Passing on the baton

It may surprise you to know that we are already thinking ahead to when we return to the UK – one third of our time in Malawi already having gone – wondering how things we are involved with will carry on when we are gone. That’s why our focus has been on training trainers. Ruth was very encouraged a few months ago when the young people of Echoes of Grace suggested that they would like to run the weekend music seminar that Ruth has developed as one of their own ministries, and were keen for Ruth to train them in this.

How does your garden grow?

The last few weeks has seen a transformation in Malawi as the first rains of the new season turn the trees and grass green. Families are now digging over every scrap of their land (regardless of the size and location they are called ‘gardens’ here in Malawi) and planting the maize on which their livelihood depends.

God talk amongst the tea

Myles spends most of his time in his office bashing away on a PC but every now and then he is allowed out for good behaviour 🙂

A few weeks ago an invitation to lead the bible reflections at the retreat of a Malawi based mission team gave Myles the excuse for a sunny midweek escape deep into the Satamwa tea and coffee estate near Thyolo.

Discipling a Nation

ZEC Pastors in conference

Back in mid October Myles had an encouraging time supporting the ZEC Pastors Conference that was held at the Mitsidi headquarters of Zambezi Evangelical Church.

Guest post: What sort of holiday did you have?

Many of you will have noticed from our Facebook posts and blogs here at steppingoutwithgod.com that ZM in Malawi had a team of UK visitors with us over the last couple of weeks. In this, their first guest post, they explain how they came to observe, encourage, pray and consider.

Chewa rythm

If Malawi is the warm heart of Africa, then that heart beats to the rhythm of a drum. No matter where you go the rhythm of the drums are not far away, and if a drum is not available then syncopated rhythmic clapping takes its place. 

Majete take two

The visit by our friends from our home churches of Great Blakenham Baptist Church and Mickfield Evangelical Church meant we had an excuse to take them ‘on safari’ to Majete. The first time we were there was in May with Mhairi and, after our friends’ long hard week serving and sharing with the church in Malawi, we thought they deserved a day as ‘tourists’ and we were praying that the wildlife would turn our for them as it had for us in May.

From little acorns …

On Saturday 31^st October, Ruth joined CFCM in equipping 5 more men and women with the skills and resources to train Sunday School teachers in their area and their church; launching a strategy to multiply the effectiveness of CFCM in reaching children in Malawi with the Gospel.

Walking the line

Myles and Ruth on the line between MW and MZ

Back in the depths of the rainy season Pastor Dambo of Doviko ZEC valiantly struggled across miles of muddy track on the back of a motorbike taxi to meet us at Ntonda to participate in Myles’ dissertation research. It only felt right that we promise to visit his church when the roads were (relatively) better. So fresh back from our UK ‘holiday’ on Sunday 11th Oct we travelled to Doviko ZEC with the General Secretary and his wife. 

On yer bike!

It was back in 1981 that the UK Conservative politician Norman Tebbit famously encouraged unemployed Britons to cycle to find employment. Over thirty years later and a bicycle is arguably still the most important ‘tool of the trade – after a bible – for a pastor or church planter in rural Malawi.

Like pigs in clover

From its foundation in 1892 Zambesi Mission (then Zambesi Industrial Mission) has had an objective of helping the Malawi Church be self-sufficient through income generating schemes. The most successful projects seem to be those that build on traditional skills like keeping goats, as in Thambani ZEC.

If at first you don’t succeed …

It was great to be back into our church visits so soon after our return to Malawi when on Sunday 27th September we had the opportunity to accompany Pastor Mulamba of Mulanje ZEC back to his Mpala Prayer House which sits several kilometers along a dust road south of Mulanje trading centre and near the Mozambique border by the Ruo River.

The end of the beginning

Church Development Partners

During our short trip back to the UK we were delighted to be asked to speak on several occasions on our work with Zambesi Mission in Malawi. It was a great opportunity for us to look back and take stock of our first nine months in our adopted home of Malawi, and to think of what the future holds. We certainly concluded that our UK visit marked the ‘end of the beginning’ of our time in Malawi and that we looked forward to being able to contribute all the more strongly to serving God’s kingdom in Malawi on our return.

