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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The war on bugs By Gary Fallesen, founding president, Climbing For Christ   Ready to do battle: armed with chemicals to spray infected maize. (Photos by Duncan Nyozani, Searchlight Ministries) The headline screamed from the front page of The Nation newspaper based in Blantyre, Malawi’s center of finance and commerce: “Army worms affect 20 districts.” It refers to the “devastating” pest, the stalk borer, which has invaded Malawi’s maize fields. While the Malawi government was debating how to respond, Climbing For Christ was answering ...
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Combating violence, hatred, and the many challenges of Islam with love By Gary Fallesen, founding president, Climbing For Christ “But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you!” – Matthew 5:44 (NLT) Brother Rachid. Brother Rachid (the Moroccan spelling for Rasheed) has used the power of God’s Word and prayer to deliver “more than 150,000” Muslims to the Lord through a satellite TV show called Daring Questions. Rachid’s own testimony is a miracle of God: the son of an Imam in Morocco, he was angered by the witnessin...
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Maize growing in Malawi. (Photo by Searchlight Ministries) Stalk borer outbreak latest problem plaguing Malawi By Gary Fallesen, founding president, Climbing For Christ Floods followed by drought followed by food shortages and a myriad of problems have left the people of southern Malawi in a quandary. “We do not know what is happening with us,” Pastor Duncan Nyozani confessed. Pastor Duncan, a long-time Climbing For Christ member and ministry partner, asks for prayer for his beleaguered African nation. The current rainy season finally provided relief from a drought t...
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Giving thanks to the Lord, for He is good Members of the Searchlight Ministries church in rural Kambona, Malawi celebrate the delivery of food. (Photos by Duncan Nyozani) “People are always sending you millions of thanks for the food aid that God is providing through Climbing For Christ,” Pastor Duncan Nyozani said after the latest distribution of relief in southern Malawi. Climbing For Christ has helped Duncan’s Searchlight Ministries purchase food each month since October 2016 for hundreds of people suffering from near-famine conditions in one of the world&rs...
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‘Bye, bye to mosquitoes,’ hello to malaria prevention By Gary Fallesen, founding president, Climbing For Christ   Zex, right, is counted among hundreds happy to receive protection from malaria-carrying mosquitoes in Malawi. (Photos by Duncan Nyozani) Zex Samikwa was ecstatic to receive a mosquito net. “Bye, bye to mosquitoes tonight,” he declared. Frank Chipesu, another member of Pastor Duncan Nyozani’s church at Kambona in southern Malawi, called the distribution of mosquito nets “a miracle to my family. My wife has a new baby, born la...
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Simple gift of a blanket ends ‘hell on earth’ By Gary Fallesen, founding president, Climbing For Christ   Damson Samson, center, with widows after distributing blankets. Malita would sleep “like a chicken” with no blanket, wrapping herself in a mosquito net to stay warm at night. Damson Samson wondered why the 50 widows who received blankets held the gifts to their faces. “Just to get the good aroma,” he realized. Life without a blanket for a widow living in southern Malawi, where Climbing For Christ has ministered since 2010, was ...
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