Why Widows are Important

The Bible tells us about widows and orphans. That’s our instruction manual on this earth.

James 1:27 says, “Religion that is pure and undefined before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction…”

That’s pretty self explanatory, if you ask me. We are to help the widows (the Bible gives qualifications for what a true widow is). But we don’t stop there, we go on to helping orphans.

Here in America, these are not real issues generally. But in 3rd world countries, both are issues since the governments rarely intervene on behalf of either group. So the Lord left it up to families and the church to be the go between.

In most of these countries, once a woman has had children with her husband and he dies to an accident or illness, the widow is left on her own. The families cannot generally take them in since they barely have enough to feed their own family.

Most widows have no trade experience. Most take care of the home and cooking. This brings in no income however. They are left to starve or turn to the oldest profession in the world-prostitution!

Many of these villages have never heard the name of Jesus before we get there. So the church doesn’t exist. And that’s where God steps in.

Isaiah 1:17 says, “…bring justice to the fatherless; plead the widow’s cause.”

So that is what we are doing today. We helped many widows in Malawi. It takes money to purchase machines plus someone has to teach them how to sew and BUDGET. You see, when you live day to day, worrying/budgeting for tomorrow, next week, next month, or next year is basically incomprehensible. Eating and staying alive are the priority.

That’s where we come in. In Malawi, we purchased Singer sewing machines for the church widows, plus 10 meters of material, zippers, thread, needles, pins, measuring tapes, bobbins, and whatever else was needed to functionally operate those machines. Cost of the machine was about $150 US. Cost per widow for material was about $50-$75 US.

We would budget before every trip on x number of machines and supplies for each widow. Then pray and let others hear the stories and give financially.

Psalm 68:5 says, “Father of the fatherless and protector of the widows is God in His holy habitation.”

God uses His children to take care of those less fortunate.

In Belize, we will do something similar. Pastor Marcos Ventura will be tasked with providing the answers as to how to help these widows in these fishing communities. We are praying that the Holy Spirit will guide him into all understanding of what must be done, then he will tell us, and we will reach out to you for financial assistance.

By the way, Chembe Soko, another godly man and interpreter in Malawi taught all the widows how to measure goods, use patterns, and sew. Thank you Lord for men like McLean and Soko!