Seven years ago, I was a Protestant by religion and a translator by profession. I enjoyed reading and translating texts from English into Chichewa, the indigenous language of Malawi. One day, as I was walking through the town, I came across an erected Orthodox church. The sight of it stunned me. It looked somewhat like a mosque, but the cross indicated that it was something Christian. Curiosity prompted me to go inside and observe the interior. I was confused. Although I was a devout Protestant, the place was new to me. An awe took over me. Suddenly, from the north side of the temple, I saw a black figure approaching me. I wanted to run and escape, but an Orthodox priest stopped me. It was Fr. Hermolaus Iatrou. ”
Who are you? What made you come here? “, he asked me. “I wanted to know some things about this church,” I said and started asking questions. After some discussion, I asked him to accept me for catechesis.
After some time had passed, Fr. Hermolaus asked what I was doing professionally. As soon as I told him I was a translator, he offered me a small position in the translation and printing office of the mission. This came as a divine gift to me. At the same time, he gave me a stack of books on the Orthodox faith to study at home. Little by little, some of my friends became interested and wanted to come for catechesis too. I was baptized after a year. My family initially found it difficult to understand my conversion, but by God’s grace that changed. On May Day 2009 I was ordained a priest. This was a new blessing and opportunity for me to get to know my faith better. In the Orthodox Church we never learn everything. We are constantly learning new things. Then, I was assigned the ministry of catechist. In time, I came to understand that the doctrines of our Holy Church are very strong, because they come from the Apostolic Age, from the time of the Bible. It is not like the other churches that suddenly sprang up out of nowhere, with no root. In the Orthodox Church, when we pray, we feel it when we pray. Protestants know nothing about the sacraments. They don’t even talk about the Holy Trinity. They do baptism only by sprinkling and not as the Bible teaches. Our pastors were afraid of getting wet with water. They don’t have confession, they don’t have a spiritual. But when one wants to meet with a President, one must follow some protocol. So we too must follow the protocol that God has set for the forgiveness of our sins. That is the true Faith. And serious people realize this, no matter if they end up believing in Orthodoxy. Unfortunately, Orthodoxy is very new in my country. I am constantly asked “where have these people been for so many centuries?”. A difficult question. I answer them that this was God’s plan.
Today there are 2,000 people who have been baptized Orthodox and many who have been monitored and indoctrinated for at least a year. Our main activity is catechism. We have to travel from the city to the villages. The commute is difficult. We have no gasoline, we stay on the road. We have 25 parishes throughout the country, with the exception of the northernmost part of the country, but 10 of them do not have a Holy Church. At the same time, we also do charitable work. We are trying to provide clean water because Malawi has a big problem with water supply. We have already drilled over 20 wells. In addition, we try to feed 300 orphans every day. A very difficult task! Many times we have nothing to give them and we think maybe we should stop. But once we started, that would be like a betrayal for these children. We hope in God and continue our work. We also try to visit the prisons regularly. We bring them gifts, we indoctrinate them. We already have some groups of prisoners. But we have not baptized anyone. But for each prison we have appointed a committee to visit and indoctrinate them. We also want to organize spiritual meetings for the women, but so far we have not succeeded. Fortunately, there are some believers with great zeal for spreading our faith. We have sent six believers to Kenya to study at the seminary there. Once they finish and if called by God, we will make them priests. There are also some serious catechists that we are sending to the villages for catechetical work. Every week we invite them and teach them in the catechists’ tutorial. We stress to them not to teach anything that is not in their Orthodox books, not to say things that they make up out of their minds. If they cannot answer a question, then they should not answer it at all, but consult their books. Better to read them an answer from within and then explain it.
The printing and translation center of our mission is a difficult and demanding job. We need to find educated people who know English well. Unfortunately we have no Orthodox suitable to do translations. We have already translated the Mass and some sacraments. We have distributed a booklet to every believer to read and understand the Mass. Now we are translating the Minas. Most of our faithful attend both the Divine Office and Vespers and Evensong. The process of translation is very tedious and costly. Good translators need a good salary. A lot of money is required, because we do not want someone who does translations as a part-time job, as then the quality and speed of the translations will not be good. If something is too new for the translators, then they come to me and I explain it to them. I hope to increase the knowledge I have about God. I am not satisfied. Recently I was at the Holy Monastery of Caracalla and I was troubled. I wonder how much harder it is for a married clergyman in the world to be saved? I also read the book of St. Joseph the Hesychast and realized that I don’t know much, I am far behind in my knowledge of God.
I want to be very close to my spiritual director and other wise people to enrich my life with the truth. And to share this truth with people and thus inherit eternal life. , which only the Orthodox faith can offer. My vision is to become a saint and lead the souls of men to Christ.
π. Nicodemus Chilembwe
