Devison Makanda

If you are following us on Facebook, you probably know now about Pastor Devison and his problem with his left eye. Even if you don't, I will tell you his story next.

It happened about one month ago when the Pastor was working in his garden, in the village of Malenga, preparing things for the upcoming rainy season. At one point, he felt something in his eye, and he initially thought it was ashes blown by the wind. He just happened to be working close to a place where someone was burning dried grass and garbage.

As usual, he tried the clean his now irritated eye and continued to work in the field. Throughout the day and later on at night, he continued to feel as if that "something" was still in his eye. After a few days, he got worried and went to see a doctor at a local clinic in his village. Because the economic situation in Malawi is bad, that clinic did not have almost anything in stock, so they gave him some mild pain killers only.

Brother Devison at the conference in 2013 (wearing a tie).
Brother Devison at the conference in 2015 (to the left, in a white shirt)


Days and weeks went by and the situation got worse, up until the point where the pain was now too much to bear. His eye was very irritated all the time and tearing up.

Last Sunday, we went to visit a church in the village of Kotima, about 20 minutes away for Malenga. After the morning service, the pastor of this church told us about Pastor Devison, the fact that he was sick and that we should visit him to be an encouragement for him. Little did we know that the Lord was sending us to save his life.

Once we found out he was sick and missing church, we went to see him right away. To my surprise, I found Brother Devison in a very poor condition. He was clearly in pain and his eye looked very bad, irritated and oozing. I realized that something is wrong and, because it was Sunday, we made a plan to take him to a specialist the very next day, early in the morning.

Monday morning, Nov 23rd, we went to the local hospital to see an ophthalmologist. Sadly, we received bad news, that the eye is too far gone and there is nothing they can do to save it. The doctor recommended removing it. Since I didn't receive any other details of what happened and why they can't save it, I decided to get a second opinion, so we drove him to the next town, Blantyre, at a local private eye clinic.

We were saddened to receive the same diagnosis here, but at least the doctor explained what is wrong and why the eye cannot be saved. I understood that time worked against our Brother as he waited too long before seeing a specialist. His eye could have been saved had he gone there in time. It seems something or another got attached to his eye and it got infected. The cornea just rotted away to the point where there was nothing left now. The pain and all the oozing was his eye getting more and more damaged. Once the cornea was gone, his life was in danger because infections could travel all the way to his brain. According to the doctors, he was at high risk of getting meningitis which is fatal here in Malawi. They insisted that the Pastor should undergo surgery and have the affected organ removed as soon as possible.

Close-up picture of the infected eye

In the waiting room


I took our Brother home that day so that he can tell his family about the problem and about the solution. This week, on Tuesday, he was admitted at the local hospital here in Zomba and Wednesday, the eye doctor from Blantyre came to perform the surgery. Everything went well and Pastor Devison is now recuperating. Shortly, he will be allowed to go home.

This types of surgeries have huge implications here in Malawi, probably more than in Europe or the US. Not only will our Brother have to get used to seeing things with one eye, he will most likely suffer some emotional pressure because of the culture. Many people are mocked to some degree when they loose one eye, but here in Africa things seem to go beyond that.

Unfortunately, many people will blame witchcraft for our Brother's problem or will say that he was cursed. Adults from the village can avoid him or can talk about him that he is a cursed man. This situation can bring some form of separation between him and his family and, sometimes, he can even be attacked by angry people that think he may be bringing the curse in the village.

This is why it is very important that we keep praying for Pastor Devison. He is pastoring a beautiful church, "Thawale" Baptist Church in the village of Malenga. His work there needs to continue and he needs to stay strong and keep doing the Lord's work.

We met Brother Devison in 2013 when we had our first Pastors' Conference. He was and still is a faithful man of God, serving Lord and serving his people.


Pray for Pastor Devison.

Group photo, 2013

In the consultation room

After the surgery



Pray for us!
Pray for Malawi!

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