Zambia’s Inonge Nawa knows firsthand what it means to have no place to go to, and no one to turn to. She experienced deep rejection as a child from the person who was supposed to offer her the most unconditional acceptance, her mother. Inonge says, "From childhood, I felt my mother didn’t really love me. I remember one day we were in a shop and I called her "Mom" and she was very, very annoyed with me. She didn’t want me to call her "Mom," and that really broke my heart, I grew up thinking that nobody really loved me."
Owing to the rejection she knew growing up, Inonge’s life went down a predictably destructive path. She got married when she was very young, and when that didn’t work she got involved with married men. At one point, she even found herself homeless. She says "I used to drink and do all sorts of things, but one day I said, "Lord, I want to know you." I gave my life to the Lord and I just sensed some peace. The love that I was looking for, I found for the first time in my life."
Inonge no longer felt rejected, but she still turned her back on others because she just didn’t know how to show love; That was, until she had an encounter that would forever change her life. It was January 1995, a man who appeared to be mentally ill had asked Inonge for money. "I told him I didn’t have any money. I went to the Post Office and dropped some letters, went into another street and into a shop where my younger sister was working. When I was coming out of that place, I met this man again for the second time and he wanted money from me. I told him I didn’t have money, when I had money quite all right. Then when I was about to jump on the bus, near the market, I saw this man again in front of me asking me for money. I told him I didn’t have the money, and then the man just disappeared, right in front of me. I realized that the man was not an ordinary man, but the Lord Jesus Christ."
Inonge felt the Lord was calling her to help others through her experience, so she started "Matthew 25 Ministries," named for the scripture in the New Testament. "I read the book of Matthew 25, verses 31 to 46 which reads, "I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat. I was naked, you clothed me. I was homeless, you invited me in. I was in prison, you visited me." Matthew 25 Ministries, embraces those otherwise rejected by society, Inonge says, "The spirit of the living God was revealing to me that mental illness is a disease like any other disease. The Lord would want people to look after us when we are sick. That is the way the Lord wants us to look after people who are mentally sick. From that day, I felt the Lord was calling me to minister to people who were mentally sick."
Inonge says it was God who told her to take care of Tabita, a mentally ill woman who had been on the street for years. "I said, "Lord, this woman, has been on the street for years?" I’ve never heard of anybody looking after people who are mentally sick, but I felt the Lord really wanted me to get Tabita out of the streets, so I got Tabita out of the street. It was not easy."
Today, Tabita is living a normal life. Matthew 25 Ministries, doesn’t just open its heart to the mentally ill. Inonge says they take care of "The albinos also because they go through a lot of rejection. Many people don’t want to be near them and this really breaks the heart of God. So, as a ministry we reach out even to the albinos." The ministry also reaches out to the widows, orphans, lepers and prisoners, and she does it without asking for money. "I find it very, very difficult to go, asking for money." The money comes to the ministry from people who believe God has told them to support Inonge’s work.
A partner of the Mathew 25 Ministry talks of how God led her to give to the ministry, "I knew that I could not do the kind of ministry that she was doing, and I asked the Lord, "Lord, what can I do to help?" And the Lord said, "If you can’t accompany her, you can support her in whatever way." From that time, I made a commitment that whenever I have anything, I would give it to her."
Through her ministry, Inonge has encouraged those who know her. A friend, Margaret says of Inonge, "She humbles me. She just makes me feel like there’s so much that we have to do and that we can do." Inonge hopes Matthew 25 will teach the world the true meaning of love. She says, "The greatest of the commandments is to love the Lord our God with all our soul, our strength, our mind and then to love our neighbors. Who are our neighbors? Our neighbors are the blind people, the lame people, our neighbors are widows and orphans, people who are in prisons, those people who are mentally sick and the homeless."
