INTRODUCTION
Brothers and sisters of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Australia and Pilgrim Covenant Church – Singapore:
To begin with receive greetings from The Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Malawi and Mozambique. It is our hope and prayers that The Lord keeps you safe and that His work is going on well there.
Figure 1: Pastor Silas Cidreck and Pastor Rex in Mozambique
We rejoice in The Lord that He has established His Church here in Africa. The Church is indeed His and He is blessing it and encouraging it.
Figure 2: One of the new Churches in Balaka District
We write to present this annual report of The Lord’s Work here in Malawi and Mozambique.
GROWTH OF THE CHURCH
We are glad to report to you that the Church has been increasing in numbers. The Lord has blessed us with more new brothers and sisters both in Malawi and Mozambique. The Reformed Faith is being received by many people and are enjoying it. People have realized that only Psalms are accepted to be sung during worship and they are not ashamed of it, though the uninspired songs seem to be good and enjoyable but the truth is that they are not inspired . At first we thought that this will make us a small church but it is not like that. We praise God indeed.
Figure 3: Singing of Psalms in progress
As of now census is underway for us to update the records so that we should know exactly how many members we have. We will also update you on the names of our congregations since the number has increased both in Malawi and Mozambique. The old totals can not be a true reflection of how the Church is today. We do not take this for granted but give glory to God for He is the only one who adds the number of believers into His Church (Acts 2:47).
BIBLES AND SHORTER CATECHISM
EPCM members have also realized the need to know and understand the Word of God. Your support in the purchase of Bibles and production of shorter catechism has made the members to know the Word of God and understand the Reformed Faith. EPCM members are different to members of other churches in terms of understanding the Word of God. They are eager to read and memorize. Shorter Catechism has also deepened the understanding of God’s Truth. In most prayer houses members gather together to read and recite the catechisms. In some presbyteries they do it like competition among prayer houses to see who is accurate in reciting the catechisms. So it has become part of life for the members to understand and memorize catechism. We thank you brethren for this wonderful effort. Our members could not have reached this far without your hand.
Continue to pray for us so that more Bibles should be purchased and more catechism books be printed because there are many members and families who do not own a Bible. Pray also that the reading of the Bibles and catechism books be done with understanding.
CHILDREN CATECHISM
A few years ago we received a gift of children catechisms by Pastor JJ. They are a set of ten books. We distributed them in all our prayer houses. These have helped children to also know the Word of God. Our children are not the same. They are also stars even in primary schools when it comes to Bible Knowledge. We thank God that a reformed generation is being raised. Most of these children are those born after 2008 when EPCM started. Those that finish memorizing the 10 books are asked to right away go to the shorter catechism and they are doing it. So these books have been a blessing to the children indeed and they have helped us in raising this reformed
generation. Glory be to God!
Figure 4: Most new prayers houses use grass thatched shelters to worship.
Like the shorter catechisms among the senior members activities are also organized for children of closer churches or presbyteries to meet and do some kind of competition where they recite verses and catechism questions. It is always difficult to find who a winner is! It is not an easy task because most of them perform well indeed.
Figure 5: Children enjoy reading catechisms
Since these books were printed some time back and they are no longer in stock, there is need for more of them so that the growing youth can learn and be distributed to the new prayer houses also.
PSALMS TRANSLATION
We have been using a psalm book which is not complete. Then we decided to have all of them. The project has been going on well. As of now we are on the editing stage. We have arranged them to fit into the local tunes so that it should not be a problem for anyone to sing. Those who were entrusted with the work have tried them in a few presbyteries and they seem to be good. We believe members will enjoy having the whole psalm book which will be sung in local tunes.
Figure 6: A Complete Psalm book will be a blessing indeed!
As already stated the singing of Psalms is part of the life of the Church in Malawi and Mozambique. It will be indeed an encouragement to have it full and making it available for every house. Continue to pray for us that this work be completed and that printing be done.
COMPLETION OF TRAINING, EXAMINATION AND ORDINATION OF NEW MINISTERS
The year 2017 will not be forgotten in the history of the Church in Malawi and Mozambique. We completed the training of men who wanted to be ministers of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. The training started in 2013. We started with many men but only a few made it to the end.
In April 2017 Pastor Chris Connors and Pastor JJ Lim joined our presbytery in examining those that endured to the end so that God’s chosen ministers could be identified. It was a wonderful time and an experience indeed. We are the only Church in Malawi that conducts such an examination whereby one is given time to express themselves in various courses through questions from members of the presbytery.
Four of our students made it and some were given another chance to do it especially in the areas they did not do well. Others failed completely. Those who made it right away were: Samuel Kapesi (Mozambique), Patrick Selenje (Malawi), Patrick Chome (Malawi) and Phillip Mukakama (Malawi).
Figure 7: Pastor Samuel Kapesi during Presbytery trials.
Those who failed were encouraged to serve God in other ways for example being ruling elders. They have accepted and trusted members of the church. They are all active and help in teaching catechism and other areas of need in the church. These brothers are: Christopher Bonongwe, Dion Makina and Stanley Mitambo. It is indeed The Lord that choses His people into different ministries because we did not expect the brothers to fail.
Later in early October, 2017 we reexamined those that given another chance. These are: Odalla Banda, James Semani, Jeremiah Mkuluthu, Vincent Wilson, Sailesi Cidreck, and Edson Fombe.
Figure 8: Presbytery elders during reexamination and Pastor Kapesi being congratulated by friends
Edson Fombe was reexamined in August, 2017 because the need in the Shire Valley was great. So he was reexamined alone. But the rest were reexamined in October, 2017 and they all did well apart from Odalla Banda who prepared in another area. So he did not do well. Fosco Chagoma was not reexamined because his father passed on and was being buried on the reexamination date. So the two are waiting for the Presbytery decision.
