Guinea-pig for Dinner

 

I have never been to a palace in Asia, Europe or US, but here in Africa I am a regular palace visitor. In Zambia we had a very good relationship with chief Mumbi. He was a member of the church of one of our students (quite exceptional to have a Christian chief!). We have been in his palace quite a few times and he has been at our home regularly. Here in Malawi I work closely with the Mfumu (king / chief / leader) of Chimpangu community. In fact, in general most community work will only succeed with the approval / support of the local leader. Even though this man is not a professing Christian, he is very appreciative for everything we do and even encourages us to keep doing the good work and expand. Therefore he offered us a piece of land.

A few of Mfumu's lifestock, so lucky to live in a palace!

It happened during my conversation with him in his palace that suddenly a little animal ran from under my chair. Something started to squeak and whistle and all of a sudden the room was filled with…. Guinea-pigs. I had never seen those in Africa yet. Was Mfumu actually keeping pets? Not really, his wife explained they have Guinea-pig on the menu regularly! During one of my next visits (Cees and the kids were with me) she gave us two little ones, male and female, so that we can start breeding and have it for dinner… Our kids are very happy with their new pets!

Seriously, for dinner?! No way.

We have been looking at land, not very easy to measure with the maize being so tall… Mfumu is the only chief in a big area who still owns land for sale. Grace and I are very excited about building a proper ministry building, for evangelism, literacy, pre-school and other community development programs. Please pray for wisdom for us to do what is right to serve the people here in Malawi, bringing them to Christ.

Discussing and measuring the land.

Mfumu has been leader for over 40 years. He wants to retire but there is no-one willing to take his place. His positions is not desirable; mostly dealing with problems everyday. When we left the palace on Saturday, a very angry neighbor had pulled out all his maize because Mfumu’s cows had been eating from it. Another neighbor reported his chickens were killed by some dogs. When we reached our car a drunkard bothered us, so Grace reported that to Mfumu. He and his first wife had 15 children, 9 are still alive. He has more than 60 (great)-grand children…most of them are in our programs. Mfumu shared his concerns about the youth. They are not following the traditional rules of respect and behavior anymore because they are influenced by a lot of worldly (western) stuff. 

Mfumu's cow's after their mud bath down the stream.

I was extra excited when I watched a big group of teenage boys listening and interacting to the Bible lesson last week. Wow! What an opportunity to teach them about a life in the footsteps of Christ. I formed a subgroup afterwards and read a passage with them, giving each of them a turn and asked questions. First their answers were a bit ‘gigglish’ but they got more and more serious. These teenagers are really an in-between group of the community. They are not kids anymore, but they aren’t adults yet either. Who takes them serious? Jesus does!!!

I am very excited about a new development: African Bible College students have to spend one afternoon per week on outreach / ministry as part of their training. Since we come eyes, hands, mouths and legs short with so many kids coming to our programs I suggested to involve a group of ABC students in our ministry. Today I am taking 19 students (8 in my car, the rest will follow by mini-bus) to our program. With some training integrated they can start helping out. Imagine, teaching all kids at the same time in small groups (10 groups of 40 kids)!! Now that someone gives us 40 loaves of bread every week….the number of kids is going up again. Let’s hope we find enough trees in the community to facilitate all. Please, pray for this development.

Some of Mfumu's great-grandchildren.