Spreading the Gospel in Malawi

Having started serving in Malawi, Africa in 2008, Glenn View Baptist Church members returned recently to serve once again.
Glenn View Baptist Pastor Brad Wright explained that 11 people went on the trip this year, including two children, one high school student, four college graduates, three adult ladies, and himself.
Wright said they choose to go in spring here, which is fall in Malawi.
“We go right after their rainy season because during the rainy season the roads wash out, so you aren’t able to travel as much,” he said. “After the rainy season, the roads are still bad but you can travel.”
Wright explained that Malawi was colonized by the British, so there are many things that have British influence, including driving on the opposite side of the road, which can be nerve wracking for an American in a foreign country with rugged roads.
“It throws people off the first time they are there, and driving at night is especially dangerous,” he remarked.
While the summertime temperatures can soar into triple digits of 120 most days while also humid and rainy, Wright said the fall temperatures range in the mid-70s.
“This time of year they are harvesting corn, which is their main food staple for every meal and has zero nutritional value,” he said. “They are able to grow some vegetables and some families might be able to slaughter a goat once a month for some meat, but they rely mainly on corn.”
Wright said one food you can find in Malawi is Malawian sausage, which is roasted field mice on a stick like a kabob.
Wright explained that when they go to Malawi, they meet with missionaries Steve and Nora Braselton, who have built a training center in the village of Chorwe.
“Their ministry is Ruth’s Shawl, which was started for widows, but it has shifted over the years and a bulk of it is now training pastors and church leaders and teaching English,” he shared. “The goal of the training center is to teach Malawians to reach Malawians. They house them there, feed them there and send them back to their villages to train other people, so in the future when we go, we would just go to the training center to do pastoral training.”
When in Malawi, Glenn View Baptist mainly focuses on spreading the Gospel.
“I train pastors when I am there. This time we were able to take two ladies and they did training for the women and did everything from Bible training to every day practical things, such as basic hygiene,” he shared. “A lot of them complain about having headaches, but they are dehydrated. It’s hot there and they don’t drink enough water. They also teach them what to look for in their kids, such as what to do when they have a fever.”
Wright said his niece, Brooke, 9, and son, Drew, 11, had the chance to go to Malawi this year, which was a treat for the kids in villages in Malawi as they rarely, if ever, get the chance to see white children who are their age.
“They had the chance to hang out with the kids and teach them,” he stated.
Wright said they like to spend time and work with the women and children as the society is very male dominated, so women and children are pushed to the side in seating arrangements, financial, health care, etc.
Wright said while they were there, they visited five villages.
“It is very much like a VBS mentality. One day we did two villages, but other days we went to one village a day,” he said. “We spent over 100 hours traveling.”
Along with sharing the Gospel to the people they came in contact with, Wright was able to record two Bible studies that will be broadcast in two major cities in Malawi.
One place Wright said they were able to make an impact with was Grace of God Orphanage, just outside of Lilongwe.
“Right now, there are 20 kids in the orphanage. These kids have parents who have died from AIDS, malaria or parents who can’t afford to raise them. Kids are at risk because they are close enough to a city that if someone realizes they don’t have parents, they could be turned into slaves,” he explained.
Wright noted that they were able to spend two afternoons there.
“We were able to see their situation and identify some of their needs,” he said. “There is intermittent electricity in the city, but they have no lights. The sun comes up at 5:30 a.m. and goes down at the same time at night, and there are no street lights, so it’s pitch black.”
Wright said when they return, they hope to take solar panels to help give the people in Malawi lights, which will cost about $3,000.
“We would either take them when we go next time or send money over there,” he shared. “But, they have to build a wall first so it doesn’t get stolen.”
Wright said Malawi is the poorest nation in the world, so crime is extremely high.
“Their currency is the Kwacha, which is $700 to one Kwacha. The average person makes $266.50 in a year,” he said.
During their time there, one challenge they faced was seeing the children’s need for attention.
“Because it’s a culture where the strong rule the weak, we hit a day when we were trying to do something for the children and it became so chaotic,” he said. “There were so many kids outside, and some of the weaker ones were getting pushed out of the way, so we had to shut it down.”
One thing Wright enjoyed about the mission trip was reliving the experience through the first timers on the trip.
“I enjoyed the wonder, and soaking it all in, of the people whose first time it was and walking through that experience with them. I also enjoyed leading people to Christ,” he said. “We train church leaders, but even in those meetings, people just show up because white people are there. Just because we are there, we draw a crowd and because some of them don’t know Jesus, we share that with them. That is the main reason I go.”
Drew shared his reactions to the trip.
“When I arrived in Malawi, I was really tired. We were traveling so long to get there, and I just wanted to go to bed,” he said. “It wasn’t as nice as I expected. There is trash and stuff everywhere.”
After the initial shock of travel and seeing a new place, Drew did enjoy meeting people from a different culture.
“What I enjoyed about the mission trip was playing with kids in the village and teaching them some games we play here, and I really liked the animal safari,” he said, noting that the mission team went on several safaris after spending a week teaching the Gospel. “From this experience, I learned that kids and people can be joyful, while most people here in America aren’t very joyful. Over there, they are joyful even though they don’t have a lot of stuff.”