People often ask me if I visit Malawi doing missionary work. I always say no. I travel to teach but have learnt so much more than I’ve taught. We seek to encourage but receive more than we give. We help to resource a work of God, simply by offering some of what God has graciously given to us.

Of course, we are on a mission - to reach all nations with the good news of Jesus, but honestly, the main reason I travel to Malawi is to be with friends, true brothers and sisters with whom God has joined our hearts. They are the missionaries to Malawi, we help and encourage where we can.

Initially traveling with teams from All Nations Church Bedford, for 12 years now I have been visiting Alec and Salome Mulalo who lead a wonderful work started by Salome's father Booker Banda who died in 2022. The work includes a church in the capital Lilongwe, an orphanage, a school and a network of churches across the rural areas.

Church planting is right at the heart of the ministry here. Gathering leaders for monthly teaching and training is helping to see three or four new churches planted every year. Each of the elders at the main church in Lilongwe take responsibility for different church plants, supporting them through to maturity.

So how can churches like ours support church ministries in a country ranked in the ten poorest nations in the world? One very important word “partnership”.

Our Malawian friends have the vision, the faith and the knowledge of their culture. We help with resources and encouragement. Here’s a few examples of our partnership programs:

Church roofs - When a church plant is able to build a structure, we pay for a roof. They make the bricks on site and build the walls. Then, seeing that there's a structure of people ready to take the church forwards, we help with the more expensive roofing materials.

Wells - "The Well Church” takes its name from John 4, but when working in a country where 5 million people lack access to safe drinking water, we wanted to live up to our name by helping provide actual wells or boreholes. Working alongside All Nations Bedford we've been able to finance 19 boreholes so far in villages where church planting is also happening. The benefits of wells are far reaching including: improved health, building community, irrigation opportunities and safety for the young girls (who no longer have to walk to remote places to collect water) which also releases more time for education.

Youth Conference - In recent years we've helped run a youth conference; gathering and teaching hundreds of young people from across Malawi. Investing in the next generation must always be a priority for the church and for the nation.

In June this year, a Well Church team helped with the teaching and feeding of over 460 young people at the annual youth conference, seeing 25 people give their lives to Jesus and giving precious bibles to 76 new believers at their baptisms. We were also able to visit the 4th church roof project at Mwenda Baptist church and just missed the drilling of Well church well number 7.

Helping with extreme poverty can feel awkward – receiving huge thanks for relatively small gifts which seem enormous on the other side of a financial imbalance, but as Alec encouraged me, "If you supported your own child at a school, they may be grateful if you pay their fees but how much more would they appreciate you visiting as well.” I’m so humbled at the gratitude we receive as we hear, "We're glad you actually came to see us.”

So, we work hard to promote a partnership relationship - sharing homes and meals with those we work with, reminding them of the joy, generosity, ingenuity and faith we learn from them and always asking questions and seeking to learn. Visa issues have made travel to the UK difficult for our friends right now, but we hope and pray we can receive them again into our homes in the UK to maintain the sense of partnership. Partnership in world mission has always been God's plan. May we always be learners.