Delivering life to the Ngoni people By Gary Fallesen, founding president, Climbing For Christ Damson Samson prays for some of the 29 Ngoni widows who surrendered their lives to Jesus during worship on Sunday, Sept. 3. (Photos by Philip Mkweza) The head of one of the village groups rejoiced at the arrival of Climbing For Christ among the Ngoni  people living in Central Malawi. “These people (from C4C) have not brought you money or clothes,” she told those gathered to meet staff member Damson Samson on Friday, Sept. 1. “Rather they have brought you life in Christ, w...
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Good news in Nepal flood relief Distribution of flood relief. (Photos courtesy SARA Ministries) Climbing For Christ was honored to send US $2,251.85 provided by God through seven donors who were moved by our Aug. 15 appeal for help with Nepal flood relief. Pastor Tej Rokka and his team from SARA (Savior Alone Redeems Asians) ministries last week delivered food (rice, dahl, salt), mosquito nets, plastic tarps, and medicine for 211 families in the Rautahat District along the border of India. Rautahat is a unique district because it has the largest percent of Muslims (nearly 20%) i...
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Looking after orphans and widows By Gary Fallesen, founding president, Climbing For Christ “But you, God, see the trouble of the afflicted; you consider their grief and take it in hand. The victims commit themselves to you; you are the helper of the fatherless.” – Psalm 10:14 (NIV) Vincent Kuchuwa outside his old house. (Photo by Duncan Nyozani) Vincent Kuchuwa, who is 7 years old, lost his mother when he was a baby. Later his father also died. Then his grandparents died. He was cared for in southern Malawi by an old, very poor couple, who often f...
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Fleeing floods in Nepal. Praying, giving before we GO again to Nepal By Gary Fallesen, founding president, Climbing For Christ Heavy monsoon rains have produced disastrous results in Nepal this summer. “Here, (there) is too much raining and there is flooding and landslides on the mountainsides,” Megh Gurung, Climbing For Christ’s kingdom worker, said Monday (Aug. 14) from Kathmandu. “All the roads are damaged and no one can get to their own destinations. People have been suffering.” Flooding does not garner the media attention that natural disasters su...
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‘Rejoicing in the presence of angels’ By Gary Fallesen, founding president, Climbing For Christ Thumbs up for Jesus: Our friend Juma, right, with C4C missionary to East Africa Damson Samson. The faces are familiar, like those found in a family photo album. For years I have seen and walked with the men who climb Mount Kilimanjaro for a living. Some have become dear friends despite the distance and differences between our cultures and faith. Kilimanjaro was where Climbing For Christ began – placed on my heart as I prepared to climb there for the first time in 1998 &nda...
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Reaching an unreached people group: ‘Yes, we can’ By Gary Fallesen, founding president, Climbing For Christ The question arose at the 2016 Finishing the Task Conference, where we learned that the Ngoni people of Malawi were listed among the unreached. I asked Damson Samson, Climbing For Christ’s missionary to East Africa and a native of Malawi, if he knew of the Ngoni. “Mainly, these people fled from South Africa after the Zulu defeated them,” Damson said. “Another group came from Tanzania. This group was led by Zwangenda and lived in Ntcheu, while the fi...
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Warming widows with gesture of love By Gary Fallesen, founding president, Climbing For Christ Widows warming to new jackets. (Photos by Damson Samson) With winter on its way in Malawi, warm jackets were delivered to the widows served by Climbing For Christ’s Damson Samson. “We had over 150 widows who were blessed to have this support from Climbing For Christ,” Damson said about the May delivery. “In most cases, when you are growing older, your body struggles because of low energy and (lower) immunity. These put the body at higher risk of different diseases.&rdq...
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Brother Megh ‘ready to be a missionary of C4C’ By Gary Fallesen, president, Climbing For Christ Megh, left, sharing the Gospel on Makalu trek during Mission: Nepal 2014. (Photo by Gary Fallesen) Megh Gurung has been added to the Climbing For Christ staff as our missionary to Nepal. We have been blessed to serve with Megh on the past 10 expeditions in his Himalayan homeland. “I am ready to be a missionary of C4C,” said brother Megh, who reported some good news to us after we returned from Nepal on May 16. “One family (in Dharmasala, where Climbing For Chr...
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The growing church in Nepal By Gary Fallesen, founding president, Climbing For Christ The church at Korchabang: then (above) and now (below). (Photos by Gary Fallesen) The first time we met the church at Korchabang, in early 2012, we sat with 35 believers on a cleared hilltop. It was a special moment, and from the start we encouraged this small body to serve the LORD. “I called on them to be missionaries in this mountainous area and they responded enthusiastically.” – From Mission: Nepal Dispatches on Jan. 31, 2012 The church at Korchabang has always been eng...
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God’s timing for a meeting such as this Mulanje Massif Chapter evangelism training in Malawi introduces many to Jesus A time of worship at the Mulanje Massif Chapter meeting. (Photos by Damson Samson) The Muslim man attending our Mulanje Massif Chapter training in southern Malawi confessed that he’d never been to such a meeting. He said “it was a good time to have attended this training,” Climbing For Christ’s Damson Samson reported. “He is no longer the same.” The man, Abrahim, became a Muslim background believer. He was one of eight guides a...
