Read how this Bible Truth is applied in Chikwina, Malawi!

John’s Report on their recent. trip to Chikwina is a very timely reminder that simply, faithfully, sharing your faith with your neighbour can have amazing results!

CHIKWINA FOLLOW-UP REPORT 2022

We had a wonderful trip to Chikwina the past week for follow-up exercise. We were lodging at Nkhata Bay. We were greatly encouraged with the reports on how the work is going on. Chikwina is one of many places that we have experienced God’s great move in the lives of people. When we started visiting Chikwina some years ago we heard too many stories of witchcraft, prostitution, violence and many being involved with drugs (Cannabis). During the years we have been going there we have seen the violent young people at the trading centre who smoked marijuana in public.  But this time we witnessed a great change. 

Most people in Chikwina area live in great poverty, have a poor education, experience poor health conditions and above all poor roads to the rest of the world. People in this area depend for their entire livelihood on farming. In Chikwina they grow bananas, cassava and maize.  Most of the cassava is used for making flour for nsima which is called kondowole. Bananas are taken to the market at Mpamba which is over 30 kilometres. If a farmer doesn’t take his bananas to the market at Mpamba they end up wasted or sold to vendors who look for bananas in these areas and buy them at a very low price. Likewise, maize farmers will take their maize to Mpamba to sell and if they can’t find a way to transport their maize there, they sell it to vendors, who take advantage of the locals. These are some of the reasons people in the Chikwina area live in deep poverty. They can produce wonderful crops but can’t find a good market for their produce.

Most of the bananas we buy in Mzuzu market comes from Chikwina through Mpamba. And yet the people who produce them keep on living in poverty and the vendors are the ones getting rich. The Malawi Minister of Transport and Roads comes from Chikwina, but he fails to support his own people (his home village). He feels no need to help them because he lives in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi in a nice house. 

Pastor Governor Chunda shared with us a recent experience where people waited for the dead body of a man. His remains were to be buried in the Chikwina area, which was his home village. Due to the very poor roads, the truck carrying the dead body couldn’t make it to Chikwina. People waited for days until finally someone decided to use a motorcycle to carry the coffin. According to their local tradition this is not proper. This all happened because this sick person had been transferred from the Chikwina Health Centre to the Nkhata Bay hospital. Often people die during transport over those bad roads. These same conditions also hinder the Gospel because a lot of Ministries find it too difficult to take the Gospel to this area.   

This time we were much encouraged with the work at Chikwina. The work has gone into the far mountains where the Gospel has never been preached before. We heard that most people living in these mountains have never had a Bible to read for themselves until Pastor Chunda, who is the DCI coach, visited these areas. We couldn’t visit these areas during this trip because of distance and accessibility.  It takes almost a full day of walking to get there and another full day back. Our worry was for us to leave the truck parked, walk to this place and come back to the truck a day or two days after. (Leaving the truck is not safe). But we are very eager to visit these places in the future and see for ourselves what the Lord is doing in these areas. The one-to-one discipleship is reaching areas that most outsiders can’t reach. The work is done by the locals who are being trained by the local leaders we trained. We see the principle of passing it on from 2 Timothy 2:2 works very well! 

We were also told that more Life Groups have started in these mountains after we introduced the work some years back to the people of Chikwina. Pastor Governor Chunda shared with us that the people of these mountains live far from civilisation. They grow local crops and eat them, no market no football grounds for people to play football or do any sport activities. People don’t even own a bicycle, there is no place to ride them. Many have grown old without knowing what a car looks like. Yet God has reached them through the one-to-one discipleship. Pastor Chunda told us about plans to establish more Life Groups and to expand the work to more places that are hard to reach, even by the locals. We were very much encouraged hearing this and to know that the New Testaments we give out are a blessing to people who are less privileged.  He shared that people who receive these New Testaments are very grateful and so are we. 

We are planning to visit two places when we return for follow-up exercises. We plan to visit Kanyenyezi and Mulunguzi which, we were told are easier to reach. We will have to walk for 2 to 3 hours up the mountains. We think we will be able to manage this. Kanyenyezi and Mulunguzi have a total of about 7 Life Groups. These mountain people spend most of their time sharing the Word since they don’t have many other activities to take up their time. Truly the Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached to all mankind. We witnessed this in Chikwina, where one-to-one discipleship and reproducing Life Groups are making it possible for the Gospel to spread far and wide. No one needs to go to Bible School to be a witness to his neighbours. The Dynamic Basic equips for the work of evangelism. 

We are so thankful to you all friends and Partners of DCI ministries for making it possible for the gospel to reach the unreachable. One to one discipleship is producing many Pastors, leaders and believers who are actively witnessing the gospel of the Kingdom into their circle of influence. 

-John Singinie

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