Conversation with two men who fight sexual exploitation by rescuing girls. Trauma safe house. Counseling and safe housing. Sharing the gospel.

Listen as a podcast by clicking the black box below or go to your favorite podcasting place and search for The All Gifts Podcast . . . or read the blog version below. You can also watch the video filmed in Malawi.

In the last episode I told you about the amazing experience at the Men’s ministry meeting. As I shared, I was so impressed with the men who came out. They were hungry to learn more about Jesus. Hungry to be transformed. To live lives of integrity.

Before I went to Malawi I couldn’t picture all that When the Saints does in addition to providing safe housing and trauma counseling to girls rescued from sexual abuse and trafficking. They do so much more for their community. They go back to the villages where the girls are from, gather the men together, and teach them about sexual integrity and treating women with dignity and respect. There’s so much to it and I couldn’t think of a better way to share that with you than to have the When the Saints men’s ministry leader Akim Banda on the podcast to tell you about what the good work he and the other men are doing.

You can see this conversation on video or read the transcript below:

Pandora 0:00

Hi, thank you for tuning in to the All Gifts Podcast. I'm your host Pandora Villasenor and I am so excited to be recording this from Malawi. I've been here for the last couple of weeks. I’m here with the executive director and founder of When the Saints safe home, David Peterka. And here we have a very special guest. This is Akim. What's your last name Akim? What's your surname?

Akim 02:34

Banda

Pandora 02:34

Oh, Banda. Ah, yes, that's right, Akim Banda. And the reason why I wanted Akim to join us tonight is because I am so impressed that the safe house isn't just a safe house for the girls. But there's also tons of work that's done in the community to have the men in the community empowered and educated and spiritually inspired to stop the cycle of abuse in their communities. And so Akim is the Men's Ministry leader and works with David in that very special ministry. And so I thought you all would want to hear a lot more from Akim to hear more about that ministry. So that being said, I'm going to turn to you and just ask you a few questions. Is that okay?

Akim 03:18

Yeah, so, okay,

Pandora 03:19

and then David can help translate if needed.

Akim 03:21

Nice.

Pandora 03:22

Yes. So Akim, how long have you been working at When the Saints?

Akim 03:28

I started working with When the Saints now is four years.

Pandora 03:35

Okay. And how old are you?

Akim 03:37

I'm 29 years old.

Pandora 03:39

29. And I heard you're getting married?

Akim 03:42

Yeah. Next year . . . I'll be 30.

Pandora 03:45

Yes. Okay. That's awesome. I love that. Okay, so tell us about why you started working at When the Saints? What was it that compelled you to want to help these girls and to help the men in the community with this, this problem of sexual abuse?

Akim 04:03

Well, oh, I was doing something at my college, about teaching. And the teaching profession. But

Pandora 04:18

yeah, like a teacher of little kids or big kids?

Akim 04:24

Like, you know, little kids, like from Standard 1 to Standard 8.

Pandora 04:30

Okay, and are those grades, David? Standard?

David 04:32

Yeah.

Pandora 04:32

One standard eight.

David 04:34

Yeah, primary school, standard ones to standard eight is the same as grades one and up to grades eight.

Pandora 04:39

Okay. All right. Great,

David 04:41

which is yeah, elementary and middle school combined.

Pandora 04:43

Okay. So you were a teacher?

Akim 04:46

Yeah. So I did teaching because my parents were like, we don't just, you know, want to see you without something to do. So the first principally, "Oh, let me join teaching." Because I would like to make my, my parents feel good about me. But when I was at my college school, I prayed. I have three days of prayer and fasting. Then I was asking God, what's the purpose of my life? What do you want me to do for you? Then on the last day of my fasting Jesus tell me that you'll be the unpaid pastor. So in my . . . like from that time of my life, and if I hear that . . . what I mean is that in the past I need to gain something. But it was like "what? an unpaid pastor?" then I asked my friends, including David. They was like "yeah, oh, there are other people that have been called to the full ministry. And other people, they just be called maybe, to help in other things, then they also do other things. So then I didn't know what career is that, then my friend, called Newman, he also encouraged me like, "right now, just, you know, keep it in your heart, that you are a pastor, but you need to obey the assignments which Jesus tell you to do." So when I explained most of these things to David, you were just encouraging me, then it comes the time when David was asking me, “Akim? Can you help? Like When the Saints especially to build up the men that you know, so that they can walk in the sexual integrity,” then I was like, "what?!"

