Medical Mission Co-workers find a home away from home

Paul Heller had already served as a PC(USA) pastor for 35 years when he and his wife, Darlene, decided to take on a three-year assignment at a nursery for AIDS orphans in Malawi. Paul is director of Ministry of Hope Crisis Nursery in Mzuzu and Darlene is the matron. Together with their staff they have loved and cared for, and saved the lives of, hundreds of infants.

Ministry of Hope Crisis Nursery was founded in 1999 by Fletcher Matandika, a young Malawian who was alarmed at the growing number of AIDS orphans in the country. Today, Malawi is faced with caring for up to 2 million orphans. It’s clear that the Hellers and the Crisis Nursery are needed.

“By far, the most difficult part of our 3–year Mission Co-worker assignment is the absence of our life-long loved ones,” write Darlene and Paul Heller. Like their anticipated time in the U.S., they find regular trips home make them more effective. “Next week we are heading home. And yet, we are already home. Admittedly it is more difficult to feel at home when we are not fluent in the language or comfortable with the culture. On the other hand, our relationships  [in Malawi] with our friends, our associates, our house, our job, and our geography are quite comfortable. We are definitely at home.”

The Hellers no doubt speak for most medical mission co-workers who leave friends and family to minister in a new culture. They need our prayers as well as our support to keep going, to not be discouraged, and to begin to feel “at home” in a strange country.