Mission: Malawi 2019

Lifting eyes to the mountain

Picture 19 students sitting in the dark on five chairs and two benches built for perhaps eight bottoms. They are squeezed together, but without complaint. Instead, they are enthusiastically answering questions about the Bible.

“What do we learn about God?” they are asked after reading Scripture.

“He is a God of love,” one student says, “because He could have killed the devil from the start.”

There is laughter.

The students are enjoying the lesson, never mind the tight quarters. Or the darkness. There are no cushioned seats. There are no desks to write on. There are no box lunches. There is no light in the room and it is after sunset.

Did we mention that these students climbed a mountain to attend this class? And the following morning, they broke camp and hiked to the next camp to do it all again.

We are teaching members of Climbing For Christ’s Mulanje Massif Chapter – guides and porters who work on Mulanje Massif in southern Malawi – how to be disciples and how to make more disciples. We are, by the grace of God, growing the church.

Damson, left, teaches members of the Mulanje Massif Chapter in a hut at an elevation of about 6,500 feet. (Photo by Gary Fallesen)

Mission: Malawi 2018 was the start of a year-long study provided by The Timothy Initiative and translated into Chichewa by our national worker Damson Samson. Damson is overseeing the study until the Mission: Malawi 2019 team visits to graduate our first class of disciple-making disciples.

Mission: Malawi 2019 will be our sixth expedition to this impoverished nation in southern Africa, dating to 2010. The Mulanje Massif Chapter training is only one of many facets to this mission. Other work includes:

• Teaching and loving on the 21 children sponsored by Project 1:27.
• Caring for the hundreds of widows Damson has been serving since CHRISTmas 2015.
• Outreach among the Ngoni people in Central Malawi.
• Outreach among the Yao Muslim.
• Prison ministry.
• Hospital ministry.

PRAY: Operation World (the prayer guide to the nations) states: “The grip of poverty hampers development not only in the financial sense but also in terms of education, AIDS prevention, family life and even effective ministry and discipleship. Pray for leaders in Malawi, most of who are church members, to act with wisdom, humility and long-term planning on biblical principles.” Pray that pastors and church leaders also would rise above corruption and the temptation to take for themselves.

GIVE: Support the ever-expanding and much-needed work in one of the world’s poorest countries. Every month we are sending funds to staff member Damson Samson to minister among the Mulanje Massif Chapter, do outreach to neighboring people groups, and serve widows and prisoners, and more.

GO: Aug. 1-11. Cost is estimated at $2,250, including airfare. For C4C members only. Email info@ClimbingForChrist.org for a mission application.