Pandora 06:58

That was your initial reaction? Yeah, okay. All right, we're gonna pause there just for a moment just to make sure that was completely clear, because that was a really awesome story. So that will give you a moment to breathe. So to summarize David, do you mind recapping a little bit?

David 07:15

So his parents were putting pressure on him, you know, to pick a profession. And so he felt like he just had to choose something. He chose teaching while he was in school. He wasn't positive, "is this what I'm going to do with my life?" So he spent some time fasting for three days. And at the end, he felt like the Lord was leading him to be more of a pastor more into ministry, but specifically an unpaid minister. So he was wondering, he said, in Africa, a lot of pastors tend to get a lot of money and, you know, call people to give lots of money to the church and things like that. So he he was a bit confused by this. So he had to kind of seek direction, even asking me for advice, asking some other friends. You know, what exactly does this mean? I remember the conversation talking about bi-vocational ministers, and how not all ministers, you know, take a salary from the church, but even like Paul was a tentmaker. And so, you know, I'm even remembering back to those conversations. And so ultimately, I approached Akim and asked him if he was interested in being a part of When the Saints to be our, you know, our Men's Ministry leader. And I remember he even said, Okay, I would love to do this, I'd love to be a part of this. But I do believe I have a calling over my life to be a pastor, and so I might be leaving. And so that's when we said, you know, it can be possible that you work with When the Saints and you become a pastor at the same time, and we would be honored, you know, to have a pastor on staff with us. So that yeah, that's still, I believe, in the future. It hasn't happened yet. But

Pandora 08:47

Yes, and I've had the pleasure, my friend Kim and I, who's here on this trip with me, have had the pleasure of seeing Akim do Men's Ministry in two really powerful ways. One was the evangelistic night. And then the other was the Men's Ministry groups. And when I heard about these things from David, I couldn't even begin to wrap my mind around what I was going to see and what I was going to experience and even as we talk about it, you're not gonna be able to get it I do have some great videos and you know pictures I can post but . . . but from your own words, I would love for you to just share what the Men's Ministry and those things that you're doing, have to do with helping these girls. What does . . . what's . . . when you go out and you do those groups, how does that help these girls? What's the relationship between what you're doing and what we're doing it When the Saints with the girls?

Akim 09:44

Well, what we're doing with the men it is really connected in the helping the girls. But if you just look at the things then you will not see like, "Oh, it is helping" but if you can see inside of the Men's Ministry, you can really see that the girls are really helped. Because the abusers of the girls are men. So when the girls are coming to the safe home, we look around and When the Saints is getting more girls and more girls, but we never know, in the villages, in the communities, who was the one abusing the girls. So Men's Ministry is going in the village, preaching the gospel to them, you know, discipling men to walk in the light of sexual integrity. So when men, like accept Jesus, and to be transformed and they glorify Jesus through the work of the holy spirit there in a man. So by doing that, Holy Spirit help give them the fruit of love. So when they have Holy Spirit, they cannot live, they cannot, you know, do abuse versus they will be respecting any girl as their sister and any woman as their mother. So that is really helping to reduce sexual abuse.

Pandora 11:12

Yes, yes, what a beautiful, like cycle is being broke, like, but a beautiful way to break an ugly cycle by getting at the root, at the heart of men, to redeem their hearts to become more like Jesus so that they don't want to abuse girls or women anymore. That's so good. And I think you're coming across really, really clear, I can understand you. But just in case, you know, someone listening might find that to be hard to do, I'd love for David to summarize what you said just a little bit, and then we'll come back to you a little bit more.

David 11:47

So Akim is just saying that it might be hard to understand exactly how working with men can help a girl who has been abused, you know. And so he's just saying that it's very important. Especially there's not always justice thats served to a man who has sexually abused, you know, a girl. And so to go into a village and gather the men together, and teach them about treating girls and treating women like their sisters, and like their mothers with dignity and respect, can really create a culture of . . . that's different a culture of freedom, rather than a culture of abuse. And even as these girls are returning back to their communities, you know, we believe they're going to be returning to communities where women and girls are treated with a higher level of dignity. And so it helps, you know, kind of sustain an environment of healing. And that's the way that these two ministries can be connected.

