Divine Encounter

God blessed me with David Nixon as my seatmate on my 18 hour flight from Atlanta, Georgia to Johannesburg, South Africa. Within the first five minutes of stowing our bags we learned of the reason the other was traveling to the continent and experienced the joy of knowing that God had orchestrated our meeting. David is by profession, a computer software programmer; by heart and by calling, a visionary and missionary. He has built and opened a school for orphans a few kilometers outside the Malawi capital city of Lilongwe. At the time I met him he was feeding a few dozen orphans a day and preparing to meet with the local chiefs and government officials about the school nearly ready to open. That has been about a year ago now. During a recent phone conversation and e-mails he told me they are now feeding and educating 138 orphans five days a week. They are working toward providing vocational training for adults. They have also been able to provide clothing and medical treatment for the orphans during the last year.

In the surrounding villages with once monthly deliveries they provide enough mix to provide a bowl of Vita-Meal daily for over a thousand registered children. Vita-Meal is a corn meal and soy mixture with vitamins added. One bowl of Vita-Meal each day provides 100% of the RDA of vitamins and nutrients. This provides the vital things they need, but almost never get, in their local foods. This nutrition gives their bodies a greater ability to resist disease and sickness.

David and a local chief with whom he negotiated for greater freedom of The Noah Project as an independant village.

The NOAH staff do gospel outreach and church services in addition to the humanitarian work. They have seen many come to Christ and need more workers to teach and disciple the new believers. The NOAH Project plans to acquire more land and to be able to build homes for their staff who have to travel long distances to work. They hope to gain freedom from being under the jurisdiction of some of the local chiefs who have caused much trouble for the project work in the recent and distant past.

The work God is doing through David is inspiring. For more about the ministry in Malawi go to

http://www.thenoahproject.org/ . N.O.A.H. stands for Nlira-Wanga Orphan Aid Home. Nlira-Wange means “I am crying for my own” in Chichewa, one of the native languages of Malawi. David has been able to take his experience with the NOAH Project and share the methods and contacts with missionaries in Haiti and is seeing many hungry fed there.

David was instrumental, not only in inspiring me, but in easing my concerns my first two days on the African continent. My six day journey to my first destination in Malawi included an overnight in Johannesburg, South Africa. There David helped me to find a hotel room and gave me lots of advice for staying safe in a city that is known not to be so. He had arranged for a tour of some of the sites in Johannesburg for his own overnight in the city and was granted permission for me to tag along on the guided tour. The museum tour was an emotional one. South Africa has racial problems on par with what the US had in the middle of the last century. They have come a long way but still have a tremendous journey ahead of them.

"If you have courage, you will influence people based on your convictions. If you lack courage, you will influence people based on your comfort zones. Courage will take you anywhere you believe God is leading you. Without courage, you will go where you are comfortable." Wayne Schmidt