Mission: Malawi

I had the privilege of traveling to the small African country of Malawi during each of the past two summers. The focus of the first trip was on preaching and social service; the second was on teaching future pastors. Both trips were great benefit in very different ways. I love Malawi.

That said, Malawi is at a crossroads. There are just as many orthodox Presbyterians in the central part of Malawi as there are in all of America (about a million). Contrary to the popular paradigm, the poor villagers in Malawi would rather see an influx of Gospel teachers and preachers than large sums of money. A year after mass famine, I witnessed firsthand poor, rural congregations giving of their meager resources so that the Word of God might be promoted.

Competing with this strong and vibrant Christian body are threats of both an external and internal nature. Externally, Islam is growing, "Christian" liberalism is diluting the Gospel, and Christianity is often merged with tribal witchcraft. Internally, the impulse to compromise on the Gospel grows stronger by the day because of the money offered by liberal Western denominations. Also, there is an incredible shortage of pastors which means that most of the hungry, young Christians are not getting fed.

This is where my vision for Westminster Seminary California comes into the picture. After my scouting expedition two summers ago, I led the first ever team from WSC to Malawi last summer to spend several weeks teaching at the lone orthodox seminary in Malawi. The school is impoverished and has only three full-time teachers, but it serves as a beacon of hope for the Church nonetheless. The need for orthodox seminary teachers and students from WSC is even more dramatic this year as the largest seminary in the country went bankrupt, which creates a lot more tension for our small orthodox school in central Malawi.

Please pray for Josophat Mwale Theological Institute--that they would continue to stand for Truth, even at the cost of financial aid. Pray that another team would be gathered from WSC this summer, that we would development deep friendships with the school and its students that will carry over into our pulpits in later years.