A God Moment in Malawi - Rob Shoemaker

Every time I go to Africa my eyes see a new perspective on life and my November trip to Malawi was no different. We worked in several villages meeting and working alongside some of the friendliest, most amazing people, but one man in particular that I met in a village named Deya had the greatest impact on me.

Theresa, our host in Malawi, told me about this man and wanted me to meet him which I was glad to do. As we walked up to his garden I saw this man sitting on the ground beside a container of water in front of the best garden I had seen in Malawi. He didn’t get up and as I looked at his legs I realized he had polio or some disease that left him crippled from the waist down but very fit looking from there up.

This beautiful garden of about 1/3 acre was his and he tended it by himself, on his knees, using his hands to move about. He had tilled the soil by hand, planted by hand, watered by hand and now sits for hours watching so the goats don’t eat his produce. His wheelchair was an upside-down bicycle mounted on a three wheel chair. Dragging himself from his house to this chair, he peddles 300 yards to his garden where he crawls out of the chair and around his garden each day to tend the future food for his family. He pulls water from a shallow well by hand and delivers it to each and every plant up to two times per week.

His resolve to take care of his family is so very rare for an African male, much less for one with a severe handicap. He is 46 years old and has been paralyzed for 20 years and takes care of a wife and three children that live with him.

I later asked Theresa what we could do for him and I was told he is a tinsmith by trade but has little money to pursue his craft, so some tin and cutters would be a real blessing for him. Two days later we return with the tin and cutters and he is so grateful but I still wonder what we can do to assist this man. I have Theresa ask him if there is anything else he needs and his response is my God moment. He says that what we have done for him with the tin and cutters is all he needs because now he can provide for his family. So little given but so much received.

He could have asked for a new wheelchair to replace the old one that is falling apart or he could have asked for a new roof for the part of the house where the kids sleep which blew off the day before or he could have asked for food for his family. But this humble man only thought about the abundant blessing that God had given him in the tin.(by the way he will peddle many miles to sell his tin buckets).

So many times we are only thankful for the big blessings from God that we fail to see the everyday blessings we are given. This man is thankful for the life God has given him and consequently for every blessing no matter the size.

It is sad that we in the United States do not have this same attitude about life. We seem to only value the large, whether in giving or receiving, and so we are sad when we can’t give a large expensive gift or we get a small one. What would our lives be like to have the same grateful hearts that this man has, who can’t walk and has so little, but is so humble and content with all God gives him? Please ask yourselves this question as the New Year begins and be prepared for God to answer and start you on a journey with Him.