Food Security

Food security has always been difficult in Malawi, with floods and deforestation and an increasing population on a limited amount of sub-Saharan land. This last year has been increasingly difficult, however. Oil prices have increased three times and flour prices are double, so in the last few months the price of bread has increased by 30% and there are limits to how much sugar someone can buy at the store at any given time. Everyone knows that the price will go up by the time they go to buy more. And as we drive by fields this harvest season, we can see that the maize crops will not be great this year. There were less rains in December, and many people lost any crops planted in November. They had to replant in January, but then the rains stopped in April. So the maize we see now is dry and the cobs are few. We know that this does not bode well for the multitude of the population which is subsistence farmers.

But even with all this, we have a story of hope breaking through. The community of Mngwangwa formed a community garden group and tried a new type of farming this year, a farming method which used natural ground covers to lock in the moisture during dry times. The field planted by the community group didn’t need to be replanted, and the stalks grew high so early in the year that the chiefs took notice. The group worked together to make their own fertilizer using methods they learned in trainings from the previous year. The locally made fertilizer was more than ten times cheaper than the fertilizer available for purchase, and helped the filed grow so well that even the agricultural trainer didn’t believe that there was no extra fertilizer surreptitiously applied.

One pastor was impressed by the height of the maize, but said that you can never tell how good a crop will be until it is time to harvest. So we were waiting to hear how the harvest finished this year. Finally, Thokozani told us: She harvested three times as much from the community field this year as she harvested from the same amount of land last year. And last year was a good harvest year, compared to this year which is expected to be poor. But more importantly, she spent ten times less on her crop this year, because she didn’t need to purchase expensive fertilizer or hire someone to till the fields. We were thrilled to hear that things had turned out well for the group on their first year of farming in a new way. We have heard that sometimes it takes years for new farming methods to produce improved crops. So it is unexpectedly wonderful that this year went so well. Thoko says she wished that they had dedicated more of their fields to this new method.

Because the community field was able to harvest early, there was more food in the community at the peak of this year’s long hunger season. Thoko was previously concerned how the church could feed children and volunteers when last year’s maize ran out, and was considering buying at a high price when food was scarce. Instead, the community is able to use a large supply of fresh maize and it is available just when the other food available is at its lowest. Because of the new farming technique, they had 715 pounds of maize available, enough to get the community through the end of the hunger season. Last year, they spent $61 and harvested 275 bags of maize. This year, they spent less than one third that amount and produced almost three times as much. We are hoping that this is the beginning of improved food security during an otherwise difficult year.

April Details

Catching up on work in Malawi

In some ways, trips away from Malawi provide some of the biggest opportunities for us to step away from the busy, hectic pace and re-evaluate our long term goals. It also gives our local partners a chance to take ownership or projects, and to see what will be self-sustaining and what will not. While we were gone, a group of Nazarene Leaders attended their first full Training of Trainers course with a Community Health Evangelism trainer with World Challenge. After returning, we spent the final days of April talking with church leaders about next steps in trainings and community transformation. We talked about our priorities and the possibility of beginning some new partnerships at the refugee camp and helping individuals with grants and fundraising. Greg finished teaching his class and I reconnected with my patients. I worked a bit too many hours that first week back, trying to catch up on everything while meeting some deadlines for US-based work. But now I am getting back on track and trying to balance work with well-being. And my eye is only twitching every few days, less on days when I rest more.

Preventive Medicine and Work in America:

Last year, Christina began spending 10-15 hours a week working on projects in America, some of which supplement our income. Here are some updates from work on different projects over the last month:

San Bernardino Maternal Health: Although no women died in childbirth in San Bernardino County from 2008-2018, the San Bernardino County epidemiologist found reports of 20 potential pregnancy-related deaths from 2019-2021. Some of these deaths include violence and drug overdose, while others are direct complications from pregnancy and COVID. Over the next year, Christina will be working with a team to try to understand the deaths and try to develop systems that will improve them in the future.

Loma Linda University – Christina just submitted her third quarterly report for the 5-year HRSA funded grant to increase training of primary care doctors in Maternal Health Outcomes with Loma Linda’s Preventive Medicine department. Our team is progressing well towards our goals for the first year. This grant continues to be the largest supplementation of our income, presents the largest challenges, and provides the most job satisfaction.

Global Missions Health Conference: Greg, Christina, and our CHSC colleague Laura have been invited to present about transformational development at the Global Missions Health Conference this fall. We will also talk about the types of training that doctors can pursue to make more sustainable impacts on communities.

American College of Lifestyle Medicine: Christina is finishing development of introductory modules for the ACLM’s Lifestyle Medicine Residency Curriculum; the final portion the team is working on involves health disparities and how social determinants of health effect lifestyle, outcomes, and health equity.

American College of Preventive Medicine Christina helped write an abstract about the logistics of recruiting doctors into Preventive Medicine Fellowships which will be presented at the ACPM conference later this year.

American Journal of Preventive Medicine Christina is an editor for the new open access journal AJPM Focus. She provided advice about publications for the first research article she was asked to review.

American Heart Association Christina helped Cal Baptist University and Loma Linda University submit a proposal for a 4-year grant to develop a maternal health equity research network in the Inland Empire. We should hear if we’ve moved into the final stages of that grant in the next month.

AAFP Physician Leaders in Wellbeing Program: Christina continues as part of a cohort of doctors pursuing training in wellbeing for individuals and organizations. She is hoping that lessons learned will translate to improved wellness for herself and colleagues

Theology Class: April 2022 Update

As I teach Systematic Theology at the Nazarene Theological College of Central Africa (NTCCA), I find that each year is different than the last. I have taught this class since 2018, and each year I learn a bit more about how to ask questions and get my students talking among themselves – ideally about things which will really make a difference in their lives and in the lives of their churches.

Last week we discussed this year’s final assignment, which they turned in early. The assignment was to talk about ways that Christians and the churches they are a part of could live out their calling and bring in the Kingdom of Heaven. Many responses were very general, such as loving God or loving others, but with no details on how those things could be done. Receiving the assignments early ended up allowing a chance to talk more in depth about their answers, like how churches can help the people in their communities and show God’s love in practical ways. Perhaps the hardest part of this teaching is that those practical ways will look different in every community. Some churches may be able to bless their communities with feeding programs, while such a program may not be viable in others, or even helpful to some communities. In places like here in Malawi, something like an agricultural training followed by a farmers group may be more impactful than a church giving food over and over.

Celebrating Christina’s Birthday with her parents Finding how to show love in meaningful ways is not always an easy thing to do, and I am the first to tell my students that it is not my strong point. But just putting forth the question, and providing time to think about how that may be done is an exercise that is so necessary. If we never think about those we are trying to serve or their context, then the actions we take are not likely to be very meaningful or even loving. For these students, though, they still have some time to think about their callings and how they will honor God with their lives and make a difference in their communities. These students won’t be the ones graduating next weekend, but hopefully they are one step closer to being the men and women they were made to be, and making a positive difference in their spheres of influence.

This month, please join us in prayer for:

- Direction as we plan new trainings and some new directions in ministry with the church, at the refugee camp, and with wellbeing programs

- That we will have a good time with my parents as they journey with us for the rest of the month

- For recent deaths in our community which have strongly impacted a local family

Thank you for your prayers and support, - Greg + Christina