Faith Comes By Hearing welcomed
in township schools

BLANTYRE, Malawi — In the heart of Malawi’s commercial capital, Blantyre is the squatter community of Ndirande. The dense population - which, at 150,000, makes it the largest township in the country - and unsanitary living conditions are shown in the solid waste lining the streets and in the children playing on mounds of rubbish.

The total weekly attendance at the FCBH listening sessions now stands at more than 500 pupils
Every so often the tensions endemic to a community like this erupt into open conflict between local people and police. In a notorious episode in January last year, police fired tear gas into the midst of 10,000 supporters of the National Democratic Alliance opposition group and were blamed by demonstrators for the death of two children as a result.

Ndirande is the ‘patch’ which Faith Comes By Hearing (FCBH) agent MacGeofrey Mwale is responsible for. Recently trained as a promoter by the Bible Society of Malawi [see Special Report 29/27] he is reporting very positive responses by local schools when he visits them to talk about the audio cassette Scripture ministry.

It is more than five years since Namalimwe Primary School agreed to the setting up of a Scripture Union-based Bible Club. The membership grew to about 200 and until recently the club used to meet once a week. Thanks to the efforts of Mr Mwale, however, it has now also adopted the FCBH program - and consequently meets twice a week!

Out of ideas

“It has come at a time when we had run out of ideas for the club, so we are glad to have FCBH,” says Mrs Kalimira, the member of staff responsible for the Bible club.

Another interesting development at the school is the appeal which FCBH listening sessions evidently hold for pupils of faiths other than Christianity. The total weekly attendance now stands at more than 500 pupils.

Mr Mwale has also described how one teacher who was initially hostile experienced a change of heart.

Cigar

At Nyambadwe Private Secondary School, also in Ndirande, Mr Mwale was giving his presentation about FCBH to a group of teachers in the headmaster’s office when another teacher burst in, smoking a cigar. After being told what was happening and being asked to smoke outside, the man left, angrily banging the door as he went, and Mr Mwale finished his presentation. As he was leaving the premises, he met the angry teacher again. This time the man apologised for his behaviour and asked Mr Mwale if he could help him give up smoking.

Recognising his opportunity, Mr Mwale shared the love of Christ with him. The teacher’s response was to ask Mr Mwale to destroy his packet of cigars, to which Mr Mwale replied that it would be better to do that himself. The teacher duly did so and vowed never to smoke again as part of his new-found allegiance to Christ. (WR 369/8 - 7/8.02)