Preparing the ‘Heart of Africa’ for the Gospel

By Melissa Mott   •   September 1, 2010

Malawi is a southeastern African country cupped by Mozambique to its south, east and west, Zambia to its east, and Tanzania to its northeast. The geography is dominated by Lake Malawi, which spans the length of most of the country. It also has high plateaus and mountains.

The name Malawi means “heart of Africa” and you feel that warmth in everyone you meet. With a population of almost 14,000,000 people living on less than 60,000 miles, or 235 people per square mile it is a bit crowded.

My Hope Malawi is an evangelistic project where Christians in Malawi can reach out to their friends, family and neighbors with the life-saving Gospel of Jesus Christ. They will accomplish this using a national three-night prime time television broadcast and DVD distribution scheduled for November 4-6. The TV programs will include hard-hitting testimonies from well-known Malawians, Christian music videos, and powerful messages by Billy Graham and Franklin Graham specifically edited for Malawi.

The training phase for the My Hope project in Malawi had a very strong start. It kicked off in August with three intensive days of training for 40 pastors and lay people, who will act as coordinators for the project in their areas of the country. Many of these coordinators started their journey to the training in the middle of the night, riding public transportation into the capital city of Lilongwe.

“We haven’t given you a job; we are giving you a ministry,” said Grey Mwalabu, the Mobilization Coordinator. “The dividends are high, not just here, but up there.”

Each pastor receives a training manual that walks them through how they can prepare their church for the broadcast. It includes practical teaching of how to implement the project in their church based on the experience of My Hope in 50 countries. It also includes spiritual preparation that the pastor can teach to their congregation.

They teach Christians how to live an effective Christian life, how to prepare and share their testimonies with others, and how to lead someone to accept Christ into their hearts. The materials even include a training DVD for each church that shows how to invite guests into their homes and host a Matthew party to watch the programs on TV.

“The strategy called ‘Matthew and Friends’ is the very heart of My Hope,” said Roy Kruse, the Country Director for My Hope Malawi. The coordinators teach pastors about the story of Matthew, found in Matthew 9, where Matthew invited his friends over to his house to meet Jesus.

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The trained pastors then teach the strategy to their church members, encouraging them to be “Matthews.” They are given the opportunity to invite their family and friends over to hear about Jesus from the My Hope programs placed on TV.

“This has the potential to be the greatest evangelism program in our country,” said Mwalabu. With God’s blessing, people all over Malawi can hear about the saving message of Jesus Christ this year. There is only one question left for each pastor: Has my church been trained?

This month the activity continues in Malawi. From the national office we’re assisting the 40 coordinators in training the people in their churches. They are Malawians training Malawians – a very effective form of ministry.

Over the coming weeks the coordinators will hold hundreds of meetings to communicate with churches what the project is and give them the tools and training to prepare their congregations to use the TV programs for evangelism.

Please join us in praying that thousands of pastors will receive training over the following weeks.

Follow the Motts on their journey: Read the blog »