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This is a place that will develop over time with some stories emerging from what God is doing in Malawi. We hope that they may encpourage you and can be useful in education you do.
The ceremony was an opportunity for the 22 volunteers from the AEC (Africa Evangelical Church is SIM’s partner in Malawi), who had just finished their 2 week training course, to celebrate together with the local Member of Parliament, Hon Mr Chimpokosera (pictured below), representatives of the Nsanje district hospital, 6 local chiefs and leaders from the AEC. The HBC program trains church volunteers to make regular home visits to patients and their families providing practical, emotional and spiritual support. The program at Chididi is the third such program that has started in Malawi and will be closely followed in May this year by another in the rural village of Chapananga.
The long term affects of the original Home Based Care pilot programs at Naotcha and Sankhulani are beginning to be felt with increased community understanding, some patients becoming strong enough to return to work or school, more people attending Voluntary Test & Counseling, local chiefs commenting on the renewed sense of hope in the community and some have been drawn to faith in Jesus through this demonstration of Christ’s love in action. Our hearts desire is to see a Home Based Care program like this operating out of every one of the 80 or so AEC churches in Malawi… if you’d like to help us realise this dream then please pray and give to SIM Project no. MW30-096253 Please visit www.sim.org or www.hopeforaids.org for more details or to give ‘on-line’ Written by Jacky & Mike Hammond, Hope for AIDS Program Co-ordinators, Malawi
There was a great rejoicing on 31st October as over 100 people gathered at the opening ceremony for the “Partners in Hope’ Medical Centre in Lilongwe, Malawi. It was impossible not to be swept up in the excitement of the many people for whom this was the realization of a dream to bring hope in a country ravaged by the affects of HIV/AIDS. The medical centre will not only provide medical services and specialized HIV/AIDS care, including provision of anti-retroviral drugs, but will also promote HIV/AIDS prevention through its Voluntary Counseling and Test centre and an ‘Action for Behaviour Change’ Unit.
During the ceremony we were reminded that God is in the business of rebuilding the broken walls of our lives just as Nehemiah rebuilt the broken walls of Jerusalem – I think it was all our prayers that God would indeed use this new centre to help rebuild lives and bring hope both now and for eternity. If you would like more detailed information on the Partners In Hope ministry or to support its work please visit
St. John’s STOMP team …… from Ipswich (UK) to Sankhulani
Only God could have brought together the wonderfully diverse team from St.John’s Church (Ipswich, UK) who between them had the perfect skills for the work to be done and whose unity and mutual support was a real witness in itself. The team had come to Malawi on a 2 week short term assignment with the ‘Hope for AIDS’ program to gain a greater understanding first hand of the affects of HIV/AIDS in rural Malawi. The reality is that HIV/AIDS not only affects the patient themselves but also their family and the whole community. The team began to appreciate this as they lived, side-by-side with the villagers in the remote village of Sankhulani (on the Malawi-Mozambique border) for 10 days hearing stories of people too sick to work, those with no income, the pain of losing parents and children to AIDS, and the heavy burden of coping with many orphans. The team had opportunity to go visiting with the ‘Hope for AIDS’ home based care program volunteers, a challenge in itself as they carried their bicycles along the railway tracks (where at one point the river 20ft below could be seen through the gaps between the sleepers), in order to bring spiritual encouragement and practical assistance to those in most need. Their hearts were challenged as they faced poverty and sickness, and yet they were inspired as they experienced how the home based care program was making a real difference.
Sankhulani’s kids will long remember the Bible clubs which the STOMP team ran. One of the team wrote afterwards “the work we did with children was awesome in the true sense of the word. Flexibility was the word that came up a lot in our preparations for the trip, so when we were told to prepare for 40 kids, we prepared a plan that could be adapted accordingly. Most days we had closer to 100 kids plus adults wanting to join in too. Further encouragement came as the days progressed and we saw some kids returning several times, HBC patients coming along to the clubs, and (my favourite encouragement) hearing the song we taught being sung around the village.”
