07 Prayers

[pp65-66 in Prayers & Pancakes for Malawi by Annette Morrison and Georgie Macmillan 80p.

Glasgow: Malawi Millennium Project, 2007. ISBN: 978-0947649654]

Thoughts and Memories from Professor Derek Law

The Home of Hope Orphanage at Mchinji was founded in 1998 through the vision of Rev. Thompson Chipeta, a retired Presbyterian minister who himself grew up as an orphan. The orphanage was established with the idea of the children living in ‘home groups’, each group of up to 25 children being cared for by a ‘mother’. The mothers are usually widows who are given accommodation, food and a very small allowance (if finances permit). Each home group has its own house catering for 25 children. There are over 400 children now. All children of primary school age are educated at the local school, older children are sent to fee-paying boarding schools (which is the usual system of secondary education in Malawi); and a skills centre teaches such crafts as sewing, knitting, carpentry, bricklaying so that the children will have training which should enable them to find work in due course.

Tom Chipeta has the same answer to every problem that faces him, namely ‘The Lord will Provide’. It would never work as a strategic plan, but, quite infuriatingly, he’s always right! On my most recent visit with a friend who was new to the country we saw this in action. Although the Home is now registered as a charity in the UK, one always feels the need to take a few pounds to hand over to try and allow a few luxuries for the kids. Joe and I took $120 between us – about 16,000 kwacha – carefully stowed in an envelope in my jacket. Although we had arrived unexpectedly and unannounced, Tom took us on the tour of the property, through the land they farmed and past the fishponds to ‘The Fax House’, a small covered colonial stable turned into a place of private meditation to send messages to God. On the way back down to the rooms where the AIDS babies were living their few days of life, the conversation went as follows

Me: So how many children are there here now? It was 300 on my last visit.

Tom: About 400.

Me: How have you coped with that growth?

Tom: The Lord will provide

Me: Anyway, it looks more than 400

Tom: Yes actually it’s 420 now.

Me: Tom, you can’t keep growing the place forever. It’s a logistical nightmare. How will you cope?

Tom: The Lord will provide! I know we should stop but we can’t turn kids away

Me: But you need to stop sometime.

Tom: I know. But that’s not so easy. Only yesterday two girls arrived aged 14 and 12. Their father was dead and mother had just died. They were thrown out of school as they couldn’t pay the fees. But they are good bright girls, so I wrote to the headmaster yesterday and asked him to take the girls. We have 17 pupils at his school and we pay the fees regularly, so I said that if he kept the girls on we would pay all the fees when we got some money. Then last night I went up to the Fax House and prayed to the Lord to provide – and he will. We couldn’t just turn he girls away.

Me: But you can’t keep doing that Tom. I mean, how much are the fees?

Tom: 8000 kwacha each – 16,000 for the two.

The envelope felt as though it would burn a hole in my pocket as we arrived at the nursery, then went on to evening service in the chapel with 400 lustily singing children, including the two sisters for whom Tom’s prayers had indeed been answered, even if he didn’t yet know it.

Professor Derek Law

University Librarian and Head of the Information Resources Directorate,

The University of Strathclyde