pittsburgh Missionaries in Malawi

Twenty missionaries from Pittsburgh Presbygery in the USA arrived in Malawi on Saturday, 16th June, 2007 on an exchange visit to Blantyre Synod of the CCAP. The group comprises two pastors, five youths and some church elders. During the first three days, the visitors were hosted at the Grace Bandawe Centre, but as from Monday, 18th Juen, they were expected to go to host families. The youth contingent in the group seeks to spend time with fellow youths from Blantyre, with a view to taking a look a the working relationship of the youths in the two presbyteries. To this end, a special youth function was held at Limbe CCAP on Sunday, 17th June to give a chance to the Blantyre-based youths to interact with their conterparts from America. Items presented at this function included choral singing, sharing from the word of God, and sharing of experiences on how youth programmes are run in the two presbyteries. The visitors were visibly impressed by the delivery of the traditional pieces by the Limbe CCAP Joint Choir.

In a separate development, a smal plane crashed in northern Malawi on Saturday, 16th June, killing all the five British passangers and one Canadian, who was the pilot. Newspaper reports indicate that the make of the aircraft was Cessna and it belonged to a company called Nyika Tours, whose proprieter is David Foot. Mr Foot runs Nyika National Park on concession. The accident happened when the plane was attemptin to fly from Nyika National Park to Livingstonia Escarpment. The cause of the accident is not yet known, but investigations into it are underway.

Multipurpose Hall to Host Pentecostal Meeting

The Multipurpose Church-Hall at St. Michael Church of the CCAP in Blantyre will from 13th June to 17th June, 2007 be the venue for a mammoth meeting of the Pentecostal family in Blantyre. This meeting has been organised collectively by several Pentecostal churches in Malawi's commercial capital. Apostles S. Ndovi, M. Mbewe, F. Zalimba and others will be speakers at this meeting, which has been dubbed the "Megafest" while a South African band will be in attendance throughout. The CCAP has, through this planned event, demonstrated that they hold nothing against any of the sister Christian denominations and are consequently ready and willing to host them at their premises. The multipurpose hall has in the recent past hosted the Blantyre Joint Choir, an interdenominational choral group, and other gospel artists from Blantyre. On 27th May, the renown American gospel artist, Ron Kenoly, held a mega show in the same hall, under the auspices of the living Waters Church.

St Michaels holds funeral service of First Lady

The state funeral for Madame Ethel Mutharika, wife of President Bingu wa Mutharika, started with a church service held in the multipurpose Church/Hall of St. Michael and All Angels CCAP church on Saturday, 9th June, 2007. The departed first lady was born a Methodist but decided to join the CCAP church in Lilongwe in 2005. The 2500 capacity hall was full, with some people sitting at the amphitheatre just outside the hall. Among the thousands of mourners that attended the service were presidents Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania, the prime minister of Mozambique, the deputy prime minister of Swaziland, first ladies of Botswana and Zambia and Kalonga Gawa Undi, head of the Chewa ethnic group in Zambia, Mozambique and Malawi. In their sermons, the Right Rev. Dr Felix Chingota and Rev. Reynold Mangisa, who preached in English and Chichewa, respectively, spoke favourably of the deceased president's wife, saying she had left a legacy of being gentle and working tirelessly to uplift the lives of the underprivileged. The service was spiced with beautiful choral music by the Interdenominational Joint Choir and the Centenary Choir of the Seventh Day Adventist Church. After the church service, the remains of Madame Ethel Mutharika were taken to Ndata Farm in Thyolo District, where she was laid to rest, with full military honours. The First Lady died on 28th May, 2007 at the New State House in Lilongwe, and is survived by a husband, five children and seven grandchildren.