congregations. We are sitting with all this and trying to listen to the Spirit’s leading.
Of course, one can’t minister in Africa without some of the typical TIA (this is Africa!) adventures such as:
- 15 security stops in our 3 hour drive from Lilongwe to Mzuzu
- Rats on a stick: 8 broiled rats complete with fur and tail, for less than a $1-who knew? Arnold graciously bought some for us which we chose not to eat but photographed extensively.
- Being soaped up in the shower and then the water just suddenly stops!
- In a nice restaurant in Mzuzu a menu offering “sandwish,” or “chicken golden blue,” or a “milkshare”
- Pit toilets; need I say more?
- Cold showers
- Following the “Abnormal” truck (African version of wide load?)
- The beautiful people we are privileged to teach. The joy and dedication to Jesus in spite of many hardships; the generosity of heart and soul; the wonderful singing and dancing in worship;
- People’s unique, descriptive names-Nation, Holiness, Loveness, Brave, Praise, Glad, Happiness, Beauty, Nation, Memory, Gracious
- Exhaustion by end of every day
I came away from this trip with great joy at the plans of our African partners to carry the teaching forward and equip and empower others. Our “train-the-trainer” model (T3) is working! By God’s grace Empower is truly involved in freeing slaves and setting people free!
I am grateful that during my stay I remained healthy and all my flights connected with luggage arriving when and where it was meant to! Thank you for your prayers and partnership. I feel so privileged to be able to do this work in places of great need. You help to make that possible!
In God’s Worldwide Love,
Linda
*interesting factoid: the movie “Hotel Rwanda” is based on a real hotel in Kigali, Rwanda called “Hotel des Milles Collines” which means “hotel of a thousand hills,” as Rwanda is known for its many lush green hills