Mission Moments: Malawi
Preparing to bring the crippled to heaven’s feast
By Gary Fallesen, founding president, Climbing For Christ
Mulanje Massif Chapter members on April 7. (Photos by Damson Samson)
The Mulanje Massif Chapter’s first evangelism training began with the acknowledgement that all of those invited to the workshop first accepted their place in the kingdom. Damson Samson, Climbing For Christ’s Malawi-based missionary to East Africa, taught 24 guides and porters about Jesus.
“We had a call to those who are willing to welcome Him and all 24 came to Him,” Damson said, recalling the April 6-7 gathering on the slopes of the Mulanje Massif in southern Malawi.
“I wondered whether it was their first time to receive Him and they said, ‘Yes, we need to receive this Jesus. We have never received Him.’”
While this sounds odd – why would a group of guides and porters who profess to be Christian come to evangelism training if they’ve never actually accepted Jesus? – Damson explained:
“Many, they just call themselves Christian. I remember one group (of guides and porters), when they went out (as part of the training), discovered that people, when asked, ‘If you die are you 100-percent sure you will make it to heaven?’, they say, ‘Yes because I am a Christian.’ But if you ask them how that happened for them to be Christian, they say because they attend church.”
After our church-going guides and porters confessed their faith in Jesus, Damson said, “I prayed for them and in the long run we shared more. The next day, as part of their practical, they went out to share the Good News about Christ Jesus.
“Miraculously,” Damson reported, “26 people accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior. And we had a big number of believers who were encouraged.”
Guides and porters sharing in villages around Mulanje Massif, above and below.
Praying for a new believer.
“We had 12 groups (sent out) and each group brought in what they have achieved from where they went. In sharing, they said even a prostitute (accepted Jesus),” Damson said.
“Putting this together, we had 50 people accept Jesus Christ as their Savior. I therefore thank heaven for this great mission. A vote of thanks to those who support it for the sake of these lost souls. I am very proud to be the vessel in His house and be the partaker of this wonderful kingdom work.”
Damson first did this sort of evangelism training with our Kilimanjaro Chapter of guides and porters in Tanzania. He has been serving there since 2014. His work has been expanded to include Malawi as well.
“As the Bible says (in the Parable of the Great Banquet in Luke 14), the master told his servants to go to paths leading people to the field and bring those crippled to the feast so that they can eat with him, as he has prepared more food. It is just like working with porters and guides; they really are considered as the lower class of people and evil-doers, but thank God who trusted me to have this opportunity to work with this kind of people.
“By His grace we had to give them the prayer of grace and as Jesus authorized two disciples each to go I did the same. Behold, they come back with smiling faces. I wondered if they had succeeded or not.”
They experienced the joy of the harvest. This was the beginning of their preparation for their work on the mountain. The “high” (or tourist) season on the Mulanje Massif is in May and June. A few thousand trekkers visit each year.
Mulanje Massif, also known as Mount Mulanje or Mulanje Mountain, is a massive formation (245 square miles) located near Blantyre, Malawi. There are numerous peaks reaching heights of more than 8,200 feet (2,500 meters), including the nation’s highpoint, Sapitwa (9,840 feet/3,003 meters).
Guides and porters live in the many villages located around the massif.
Wells Mishoni, who guided our mission team on Mulanje Massif in 2012 and joined the chapter when Damson organized it in February 2016, spoke about the evangelism training. “We had a journey from Mulanje to Phalombe. This tour was for C4C group training. I am enjoying for the coming of C4C.”
I shared the vision of Climbing For Christ and, in particular, the new Mulanje Massif Chapter to our first 26 members – nine guides and 17 porters – when we met on March 8 as part of Mission: Malawi 2016. We talked about how Damson would disciple them and help each man with his walk as well as teach the chapter how to evangelize at work. The group was energetically responsive as I spoke about how we were doing this in Tanzania (Kilimanjaro Chapter) and that the Lord had led Damson to meet with these men last month to explore similar possibilities closer to his home.
When it came time for feedback from the men, porter Peter (“Pitalo” in Chichewa) Mauzi stood to respond. “When we get to camp we sit around and tease and joke with one another,” he said. “This leads to disagreements and fights. Instead of teasing, when we get to camp we should share the Word of God with our brothers.”
Damson relayed after the April evangelism training that the men told him “this was the only place that has brought a complete change” in their lives. These guides and porters have never experienced anything like what Climbing For Christ is offering, starting with their own salvation.
“The most challenging area of our salvation is that many call themselves ‘Christian’ because they go to church, but not that they made a choice to accept Christ Jesus as their Lord and Savior,” Damson said.
Now they have made that choice. And, through continued training, they will be able to present others with this same incredible opportunity.
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