My Nannies

Currently, we have 9 nannies working in the nursery—two per shift with 1 used primarily for shopping and filling in.  Even though training has sometimes been a challenge I have come to love and cherish them.  Seven of the nine are widows with all of them having children.  Our goal was to only hire widows as we wanted to help orphans and widows according to James 1:27,  “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction.”  The two women that are married we already knew and trusted. 

I have been to the houses of three of them and I just wanted to cry. Even though they are living in what we would consider “slums” they were so excited about me visiting their homes.  Unlike a lot of us, and I’m pointing the finger at myself, who don’t want guests unless everything is perfect, these women showed me the true meaning of hospitality—it’s in your heart.  Most of their houses have no electricity, no indoor plumbing and broken down furniture that is in worse shape that what you see at our dumps in the states yet they are so excited for me to see their home and always invite me in.

We have developed a special bond during the past few months.  These women never ask me for things like some of our other help does.  I give them our used up oil jugs, peanut butter containers, plastic bags and they are so thankful.  These are things that we would just have to burn up so it helps our garbage situation as we have no garbage pickup and it helps them. What we consider trash they can use.  Monica has rats in her house due to storing dried corn under the beds as she can’t afford anything to store it in.  She asked for boxes to store her and her children’s clothes as the rats are chewing holes in them so whenever I get a box I give it to her. 

One day the ladies were discussing something and I could tell it was a heated discussion.  I asked about it and they were discussing what “faith” was.  They then turned to me and asked me to explain it to them.  After our “brief” discussion they asked if I would teach them more about the things of God.  I had been considering asking them if they wanted to do a bible study but to be honest I was nervous as I didn’t really know what I would teach.  I guess the Lord decided it was time I quit procrastinating and do it.  So now we have a weekly bible study on the Gospel of John and almost all the women come to it.  We are having a wonderful time studying God’s word together.

I am so grateful for the opportunity to help these ladies as they witness God’s faithfulness in our ministry.  In Malawi the culture is so strong that you rarely see someone taking a stand against it even if it means compromising their faith. My prayer is that their faith in God can be strengthened so they can do what God calls them to do not what their culture says they must do.  Please pray for my nannies as life here in Malawi is hard.  They are very fortunate to have jobs but their money doesn’t go far and yet they are happy and wonderful women.  Their names are Monica, Miriam, Evelyn, Prisca, Veronica, Catherine, Alice, Sophret and Felistar. 

 

Lisa