Christian students busy
for God on the campus

ZOMBA, Malawi — Chancellor College Campus, in the eastern town of Zomba, is the largest of the five campuses comprising the University of Malawi. There a small but dedicated group of Christian students are volunteering their time and energy to make the Word of God readily accessible to all students.

Sunday services, held under the auspices of the student United Christian Congregation (UCC), a lending library of Bibles, Christian books and audio cassettes, regular Bible studies and an informal Christian counselling service are among the ministries which they provide, with guidance from the university’s Chaplain’s Office.

And at the end of each academic year, as their final gift to departing graduates, the ministry team sees that a Bible Society of Malawi Bible is given to each one.

Converted classroom

The UCC holds its services in a classroom, converted for the purposes of Sunday morning into a chapel. Students greet everyone who arrives, offering them a booklet titled Good News by a Man Named John, published by the UBS Africa Regional Service Center, Nairobi. At the front of the room, a worship team sings praise songs in English and Chichewa while the congregation, largely composed of students, take their seats.

A young man on the podium begins the service, identifying and welcoming the visitors present. The guest preacher is Patrick Semphere, Media Officer for the Bible Society of Malawi.

Mr Semphere holds up a Bible. “The most important guest with us today,” he says, “is the Word of God,” and he launches into a refreshing, student-oriented perspective on the importance of reading and living by the Bible.

“When I was young, every time my mother cooked chicken my sister and I had a competition to get the best piece. The competition became quite serious: we used to plan our moves before we even sat down at the table! We had to know where in the pot the best piece was so that we could calculate how to pass the pot to everyone and still make sure that when it was our turn to take a piece, the best piece of chicken would be on top!”

The students laugh and Mr Semphere continues. “We can read the Bible in the same way. We can calculate how to read only the part of the Bible that we feel is best for us; we can read the Bible selectively. But that is not the best way to read the Bible because the whole of Scripture is inspired.

“How many of you have received a love letter?” he asks. A few hands are raised slowly, the students wondering where the question will lead.

“And how carefully do you read your love letters?” he asks. A few whispers between the students, followed by quiet laughter, suggest that the congregation is paying attention, engaged by Mr Semphere’s questions.

“Let me tell you,” he says. “You read your love letters very carefully, checking every word. If the letter is good, you may read it over and over again because that love letter is important to you and you want to be sure that you have not missed any word written in it.”

He holds up the Bible again. “This is God’s love letter to us,” he declares. “We should read it the same way we read other love letters.”

Finally, he issues the congregation with three challenges: they should read the Bible from cover to cover, believe that it is God’s will for their lives and they must live it.

With the service almost over, Mr Semphere and Kamwana Muyaya, the Bible Society’s Marketing Manager, are preparing to make sales and take orders at the display of Bible Society publications set out on tables in a hall outside. The congregation at the university on Sundays often brings a brisk trade in Bibles and cassette tapes.