Merry Christmas 2012!

2013 for Jeremy and Madalo!

Dear Friends and Family,

Greetings! Many of you hear from me regularly while for some it may have been a while. In either case, I hope this letter finds you well! For me, this has been an exciting and fulfilling year. As you probably know, I am living and working in Malawi, Southern Africa with a non-profit organization called Children of the Nations (COTN). Of course, this year has also seen me marry the love of my life! Madalo and I have really been enjoying the blessings of married life and have together been involved in a local church called Capital City Baptist Church. I’m currently helping begin a men’s ministry at the church and Madalo is enjoying her work as a nurse at a local community clinic run by African Bible College.

If you aren’t yet familiar with the organization I work with, COTN focuses on improving the lives of orphans and vulnerable children in Africa and the Caribbean through holistic care which includes mental, physical, social, and spiritual support. Here in Malawi, many children have been orphaned due to HIV/AIDS. Although improvements have been made in recent years, there are still around 1 million children in the country who have lost one or both parents and as a result, are in destitute situations. COTN not only wishes to mitigate this impact but also seeks to improve the situation by empowering these children with life skills, leadership, and confidence that will allow them to one day be catalysts in their countries. Thus, the vision of COTN is “Raising children who transform nations.” To find out more, visit: www.cotni.org

The children celebrating as deep,
clean water is struck in Chilombo!

The work I have been doing with COTN as an In-Country Liaison primarily focuses on supporting and improving the flow of information between the local Malawi office and the international office located in Silverdale, Washington. This includes regular reports on how the operations in the country are going as well as photos, videos, and stories about major accomplishments and happenings in the lives of the children. I also have the opportunity to train local staff in proposal writing, goal setting, and program design and implementation. One major highlight this year has been the drilling of a clean-water well in one of the villages we support, Chilombo Village. Women are now able to walk a shorter distance to gather water, and children will be less likely to contract water-borne diseases which keep them out of school. One goal for 2013 is to help facilitate the funding and construction of a new community center in the same village. I truly love my work and look forward to continuing it in the coming years!

For this first year with COTN I have been privileged to be funded completely through the US Peace Corps. This was possible through a program called Peace Corps Response which places former volunteers in professional roles in local government or non-profit organizations. As I move into my second year with COTN, I will officially come on staff as a support raising missionary. As an organization, COTN has decided that in order to allow close to 87% of each child sponsorship dollar to go directly to in-country programs, their U.S. based staff members offset their own salaries through personal fundraising. This allows donors and child sponsors to have peace of mind in knowing that their money isn’t going towards an inflated administration budget, but as much of it as possible goes towards the programs in the countries where it is needed most.

As Madalo and I move into this season we are going to need support from our loved ones back home. The first thing we are asking for is prayer, encouraging thoughts, and emotional support. We know many of you are already doing this and we are very grateful. We ask that as many people as possible join us in regular prayer support. Our spirits will continually be strengthened and uplifted through your prayers and God’s presence in our lives.

Me with some of the teenagers
at the COTN Secondary School

Secondly, we will need financial support. Will you consider partnering with us in our call to live and work in Malawi? We need two types of financial partners.  First, up front we need our partners to make one-time donations in order to raise three months worth of salary as well as visa/work permit costs. COTN requires this as a cushion in case leaner times come. This will need to be raised by February 1^st and the amount needed is $5,620. Any amount is welcome and as you are thinking about where to do your year-end donating, please consider us. The other types of partners we need are those who will commit to monthly support towards my salary. My monthly salary need is $1,800 and I hope that you will prayerfully and thoughtfully consider making a commitment to partner with us and our work on a monthly basis. As COTN is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, all of your donations will be accompanied with receipts and are tax deductable. Donations to our ministry fund can be made online at: www.cotni.org/staff/jeremy-macias. Alternatively, if you prefer, checks can be sent with “Jeremy Macias staff support” on the memo line to:

                                 
                                    Children of the Nations

                                    P.O. Box 3970

                                    Silverdale, WA 98383

Regardless of whether you are able to partner with us financially, we definitely want to keep all of our loved ones updated so please reply if you want to be on our e-mail update list. We will regularly be sharing how things are going in our work and ministry as well as share prayer needs as they come.

Madalo and I really appreciate you taking the time to read this letter and consider becoming one of our partners. We do not take it for granted and wish we could see you in person to make this request. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask. We look forward to hearing from you! God Bless!

Much Love,

Jeremy and Madalo Macias
Jermacias@gmail.com
(+265) 881 517 672

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this:
to look after orphans and widows in their distress… James 1:27

I am enough.

I was reading an article today in Relevant Magazine’s other publication called Reject Apathy.  It’s all about social justice causes and non-profits and government organizations that tackle those various issues.  The article was an interview with someone at Compassion U.S. and was discussing their child sponsorship programs.  At the end of the article he gave a quote that he says is well known around the Compassion organization:

“The opposite of poverty isn’t wealth – the opposite of poverty is enough.”

