Dispatches: Malawi 2025
Mission: Malawi 2025
By GARY FALLESEN, Climbing For Christ
Friday, Dec. 19
Damson Samson and me looking to what’s ahead on Mulanje Massif. (Photo by John Mollel)
Though there were few to encounter on Mulanje Massif – and 20 eager guides and porters desiring to evangelize – Damson said our second outreach expedition was “not a failure.” As he was descending with Mulanje chapter member Robert Koreya, this local guide told our Africa coordinator he’d never experienced anything like those three days.
Listening to our teaching, praying, fellowshipping with other like-hearted Climbing For Christ members, and spending a concentrated time with God. It was like a Christian retreat. Or like Jesus going up the mountain for Father and Son time.
Last Sunday, in our classroom training, I told the team that would be with us about my last day on Kilimanjaro during the mission that preceded this one. I was sick, the weather was horrible, and yet I felt His presence. I held out my hand and walked with Jesus. (It gives me God bumps retelling it.)
I said my prayer for our Mulanje group was to reach many – or be blessed to spend time climbing with Christ.
Our time on this short-term mission has ended. John Mollel, our Kilimanjaro Kingdom worker, and I flew back to Tanzania today. We left Damson in Lilongwe, where we’d driven yesterday after our widows’ food distribution and a short visit with long-time ministry partner Pastor Duncan Nyozani.
I descended off Mulanje Massif on Wednesday with our two chapter coordinators, Kilimanjaro’s John Mollel and Mulanje’s Samson Khalani.
I have been blessed to spend many days on mountains (six on Kilimanjaro and three on Mulanje) with 45 guides and porters, teaching and learning from them. I have felt the warm embrace of being a part of God’s family regardless of cultural, language, and economic differences. I am honored to help them in the ways that I can – blessing them through God’s Word and encouraging them with food and support for their families.
Not only was the mission not a failure; it was a great success. Glory (and thanks) to God!
Thursday, Dec. 18
A widow tells me through Damson’s translation how much a bag of maize means to her. The man behind her also offered a prayer of thanks. (Photo by John Mollel)
Thank-yous (zikomo in Chichewa) are usually orchestrated. One person is picked to speak for the group. After three widows addressed us from the three villages receiving food, a fourth stepped forward. Unannounced. Off script.
She was a little old lady, hunched over as she walked, and she had something to say. She stood as straight as she could and told me how much the 10-kilogram bag of rice she received meant to her.
It was worth about $9 USD. Might as well have been $9 million. To her, it was priceless.
Volunteers from Damson’s Praise Foundation distribute maize to the widows. Damson then offered free milling of the maize into flour at his maize mill, which was funded by C4C. (Photo by Gary Fallesen)
Climbing For Christ was able to give Damson $1,500 after he shared at the start of Mission: Kilimanjaro three weeks ago how hungry the hundreds of widows are in his ministry and care in southern Malawi. Today, 144 received a week’s worth of maize (the staple food in a Malawian’s diet).
Sixty-five from Chabe, 59 from Msema, and 20 from Nasiyaya. Picked because of their dedication to attending weekly prayer meetings conducted by “mobile preachers” (riding bikes purchased by C4C).
“I know it doesn’t cover everybody but it remains our prayer that God will provide more,” Damson told the group. “I ask you to go and pray for God to remember the others.”
God does remember them, as I shared in a short message. God is their protector (Psalm 68:5) and He cares for them (Psalm 146:9). If He feeds the birds, “aren’t you far more valuable to Him than they are?” (Matthew 6:26).
Telling the widows how much God loves them. (Photo by John Mollel)
I took them to Isaiah 1:17, which says, “Fight for the rights of widows,” and told them Damson fights for their rights. I said he told me about the hunger here and the Holy Spirit gave me a burden to help. One other C4C member felt it, too, and contributed generously.
When asked if their hunger is real, the widows shouted in Chichewa, “We are suffering. We are suffering.” Another spoke up: “We would walk to clean the car that brought you (as a way to say zikomo), but our knees are weak from hunger.”
