Jumping Into the Chaos with a Humble Guide

I have lived here for two years, and in this short time I have encountered flooding, drought, and tornadoes. In addition, there was a bit of political unrest during elections, along with the former and current governments being plagued with cash scandals, theft, and other corrupt practices. This has angered many donors, and many have stopped budgetary support for the government. These troubles only add to the “normal” challenges that other low-income countries face, such as poor infrastructure, lack of access to quality education, poor medical services, food insecurity, and so on. It is amazing how many things can go wrong in this little country that most people can’t even identify on a map.

On top of these challenges, Malawi has thousands of civil society organizations, local and international development organizations, missionaries, and international institutions trying to help the country and its people. Much of the effort is not well-coordinated; at times it is like a kitchen in which 10 children are running around trying to cook and bake. Sometimes a delicious plate of cookies emerges; other times it is just a mess.

I have always known that “development” is complex. Development workers are social workers, and we as broken people are working with broken people. We are chefs, with our recipe of how to achieve a desired result, and as we implement a project, we keep a close eye on what is happening and add a little bit of this and a bit of that to try to produce the desired outcome. We are scientists, with our hypotheses of what we think will happen, and we track our progress and our results. We are teachers, thinking we have the information that may benefit someone, but we need to think of how to present the information so that it will be accepted by the listener.

One of the unique ways in which World Renew works is that it implements quality programs through local organizations, thereby building local capacity in the process. Building capacity can include training and mentoring field staff all the way up to organizational development such as strategic planning and staff structure development.

Many of the local organizations we work with are the development arms of churches. Churches in Malawi are often plagued with scandals and financial mismanagement, however. One of our oldest and biggest partners, Nkhoma Synod Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP), was caught up in a financial scandal that resulted in donors stopping their funding and requiring the church to pay back misappropriated money. When I started working here, the scandal had just come to light. Peter Timmerman had been the regional team leader for close to two years at that point, and he was meeting with the leadership of Nkhoma Synod, trying to help them understand what was happening and the possible courses of action they could take. He walked with CCAP through a process of taking ownership of the mistakes, exploring options, and rebuilding after the scandal.

As Peter concludes his role as Southern Africa Team Leader at the end of August, I will continue with this rebuilding process. While I approach this task with a bit of trepidation, I am also so thankful for the way Peter has modeled this process of helping organizations develop their strategic plan. He has helped me to understand the unique way that churches can make the greatest impact in communities. He has demonstrated the way we should conduct meetings and planning sessions with adults that encourages creativity and participation. He has even modeled humility as we approach people with whom we may disagree. It has been a huge pleasure to have Peter Timmerman as our team leader, mentor, and friend, especially in a country with so many challenges.

I wish him God’s blessings in his next journey in life. Since I don’t know any Dutch blessings, I will leave you with an Irish one:

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
the rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of his hand.