I quickly posted the quote as a Facebook status and got a few “likes”.  Usually it would end there.  Later however, as I re-read the quote I was reminded of a Malawian phrase.  Here, when someone has eaten their share at a meal, they don’t use the western expression of, “I’m full”.  They say the phrase, “Ndakhuta”.  The English translation of this phrase is, “I am enough.”

At first glance it doesn’t seem all that different: “I’m full” versus “I am enough”.  It got me thinking though; it’s a very different and perhaps profound statement.  Our western culture seems to have the goal of always getting more, bigger, and better things.  When we eat, we don’t just eat enough, we eat until we’re literally full.  When we consume other goods and products, we don’t just consume enough-we consume until our closets, garages, houses, and rented storage spaces are full.  Try to explain that one to a Malawian.  Having so much stuff that your huge house can’t even fit it all; you have to pay someone to store it for you!

During my time spent living in Malawi I have learned, less out of choice and more out of necessity, to simply live with a lot less.  As I type this blog I’m sitting in the dark using battery power because of the regular power outages that occur here.  If the battery were dead, I would probably be reading by the light of a book light.  That’s the typical entertainment for me for the evening.  If I were an average Malawian living out in a village I would be finishing dinner and chatting with family and friends by candlelight until it was time to go to sleep.  Choices at restaurants and in stores are a lot fewer than in the U.S.  Cheese, for example, pretty much comes in one standard cheddar form and it costs at least 5 times the price it costs in the U.S.  I don’t even know how many types of cheeses are available at an average supermarket in the States.

While Madalo was visiting me in Seattle, she was amazed and at times perplexed by all of the choices she was given about everything.  We went out to The Cheesecake Factory one night for her birthday.  If you’ve ever been there you know that their menu is pretty much a book of choices splattered with random advertisements.  It was a bit overwhelming for her.  After you’ve read though the book and you are finally ready to order you can choose between at least 5 different side options, whether to have soup or salad or both before the meal and which salad dressing you prefer, which of an endless list of drink options you would like, how you would like your meat cooked, and on and on it goes.  Don’t even get me started on the different number of cheesecakes!  Not only can we consume as much as we want; we have endless choices as to what exact item, color, flavor, temperature, country of origin, etc. we would like those items to be.

Malawi is a much more communal culture than the United States.  Almost everything is shared.  Individual ownership doesn’t have as much meaning as it does in the West.  Food, clothing, tools, land, housing, etc…there’s a lot less of it to go around so sharing is a must for people to live and for the society to endure; especially for those who live out in villages.  Because of this, people don’t always eat until “full”.  They eat until they are “enough”.  This leaves room for others to also be “enough”.  I can’t count how many times I’ve sat down to eat with obviously poor Malawians watching them eating less so that they could offer me more.  Out of respect, I know that I can’t refuse, but I do try to only eat just enough to make them happy so that there is plenty for everyone else to get a healthy amount.

As I have experienced both ways of living, I am continually amazed at how much more I enjoy, how much more fulfilling it is for me to live not with everything I may want, not with everything I can afford or everything I can fit into my house, but simply living with “enough.”  Ndakhuta.  I am enough.

“When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest.  And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard.  You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God.” –Leviticus 19:9-10

Jet-Lag

Well, here I am enjoying that wonderful thing called jetlag.  I was exhausted and went to sleep at 8:00pm only to wake up at midnight and now be wide awake.  Hopefully a bit of blogging and reading will tire my eyes out so I can get at least a few more hours of sleep.

I landed in Malawi today and it felt so good to get off the plane and be back in this country that I love so much.  The warm, humid air, the green, rainy-season grasses, the friendly smiles from strangers, the rain-soaked red-clay mud, I love all of it.  It does feel a bit surreal though.  I remember when I first got back to the States; I would have these dreams in the first couple of months about being back in Malawi for a visit.  Back in Chikwina visiting my recplacement, hanging out with other Peace Corps Volunteers, etc.  And you know like most dreams things are always a little weird and not quite how they are in real life, little changes here and there.  Of course I would always wake up and be in bed at home.  I was feeling the same way today.  Going back to the Peace Corps office, so much the same but little changes here and there, all but one of the American staff had turned over so there were some new faces.  It felt a little like I was just in another one of those dreams and I would wake up at any moment in my bed back home.  I’m glad it’s not though; I’m really happy to be here and can’t wait to see Madalo on Thursday when she comes up from Thyolo.  I feel very good about the decision to come back to Malawi, I know that God is directing my steps and worked all of this out perfectly according to his plan for me.

Here’s to hoping I can get back to sleep.

Tiwonana! (We will see each other)