Day's Diary

January 19, 2007 ~ Silas

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Many of us from Pittsburgh Presbytery know and love Silas Ncozana. He spent a year with us as a missionary to Pittsburgh from Blantyre Synod. He spoke in our churches, telling wonderful stories and preaching powerful sermons, and I think he invited half the Presbytery to come to Malawi. He is affable and engaging, as we know. But he is much more than that. We know his credentials - a master’s in divinity from Princeton Seminary, a PhD from Aberdeen University in Scotland, former General Secretary of Blantyre Synod, former moderator of the General Assembly of the CCAP, former Malawian Ambassador to Tanzania and then Germany, and the list goes on. But more than all of these former titles, he is a dreamer who makes dreams a reality. Life around Silas is always an adventure. And in the midst of that, he is an unassuming man of God, a servant – a larger than life character, but always a servant.

There are evidences of this all over Blantyre Synod. When Dan Merry and I were here for Synod meetings in November of 2005, we visited Silas’ two small churches, both out in the villages. There he had begun Saturday morning feeding programs for the orphans in the areas, one program in each church. Last Sunday, I preached at the smaller of the two churches and I was amazed at what has happened there. Not only were the feeding programs still going strong, along with Christian education for the children, but they had built a small kitchen for the women to use for preparing the meals, and then available for church meals as well, like the one the women prepared for us after the service. He has helped them dig a bore hole well to provide, clean, safe drinking water, and is having one dug in the village nearby, as well. We went to check on the progress of that well after the service. Next to the well at the church is a garden plot for the church, to help feed the poor. Off to the side of the garden is a pile of fired bricks. I asked Silas about them and he smiled and said I was looking at the medical clinic, or at least what will become the medical clinic. He hopes to have it built and staffed one day a week by August. At present, for the villagers to receive any type of medical attention, they must come into Zomba, about a half an hour trip by car or several hours of walking. No one in the village has a car. The church is growing and the ministries to the community grow.

Likabula House is one of Silas’ passions. It is a property that the Synod owns on the side of Mulanje Mountain. It was designed as a youth camp, but fell into some disrepair. Silas convinced the Synod to have it refurbished as a retreat center and a source of revenue for the Synod. They gave him permission, if he could find the funds, which he has done and the renovations are nearing completion. He goes once a week to check on the progress and to work with the staff there. How he gets there is part of the adventure. At present his precious Land Rover is not working. It broke down on the way to Likabula House last week and had to be towed back to Blantyre, where it is slowly being repaired. Last week we went to Likabula House in my truck, over roads that were an adventure. This week, he decided that he needed to go, but I needed to go to Blantyre at a later time, so he suggested that he take a minibus and I meet him at the minibus stop in the afternoon and we could come back to Zomba together. (A minibus, for those who have not been to Malawi, is an old VW or Toyota bus, designed for 7 passengers but here hauls 12-15 for a price. They are crowded, unreliable and unsafe, in many instances and the drivers are wild.) Margaret went to Blantyre with me in the afternoon and when we picked Silas up, he regaled us with the tale of his trip to Likabula House. He started on a minibus that was going to Mulanje, but when it didn’t have enough passengers to make the trip profitable, the driver reimbursed Silas part of the fare and left him to find other transport, while the minibus returned to town (very typical). Silas hitched a ride in the back of a truck, rode on a bicycle taxi (on the back of a bicycle whose owner charges less than a minibus for the ride), and walked from the base of the mountain up to the property, then reversed the pattern coming back. Each time he found someone who was willing to give him a ride. He doesn’t mind riding in the back of an open truck. He just wants to get where he needs to go, by whatever means, to get done what needs to be done. Then he laughs as he tells of the travels and the people he meets along the way. In two instances he got rides from people he knew or who knew him through a relative. Twice the vehicle in which he was riding was stopped by the police because the President’s motor caravan was coming, but when the police saw Silas, they let them pass.

The people are the important part, as far as Silas is concerned. No one is a stranger and everyone is important. He greets everyone. Many already know him, since his full head of white hair makes him stand out in a crowd, but then he has served many of the churches in the Synod and is known by members of the congregations as well. Even going into Zomba with him is an adventure. There are many “street people” in Zomba, young and old who have no real home and find shelter in the streets. He has begun a program for the street children to provide an evening meal for them, with tutoring and then a meal. Yesterday we were in town and two little boys came up to me to beg for money. Silas intervened and spoke to them in Chichewa. Later he told me he told them they were not to beg, but directed them to the shelter. Silas says he hopes one night to sleep with the children on the street, just to experience what they do. Margaret just laughs at him, but I think he will do it someday. Silas is on a first name basis with many of the older adults who live on the streets, as well. He chats with them and sometimes gives them money, sometimes not. He seems to know which needs are real because he knows the people. He has a heart for people. Even going to the bank is an encounter with people for ministry, from Silas’ perspective. It is always an adventure to be with Silas.