Projects Malawi From Confusion to Clarity
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Thursday, 06 December 2007 11:12
Logos Ministries in Malawi - by Manuel Kamnkhwani




Exactly one year ago, in October 2006, I was privileged to share a hotel room for three nights with Rev. Joel Dykstra, a young Canadian pastor from Wellandport Orthodox Reformed Church. He was in Malawi on a fact finding mission. At the time, Logos Ministries had been in existence for just two months and we did not have the slightest clue where, when, and how we could begin to tackle the aims and objectives that we had set out to implement. Over three days and nights, we brainstormed, reviewed and revised the plan of action as we ate, drove, slept, and indeed even as we formally sat down to discuss business. A week later, Pastor Joel went back home full of knowledge and a bit of experience about the state of the church in Malawi.

Three months after Pastor Joel went back things began to happen, although not exactly as planned. In February 2007, two of the staff members of Logos Ministries, Martin Thondolo and I spent one sleepless night at the Msenjere CCAP manse. We were anxious about the following morning when we would launch the Theological Lay Training Program for church elders and deacons of the Church of Central Africa, Presbyterian (CCAP) Nkhoma Synod. Up until this point, the Theological Lay Training Program was still “a white elephant” since it was not based on any previously tried and tested program. Our anxiety was later worsened by the discovery that we were starting our program in a congregation that had not had a pastor for a number of years.

The following morning was indeed a great challenge and one of the most unforgettable experiences we would ever have in the Logos ministry. At 8:30 am, the 22 participants had converged to start the seminar. We decided to take our time and ask random questions that would give us a picture of the people’s knowledge of the basic catechetical theology of the Reformed Creeds and Confessions. In the course of the question and answer session, we occasionally got interesting answers to the questions we posed. One of the most interesting and revealing questions, for instance was: “Is Jesus Christ God?” and there was a very confident and resounding “No!” from a number of the elders and deacons. At that moment, something sank in my heart as I realized that we have tonnes of work ahead of us if the ministry of Logos is going to make a difference within the Malawian church. Today, eight months later, with our limited human resources, we have reached sixteen congregations with our program. Requests for the program to be introduced in the remaining one hundred plus Nkhoma Synod congregations are overwhelming.

As a ministry, we have been compelled by Isaiah’s response to the Lord’s call when the Lord said, “Whom shall we send, who will go for us?” Our primary objective in the lay training program that we are running is to ignite an interest in the lives of CCAP Nkhoma Synod members to know and understand the various biblical doctrines on which the foundation of the church is built. For a number of decades, the Presbyterian/Reformed church in Malawi has lived in a theological maze, with most of its members not knowing even the first thing about being Reformed. To most people the difference between themselves and members of other denominations is very superficial. Lately, a good number of lay church leaders in the congregations that we have reached so far with the Theological Lay Training Program are beginning to get an idea of their Reformed identity and spirituality.

In September 2007, our zeal for the fulfilment of Logos Ministries’ main objectives was strengthened with the introduction of a parallel in-service program for pastors, with Dr. Timothy Monsma as the main speaker. Having dealt with laymen for more than six months, this seminar was much more encouraging, since we were dealing with people who have a higher level of understanding. Furthermore, the environment in which the seminar was conducted made the experience even more exhilarating. The seminar was held in a brand new facility at Josophat Mwale Theological Institute at the CCAP Nkhoma Synod headquarters, which has been specially built for the in-service training of pastors. Built with funds from different sources, the facility has been fully furnished with Word & Deed funds to the tune of $7,000. For most of the participants it was their first time to see the facility, and one of them walked up to me and said “When I first heard about Logos Ministry, I thought it was a phony ministry. You have proved me wrong, you guys are really serious.”

The success of the first Logos Ministries in-service training seminar for pastors cannot be overemphasized. Among the comments we had on the evaluation sheets that we handed out at the end of the seminar, Rev. Gamaliel Kalebe wrote “I do not hesitate to say that it is God’s grace that I attended the seminar. I had a chance of learning more things for the betterment of my ministry. Apart from that, it was good to meet my fellow ministers with whom I shared a lot…” Another anonymous comment said: “The seminar reflected on our daily congregational lives and the material offered was rich in sound theology and up to date skills…”

As we sit back and look at the successes of this first year of the existence of Logos Ministries, we are at loss for words when we consider how the Lord has put together resources from two groups of Christians living in totally different worlds who have never met one another. By human standards, it is very difficult, or even impossible for people from two different cultures to make real meaningful progress in one endeavour, yet the great strides that Logos Ministries has made over the past year is a joint effort of Word & Deed partner - Wellandport Orthodox Reformed Church in Canada - and the trustees and staff of Logos Ministries in Malawi. This is a clear indication that any success we meet in ministry is a result of the Lord planning and doing, and that nothing is impossible with the Lord.

Manuel Kamnkhwani is Project Director for Word & Deed in Malawi
 
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