Greg Harper helps create hope for tiny African village

“As soon as we’d helped them complete the church we wanted to do something to help them be more self-sufficient. Malawi suffers from droughts, and growing and storing grains to last through the really hard months (January through March) is a challenge. We asked Lewis, the pastor of Kasanjere, what they needed, and we initially keyed in on a storage facility to store maize. We purchased a manse with 75 acres of land (for $5000), and sent money ahead of our next trip, in 2007, for renovations, with a plan to build the storage facility without delay.”

“Once we realized that there had to be something to put in the storage facility, we refocused the project on first establishing an infrastructure – getting water into the acreage, the ability to plant and cultivate crops of maize, harvest, store and mill the grains. This kind of work is helping the people to make a difference within their own community. Future plans include cattle, honey bees, more types of grains … anything that will help them improve their lives and nourish themselves.”

Interestingly, Greg felt that he accomplished more on a personal level in his first five weeks in Africa than in 24 years of high stress policing. “Feeling the effect that your presence has on the people is the most rewarding aspect,” he said. “They are truly unbelievably thankful for what you do, even though – to be brutally honest – to us what we do isn’t really that much.”

Greg and his fellow church members plan to continue with the endless work that can be done in Malawi, to help. By being present, by forming personal relationships with real people, means that their plight is not something you can, in good conscience, walk away from.

As Greg said, “It’s not so much what you do there as about what you do when you come home. It’s about building awareness, educating people about the situation, and finding others who are prepared to help. The tiniest amounts of money can help in major ways. And more important than all of that, it gives them hope once they know they are not forgotten.”

The work continues.

[Knowing about this story, Tempo Toronto has recently sponsored two high school age children so that they may complete their last year in school and graduate. If you wish to support Greg Harper and his church's cause, please contact us. tr@tempotoronto.ca]

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