Kugonjetsa Edzi Overcoming AIDS with hope, mercy, self-control and faithfulness from Mike & Jacky Hammond, serving in Malawi The fruits of the spirit listed in Galatians was the inspiration for the above words on the T-shirts now being worn by the pastors within the Africa Evangelical Church (AEC), following their HIV/AIDS seminar held 11-15 December 2006 at the Evangelical Bible College of Malawi, here in Blantyre. Thank you to all those who made donations towards this project which has resulted in a renewed energy & determination to continue the fight against AIDS filled with God’s spirit. During the seminar the pastors & their wives were indeed….. encouraged through their daily devotions, time for reporting back on what’s happening in their churches (the last time they all met together was in 2003) and being able to pray for one another. It was also an encouragement to have Andrew Lewis & his family, himself training to be a pastor in Australia, there to encourage them that his home church and many others around the world were standing with them in their ministry both financially and by praying for them. equipped with understanding and new ideas following a series of talks by external facilitators who challenged them again that the church must lead the way in the fight against AIDS, teaching biblical principles of self-control & faithfulness in marriage & sexuality, teaching youth the life skills needed particularly to resist risky cultural practices and promote positive peer pressure, to demonstrate mercy as we work to change the attitudes which have led to stigma & discrimination, to show Christ’s love in practical ways, and in all things to bring the hope of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the place of despair. A highlight of the seminar was the testimony of Pastor Momora sharing openly about his experience of living positively with AIDS, talking about the difference the church can make and describing his current ministry within the Evangelical Baptist Church of Malawi working in HIV/AIDS prevention, particularly amongst the youth. In small discussion groups, the pastors and their wives were challenged to talk about what specific activities they could start in their churches to address the needs of the many affected by the epidemic – those living with HIV/AIDS, the carers, the orphans, those pressurised to follow traditional practices which spread AIDS, and the youth. Having been presented with examples of what some other churches are doing there is now a renewed realisation that there is something the local AEC church can do without waiting for external donors to step in. enabled to persevere by mutual encouragement, by having the opportunity to provide input on their churches plans & communities needs which we can use in developing further the SIM ‘Hope for AIDS’ projects, and focusing again on the saving message and spirit-filled character of Jesus through watching together the Jesus video, in the local language Chichewa (most pastors would not have TV/video’s at home). We are praising God for the wonderful response to the request for support for this seminar and your generosity has not only enabled this seminar to be fully funded but has also enabled us to plan some regional ‘seminar follow up’ meetings to maintain the momentum started in December and continue to encourage and enable the pastors to turn the ‘action plans’ they wrote at the end of the seminar into real programs. Please join us in praying for these pastors & their families, as they return home to share all they have learned with their congregations, that they will be led by God to start effective AIDS related ministries in their churches and communities so that the smiles on the faces of the pastors may spread to those to whom they are ministering!
It is intended that a few new projects will be initiated this year including an AIDS prevention program for children/youth. If you would like to stay informed about the work with the AEC and the ‘Hope for AIDS’ projects in Malawi then ask to be added to the Hammond’s newsletter circulation - contact mike.hammond@sim.org or your local SIM office. If you would like to support the already existing HIV/AIDS programs of SIM and the AEC here in Malawi, you can make donations to SIM projects: MW30-096157 – Malawi HOPE for AIDS Master Project |
In Chididi, a small isolated village tucked away high up in the hills of Southern Malawi, a song of new hope was being sung on 25 March 2006 at the launching ceremony for their new Home Based Care program. This program is part of SIM’s ‘HOPE FOR AIDS’ initiative responding to the HIV/AIDS pandemic which is having such a devastating affect on communities like that of Chididi. 
The team also came to be an encouragement to the church and a witness to the community of Sankhulani. 
Finally, the team left a wonderful gift for the local church and school in the form of cement and paint with some sweat thrown in for good measure! Having made the financial needs known to the team, the faith of everyone involved grew as they watched how God wonderfully provided, through their supporters, the exact funds required to lay a concrete floor in the local school and to finish building and painting the local church. This building project provided the ideal vehicle for building relationships, having a few laughs and leaving a permanent reminder of the fact that we are one body in Christ.
| SOUNDS OF MALAWI | ||
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