Celebrate with me: Jackie’s four-month wait for power

After months without electricity in the heat of Malawi, one WhatsApp message turned patient prayer into shared celebration.

“Celebrate with me! We finally have POWER!”

When that message landed on WhatsApp, it carried more than good news. It was relief, joy and answered prayer after a long, hot, exhausting season of waiting.

Jackie Griffiths serves at the Chifona Trust in Malawi, where she is doing what Marty described simply as “amazing work”. But for four months, she had been doing that work without electricity.

It began when the transformer serving the compound blew. The electricity company was unable to source a replacement in the country, and there was no clear timescale for when the power might be restored.

A generator was switched on twice a day for one hour, just long enough to charge some batteries, mobile phones and help keep things in the freezer cool. Beyond that, there was no electricity. No fans in the heat. No fridge for cool water. At night, the whole compound fell into darkness, with solar-powered lanterns offering what light they could.

Jackie did the groundwork. She put in the request for a new transformer, then followed it up with emails and phone calls. One month became two. Two became four.

And all the while, people were praying.

Many Elim missionaries face arduous situations as they follow the call of God, often far from home and in circumstances that ask a great deal of them. Jackie’s story gives a small window into that reality. Sometimes faithfulness looks like preaching, teaching or pioneering. Sometimes it looks like carrying on in the heat, without a fan, without a fridge, and without knowing when the lights will come back on.

Then, after four months, the message finally came.

“I was beginning to doubt this day would ever come,” Jackie wrote. “After four months of no power, our transformer was installed this afternoon. I’m now sitting here listening to the beautiful ‘whirring’ sound of the fridge, about to catch up on some ironing... after having a hot shower, blow dry and straightening my hair!”

It is a wonderfully ordinary list: a fridge, an iron, a hot shower, a hairdryer. And that is exactly what makes it so powerful. These are the everyday things many of us barely notice, until they are gone. For Jackie, after four months without electricity, they became reasons to celebrate.

The Apostle Paul wrote of being hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken. Jackie’s months without power were not dramatic in the way missionary stories are sometimes told, but they were deeply real. Uncomfortable, draining, persistent and unseen by many.

Which is what made “Celebrate with me!” mean so much. It was not just one woman’s relief at hearing the fridge whir again. It was the sound of an answered prayer after a long season of waiting.

For Jackie, power meant practical relief. For those who had been praying, it became a shared moment of gratitude. And for all of us, it is a reminder to keep holding our missionaries before God, rejoicing with them when the answer comes, and trusting that He sees every unseen act of faithfulness.
 

This article was first featured in the Your Elim newsletter. You can read the Your Elim newsletter here, and sign up to the newsletter here.