RETURN TO MALAWI
July 21st 2007
By Jack Wall

As I review the pictures taken from last year’s trip to Malawi, this small, landlocked country in southeast Africa, I yearn to return to this place with so many people who I have come to love. The people of Malawi are like no other people who I have ever met. Malawians are polite, humble, outgoing, joyous and friendly. They possess a peace that only comes from a profound faith in God. Even though they have an average daily income of only $1, we Americans have much to learn from them. This is the most important purpose for the Malawi Mission organization.

The Malawi experience is more than about the philosophical question of whether the glass is half empty or half full. A better comparison is that we in the developed world have a glass that is 99% full and we crave having that last 1%. In Malawi, the people have a glass that is 1% full and they rejoice over God’s blessings in giving them what they have. This is a profound difference in the understandings of God’s spirit and God’s bountiful blessings to us. The people of Malawi understand that although they may only have a very small amount of the world’s material blessings, they have all of God’s love and the eternal spiritual riches that come from Jesus dying for us.

The people of Malawi and much of the developing world are converting to Christianity at a rapid pace. Their simple lifestyles put them closer to God and help them to immediately connect with the message of Jesus. We in the developed countries, frequently covet our material wealth to such a degree that faith in God is an afterthought or an optional concern. A cure for this spiritual blindness can be had by visiting with the beautiful people of Malawi. This is why I am committed to returning to Malawi with as many people as will make the trip and as often as I am physically able.
This year we are only going with a small group of people selected because of their diversity, commitment and leadership skills:

1. Kamala Bauers – Co-owner of Wall Residences, LLC a state-wide mental health and mental retardation services organization. Kamala is a member of Zion Lutheran Church in Floyd, Virginia.

2. Rita Childress – A Baptist from the Danville area, Rita has years of missionary experience, mostly in Haiti. She is a lay pastor who works full-time with Wall Residences to provide residential care to people with mental retardation, mental illness and physical disabilities in her State licensed home. Rita is a member of the Malawi Mission Board.

3. Luis Garcia – Ex Marine and knowledgeable of communication technology and non-profit fundraising methods, Luis is developing the Malawi Mission website and other tools to grow our missions’ outreach. Luis lives in Floyd, is secretary of Malawi Mission and is on the Church Council of Zion Lutheran Church.

4. Zelma Gough – A retired business woman in the human services field, Zelma is an important leader in the Danville community and in her church. She has a long history of service and missions work.

5. Jack Wall – Leader of this year’s trip, owner with his wife of Wall Residences and Chair of Malawi Mission.

Our group this year will leave on August 15th and return on September 1st. During our trip we will visit with rural villages in the north, south and central parts of the country. We will enjoy the hospitality and learn about how the people live each day. We will attend several church services, local village celebrations and participate in Morning Prayer with the people. We will also have our own prayer and discussion time together each evening. We will visit with different economic development organizations in the country and the United States Embassy. We will have several private sessions with Bishop Joseph Bvumbwe and his staff to discuss future planning to support the Malawi Mission partnership with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Malawi. And we will spend a day at a wildlife preserve to live with the hippos, warthogs, wildebeests and elephants. All of this is done with the expert guidance and care of our tour guides, chauffeurs and cooks who are all leaders in the Lutheran Church in Malawi.

The USA-Malawi connection is a relationship that I believe fulfills God’s plan for mankind. Why? Because they need us and we need them. Malawi needs us because they want help to improve the conditions for their people and their church. We need them because we grow spiritually when we share our love with other children of God. We grow as Christ’s Church through help to educate their people and train their pastors, help to build clinics and churches and through technical assistance to improve their economy and their environment. Malawi is perfectly ready for this help. They have a politically stable, multiparty democracy, a strong community spirit, people eager to learn and to improve themselves and land controlled by the tribal villages and made available for any positive community development need. Corruption in the government and the church is minimal. It is easy to develop relationships with the institutions of this country to assure that aid is well spent and goes to meet the needs of the people who need it the most. Malawi Mission has a close covenant relationship with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Malawi. Through a multiyear relationship with the ELCM that was started by Pastor Philip Bouknight in 2003, we have established an ongoing dialogue to coordinate our mutual ministry. The relationship and the resources all exist to allow many people from the USA to visit this beautiful and peaceful country. We hope to take at least 30 people in 2008 and future years on mission’s tours to Malawi. Contact us if you want more information about participating in one of these life-changing trips, if you would like a presentation to your church or community group or if you would like to help in any way with this work. Find more information at our developing website: MalawiMission.org.