Pandora 12:42

So about 10 days ago, a team of us, there were five of us. So as myself, one of my best friends, Kim, and David's mom, Roni, as well as a wonderful couple, Tracy and Mario, Mario is a co worker of mine, and he's the one that actually initially introduced David and I, came here 10 days ago, and we had the chance to go to Akim's Men's Ministry nights. We did two different events, we did one which was showing the Passion of the Christ in a field that was in between like three villages. And so earlier in the day or week, maybe Akim went out, and he got the the community excited to come out and watch this film. So it's like on a projector screen in the middle of the field, and it was so amazing, because for them, they don't have movie theaters, they don't have opportunities to see things like this. And so people came out, I mean, hundreds of people, to see this film, and then afterwards, we got a chance to pray with them. So it was one of the most powerful spiritual things I've ever gone to. Later on. I asked him, you know, how did you pick this community? Or, you know, we were all curious, how did you know to pick this community? And what he explained to me was, they intentionally have the girls in the safe home, they'll go back to their communities, even before the girls are done with the program, and they will go out and as David calls it, sort of sensitize them to this issue of sexual integrity. And, and they do so by, like Akim shared earlier, sharing the gospel of Jesus. Because Jesus Christ was a man who was about freeing the oppressed, fighting for injustice, and taking care of those who nobody else takes care of, hearing those who have no voices. And so it's just amazing to me, how people were impacted that night and how hungry they were to hear, you know, just a beautiful message about Jesus. And then the second thing we got to do was the Men's Ministry group. And so if you could just share with us a little bit about where are these men's ministry groups right now? And what locations and how did you pick those locations for the groups?

Akim 14:54

Well right now we have seven men's minstry groups in which we have also, a small group of Men's Ministry facilitators, we recruited them and trained them, so that they can also, you know, like use the gospel to, like, you know, through them, the gospel also go to other people. So they are like agents of change. So they go in the villages to facilitate the men in different groups.

Pandora 15:36

Wow, how many men are in that team of facilitators?

Akim 15:42

Right now have seven of them.

Pandora 15:44

Okay. So David, give us a little bit of recap of this. So you have seven men that are on Akim's team, who go out and facilitate these men's groups. Tell us a little bit more about that.

David 15:55

Yeah, so there are seven different villages that we've hand selected and trained up seven leaders that can go out weekly into these groups, gathered together men, the one that we visited had over 70 men that were a part of it, just all hungry, to know more about what it looks like to walk in sexual integrity. We've had men just, you know, raise their hand and say, I struggle with issues, you know, even like beating my wife and I just have so much anger, and it overcomes me, and I don't know how to, how to cope with it, how to manage it, you know, is that something you can help me with, and it's just amazing, to see their vulnerability and see their openness, and just that desire to want help and want to walk, you know, next to someone like Akim and these group leaders, you know, into learning how to have a better marriage and be a better father and be a better better husband, things like that.

Pandora 16:49

Yeah. And watchmen for their community, not just their own personal family. But in many of these meetings, there will be chiefs, which are leaders within their community, right? Yeah. So one of the things that really impressed me about this Men's Ministry meeting as we walk in, there are five of us with David, so there are six of us total, and they want to hear from us. So we walk in thinking, we're gonna go and listen, and observe, observe, like what they're doing. And instead, these, these men, like the 70, men who belong to it, as well as all these boys, all these children, and all these, you know, visitors who probably don't always go, all piled into this room, and they wanted to hear what we had to share. And so my friend Kim shared her testimony. And, you know, two of us were guys, you know, David and Mario, but the rest of us were women. And they really wanted to hear from us, which I thought that was really amazing. Just their openness to not just hear from us, you know, in general, but to hear from us as women to share our hearts and to receive us so well, it was just very warm, and very welcoming. And it just felt like, what an amazing way to stop the cycle of abuse by inspiring and empowering and healing the men's hearts in these communities. And this was a community where, you know, there have been girls that came to When the Saints from this community. Right. And that's why you selected it.

Akim 18:13

Yeah, that's our priority.

Pandora 18:15

That's the first priority. I love it. Okay, so tell us a little bit about, we're going to wrap up with just, I really want to understand, like, what challenges you've faced, and yet, in every challenge, right, God makes good Romans 8:28, he makes good for those who love Him. So can you think of a challenge that has come about through this ministry and yet what gift God has given you through that challenge?

Akim 18:42

Well, sometimes when we are going to the communities, as we are meeting with, you know, hundreds of people, sometimes they say that, yeah, we have received Jesus to be our personal savior. We really need to be just honed to walk in a new level of sexual integrity. But we need Bibles. Sometimes we just say like, okay, when you start coming to the discipleship center is going to be giving you the Bible. So sometimes you have you know, shortfalls of the Bibles where we have to share like six bibles to one group, but many of them are there, they're like, I don't have a bible. So yeah, that is also a challenge. And another challenge is that sometimes, you know, people like from the community, we are in, they're like discouraging us. Like "you are young, you can't do such thing." Sometimes as a human being I become . . we can discuss it like, "I think I can't do that." But when I face to Jesus, Jesus is encouraging me like, "oh, no, you're not the one doing but I'll be the one do it. So just to obey the assignment," you know, I be exposing myself to the community, then again, oneness through that it means Yeah, we're not be I'm trying to get weak on my own with my like possibility I will become weak when I face to Jesus is engaging me and give me bonus, then you will need to go and have the know amazing programs.

