By Jessica Ercolino, Staff Writer
ALLENTOWN — For a group of Allentown Presbyterian Church parishioners, a recent trip to Africa had them not only molding bricks, but fashioning a new perspective on life in an impoverished place.
The group of seven returned home Aug. 15 after spending nearly two weeks on a mission trip to Malawi, in east central Africa.
”I think I speak for the whole team when I say that overall, it was a very rich, rewarding and meaningful time for each of us,” said Bob Rhoad, who was joined on the trip by his father, Ed, and his son, Ethan.
Charlie Lyons-Pardue, Hal Boston, Hal Boston Jr. and Ann Darlington also went on the mission, which marked the beginning of a partnership with Sakata, a group of 14 villages in the poverty-stricken nation of about 14 million. The site is an hour and a half north of Blantyre, the city in Malawi where the church’s pastor, the Rev. Stephen Heinzel-Nelson, and his family have been doing mission work since January.
One of the group’s main missions in Sakata was to begin work on a preschool and orphan care center, for which they spent the majority of the trip building bricks. While in Africa, the Allentown group contributed to the completion of 2,500 of the 150,000 mud bricks needed to complete the facility. Groups from the villages will continue to work on a rotating basis to build the remainder.
”Looking at the work we did, it wasn’t that impressive,” said Mr. Lyons-Pardue. “But I think the friendships that were built are so much more important and will make a much bigger difference in the end than a thousand bricks ever could.”
Rev. Heinzel-Nelson echoed the sentiment in his family’s blog, “From Allentown to Africa,” at www.apcmalawi.blogspot.com.
”As the strangers from New Jersey worked alongside the villagers of Sakata, more was being formed than simple mud bricks,” he wrote. “We were forming a partnership with people who in so many ways couldn’t be more different, but when you work in a mud pit, after awhile, everyone looks the same.”
Malawi is considered the fourth poorest country in the world, and 65 percent of the nation is living below the poverty line, according to the United Nations Development Programme. The average family income in Malawi is $350 a year — less than $1 a day.
Before traveling to Malawi, the church purchased 200 mosquito nets for villagers to help combat malaria, a big health risk there. The parishioners said their time distributing the nets was key to learning about the community and its struggles.
”We heard from many villagers that the harvest this year was not very good due to heavy rains and as a result, they will not have enough food to get them through the year,” Bob Rhoad said. “It was sometimes very emotional and difficult to hear their stories, wishing we could do more to help alleviate their suffering.”
He added that access to education in Malawi is limited, inhibiting the country’s ability to bring itself out of poverty. The government provides primary school education, he said, but students enrolling in the American equivalent of high school are charged annual fees of $50 and many cannot afford to go.
Mr. Rhoad said he hoped speaking to the villagers also would make an impact on his 13-year-old son because “we can tell him until we’re blue in the face how lucky he is to not worry about food, clothes and shelter, but seeing it is a different story.”
Ethan agreed. “I expected to see poverty there, but some of it was more than I expected,” he said.
”It’s been hard being back home, seeing how we have everything when over there they barely have enough to survive,” Ethan said. “I’m trying to change my way of living.”
One encounter with a woman who had only eight bags of maize when she needed 11 to feed her family for the year stood out in the boy’s mind. When Ethan asked what would happen, the woman said they would likely starve if not helped by their neighbors.
”It was pretty powerful to see that people could live in those conditions and still be OK, because they actually seem a lot happier than us,” he said, adding that many villagers spent their days singing, even while working.
Ethan said he also enjoyed playing soccer and other games with children in the villages, despite speaking different languages.
The group is hoping that construction of the preschool building will be completed by December, before Malawi’s rainy season. The facility will not only provide lessons for preschool students, but also provide at least one good meal a day for children and a space for medical personnel to tend to them.
In addition to brick building, the parishioners met with village leaders to identify other issues facing the community and determined a need for a maize mill to help process the harvest, access to safe water and repairs to bridges that flood often. The church will continue to work with Sakata during their newly formed “long-term relationship,” Mr. Rhoad said.
”We will work with them in the future to address as many needs as we can,” he said. “Rather than just buying them bags of food, we will help them to improve in a sustainable way where they can have long-term benefits.”
In June, members of the group spent 72 hours on a man-made raft on the Allentown Lake as part of a “flotilla” fundraiser and attended the area’s Freedom Fest Fair. Nearly $13,000 was raised to purchase the mosquito nets and building supplies for the trip.
Several members of the group have expressed interest in returning to Malawi and perhaps making the mission an annual event.
”When confronted by the overwhelming situation many of our friends (in Malawi) find themselves in, it can be tempting to think that all the work our village can do to bless their village will still just be a drop in the bucket. And that may be true,” Mr. Lyons-Pardue said. “But we cannot choose whether or not we will have an impact on this world, only what kind of impact it will be.”
Anyone wishing to donate or be a part of the mission is encouraged to contact the Allentown Presbyterian Church on High Street at 609-259-7289.
