News

Harold shares about the trauma of his robbery last year.

Recorded October 2023

Note: Please remember Harold and his family in prayer. This incident followed and equally traumatic experience in March 2023. Harold and family feared for their lives as their home was caught in the gap between two major mudslides during Cyclone Freddy.

In March 2024, Harold had a further upset when he was mugged in Lilongwe

Transcript

My name is Harold Makawa from Njuli and working with SALT.

What happened recently with my family was so horrible. Armed robbers came. That was on the 18th of September. Monday night around 11:00 the robbers came fully armed with guns and they banged our doors but they were not able to break the doors so they resolved to break the wall.

In the meantime we tried to call for help but help didn’t come until they came to where we were.

They were really looking for money and we didn’t have any money in the house.

We are so grateful that they left after 2.5 hours or so.

Just to say briefly about the Lord’s preservation and providence. The Lord knew what was coming. We didn’t know what was coming.

I had some literature I wanted to take to our depots in Mulanje and Chikwawa so I was just keeping them in the house.

When the thieves came the robbers came. They pulled all the boxes and all of the the the bags and they were just opening and Bibles and tracts everywhere. And so we see that in that in itself the Lord was able to speak to them about who we were.

And so yeah the Lord preserved our lives because we’ve heard cases where people have been attacked by robbers and they have been so much hurt or cut by panga knives [machetes].

But we are so grateful to the Lord that they didn’t beat us. They didn’t even hit us but all they did was just to demand the money from us.

So we saw that the Lord so much preserved us.

Talking about myself and my family when it comes to people praying for us we We we are so traumatized still because of what happened. It’s not easy to live with the mind that you are the target of thieves in an area. And so we just think of what is before us in terms of the Lord’s work and we feel somehow discouraged but we just request that the people be praying for us that despite what has happened the Lord will help us to continue on and never be discouraged.

On the first morning of Harold & Stephen’s trip to Lilongwe, Harold awoke to the news that thieves had broken into the storeroom at his home. They stole 70 Bibles just brought from Lilongwe the week before, as well as other “katundu” (personal stuff) belonging to the family. On the same night they made a further (unsuccessful) attempt to break into the new home he is trying to finish about 1KM away.

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Brother Stephen is currently in Malawi and will appreciate your prayers. Particularly remember the following:

  • Safety & security* while traveling and for good health.
  • Guidance regarding best use of limited time
  • Wisdom for the decisions to be made regarding future direction of the building project
  • Literature distribution
  • Visit to Dzaleka Refugee Camp and possible Gospel work there

*Note: The economy in Malawi is really struggling. Increasing poverty is making the security situation worse. See this recent article in the Guardian newspaper.

Please pray for Bro Harold’s health. He has had a recurrence of the back pain he suffers from time to time. In conversation with Stephen, it transpires that Harold has been carrying rocks from a nearby mountain to build a security wall around the new house he is constructing.

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Please pray for Harold, Egly & their family who have just suffered an attempted burglary at the new home Harold is constructing.

Although the thieves did not manage to enter the house, they did damage a window frame in the process. Harold has not yet managed to install electricity so it remains vulnerable to thieves during the hours of darkness.

It’s ironic that this has happened while Stephen is in Malawi to, among other things, review security of SALT’s people and property there.

Deteriorating economic conditions have caused an upsurge in theft recently. This further incident highlights the need for us constantly to keep the safety and security of the work and workers in our prayers.

ENLIGHTEN | ENCOURAGE | EMPOWER

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