Power to the people

Myles is a bit of a geek. That shows itself in at least two ways: he struggles to survive without a web connected computer, and he loves it when he finds numbers that illuminate the scale of issues we see in our day-to-day lives here in Malawi.

Hello, we’re back!

We thought we should say ‘hello’ as we have been so silent on steppingoutwithgod.com during our 4 week trip around the UK, and have been quite busy as we settled back in to Malawi life again over the last week. Indeed, we have already completed a ministry trip back to Mpala ZEC Prayer House (more to follow in a later post). We are pleased to say that, after a trip across dry, dusty and bumpy roads to be followed with lovely fellowship under the trees, we are now feel settled in again.

Nchalo in pictures

Myles loved the warm, peaceful, dusty atmosphere of Nchalo.

New life at Mama Debra’s Take Away

Living Waters Church, Muloza

Our latest ZM Pastors Bookset Conference was 27-31 July in Muloza (see the approx location on Google Maps here) in Mulanje district. After the event in Mchinji the team came together again like a well oiled machine, and we were pleased to be joined by the local ZEC pastor, Synoden Mulamba.

“Echoes of Grace”

It is not unusual for a peaceful Saturday at Chipitala Avenue, Blantyre, to be disturbed by music, but usually it’s loud intrusive music being blasted out over loud-speakers from the University sports complex behind. But last Saturday the music was coming from the Zambesi Mission bungalow – and it was much more pleasant to the ear! Ruth was holding her first Song Creation Workshop with a group of 15 young people.

Preach the Word!

Grass-roots training in a grass-walled church

Last week Myles had a great time getting out of his Blantyre study to help with the first of three ‘Pastors Bookset Conferences’ by Zambesi Mission this July/August. He felt energised to be back working so closely with such a great team, and also to be putting into practice some of the output of his research and reading for his dissertation.

New perspectives on eternal truths

Sometimes it is the simplest of things, when you are not expecting them, that catch you unaware and leave you with that psychological version of motion sickness called culture shock.

Winter – cold but not blue!

It is now “mid-winter” here in Malawi – and we are wishing we had brought more of our winter clothes from England. When we first moved into our house we were amused to see a fan heater in one of the cupboards – wondering why it was there – this is Africa after all. The windows that did not quite close properly have never been a problem – until June hit. Over the last 6 weeks, here in Blantyre at an altitude of 3400 feet, there have been many cool overcast days, and windy days, and the nights are noticably colder. The fan heater has been used several times, the windows have had to be fixed, and Ruth has been shopping for jumpers and body-warmers!

Life on the edge

Myles really enjoys the opportunity to get out to preach in different parts of the country and last Sunday (14 June) he had the chance to travel to Chisinkha ZEC, south-west of the tarred road to Thyolo. (See it on Google Earth here.)

Mission accomplished

It was a pleasure to go along to the English service at our “home church” at Limbe ZEC this morning, and sing a few songs from the 21^st century! While our daughter, Mhairi, was staying with us, we used her singing skills to hold a couple of sessions at Limbe to teach some new English songs, an alternative to the rather dated songs, like “The Old Rugged Cross” and “Will Your Anchor Hold” which are the staple of the English service most weeks! We formed a band using talented musicians we have got to know, and taught 12 new songs, by people like Stuart Townend, and Matt Redman.

Majete: in the footsteps of Livingstone

Mhairi’s recent visit encouraged us to take a day trip down into the Lower Shire to visit the Majete Wildlife Reserve. It was a wonderful opportunity to see the countryside in the wild state of thick bush that Livingstone would have experienced on his first trip up the Shire when the ‘Kapichira Falls‘ – that now lie within the park – forced him and his party out of their boats to continue their epic journey on foot.

Senga Bay

After a few weeks with no rest days, it was good to have Mhairi’s visit to encourage us away from Blantyre for a few days relaxation at magical Senga Bay.

