Since a year, I am a board member with the For a Change foundation and I may use the talents I received to be a little part of the work that is done in Kwanjana. Although I did not visit Malawi yet, I feel a lot of connection with the field workers and with the entire foundation. My wife knew the Foundation, and because of her, I got involved. My wife told me about everything she saw and experienced in Malawi. Besides being able to help the people who live in poverty, the work also is a mirror to me.

As was told by many people before me, in The Netherlands we have an enormous wealth compared to Malawi. Wealth, that is material most of the times. When I look around and look at myself, there are a lot of ambitions that we want to reach. But those ambitions tend to distract us from our life goal on earth: living in dependance of God and to honour Him. In The Netherlands, I find it hard to think about people who need my help. Often, I feel that other people are more qualitied than I am to help. For a homeless person, there is shelter, for a person who does not have enough food, there is a different foundation. And it is also hard to find out what our neighbours really need.

For a Change shows me how I can help other people. It seems more clear that the people in Kwanjana need our help. It is so good to see that we have the possibility to share our wealth. But it is also a marker for us, in our Western daily lives.

All around us, there are people who need our help. Maybe not in the form of food or money, but in de form of attention and love. It is our mission to not seek our own good, but the good for other people. And love is a unique gift that is given to humans, and not to organisations and foundations. Love is a flower that was planted in Paradise.

It is exciting to give love to people we hardly know, to give them attention and listen to them, to offer them our help, or to hug them. But everyone gets the opportunity to share the love they received. Not because we have the love from ourselves, but 'because He first loved us'.

We hope to visit Malawi in the future, to see how all the support the Foundation receives is converted into helping the Malawian people, but to also learn how to share our love with other people. If the Lord is willing.