Nashville to Malawi: An Expanding Mission Partnership
by Elliott Wright
Full article at: http://gbgm-umc.org/global_news/full_article.cfm?articleid=5416
The hymn says, “blessed be the tie that binds,” but ties in Christian mission can also expand.
“Growing stronger” is perhaps the best way to describe a mission partnership between a United Methodist congregation in Nashville, Tennessee, and the denomination’s Malawi Missionary Conference in central Africa.
The collaboration between the Belmont United Methodist Church and Malawi United Methodists is taking a new turn as a lay couple from Belmont prepares for a year of service in Malawi as Individual Volunteers in Mission. Jeff and Kara Oliver, both 35, will represent on the scene the deep commitment to Malawi that has become part of life at Belmont.
Mission seeds that have grown into the strong partnership were sown in 2004 when the first volunteer mission (UMVIM) team from Belmont visited Malawi, according to the Rev. Herb Mather, a retired pastor of the Indiana Annual Conference. He is a Nashville resident and a Belmont communicant who has played a leading role in the Belmont-Malawi story.
Village Churches and a Miracle Offering
UMVIM teams went again in 2006 and 2008. More than 20 persons were in the 2004 and 2008 groups. Participants visited many villages and engaged in what Mather terms a “ministry of encouragement.” The visitor became interested in the development of village churches. Belmont would subsequently make Malawi a mission priority.
Belmont remembered its mission partner in 2005 when the 1,650-member Belmont Church, located in an older neighborhood of Nashville, near Vanderbilt University, decided to raise $3 million for a new community center. The campaign, Mather says, included $50,000 to begin construction of a United Methodist conference center in Malawi.
“We had a special Christmas Miracle offering last December with a goal of raising $30,000 in hopes of building 10 village churches,” Mather stated in an email. “We received over $52,000. Fifteen village churches and one city church will be built with these funds. We are now working on linking Sunday school classes and individuals with the ‘miracle’ churches, so there is communication between our people and the Malawian people.” He continued:
Part of the Christmas Miracle offering was an offering of prayers. People in the congregation were invited to write prayers for Malawi and to bring them to the altar. Around 200 prayers were brought to the front of the church and placed in African baskets. These prayers were taken to Malawi … [and] some were read at a pastor’s training event and all were distributed to the 22 pastors in attendance to take back and share with their congregations.
Across the last five years, the people of Belmont have sent Bibles in the Chichewa and Tumbuka languages, paid for the drilling of 12 deep wells (boreholes) in Malawi, upgraded two parsonages, and sent 12 bicycles, a motorcycle, an automobile, recreational equipment, livestock (goats and pigs), and treadle irrigation pumps to the African country.
United Methodist Women at Belmont are very much a part of the partnership with Malawi, contributing funds for treadle and electric sewing machines and providing training in sewing and funds for 11 literacy classes for village women.
Malawi: A Young Church
The United Methodist Church in Malawi is fairly young. Started some 21 years ago by indigenous leaders, it was for 20 years a district of the episcopal area based in nearby Zimbabwe. In April 2008, the United Methodist General Conference, the denomination’s legislature, recognized Malawi was a Missionary Conference, with special ties to the General Board of Global Ministries. Today, there are about 100 congregations organized into 22 circuits.
Malawi is a land-locked country of 10.5 million mostly rural people east of Zambia, west of Mozambique, and south of Tanzania. Like Zimbabwe, it was colonized by English-speaking Europeans in the 19th century. It gained its independence from Great Britain in 1964 and become a democratic republic in 1994. Lilongwe is the capital city. The annual per capital income is $800. Some 80 percent of the population is Christian, 55 percent of those Protestant.
Bishop Eben Kanukayi Nhiwatiwa of the Zimbabwe Area has visited Belmont to cement the partnership and express appreciation for Belmont’s commitment.
