Still hungering in southern Malawi By Gary Fallesen Founding president, Climbing For Christ   Carry out: Food provided for the hungry. (Photo by Duncan Nyozani) Mission: Malawi 2016 did not end when our team boarded a flight out of Blantyre on the afternoon of Saturday, March 12. If anything, our short-term mission to southern Malawi was only the beginning. In the days after our departure more food was delivered to those on the brink of famine. “We have this week spent MK1,000,000 (nearly US$1,500) for food for church members at Kambona, where we have over 500 p...
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Tears of the poor By Gary Fallesen, Climbing For Christ’s founding president Damson Samson, Climbing For Christ’s missionary to East Africa, began meeting with the many widows in his home village in southern Malawi at the beginning of the year. Every Sunday he will pray for them and try to encourage them. Malawi is badly in need of encouragement during these difficult days of drought and food shortages. On a recent Sunday, Damson shared with the many in attendance, “It’s my prayer for you not to die before you have accepted Jesus Christ.” He witnessed...
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Starvation threatens Malawi By Gary Fallesen, founding president, Climbing For Christ Maize stunted by the lack of rain in Malawi. (Photo by Duncan Nyozani) As we are preparing to GO on Mission: Malawi 2016 in just 10 days, we have been alerted that the African nation is on the brink of famine. Most of Southern Africa – including Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Madagascar – has been plagued by drought. “The problem is very serious,” said Pastor Duncan Nyozani, a Climbing For Christ member and ministry partner who (among other things) oversees the orph...
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Baptizing them in the Name Megh speaking in the church at Korchabang. (Photos provided by Megh Gurung) An NPR story (“Why Nepal has one of the world’s fastest-growing Christian populations”) talks about the growing church in Nepal. From no Christians in 1951, when Christianity was illegal, and just 458 in 1961 to nearly 102,000 by 2001 and more than 375,000 by 2011, and the latter number might be an underestimate. Climbing For Christ has witnessed this growth first-hand and we continue to praise God for those He is calling His own.   Megh, right, b...
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Comfort for Jaime Jaime Servat, left, praying with a young girl on Mission: Peru 2014. (Photo by Gary Fallesen) Climbing For Christ’s Peruvian missionary, Jaime Servat, received terrible news that his ex-wife and his estranged son both died in 2015. “I was informed through an old friend that they were taken with lung cancer and a heart attack,” a grieving Jaime informed us. His son, Oswaldo, died in July at the age of 27. Oswaldo’s mother had died in May. She was 53. Jaime had not seen either in several years, despite efforts to reconcile with family members....
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Men at work in Malawi on a new women’s clinic. (Photo by Duncan Nyozani) New clinic under construction in Malawi The last we saw the Mothers & Babies Centre that Pastor Duncan Nyozani proposed building in southern Malawi, he was standing, somewhat forlorn, in front of an unfinished building (photo above). He’d been left hanging when funds promised by a North American pastor hadn’t come through. “There is only one hospital in our district of Phalombe,” Duncan said. “We do not have a district hospital, but we have a Catholic hospital at Holy Fam...
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Putting down stakes in the Koma Hills Land purchased for C4C mission base By Gary Fallesen, founding president, Climbing For Christ The tribal chief of the Koma people where Climbing For Christ has ministered in northeastern Nigeria since 2011 wondered when the mission might return to the Atlantika Mountains. “I told him that by God’s grace, they will visit the Koma people in November this year,” said Pastor Chris Joseph, a long-time Climbing For Christ member and ministry partner in Nigeria. “The hamlet head was highly elated at this news.” Pas...
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Join Climbing For Christ for an hour of laughs and sweets with Rochester-area comedian, pastor and author Dan Kulp at our “Appeal of Laughter” from 7-8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 11 in the Gathering Place Café at Hope Church, 1301 Vintage Lane, Greece. Dan is an exhausted and joy-filled dad of four children, three of whom are adopted and have special needs (Down syndrome, autism, Alfi’s Syndrome and spina bifida). Get ready to laugh, cry and be inspired as he shares life lessons with humor and love from his unique vantage point at this Climbing For Christ fundraiser. We...
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A new season By Ace Concordia   Ace Concordia, front right, with C4C Philippines members summit on a “training” climb on Mount Batulao on Dec. 29, 2015. A year can make a difference. It had been a year since I laced up my climbing shoes to go climb a mountain. But on Dec. 29, 2015, I geared up again so I could get myself ready for the visit of Climbing For Christ president Gary Fallesen to the Philippines. We will be climbing together back to the village that started mission climbs for C4C Philippines. I wonder about what has happened to the village since our ...
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A witness to God’s promises Jaime Servat, Climbing For Christ’s missionary to Peru, began December as a victim of a pickpocket, who stole his cell phone as he was traveling to the village of Chalhua in the Cordillera Blanca mountains. He also began the month as a witness to the promise of God in a rainbow over the church at Chalhua. “And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.” – 2 Pe...
