"But Jesus said to him, 'Do not forbid him, for he who is not against us is on
our side.'" (Luke 9:50)
The retirement of my late Dad, Wiston, from Malawi Police service, coincided
with the decree by the first president of the Republic of Malawi, Dr. Hastings
Kamuzu Banda that all Asians doing their trade in rural areas should move their
businesses to either cities or district headquarters. He therefore, used his
pension monies to buy two shop houses from an Asian trader, Thanker at Nkhate
Trading Centre in Chikwawa where we finally settled as a family home.
Nkhate is well known in the Shire River Valley for its fertile soils. The
inhabitants grow variety of crops for commercial and subsistence. There is an
irrigation scheme that gets its water from Nkhate stream which flows from the
Thyolo escarpment. My father became a well-known farmer in the area. He owned 14
acres of rice field and 60 hectares where he could grow maize, sweet potatoes
and cotton. He used to hire labours from Ntowe Refugees Camp located in Nsanje
in 1980’s.
Robbery of farm produce was so rampart at Nkhate that farmers had to guard their
crop fields. It was from that background, that my father one night ordered his
hired labours, Farnando and Arhinisto to go and keep watch of the potato field
after noting that thieves started stealing the tubers. The two employees were
hesitant to Dad’s request because they did not want to work over-time
considering that they had already finished their daily task for that day. My
father considered of going to watch the crop field alone not knowing that the
two guys changed their mind and decided work over-night.
The situation was terrible when Dad reached the potato garden that night. The
sky had dark clouds showing possibilities of rain drizzles. As he was busy
watching, he saw two men coming towards the field. He tried to chase them, but
they never retreated, instead the supposed robbers, started pelting stones to
him. Wiston reiterated by shooting at the two men with his spear and arrows he
had for protection. The fight took more than two and half hours. The two guys
were over-powered by my father and fled for their dear lives. Lucky enough
nobody was hurt.
Next morning, the two employees came to meet Dad and explain what they
encountered on the previous night errand at the potato field. To my father’s
amazement, the story narrated by Fernando and Arhinisto was similar to what he
experienced same night at the potato field. He told them that he chased two
thieves in the field during the same night. So it was concluded that Dad and his
two employees had been fighting each other at the crop land in their quest to
curb down theft. I and my twin sister Mary laughed to our lungs upon hearing the
episode. Thank God that none of them was injured.
My father Wiston and his two employees had one purpose of protecting sweet
potatoes from thieves though they did not know each other’s mission during their
night encounter.
John, the disciple of Christ, wanted Jesus to stop some believers who were
casting demons in Christ’s name from performing those miracles simply because
they were not amongst Jesus’ followers. But Jesus answered him that whoever was
not against them was for them.
Churches today castigate themselves because Christians have forgotten that their
purpose is to spread the gospel of Christ. Christians are not adversaries in
their ministries despite belonging to different denomination. Jesus did not stop
believers outside his gathering to preach, perform wonders and spread the good
news to others. He knew quite well that in so doing God, the Almighty had been
exalted. Why then with the same objective do we insult and castigate one
another. We have one mission of spreading the gospel so that each and every
human being is saved and have eternal life.
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