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By Linda Wegner
 | | Powell River pastor Jenn Wright plays soccer with local children in Bagula, Malawi. |
FOR several Powell River residents, November 2 marked
an end – and a beginning.
After more than a year’s worth of planning, fund
raising, enduring the effects of medical shots and scheduling flights and
accommodations, five people departed for Africa: Jenn Wright, pastor of
Powell River Foursquare Church; her mother, Sharon Wright; and church
members John and Nia Wegner and Andrea Atkinson.
They left their upper Sunshine Coast community that
morning to begin their journey to the Tiyamike Mulungu Centre in Bangula,
Malawi. They, along with 10 suitcases packed with 500 pounds of items such
as clothing, diapers, medical supplies and soccer balls, set out to fulfill
the call they had sensed for over the past year.
Tiyamike Mulungu Centre is the fulfillment of yet
another vision. Pam and Will Phillips went to live in Bangula, Malawi in
2003 – with, they say, no specific plans, other than to love people.
As they became aware of the plight of hundreds of
orphans in the area, they visited the Public Health Department in the area
– where they offered to take children from desperate situations into
their home.
Within days, 158 children had been identified –
and soon four of them settled into their new home.
As their adopted family began to grow, it was necessary
to obtain a larger house. At one point, while waiting for construction of
their new dwelling, the Phillips and their newly acquired family lived in
Red Cross tents for two and a half months.
The Phillips are now mom and dad to more than 120
children from infancy to the age of 18. Even with a staff of some 70
people, volunteers and financial support are always appreciated.
It was the plea of one of those volunteers which
motivated the Powell River contingent to answer the call of God to
minister.
Ellie Hagey, a nurse from Seattle and a friend of the
Wrights, had been to Bangula – and was invited to share her
experience with the Powell River assembly.
“She told of how she’d been to Africa the
year before,” Sharon Wright said. “She said it had been her
life dream to go. It was never a dream of mine, though!”
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Nor was it Atkinson’s natural desire to respond
to Hagey’s invitation to consider investing some time in helping at
the orphanage. Although she says God had been speaking to her about service
there, she definitely wasn’t excited at the prospect.
She’d been to the continent some 20 years
earlier, and had memories of the poverty, of the nearly impassable
‘roads’ and the sweltering heat. It was only a growing sense
that the Holy Spirit was speaking to her heart which caused her to consider
going.
“I said I would pray about it,” she noted.
“After that, it was just a journey of one open door after another. I
kept going through open doors – and I ended up being there. It turned
out to be a really amazing time for me. Because I’d already been to
Africa, the biggest impact wasn’t seeing the poverty and the
situation as it is – it was seeing God’s response to my
obedience.”
 | | Cultural exchange: pastor Jenn Wright passes on the grand old English tradition of patty-cake. |
Response and obedience wasn’t made any easier by
the weather. There were days when the thermometer exceeded 45 degrees C;
and a powerful storm left the orphanage without power or water for several
days.
It was the response of the children, and the provision
of the Lord, which made the difference. When asked to tutor several girls,
Atkinson found material which she’d previously taught her own
children and students in a Winnipeg-based Christian school.
For Sharon Wright, being part of a team which took care
of the babies was a big challenge. “We were instrumental in taking
care of two little boys that had been dropped off at the orphanage a week
before we got there.”
One of the boys was critically ill, requiring
Hagey’s nursing skills. “Ellie put in a feeding tube that was
at the orphanage. We watched him come back from death’s door. That
was one of the highlights for me,” she said.
For John Wegner, however, the trip was both rewarding
and deeply troubling. “I’m still processing a lot of
things,” he said, adding that “the greatest impact” of
the trip was the way it challenged his perspective.
North American Christians, he asserted,
“can’t come with all the answers. We need to come along side,
stand with the Africans – and just be. I expected poverty – but it was the joy of the people
that impacted me. They were loving God, singing all night.
“They have so much joy in spite of the pain,
death and lack of basic necessities. They have singing, and relationships.
In the eyes of the world they are poor – but they are rich.”
January 2008
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