Moments later, 144 happy widows were clutching a bag of food, giving zikomo to God, and declaring how happy they would be this CHRISTmas.
The happy recipients of food. Praise God! (Photo by Gary Fallesen)
Wednesday, Dec. 17
“Fording” a stream. (Photos by Gary Fallesen)
We all had a good laugh this morning when we reached the “river” below camp that had us nearly panicked and bushwhacking to find a way across late Monday. It was nothing but a babbling brook, a gentle stream, the Abominable Snowman without its teeth in Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer.
The torrent that turned it to rage and overflowing its banks was gone. Until the next mountain rain.
Our team made a 7.5-mile/12-kilometer descent (first climbing up 1,000 feet/300 meters before dropping down nearly 5,000 feet/1,500 meters) to conclude a fruitful outreach expedition with 23 members of Climbing For Christ’s Mulanje Massif Chapter. It was a joy to spend time with these five guides and 18 porters, as well as Damson Samson (our Africa Coordinator) and John Mollel (Tanzania Kingdom worker).
Descending the mountain.
The group started the day with a 4 a.m. prayer meeting. John then shared encouragement as a fellow guide with his Malawi brothers in Christ. I taught from 2 Timothy 3:1-5 about the dangers of the last days. We talked about the need to speak truth (Jesus being the way, the truth, and the life) in a world that embraces relativism. Like Paul with Timothy, I encouraged them to give their all to being disciples who make disciples.
Then after more prayer we broke camp. But as Mulanje chapter coordinator Samson Khalani reminded them, there was still work to do.
Faduweck Chipoya and Levinson Masiye, our cook on this year’s and last year’s expeditions, stopped inside a farmer’s hut to deliver the Good News on our hike off the mountain.
We also had a surprise for the team when we completed the trek. Climbing For Christ purchased each man a 50-kilogram bag of maize to take home to their families for CHRISTmas.
“Merry CHRISTmas from Malawi!”
John Mollen, a guide and long-time member of the Mulanje chapter (established in 2016), spoke for those receiving the maize. He gave thanks to God and Climbing For Christ for remembering them, especially in their time of need.
Hunger is a constant issue in Malawi, one of the poorest countries in the world. But as we hiked past freshly planted fields with more rain coming down near the end of our trek we are hopeful for the people here for a plentiful harvest.
We also pray for a great spiritual harvest thanks to the work of the Holy Spirit and the DMD training we’ve done with the Mulanje chapter.
Tuesday, Dec. 16
Yard sale. Drying out gear from Monday’s ascent before more rain today. (Photos by Gary Fallesen)
Worship began before sunrise. I awoke to 20 voices in unison declaring “Amen!” Again and again. I joined Damson’s devotional based on Matthew 28:6 about preparing our hearts so we can help prepare the hearts of others.
Divinely inspired it tied in perfectly with my lesson about false teachings and raising up the next generation of believers. It was based on a reading I did Sunday morning from 1 Timothy 4:1-5 and a devo by The Voice of the Martyrs about the rise of Islam in Africa and the need to equip our children with the truth.
All but one of the 23 of us is a father, and several are, like me, a grandfather (or babu). This lesson resonated with my brothers.
After our worship and teachings, the men of the Mulanje Massif Chapter reported on Monday’s outreach. Two by two they told of reaching more than three dozen people with the Gospel and witnessing eight become new believers.
Damson’s New Testament bracelet as Fusani Mahele and Maurice Mailidi talked about sharing with a man who asked what the symbols mean, above. Below, let the children come to Him. School kids on the road where we started hiking Monday.
Among the many testimonies were several who spoke to children. This was not lost on John, who spoke to them about the Holy Spirit at work. “Can you see, daddy wrote this lesson about children before he heard that you had shared with children,” John said.
God at work. And He isn’t done.
The weather prompted a change in plans as we decided to stay at Lichenya Hut at about 6,600 feet (2,000 meters) on Mulanje Mountain rather than move camp. (The highest peak on Mulanje is 9,850-foot/3,002-meter Sapitwa.) Drying out was the order of the day as well as sending our guides and porters out in groups to three other nearby huts: Mandala, CCAP, and University.