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Tears of gratitude and fear By Gary Fallesen, founding president, Climbing For Christ   The church at Msema dances for joy during food distribution on April 15. (Photos by Duncan Nyozani) When Pastor Duncan Nyozani told his church at Kambona that last Sunday’s distribution of maize was “the last food aid support from Climbing For Christ some started shedding tears.” For six months, additional funding was provided to help feed our brothers and sisters in Searchlight Ministries as they awaited the current harvest. “All church members at both church...
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Gary with his then-15-year-old son, Jesse, on the summit of Caribbean highpoint Pico Duarte (10,164 feet/3,098 meters) during Mission: Dominican Republic/Haiti 2005. By Gary Fallesen Founding president, Climbing For Christ “Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” – James 4:14 (NIV) Thirteen years ago, Climbing For Christ was incorporated. It was divinely orchestrated. A pro-bono blessing. The late Wayne Harris, a Rochester, NY attorney whom I had interviewed and writ...
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From the valley of dry bones to the Word on Mount Kilimanjaro By Gary Fallesen, founding president, Climbing For Christ Kilimanjaro Chapter meeting in early April 2017. Damson Samson has learned that before you teach people how to evangelize you need to make them disciples of Christ. He began our most recent Kilimanjaro Chapter gathering, held earlier this month in Tanzania, in “the Valley of Dry Bones” in the Old Testament book of Ezekiel. “I shared with them about the dry bones that have life again,” Climbing For Christ’s missionary to East Afr...
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Hunger, thieves, and a future harvest in Malawi Food continues to be distributed among our brothers and sisters in Pastor Duncan Nyozani’s churches in southern Malawi even as a long-awaited harvest of maize begins. As always it is a mixture of thanksgiving and pain. “People are busy harvesting right now,” Duncan said. “There is a lot of theft of crops in the gardens in the community. So people are harvesting while it is not fully ready to avoid being stolen by thieves. Thieves are going at night to harvest other peoples’ crops.” Duncan said some...
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Widows worship and give thanks in Malawi Damson and a sister in Christ speaking at a special widows’ worship at a teachers college. As Damson Samson traveled from village to village to visit the growing number of widows being embraced by Project 1:27 (based on James 1:27), he felt a need to gather them together for a time of worship. On March 24, he welcomed more than 100 widows who God has been providing for through Damson and Climbing For Christ. “I thank heaven,” he said, “for we had 22 lives come to Christ.” Damson, who works for the Lord through C...
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A reawakening and a call to action Ace Concordia, holding a precious Bible in the Kankanaey language, at meeting with SIL Philippines in February. By Gary Fallesen, founding president, Climbing For Christ From delivering the Word of God in the north to partnering with a ministry on Muslim Mindanao in the south, Climbing For Christ is again active in the Philippines. C4C Philippines, once our fastest growing and most active international chapter, experienced a season of dormancy the past two years. But C4C Philippines has been resurrected. It is risen! Since spiritual coordinator Jor...
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The church at Korchabang. (Photo by Gary Fallesen) Putting value on the church in Nepal By Gary Fallesen, founding president, Climbing For Christ Christians in the West probably take their houses of worship for granted. A church building is synonymous with going to church. But in Asia, the value of a roof over believers’ heads cannot be overemphasized. It is seen as a sign of respect to God. “Biblically, we can do the worship under the trees and in any common place or any open space,” said Megh Gurung, a long-time Climbing For Christ member and ministry partner in Nepal. ...
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Accepting Jesus, not fate, in bone-dry Malawi By Gary Fallesen, founding president, Climbing For Christ Malawi 2017 Food Distribution from Climbing For Christ on Vimeo. There is joy and thankfulness when food is distributed each month among members of Pastor Duncan Nyozani’s churches in southern Malawi. But provision for food is ending with the harvest due to come in at the end of April. For some, this is a sobering thought. “The crops are doing well at Kambona,” Duncan reported, “but not at Msema village. We are experiencing shortages of rains in other vil...
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A bend in the road By Ace Concordia I remember a trail named “the Road of Patience.” We would have to walk this trail on our way home from missions in Kibungan whenever we exited into the province of La Union. The trail was given that name because after being on mission it was the last long hike before getting a ride that would bring us all back home. Everyone on the team would be running on fumes. We would be dragging our legs to finish this last part of the mission. This trail was littered with rocks from landslides. It was constantly twisting and turning. At every turn...
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Solving a ma(i)ze of problems in Malawi Treating stalk borer infestation of maize in Malawi. (Photos by Duncan Nyozani) The spraying of maize crops infested by stalk borers continued in February in southern Malawi. “There has been a great improvement in crops after spraying, especially in the Kambona area,” Pastor Duncan Nyozani reported. “But in Msema many will not harvest due to heavy rains damaging the maize crops.” He blamed the soil, noting that “in other parts of the community apart from Msema crops are good.” Climbing For Christ prov...
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