Pandora 20:38

Yes, I love that “just obey the assignment.” Yeah. David, do you mind summarizing just those two challenges that Akim shared with us?

David 20:48

Yeah, the first challenge you mentioned was when we have you know, such a big group of men coming out. In villages. It's very rare for them to own a Bible, a Bible is $12. $10 to $12. And that is a lot of money for someone in a village. And so most of the time, none of them actually own a Bible, maybe one. And so that's one of the biggest things that they're constantly desiring and asking, you know, can you provide us with a Bible? And so we've tried to do fundraisers, sometimes we'll raise enough for maybe five to 10 to have a Bible, but when they're 70, in a group, it's it's hard. So that's one of the challenges you mentioned. The other one is, you know, he's a bit younger, there's men in the group that are almost twice his age sometimes. And so sometimes, they look down on him and say, "Ah, who are you to come and teach me something," you know, and allow the age is, is a big deal, you know, someone who's older commands a lot more respect. And, and so, you know, sometimes they yeah, they can kind of say, Ah, this group maybe can't teach me much. But so it can discourage him and make him feel, you know, like, he doesn't have much boldness, maybe he doesn't have a place in doing this. But then he just gets courage from the Lord. And he says, yeah, maybe in the eyes of the world, I might not be seen as someone that has much value, but in the eyes of God, he's called me. And he's the one that has given me this courage to step into these communities and see change and have the boldness of the Holy Spirit. And, and then yeah, you know, I believe that people come around and say, oh, yeah, this man is he's young, but he's speaking.

Akim 22:30

They say "oh Jesus, please help me with my family's challenges." And I say "what?"

Pandora 22:43

I just enjoyed spending time with you these last two weeks, and I am just so honored that I got a chance to witness your ministry. And I love what you're doing it when the saints I think it's so important that the counselors and the house mothers and the teachers and the tutors are taking care of the girls. But it's so important also, that you are out there, communicating and empowering and educating these men in the villages with the Holy Spirit to change their hearts and break that cycle within their communities. So I just wanted to thank you for what you do. And thank you for being here with the all gifts podcast audience. And yeah, is there anything last any last words you any like final thoughts you wanted to share?

Akim 23:36

Glory be to God for have this amazing time. It's an honor. To have this time. I just want to say this. What I'm doing with my own power, with my own understanding. Yeah, with my own wisdom, I can do nothing. There's nothing I can really do because yeah, I have got a lot of weaknesses. Yeah, but it's all about Jesus. Jesus, always glorifies himself because sometimes when I become weary, I become so weak. When I reach the point of my limitations like, this is the end. No way I can go is where Jesus started. So in each and every step of my life, I see Jesus doing any value observe that my life is my life because of Jesus and Jesus is the deliverer of meaning of my life of ministry. So whatever. It's my desire, like you know, to let Jesus, be first on each and every thing. Because if I go with my own wisdom, I can feel . . . because the world cannot accept me. I didn't know that, but, with Jesus, even the world can you know, hear the gospel and accept Jesus. Because he's the Lord and Savior.

Pandora 25:21

Yes. Yeah. Thank you. And I'm gonna have David just summarize that for you as well.

David 25:29

So he just said he feels, you know, like he has his own limitations. He has his own weaknesses, but he feels like when he has come to points where he says, Maybe I should give up or I'm too weak to move forward. He says that's where he feels like Jesus has come in, strengthened him and encouraged him the most, and he just wants to put Jesus first. And everything that he does, he feels like his life has so much purpose, so much meaning because of his relationship with Jesus and the calling that his life has from the Lord to go into these communities. And yeah, he just wants you know, all the glory, all the honor to go to Jesus, I hope that you picked up what he said, Because he said so many good things. Yeah, I couldn't. I can't even remember to repeat word for word.

Pandora 26:17

I've just been here for 10 days, and I totally get it. But I know it was hard for me 10 days ago, I'm starting to like, get the accent here. So again, I just want to thank you. And thank you guys for watching. This has been the most amazing experience here and I'm just so grateful to be able to share with all of you until next time, thank you.

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