Pastor Arnold Phiri, Empower’s Coordinator in Malawi, recently wrote to us about a training he and his team recently conducted in a new context: a Moslem area of a small village in Malawi.
A bit of background: Empower Minister Sally Bryant has ministered in Mulanje, Malawi for more than a decade, visiting every year. A participant from Sally’s training invited Arnold and his fellow coordinator Sidon Chinthuli to come and conduct a training in a nearby village.
Some of the Muslim men in the area were wary of Christians coming into their village, and in fact tried to prevent it, but Arnold and his team bravely negotiated their way into the village. Here is his report, edited for length and clarity.
We were invited by one of the friends who participated in one of our trainings in Mulanje when Rev. Sally was conducting it. He was so touched with the materials and wanted the material in his village which is a Moslem dominated area. About 35 people, both Moslem and Christian, attended the New Man, New Woman, New Life training from 15th to 17th of August.
Some local Moslem men were angry and they blocked our car, telling us not to pass because we were bringing new teaching to the area. They asked what we were doing in the area. Thank God that we negotiated with them and they let us go. We simply told them we have come in peace and what we are doing is sharing the word of God and our teachings did not belong to any church. We are here to teach how marriages can be stronger. They were happy and convinced that we are not establishing a church.
The training started on a very high note. People received the materials regardless of the religion, we had Moslems who participated. The place where we conducted the training was just 20 meters from the local mosque. Fortunately, the midday call to prayer happened to coincide with our lunch break. Several Moslem men came close by the building where we met after their prayers and they made some disturbing noises.
The highlight of the training was the extraordinary response of the participants, not just to enthusiastically receive the information but to act upon it.
For example, women and men in this area practice polygamy. They told us that the Moslem faith does not see it as a sin. However, after attending the seminar their eyes were opened. Some were making decisions to leave their second and third wives and have only one wife. Some of the men confessed that they married a number of wives so that the women could work in the field to support the man, and the man could then be free from work.
The participants were also eager to learn a fresh teaching about the curse. They told us they believed men and women were cursed. Whenever they went through hard times, they see it as evidence of God’s curse. When we explained in the teaching that God did not curse women, or men, they were surprised and delighted. As they came to understand this, I could see their faces started shining.
The participants also pledged to support women’s freedom. The men who attended promised they would work together and support each other to support women.
The third day of the seminar, we sang and danced together. It was good. A short time after we left, we received good reports that some of the men have left other women and are with only one wife.
The challenge was the question of leaving other wives, but we only told them to do what is right, the other wives should go back to their families, but if they have children they should support them. The situation is a big challenge but some felt there is no other option after they had heard the teachings.
It is a place where Christianity is very rare, so it will be good if we can go back and conduct more seminars in this area.
Because of the challenges that these people are passing through, we hope that we can also conduct a training on Healing From Trauma so that they can understand and know how to deal with the trauma.