A Christian message

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I want to experience the Reverend's church service so have arranged for the orphanage driver to take me with him.

The service is meant to start at 9.30am but when we arrive at 10am things are just getting going. It is raining outside (again) so we rush into the small church with its rows of plastic chairs and stage at the front. I am ushered to the third row at the front and sit there alone until other staff from the orphanage join me. Seven singers with mics are on stage with three musicians on keyboard, guitar and drums - there's a lively beat and singing belting out across the church. Some of the congregation sing and dance along in the groove.

After about thirty minutes of group singing, one the pastors speaks in Chichewa and then solo singers take turns to sing along to tape music.

More words are said in Chichewa and more singing. The Reverend and his wife arrive and sit in the front row, they turn around to greet and welcome me.

The Reverend takes his place standing on stage with his laptop positioned in front of him on the lectern, with one of the pastors standing next to him. He starts to speak and I'm pleased it's in English, while the pastor translates each line into Chichewa. He makes a special welcome for me and I'm asked to stand up briefly so everyone can see me.

They use the mics and start in normal speaking voices. Firstly a short Bible reading about the virgin birth and then the sermon. The message is about how things don't always go to plan and how God works in mysterious ways, and how we are asked to do things that we didn't originally plan (ie Joseph having to stand by his pregnant fiancé).

The rain is hammering down upon the church roof and the doors at the back are open so the noise of the rain is loud. Half way through the sermon the power goes out - the mics don't work and lights go out. The Reverend and pastor shout loudly across the room - it's a dramatic effect of their voices booming out with passion, piecing through the darkness.

The message turns to Christmas and what Christmas really means. The Reverend explains... In America people are dying of obesity and too much food and in Africa people die of too little. People in America can eat so much and yet still not be satisfied. Somehow we need to bridge the gap between those who have and those who have not. We need to come together.

We are told that Christmas is not about eating but about compassion, forgiveness and love for others. He continues... be generous this Christmas, and if you have food give some to someone who doesn't have any, if you have clothing give one piece to another. True unadulterated religion is to care for the orphans and widows.

Their voices boom louder as the Reverend uses cloth to wipe the sweat from his face ...Do something shocking this Christmas! Do something unexpected and care for someone else. The Reverend turns to me again and says - Marie has done something shocking and has come to spend Christmas with the poor - you should follow her example. (But I know what I am doing is so little).

His words are so powerful and moving and it is hard to sit there and remember all the Christmas luxuries back home - all the food, presents and over indulgence. It is true that if we were to share there would be enough for everyone, but why are humans such naturally greedy animals?

At the end of the sermon the Reverend and his wife leave the people to continue singing - and as they walk out they beckon me to follow them.

We sit down in an adjacent room. I say how moved I am at his words; his voice is struggling now after the shouting and he is still mopping his brow.

I ask him about his trip to the UK. He explains that he had a meeting with the Liverpool school of Tropical Medicine to discuss a new HIV testing clinic they are hoping to open by the end of the year. He tells me that often the very drugs meant to help people with HIV actually kills them - as the drugs must be given with adequate food. (This reminds me of how the American troops killed many of the Jews they rescued at the end of the holocaust by giving them their food - after years of starvation their bodies could not deal with food and it killed them). How deeply sad to be killed by that which is meant to make you better.

Here clinics try to give out food such as peanut butter with the medication, but it is not always enough.

And as I have subsequently found out from a health worker staying at the hostel there are other problems with giving out HIV drugs. Firstly clinics need to make sure they have sufficient supply of the drugs to last a person's lifespan before they start the medication, as it is worse for a person to start and then stop taking the drugs than start them at all. But as you can guess clinics often run short of drugs and treatments have to stop. Secondly people do not always properly understand how to take the drugs and sometimes stop taking them of their own accord.

The health worker, who is based in the Democratic Republic of Congo, also told me that as they try to promote the use of condoms in the prevention of HIV, government officials are telling the people this is lie and that the virus is so small it can go through the condom.

Life is hard here at even turn - and I'm just not sure what else to say.

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