With the outreach came more rain. As Phil Wickham wrote in “Fear Has No Power”: “The greater the storm the louder our song will be.”
“Some guys they aren’t worried about the weather,” said Samson, the chapter coordinator, who climbed without his rain gear, which he “forgot.” Others simply don’t have the proper gear, prompting us to again (just like on Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro) decide to provide necessary equipment for use by our chapter members.
Hikes to the other huts found only four people, none of whom received Jesus.
Monday, Dec. 15
Storm clouds on the horizon. (Photos by Gary Fallesen)
We thank God for His protection on a day that started grueling and could have ended tragically.
Mountains are not to be fooled with. Having climbed in more than 20 countries on five continents, I respect the high places. Tonight more than ever.
Mulanje Massif must have looked impenetrable before it was first climbed. It still looks and sometimes feels that way today. It rises steeply – and forebodingly – in southern Malawi, towering over several villages. The locals follow trails to cut firewood and pick fruits lower down the mountain. Broom makers climb higher to cut special grass to make their ware. And tourists (too few) come to climb the many peaks on this jaw-dropping massif.
On the trail entering the massif, above. Below, the Mulanje Massif Chapter team at the start of our trek.
Twenty-six members of Climbing For Christ set out this morning on a three-day outreach expedition. It was sunny and hot – Africa hot. We climbed and climbed: 5,000 vertical feet in the first five miles. Then we began a descent toward Lichenya Hut, our first camp on the mountain.
Unfortunately, shortly after the descent began our hot summer day turned into an ugly thunderstorm. Torrential rain quickly turned the trail into a running stream, and mountain streams turned into raging rivers.
Chapter coordinator and guide Samson Khalani, two Mulanje guides (Robert Koreya and Bright Masamba), and Damson, John, and I found ourselves walking in knee-deep water. But the real trouble occurred when we needed to make a river crossing to reach camp. There was no way across.
As rain continued to pour down, we backtracked up the trail and then off the trail looking for safe passage. One guide suggested we retreat to another hut, quite a ways from where we were after more than seven miles of hard hiking. “We can’t be wasting time,” he cried out, referring to the onset of darkness. “If we do, death will be all around us.”
That was a sobering – albeit melodramatic – thought as we all stood there wet and cold, uncertain of our next move.
Death had no sting today. We found a place where we could cross the river, arm in arm to fight the flow of water. Then we continued high up a hill until we could find a way back to the trail and into camp, where most of our team had been waiting.
“We are safe,” the other guide declared, stopping short of a hallelujah.
Yes, safe in the arms of Jesus.
Samson sharing Jesus with a woman collecting firewood on the mountain. Women walk great distances to carry heavy loads on their heads back to villages.
We saw many of our teammates inviting people to join us in the care of Jesus lower on the mountain. Some left the trail to enter fields where locals are planting. The outreach has begun – and will continue the next two days – despite the threatening weather conditions.
Sunday, Dec. 14
Hands up for Jesus: Mulanje chapter members during worship. (Photos by Gary Fallesen)
Damson called upon one of his favorite Bible stories: Ezekiel in a valley of dry bones. “Ministering to porters and guides is a different ministry,” he declared. “When we started, I wondered, ‘Will these dry bones be alive?’ God restored these dry bones to make a great army.”
Today, the two disciples-making-disciples (DMD) classes of the Mulanje Massif Chapter met together for the first time. Training is usually conducted separately.
“This is a great day,” chapter coordinator Samson Khalani said to the 65-plus members in attendance. “This team has produced a lot of fruits out there.”
Our brothers in intense prayer.
On a day of worship, we sang (loudly), danced (exuberantly), prayed (earnestly), and taught several lessons in the usual Malawi heat. I shared the message, “The Church: the People in Whom God Dwells.” John (in the role of Elaine) then taught about using the New Testament bracelet, which each man received.
He rightly called it “a tool for sharing the Word of God. This is not a mere bracelet; it explains the life of Jesus.
“The bracelet plus the brochure on Kilimanjaro worked very well – better than expected,” John said. “Go out and share the Good News. It’s not a coincidence for you to be here; it’s the plan of God. Same with these tools. God wants you to use them to reach people.