So the following have been called and ordained as ministers:
- Edson Fombe
- Jeremiah Mkuluthu
- Patrick Selenje
- Patrick Chome
- James Semani
- Phillip Mukakama
- Sailes Cidreck
- Samuel Kapesi
- Vincent Wilson
This means we now have 14 ministers
This is a wonderful blessing and we praise God indeed. “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to The Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest” Luke 10: 2. Indeed the Work was too much for Pastors Royed, Rex, Precious, Jack and George. The coming of these new men is a wonderful blessing to us.
The new ministers have started work and they are doing well. It is indeed a relief to the EPCM members to have these men. So the preaching of the Word of God, Administration of sacraments and church discipline are being administered without difficulties.
Brethren, we again thank the Lord for you. We could not manage the training of these new men. You have tried your best for the past five years to make sure that these people are trained. May God bless you all for strengthening our hand in this area.
EVANGELISM AND THE CONVERSION OF MUSLIMS
One of the reasons behind our growth is that of Evangelism. Each prayer house is advised to have an activity concerning evangelism so that God’s elect should hear the Word of God. So different activities are arranged. The evangelism programmes include open air, door to door and sports evangelism.
During open air members just choose a venue. They put posters before the date informing the people about the event. On the day of the programme starts with singing, verses recitals, catechism question and answers then the preaching of the Word.
Figure 9: People listening to the Word during one of the sports evangelism activities and the two EPC Stars ready to play
At the end people ask different questions. It is during these meetings that EPC becomes known and people come to church to become members.
During the past three years sports evangelism has also become another wonderful weapon to preach the Word. People like soccer and netball. So we thought it wise to utilize this and make it an evangelism tool. So every prayer house has at least netball and soccer teams. These teams travel to different places. Before the matches songs are sung and preaching is done. Preaching continues during half time. Through this means we have also seen many people especially the youth turning to the Lord. Our teams called EPC Stars and EPC Queens. For example we have Chibwana EPC Stars, Manyamba EPC Stars, Mpovu EPC Queens, Luchenza EPC Queens just to mention a few.
Figure 10:Katundu EPC Queens and Monekera EPC Stars
These evangelism means have also helped us in the Muslim areas. We have many people that were Muslims and are now Christians. It is always encouraging to see Muslims coming to Christ.
Figure 11: In Muslim areas some Muslims do come and listen. It is during such gatherings that we have won some to Christ.
We had challenges at first with the Muslims as they used to burn our churches. Thank God that we have not experienced such challenges in the past five years. We thank you for your prayers.
Figure 12: Chilemba and Namiwa EPC Stars
On this brethren we thank you for your support of balls and jerseys. As of now more of these balls and jerseys for both soccer and netball are needed. A single ball can do a lot.
TRAINING OF PRESBYTERIES ON THE NEED TO SUPPORT MINISTERS
Figure 13: Pastor Rex teaching during one of the Presbytery trainings
When Pastor Connors came some time back he had some seminars in all our presbyteries on the duties of deacons and the need to support ministers. We have gone around all presbyteries reminding the elders to on this great need. Members are eager and they have started doing it. So it is our hope that the new ministers will not have challenges of assistance in their respective congregations.
FAMINE SITUATION
Brethren, from January 2015 we have experienced unusual weather events that have made many suffer. As you know it all started with floods then later continued sunlight. The most affected areas have been The Shire Valley (Nsanje and Chikwawa Districts), Phalombe, Zomba, Machinga, Balaka and Mangochi.
We thank you for your support during all these years. Your help has really helped our members in these areas.
Your prayers have also helped our members not to be moved. The Muslims and SDAs have been distributing food and clothes in exchange that people join them. They have taken an advantage of this disaster to campaign for their membership. Thank God that none of our members has left the Church to join them. The Word of God indeed encourages them. We praise God brethren.
As of the 2017 growing season Shire Valley only received a few rains and later continued sunlight. This was followed was by Machinga and Balaka, but Shire Valley was the most affected. This means that our friends in the Shire Valley have been struggling to get up to now.
When the 2017-18 growing season we expected to have rains better than last growing season, but it just started well and the beginning and as this report is being written the same areas are affected largely. It has not rained for quite some time and the plants are drying up during the tassling stage. This means it is another year of having no food.
Figure 14: Shire Valley, Phalombe and Machinga drought affected crops
Brethren we always trust that the Lord cares for His people even in times like these. Continue to pray for us and the countries of Malawi and Mozambique that the weather should do us favour. Both countries depend on rain fed agriculture and with no rain it is a big disaster indeed.
Pray also that our members should continue to trust The Lord in even in these trying times. It is The Word of God that gives us comfort.
TEN YEARS ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS
As we indicated in our last report, this year (2018) is the year we are thanking The Lord for taking us this far. This is our tenth year in the reformed faith.
We have planned to have activities in all our presbyteries and then have a particular week end in September for a big gathering at one place. We plan to sing psalms together and hear the Word of God as we thank God. He has brought us this far!
We are meeting soon with all presbytery leaders to map the way forward on the planned activities now that we have this challenge of famine. So we will keep you updated because our plan is that we should have you during the big gathering activities. You are part of our ten years celebrations.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion we all thank you for you support and prayers. EPCM has reached this far because of your prayers and support. We do not take it for granted but thank God for you brethren.
May God continue to bless you all the time.
Yours Saved by Grace,
Rev. Precious Kanyowa
FOR THE EPC MALAWI AND MOZAMBIQUE