The Warm Heart Needs Your Heart

Malawi, is affectionately known as the "warm heart of Africa".  This is derived from the friendly nature of the people.  I have found this to be largely true. It is reflected historically in the relative peaceable nature, the lack of civil unrest and war. When you contrast this against the rest of the region Malawi seems idyllic (not to mention the entire African continent) for example think of Zimbabwe, South Africa, DR Congo, Uganda and Rwanda are a little further but are still within a fews hours on a plane. All of those places have experienced warfare, massive unrest, international isolation and even genocide on a massive scale.

So when there is a political protest, which escalates to the killing of 19 Malawians, the ousting of international representatives, withdrawal of international funding from two major donors and a general feeling of unease amongst the people, everybody wonders what is going on in the warm heart?  It is definitely a complex and convoluted situation (everything normally takes longer in Malawi) and some of it but not all of it comes from lack of foreign exchange, a gas supply crisis, international economic downturn, political agendas, power complexes, pride, aid dependency (caused by us and our governments and "good" intentions), geography and the fallen nature of our world. All culminating in a serious disconnect between the government and its people.

In any case, Malawi needs your continued prayers. Prayers for restoration, restoration of the peoples faith in the democratic system and restoration of the power brokers use of democracy and the power given to them by the people.  With all that being said Malawi is still a very safe place, and is still the warm heart but in the last few months these realities have shown us how fragile it can all be.