With the blessings of our new Metropolitan John, in the very difficult period we are all going through, we are living a miracle… Indeed, the word of our Gospel is true, assuring us that love will never cease to exist! What greater proof can our souls ask for to be assured of the truth of the word, when, in the midst of a great crisis, simple, anonymous and poor people from Greece cooperate and manage to fill a 25-ton container with a pile of goodies and send it to be distributed to their poor and distressed brothers and sisters in Malawi? This is a period of hunger, anxiety and uncertainty as the country’s economic situation worsens with continuous devaluations of the national currency, while the abnormal delay of the rains indicates that survival will become a perpetual trigger situation! On the rains rests the success of every new crop. Maize, which is the staple food of the Malawians, from November onwards, is planted and waits for the rains to grow. But this year, its success is very doubtful. The richest have reasonable suspicions that they will become poor and the poor will starve to death!
In the midst of this insecurity, the container arrived in the country as a gift from God! All of us who attended the opening of the “great gift” were filled with joy as the sight we saw was tons of food, tons of clothes and so much more. Flour, sugar, rice, pulses, clothes and shoes, school supplies, church supplies and many more essentials. Priority in the groups that the container will be distributed to is given to the prisoners. The joy they make with a bar of soap is indescribable. With a bag of rice that we distribute to them, they have great joy that they will be able to soak it overnight in water and, together with sugar, enjoy it as the best dessert in the world… In the women’s prisons, unfortunately, there are always a few children up to 2-2.5 years old, who accompany their imprisoned mothers… They are usually shy and timid. But as soon as they realize that there are toys and that they will be given them, then their face changes! In the parishes the distribution is more joyful and solemn. Usually after a worship gathering, the joy is always the same… There you do not distinguish who has the greatest joy: the one who gives, or the one who receives?
Our brothers and sisters, the distribution has already begun and with God’s help we expect it to be completed quickly. The joy and emotion of all of us is great, but great is also the responsibility and the effort to ensure a fair, impartial and well-organized distribution. Only then will we have the satisfaction that your effort and ours have not been wasted, but have paid off. It is still our great joy, as the new works you commissioned us to drill wells in the Govati and Kalibuga areas have, with God’s help, been completed. The gratitude of all our indigenous brothers and sisters towards the donors is very great. The excitement and joy of all in the surrounding area for the water, this great good they have enjoyed, we feel comes out as a prayer, as thanksgiving, as praise to our Most Merciful God, who truly is the One who inspires in His own people such pious desires.
We pray and ask God to strengthen all of you who are working for His glory and for the relief of our struggling Malaysian brother! Again we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your support to us. May God bless and sanctify you all. With the love of Christ
π. Hermolaus from Malawi
