Living in Malawi, Africa, has given SR MELISSA DWYER, a Canossian Sister from Brisbane, a different answer to the question she remembers being asked as a child, “What do you want for Christmas?” She writes from her missionary home in Malawi
ADVENT is a time of waiting. Each year we wait as a Church to celebrate the birth of Jesus, who desires to be born anew in our hearts.
As I have moved through the season of Advent this year, I have been conscious of the people of Africa waiting for various things in their lives.
This sense of “waiting” is very significant for the people of Malawi, who spend so much time waiting …
The people are waiting for the rains to come. People of Malawi depend on the land for their income, so if there is no rain, there is no harvest and consequently no food.
If the rains don’t come during December, famine will hit during the following year as the crops of maize or potatoes won’t survive the heat of summer.
With a sense of desperation, the people of Malawi wait for the rain.
The people are waiting for fertiliser. Last Sunday I was driving through our village and saw hundreds of people waiting.
Looking closer I saw that they were lined up waiting to receive their one bag of free fertiliser from the Government.
The shop doesn’t open on the weekend, so these people, many of them elderly, were just sitting, waiting.
They had slept there for maybe two or three days, and then sat in the scorching sun, waiting for their turn to receive the fertiliser to help their crops to grow.
There is no other possibility, so the poor just sit and wait for those who have money to come and assist them.
I can’t imagine standing in a line for three days to wait for anything.
The people are waiting for a cure.
Diseases like HIV/AIDS and malaria continue to decimate the people of Malawi.
With so many people suffering from HIV, it’s easy for a person to become complacent about this deadly disease because it’s everywhere – young children, students, people who we meet in the church – so many people are suffering.
Yet the look in their eyes speaks of hope – hope that one day maybe there will be a cure and that if they can just survive long enough, then maybe a brighter future awaits them.
The people are waiting for Jesus.
Without a doubt, Malawians are people of faith. Each week, churches are full of faithful people who come to pray.
Many times they walk long distances to reach the church, arriving dripping with sweat due to the heat.
Due to living in remote villages, often a priest only reaches them once a month for Mass, yet they gather together to celebrate their faith, the source of their hope for a better tomorrow.
Surely they know how to celebrate, dancing and singing with such joy in the church that one can’t help but be touched by their love for God.
To see women, literally dressed in rags, dancing with such emotion praising God leaves me questioning my own commitment to my faith. I have everything I need, yet I lack the joy-filled heart of the people of Africa, who seemingly have nothing, yet are so rich in their love for God.
They know that Jesus will come this Christmas, and that as promised, he will turn their mourning into joy, their tears into laughter.
They trust that as the star appeared to the lowly shepherds announcing the birth of Jesus, so too will God appear to each one of them, providing them with all that they need.
They wait, and they believe, that the Saviour will be born again this year, and that with Jesus, they have more than enough.
In our western society where everything has to be done instantly, maybe we have lost the sense of what it means to truly wait for something.
While we look for faster cars, faster computers and faster service, I think we have a lot to learn from the people of Malawi about waiting – about patiently sitting and waiting for whatever it is we are seeking.
Often I can become frustrated when I have to wait five minutes at the bank, yet I am challenged by the image of the women waiting three days for a bag of fertiliser.
I remember as a child people asking me, “What do you want for Christmas?” An African Christmas doesn’t involve Christmas trees, or presents, or wrapping paper.
Students don’t even dream of receiving anything.
They looked puzzled when I mentioned Santa.
Yet this year if people asked me what I want for Christmas, I know what I would ask for.
On behalf of my brothers and sisters here in Malawi, perhaps the best Christmas gift God could give us this year would be rain for their crops to ensure food security for the coming year.
Or a cure for AIDS. Or the opportunity for our students to be ensured a good education as a key to a brighter future.
These things might seem simple, yet food, health and education are the three greatest needs here in Malawi.
More than anything else, the people of Malawi wait for a new tomorrow. And they will continue to wait, and to smile, even in the midst of daily struggles for survival.
My hope this Christmas is that each one of us might continue to be filled with wonder at the awesomeness of the birth of Jesus. Let us learn what it truly means to wait, so that we can fully appreciate with gratitude all that we have received.
And let us pray that in some way God will continue to provide all that is needed for those in greatest suffering in our world.