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Every month should be CHRISTmas CHRISTmas gift: on safari in Malawi. (Photo by Duncan Nyozani) God used Project 1:27 sponsors and supporters from the U.S. and Canada to provide children in southern Malawi with “a very wonderful CHRISTmas. The kids were very happy,” said Pastor Duncan Nyozani, a Climbing For Christ member and minister partner. “We bought some clothes, shoes, school bags, and special food for them. We had a safari to Liwonde National Park (at the southern tip of Lake Malombe in the south of Malawi), where they saw different animals. “Thank ...
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Joy for children treated as slaves Save Pakistan delivered 25 “Joy Boxes” – CHRISTmas packages that included clothing, food, candy and a toy – to children who are treated as “slaves” in the brick factories. “It was a good experience to see smiles on the (faces of) slave child labor in Pakistan,” said Evangelist Haseeb, a C4C member and the founder of Save Pakistan. “Smiling faces are so beautiful receiving their Joy Boxes as CHRISTmas gift. “We thank God as He provides us the Joy Boxes to make it happen to spread the CHRI...
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Merry CHRISTmas from Simikot The church at Simikot on land purchased with funding provided by the LORD through Climbing For Christ. The land has been purchased and the fundraising is underway for the construction of the first church building in the headquarters of Nepal’s Far West district of Humla. The church at Simikot extends CHRISTmas greetings to members and supporters of Climbing For Christ. The church project in Simikot is estimated to cost more than US$12,000. We are lifting in prayer for completion in 2016. “And this is the testimony, that God gave us eterna...
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Much joy in heaven over sinners who repented By Gary Fallesen President, Climbing For Christ Damson Samson was “terrified” and humbled when our latest Kilimanjaro evangelism training conference kicked off with eight guides and porters accepting Jesus. “I wondered when could they get this marvelous gift if not for this conference,” Damson said on Nov. 30 after returning from Tanzania to his home in southern Malawi. He also wondered how great the celebration in heaven must be for eight souls saved when the Bible tells us “there will be more joy in heaven ove...
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Land purchased for a ‘city on a hill’ By Gary Fallesen President, Climbing For Christ   A happy man: Pastor Harka shows his joy and the document certifying ownership of the land he is standing on. Soon, we pray, a church building will stand there. (Photo by Megh Gurung) We rejoice at the news that land has been purchased for construction of the first church at Simikot in Nepal’s Far West district of Humla. “I am so excited,” said brother Megh Gurung, who represented Climbing For Christ at the proceedings. Megh and Pastor Harka signed the dea...
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Working on the church and the Church at Chalhua Jaime Servat spent half of November in Chalhua, leading worship three times a week at the church Climbing For Christ built and going to “His church altar to pray to God every day with passion to see His hand in Chalhua and other villages.” God led several people from other villages to Climbing For Christ’s Peruvian missionary. “One day I was visiting some new believers from Mashco and I met Jhon, a 25-year-old who heard His (call) to receive the Lord Jesus,” Jaime reported. “So I ministered to him and ...
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Connecting through caring By Elaine Fallesen Climbing For Christ It was what many of us used to call a “Kodak moment”: Fourteen-year-old Chiring, an orphan in Kathmandu, Nepal, was nearly beside himself with happiness as he stared at a Facebook photo of his Project 1:27 sponsor on a cell phone. “She is beautiful, she is beautiful,” he repeated as he studied the face of Nancy Kaiser. “I am grateful for her.” Chiring with sponsor mom Nancy Kaiser’s photo on a cell phone. (Photo by Leanne Bohn) Despite its frustrations, technol...
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On time for more divine appointments Di-vine ap-point-ment A specific encounter or experience arranged by God so we can serve Him and play a part in the lives of other people. Jaime Servat, Climbing For Christ’s Peruvian missionary, was in his third day in the northeastern part of the Cordillera Blanca, where our Mission: Peru 2015 team trekked in July. As he hiked into Conopa village in early October, Jaime said, “I prayed to God and He guided me to a shop where I asked a woman named Lidia about a man [Jaime knew] who is a Christian. He was meeting in a house of another beli...
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Building something of eternal value Damson Samson had a vision as he was riding a bus toward Mount Kilimanjaro. He was making his fourth trip of the year to Tanzania to work with guides and porters who are learning how to evangelize on and around Africa’s tallest and most attractive mountain. This trip had been delayed as he celebrated the blessed birth of his second child, a daughter. “I saw myself building and from nowhere it rained and flash (flooded) all of the structures,” Damson said about his vision. “I was asking myself, ‘What’s this that I saw?&rs...
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Returning to the scene of the sublime Climbing For Christ’s Peruvian missionary, Jaime Servant, returned in September to an area visited by our Mission: Peru 2015 team in July. Here is his report: I arrived in Jancapampa village (Pomabamba province) the morning of Thursday, Sept. 3, and hiked about one hour to get to the home of the Vega family (Victoria, Dina and Enrique, who received the Lord Jesus Christ in their hearts under prayer during Mission: Peru 2015). I met Victoria’s husband, Guillermo, who had not received the Lord Jesus during our mission outreach. But I was in...
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