Our last night in Manyamula Village, Malawi, the SIA team met with the Manyamula COMSIP cooperative management team to celebrate13 years of working together and to plan for the future. I have deep respect for these leaders who work tirelessly to reduce poverty and to promote prosperity for all in their community. As the sun set and the air grew cool, Matthews Mahowe – a farmer, schoolteacher, COMSIP leader, and Small Business Fund grant recipient – recited his poem of thanks and praise for SIA. He performed the poem in the local language, Tumbuka, and Canaan Gondwe interpreted in English for us.
A song of praise and thanks for SIA
by Matthews Mahowe
I have a song of praise and thanks for SIA.
Yes, I have come out of the depths of poverty because of the Small Business Fund.
Life of food insecurity, begging, even poor clothing, I am out of it.
I have a song of praise of SIA and the whole Board.
When I sleep and have some inside thinking, I think about SIA and the Board.
Why would I fail to sing a hearty song for SIA and the board?
When I see the motorbike, when I see maize mills, when I see people eating well, I think of SIA.
When I remember the time when Boyd and Tanya were doing the ground-breaking,
These remind me that I sing the song of praise.
In 2014, Tanya and the Manyamula COMSIP Team breaking ground for the Training Centre, guest house, and office building, completed in 2017! Matthews is pictured to the right of Tanya.
We have been given funds for five years for operations what stops me to sing the song of praise?
If I fail to sing a song of praise, if it birds from the bush who will sing that song looking at the infrastructure and bricks.
Leave me alone to sing a song of praise.
When I see that home, the office block and the guest wing block, then I have tears of joy and gladness falling through me.
If dead people were to come alive, they would have said, “God bless Spirit in Action.”
If you look at the chairs, if you look at the cooking pots, and women dressing well, that is part of SIA’s support.
Singing a song of praise for the Maize Mill.
SIA affects changes again through Sharing the Gift.
We have a story of a project, Pig-Pass-On, whose major source is the maize mill from Spirit in Action.
We have also this concept of Sharing the Gift, which is a concept born of Spirit in Action, through the Small Business Fund.
Yes, even the district commissioner came to say that, “I have never seen a huge project like
this one done by local people.”
So, we thank you, Spirit in Action!
Tanya Cothran and Rebacca Mahowe in Our Grace Mini Shop. Rebecca and her husband Matthews were the first Small Business Fund recipients in Manyamula Village, in 2004. They started the restaurant, then a grocery shop at home. Rebecca buys chickens then she cooks and sells them. The family is now able to afford good clothing, food, and education.
This poem was also featured in our latest newsletter, available here!
Blessings for a happy Thanksgiving!
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