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They Can't Persecute Me! I'm a Senior Chief!

Senior Chief and baby Christian, Godfrey Chidothe

Today in Malawi, I learned something I never knew before. All of the rural villages in Malawi are named after the current village headman (who can be a woman). When the village elects a new headman, the village name changes to his or her last name. That is why you can’t trust any map of rural Malawi. But it gets worse. if a village headman moves to a new village and is elected the headman, the name of his old village moves with him!


All of this explains why it is no coincidence that headman Godfrey Chidothe, in the photo above, lives in Chidothe Village. Godfrey is actually more than a headman. He is a “senior chief,” and in his chiefdom, he oversees 67 other village headmen. In the world of Disciple-Multiplication Movements (DMMs), Godfrey is what is called a “Person of Peace,” that is, someone who is already influential and whose conversion has great potential to influence others to believe.


Godfrey became interested in Farming God’s Way (FGW) four years ago when he observed the results of others who were practicing it. What he learned, he put into practice in his own maize field, and his next harvest was his best ever. In four seasons his yield has grown from 15 bags (of about 110 pounds each) to 85 bags! He’s a rich man!


As a respected Muslim community leader, Godfrey was hesitant to join a “God’s Love Group” (GLG) where members not only learn advanced methods of FGW, but also study the Bible and learn to follow Jesus. But two years ago, he visited a GLG and continued attending. He told us that “the Word of God is so powerful.” He soon believed that Jesus is the divine Son of God, and he committed himself to become His follower. His wife and children followed him, and he has led 16 other Muslims in his village to Jesus so far. He told us that he still wears Muslim clothing (like his hat in the photo above) so that he doesn’t set up unnecessary barriers to the gospel.


Jerry Jefferson asked Godfrey if he is being persecuted for his new faith in Jesus. He said with a smile, “They can’t persecute me! I’m a Senior Chief!” Besides that, hunger is being eliminated in the village that bears his name, and other villages are taking notice and asking questions.


Below are a few other photos, with captions, from yesterday and today that I took in Muslim villages we visited where God’s Love Groups and Farming God’s Way are opening hearts to the gospel. Of the 460 God’s Love Groups that have been planted in southern Malawi in the past few years by Charles Mithowa and his disciples (see previous blog), 150 consist entirely of Muslim-background believers!

The joyful woman with a suspicious daughter is named Elizabeth. She told us that Farming God’s Way (FGW) got her attention two years ago. She not only noticed that her Muslim neighbors who were practicing FGW were getting good harvests, but that their character and behavior had changed. They told her they had become Christians and invited her to their God’s Love Group. She started attending and became a believer herself.

Before she started FGW, the most maize she ever harvested was 5 bags. Last year, however, she harvested 12 bags, and this year 17 bags. She also said that she is “praying day and night” for her Muslim family members, friends and neighbors and going into their houses testifying of what God has done for her, and they are following her!
This 70-year-old widow of Mitabali Village is named Ajamia Macdonad. She is also a former Muslim who joined a God’s Love Group four years ago and has been Farming God’s Way for three years. Her previous best harvest was 2 bags of maize. Over the past three years, she has reaped 4, 7, and 10 bags. She said she loves to share her faith and make disciples. She has won all the women in the background to Jesus and disciples them in two God’s Love Groups! She asked us to drill a water for her village as we have done in about 70 other Malawian villages. Seven of her eleven children died of water-borne diseases like cholera.
I told Mariam Chioko, a very happy citizen of Pemba Village that we also visited, that although she looked like a Muslim, she had a smile like a Christian. She explained that she is a Muslim on the outside but a Christian on the inside! She joined a God’s Love Group last year and heard the gospel for the first time in her life. She became a Jesus-follower, and He has blessed her. In her first year of Farming God’s Way, she harvested 11 bags of maize from a small plot of ground that previously only yielded 2 to 3 bags. Maize is the primary food of rural Malawians, and such a mono-diet is not the healthiest. As FGW farmers advance in their knowledge, they begin to plant other crops.

Mariam currently walks one hour one way to collect water from a Heaven’s Family-drilled water well in another village. But before that well was drilled, she walked much further. In fact, she said her husband divorced her in 2019 because she spent so much time each day fetching water. She requested a water well in Pemba Village. I told her and all the other women who had gathered (the men were all out working) to pray to Jesus, and He would surely answer their prayer.
Two cuties at Molande Village, another place God is moving among the Muslim citizens.