Malawian man Yankho’s personal struggles began when his father passed away. Only a teenager at the time, he had barely begun to process his grief over what had happened before his mother had remarried and his stepfather moved in.
Initially, things were fine but slowly over time his stepfather changed and revealed his true colours to Yankho. His stepfather began to insult Yankho, which escalated to serious verbal abuse. This made Yankho long for a new family and in a bid to feel a sense of belonging, he joined a group of youths that soon led him to a life of excessive drinking. He looks back and sees that this was like trying to quench fire with fuel because it only worsened his situation. His stepfather eventually chased him out of the house resulting in him squatting in a shack.
Yankho was miserable, lonely and trapped in alcoholism.
On the morning of October 23 2023, Yankho’s life was drastically changed during the Lilongwe Adziwe Yesu mission.
It was not a good start. In fact, the mission volunteer who struck up a conversation with Yankho quickly realised he was drunk! But the missioner persisted. Yankho showed he had previous knowledge of the Bible, but thought these were just stories from a book. But he kept on referring to Paul’s conversion story as he encountered Christ on his way to Damascus, and eventually revealed that he, too, had been hearing the voice of God calling him to repentance.
“In the past few days, I have been dreaming about heaven,” Yankho told the missioner. “In the dreams, I saw the sky open and then, a sharp voice came out of it. The voice said that I should repent but I ignored it. I would simply go back to sleep again. I have been troubled but I have been ignoring it.”
The missioner gently helped Yankho to understand this truly was God calling out to him, and Yankho soon realised, “I cannot ignore the call anymore. I need Christ and I am ready to dedicate my life to him.” Yankho humbly surrendered to God!
But Yankho’s story doesn’t end there! After he prayed with the missioner and received Christ, he took the missioner to his home and showed him where he was living. On their way back, he called his friends who were playing pool to come and hear about the message of the Christ that he had received. In the beginning, they ridiculed him, chalking this unexpected behaviour up to his drunkenness. But later they too came to believe and gave their lives to Christ as well.
While his newfound faith is a strong foundation, Yankho must make many changes in his life to get it back on track and to honour God. Please pray for him, that he will be able to overcome his alcoholism, connect with a good church, and learn how to discern God’s voice and will from the Bible.