“The purpose is to GO and share – let’s go and work!”
I used those last words from John in my lesson, “Action,” pointing the original class to James 2:14-26 (faith without good deeds is dead). The lesson was an introduction to the next study, “Church Planting and the Book of Acts,” for 14 of the original members.
The second, much larger class was then introduced to our fourth of five studies to date: “Communicating the Bible.” Twenty members of the second class will GO with guide Samson, fellow original members John Mollen and David Chithyoka, and Damson, John, and me on the chapter’s second outreach expedition.
Several members from both classes gave testimonies about how Climbing For Christ has changed their lives.
The second class with certificates, above, and our original class, below. (Photos by John Mollel)
Certificates were awarded to 16 original class members who finished “Communicating the Bible” and 41 from the second class who completed “Discovering the Bible.”
The original class members then received speakers with Gospel sim cards in the Chichewa language for use in their small groups. Damson purchased them in Tanzania (because they are not available in Malawi) and as a result had overweight check-in bags for yesterday’s flights (endure everything for the sake of the elect, 2 Timothy 2:10).
Saturday, Dec. 13
First-time flyer John with a million-miler and a Blantyre-Kilimanjaro commuter. (Photos by Gary Fallesen)
John’s introduction to air travel was what you would expect: hassles followed by eye-popping window views followed by turbulence. John, Damson, and I woke up very early to start Mission: Malawi. At check-in, Damson was not in Precision Air’s system even though we were holding the electronic ticket in front of them. And so it begins.
He was finally issued a boarding pass to get to Nairobi, Kenya with us. But then immigration questioned why he comes to Tanzania so frequently and why was John going to Malawi.
Too many questions and issues for 5-6 a.m.
Mount Meru.
Our Nairobi flight took us between Mount Meru and Kilimanjaro. Flying at 16,000 feet, we weren’t much higher than we’d been walking a few days ago. But John got to see the mountain he guides from a different perspective. I’d only learned shortly before takeoff that John had never flown before. He took it in stride, saying, “It was good.” He was even unfazed by some rough air.
In Nairobi, we switched to Kenya Air and made the two-hour flight to Lilongwe, Malawi. No hassles from immigration. No charge for visas (vs. $100 a pop in Tanzania). Welcome to Malawi!
The highway south.
Our luggage made it, too. And our driver, Moses, was waiting with Damson’s car for the long (very long) drive to southern Malawi. It was only 190 miles but it took eight hours. I was starting to think Moses was lost in the wilderness.
Introduction
Damson Samson, Climbing For Christ’s Africa Coordinator, was already on a plane out of Blantyre, Malawi heading for Mission: Kilimanjaro 2025 when the reports started to come in on his phone. He’d sent members of our Mulanje Massif Chapter out to practice evangelism on the streets ahead of Mission: Malawi 2025. He called it “evangelism orientation” for the group that will join us on Mulanje Massif for the chapter’s second outreach expedition.
It was also designed to find the “preachers” in this group of porters, guides, and others who work on and around the mountain.
“I had planned that every center (around Mulanje Massif) could have a chance to participate,” Damson explained. “I sent Samson (Khalani, the chapter coordinator) to Thuchila center and they divided their group into eight groups of two or three to go out and share the Word in the streets.”
The 24 members hit the streets, shared the Good News with 53 people and witnessed 12 coming to Christ.
Disciples making disciples: the Mnesa outreach group on Nov. 26.
In Mnesa, Mulanje members John Mollen and Paul Mpaha dispatched six groups and reported eight people from three homes becoming disciples of Jesus.
In Likhubula, four groups reached 24 people with 13 accepting.
“After they presented, they thanked God,” Damson said. “For some, this was their first time going out. They said, ‘We had fear wondering if we will be accepted (as evangelists). But we were welcomed and they asked us to continue visiting them.’”
This is what the disciples-making-disciples training has brought 75 chapter members to do: Evangelize, disciple, grow small groups (or Bible studies) in homes, and continue the Great GO-mission on and around Mulanje Massif. 
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