The joys of Malawi public transport

Last weekend, Ruth and her CFCM colleagues, Joseph and Elevate, went off to Monkey Bay to run a Sunday School teacher’s training seminar. That wasn’t the only education going on over the weekend – Ruth had a lot to learn about Malawian public transport! Forget about timetables, set fares, pre-booking, luggage regulations, seat-belts, air-conditioning, road-safety…..

A parable for the church in Africa

The church in Malawi is like this. There was once a mother who gave birth to her child, and abandoned the child in the street. The mother went away, and so this child begins to grow by himself and grows as a beggar in the streets: ‘Grandma, help me. Sir, help me.’ He sits under a bridge all day, every day. So think about this child when he grows up. What kind of thing can this child teach?

David Livingstone I presume?

If you have access to the BBC iPlayer I can recommend you watch this TV programme before it disappears.

Not only does it give a relatively balanced presentation of Livingstone’s life, and touch on the early history of Malawi, but the film of the Malawi countryside and people is wonderful and really captures the reality for us on the ground here.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b017hzw2/the-last-explorers-1-livingstone

Fisher folk of Lake Malawi

Our recent short break at Senga Bay introduced us to the fisher folk of Lake Malawi, toiling in almost biblical conditions to make a living from the overfished stock of the third biggest body of fresh water in Africa.

Two ways to sit

The Gospel presentation “Two Ways to Live” is one of my favourites, especially because of the great iPhone app that they distribute to help lazy people like me. So I was very pleased to hear that SIM Malawi has worked with others to translate this Gospel presentation into Chichewa, partly using the services of our Chichewa teacher.

However, it also gave us an interesting insight into the challenges of interpreting meaning when crossing cultural and language boundaries! 

Mwazule ZEC

Some weeks ago – two days after our trek down to Muona ZEC in the far south of Malawi – we were off to Mwazule ZEC tucked away around the back of the Mulanje mountain range on a dirt track. With so many rivers running off that range, they had been heavily impacted by the rains.

Rules for talk and discussion

We have been helping CfCM with a holiday bible club at Maliya primary school. It is only a few miles from Blantyre but in a different world. The school has only 13 staff for nearly 700 pupils, and hardly any material resources. The only access to this isolated village is by using a long rough dirt road which has no minibus or bicycle taxi service. Piped water, sanitation, or a mobile phone service is just a dream. 

School’s out for Easter!

The Easter school holidays continue here in Malawi, as in schools back home, and every year CFCM organise a Five-Day Club during this holiday period. This year they chose a rural location, some 20km outside of Blantyre, a village called Maliya, where there is a primary school for almost 700 children from the surrounding area, an AquaAid orphanage, a ZEC church, but no regular children’s Bible Club. Maliya can’t be reached by public transport – even the ubiquitous minibuses can’t make it down the bumpy road, and for people to go up to town (and it is uphill all the way) involves a 2-hour hike, or a motor-bike taxi if you can afford it.

Malawi in portrait

Some of our favourite photos of the people of Malawi from the last few months.

Its a long way to Muona, its a long way to go!

Last Tuesday we set off on our most recent aid trip, this time to an area on the east side of the Shire River where the road had just been declared open by the roads authority. It turned out that “open” was a loose term! It ended up a gruelling, kidney jolting, 3 hr/60 km drive from where we left the tarmac at Kanjedza on the M1 to our destination at the little settlement of Muona, and its Zambesi Evangelical Church.

The land where the bicycle is king

Just as in 19th century Britain, it is the bicycle that brings freedom and transport to the masses in rural Malawi. And none of your fancy 18 gear mountain bikes here, it is good old-fashioned solid designs from days of old – like this “Raja” from India that has a heritage running back to the Raj.

At the crossroad

Ever since my first visit to Malawi I have seen this road sign at the crossroad in the very centre of Blantyre as iconic. It sums up the unusually comfortable balance that the society of Malawi seems to hold between the various forces that have shaped it:

White van man Malawi style

In rural parts of Malawi ‘white van man’ has not been fooled by all the new posters springing up that entice you to ‘make your dream come true’ and buy that latest white Toyota pickup. Instead they use the more versatile, dependable and centuries old cart.

