MALAWI
Stepping Into COVID Wave Three With Calm Assurance and a Beach Chair
W Volunteer Sharon Weaver Pittman serves as the vice-chancellor for Malawi Adventist University in Malawi, Africa.
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hat? Fifteen more students have tested positive for COVID? How can that be?” “But wait,” cautioned our dean of students, “there’s more news. Fifty additional students are in quarantine.” I fought back tears as I thought about resuming the all-too-familiar routines of sanitizing classrooms, purchasing face masks, and creating posters about social distancing. This was wave three of our COVID battle at Malawi Adventist University. We nearly sunk financially during wave one, and we could only imagine how bad this wave would be. The news from India left us shocked and afraid. Our COVID Preparedness and Response Team, exhausted from being on the front lines of this war, recently asked for an extra risk allowance. But our Executive Management Team had to deny their request because we were still paying the back salary of faculty who had to survive on 50 percent of their salary during
wave one, when the government closed us for an entire semester. I sat in my chair, running my hands through my graying hair. “Lord,” I prayed, “You called me to volunteer for mission service, but I don’t see how this could possibly be what You had in mind!” Never in my 35 years of experience in higher education did I dream that my “retirement” would be twice as busy and more challenging than my actual career. Never had I felt more devoid of professional insight and wisdom than I did at that moment. “Lord,” I pled, “please navigate the challenges that the devil has thrown our way.” While I sat in solitude, I sensed a quiet voice saying, “My daughter, I love this university more than you ever will. Step into the water, and I will part wave three as I have parted waves one and two.” Flooded with assurance, I called our team together, and we mapped our way forward in God’s strength.
