Listen to the interview with members of the Summer 2008 Malawi Mission team first aired on North Country Public Radio on Wednesday, April 9, 2008. These 8 women will be going to check on progress with the Widows' Fund established in 2007.



2007 Malawi Mission Trip Narrative

View the narrative and photos put together by Bob Gorman from the April, 2007 trip to Malawi. The text of his narrative can be printed from here. A special thanks to the Watertown Daily Times for their assistance.



Overture 11-27

View the PowerPoint presentation for Overture 11-27 at the 2006 PCUSA General Assembly
PowerPoint



2005 Malawi Mission Trip Video

Below is 12 minutes of some of the video from our mission team's 3-week trip to Chivumu, Malawi in April - May, 2005.



If you are unable to get the video to play, try clicking here to view the video using your computer's media player. You may also right click on this link and save the file to your computer. Be fair warned, this file is VERY large. You will need a broadband connection to successfully watch this video.

The first scenes are driving along the road to Chivumu. The team put over 2,000 miles on their van during their 3-week stay. Their driver's name was Owen. Notice the number of people walking along the road. They were everywhere, as if they were refugees, but walking is part of daily life in Malawi. You can see a reminder that Malawi was once a British colony, by the fact that they drive on the left-hand side of the road. English is one of the country's official languages.

The next scene is from the welcoming celebration as the team arrived in Chivumu. Singing and dancing is very common in Malawi. You can see the first brick school in the background. In the video you can see some of our team members taking pictures and meeting some of the students.

Here is the foundation and some of the bricks for the new school that we are helping to fund. This school will serve around 300 children. It has been centrally located to cut the walk for some students from 10 miles round-trip to 5. Each village has its own kiln and makes its own bricks. If they mix in material from termite hills, it makes the bricks stronger.

Next you can see inside the old school. The roof is so bad that if it rains, the children must go home. There is some rather impressive algebra being taught on the chalkboard. Notice the logs and rocks that the children use for seats.

The scene switches to a church service with an adult choir shown singing in their robes. Services in most churches last just over an hour. Several choirs with members of different ages will sing at each service. This service is conducted in the Tonga language, but there are also English services at this church.

Later you can see a gentleman calling each villages name during the offering part of the service. Each member of that village at the service then comes up to give their offering.

You can see the outside of the current church. There is a new larger brick church being built. Our congregation/presbytery has donated funds for plaster. The congregation is currently trying to raise $30,000 to finish the church.

The scene showing the women dancing is from the ceremony marking our group's departure.

Pictured is one of the shallow wells. There are currently 2 programs going on to build these wells, one sponsored by the UN and the other by the Marion Medical Mission shallow well project our congregation/presbytery has supported in the past. Wells can be installed for $300 each. Clean drinking water is crucial to improving conditions in Malawi.

The video of the woman carrying bricks to build the school is especially compelling. Everyone carries items on their head, and often the women work with a child on their hip. Our team found that 6 bricks was about all they could carry at once.

The last scene is of children with their teacher in their school uniforms in their old school we are working to replace. Everywhere the team went, they were astonished at how happy people seemed, despite the crushing poverty.