Training the teachers

Last Saturday saw Ruth take part in her first teacher training session with the Children for Christ Ministries (CfCM) team. The training took place at Ndirandi ZEC in Blantyre but in line with the CfCM philosophy it was open to Sunday School teachers from any denomination.

Fellowship and food



Nsima, chicken and vegitable relish



I must say that, perhaps unlike many British churches, our home churches of Mickfield Evangelical Church and Blakenham Baptist Church know how to mix fellowship and food. But here in Malawi food, fellowship and hospitality is a fine art. The Christians here are hospitable until it hurts!

Wanted: servant leaders

 

This morning (Sun 8th March) we were up early to worship with our friends at the English language service of Limbe ZEC. We heard a suitably quiet but impactful exposition of the first few verses of the Beatitudes from the great sermon preached by Jesus on a Galilee mountain side and recorded by Matthew in chapter 5 of his gospel.

Zomba Plateau

Zomba Plateau (not my photo)

With our Saturdays and Sundays now busy with children’s clubs, preaching and teaching engagements we have started taking Monday as our day of rest. We used the first Monday of this new system (2nd March) to test out our new 4×4 and headed off to the famous Zomba Plateau that dominates the countryside around the old colonial capital of Zomba.

Child’s play

Wherever we go we have been so amazed at how resilient children are in their play here in Malawi. With so little material possessions their imaginations run riot and their ingenuity shows no bounds.

Short and simple

I couldn’t help but obey two of the playground rules when I saw these signs at Mandala House (the posh hangout of ‘azungu’ in Blantyre). First I smiled and then I laughed.

How wonderful that someone has set out such a simple and positive set of rules to help the children enjoy themselves in the playground.

I don’t know about you but I have this terrible habit of getting carried away and making things way too complicated. I hate to think how many more signs I might have added to the tree.

It’s official: Malawi is the poorest country in the world

World’s poorest countries ranked by GDP per person (PPP). Source: World Bank via Nyasa Times

Maybe sometimes dry economic statistics can help bring home the reality of a situation as much as any well shot photograph!

Hi Katy

This is an email that Ruth sent to a nine year old friend to help her with a primary school project. We thought it might be of wider interest.

Hi Katy,

It was lovely to hear from you, and we are happy to help you with your school project – life in a village in Suffolk is very different from life in a village in Malawi – especially for children.

Time for 4 wheel drive

We are about ten weeks into our time here in Malawi and there is still no sign of our TEP (Temporary Employment Permit) being granted. Please pray that this comes through soon as it gives us the official confirmation of our long-term stay here. We are confident God has called us to be here for the long-term, and are increasingly clear about how he specifically wants us to serve, and are beginning to ‘motor’.  So we have decided to go ahead with a couple of long-term decisions regardless of the TEP.

ZM Flood Relief Bulletin 4

ZM and J-Life teams ready to travel to Chirombo ZEC, near Phalombe.

“Whilst the media’s attention has turned away from Malawi, the reality for many thousands of Malawians remains extremely challenging and precarious.”

FLOOD RELIEF BULLETIN #4

The feeding of the 500

The 10 Bible Clubs running in the area of Tchoda are a testament to 10 pastors from different denominations who share a vision for a generation of God-fearing children through which God might transform Malawi; testament to their belief that child-appropriate Bible teaching is the way this vision must be achieved; testament to the individuals from their churches who have been trained and tirelessly bring the Gospel to a total of 850 children week by week; and testament to the Children for Christ Ministries (CFCM) team who have trained the teachers and who continue to encourage and provide resources for these clubs.

Malawi’s slow motion tsunami

Friends, this will probably be our last post for some time concerning the Malawi floods as we don’t want to bore our friends and supporters. But if you are interested in regular updates yo can contact zm through our website and ask to be put on the mailing list for the “Zambesi Mission – Flood Relief Bulletin”.