Assignment Africa: Every Person Won for Jesus Matters

This week, TWR leaders across Southern Africa and the world gathered for the TWR Southern Africa Partners Conference in Malawi.

It is one thing to know that lives are being changed because of the gospel being proclaimed through TWR. It’s quite another to meet one of those lives face to face.

I am at the TWR Southern Africa Partners Conference in the capital city of the small nation of Malawi. About 30 people are here representing TWR as well as our partner organizations in Zimbabwe, Eswatini, Mozambique, Zambia and Malawi. The formal business of the event is the signing of agreements between our global ministry and the Christian media organizations that work with us to bring the good news to people groups in their countries.

But that takes up only a small portion of time during the three-day conference. The rest is devoted to sharing ideas, telling the stories of how God is working through these organizations, presentations that help us think about what we are doing and just getting to know one another. In a ministry with offices and partners throughout the world, the latter doesn’t happen without being intentional.

“We can’t minister in your countries without you,” Branko Bjelajac, TWR’s vice president for Europe, CAMENA* and Africa, said to the partners. “It’s good to see people face to face, to recognize one another.”

As a journalist, I’m eager to hear the stories and engage in face-to-face conversations that don’t have to overcome sketchy internet connections and six-hour time differences. But what I especially looked forward to in coming here was the chance to meet listeners. That was the highlight for me last year, when I attended the same kind of event for East African partners in Burundi.

Meetings with listeners is an agenda item for Thursday, the final day of the conference. I’m especially looking forward to that day, which also includes a visit to Lake Malawi.

But an unexpected treat on this first day was a lunchtime visit from a listener who testified about the enormous change TWR programs made in her life.

I’m only going to give her first name here, and it’s one that’s easy to remember: Rejoice. She’s 33 and lives alone in Lilongwe, and despite her churchy-sounding name, she said she didn’t know Jesus until 2017. That’s when she first came across a TWR program on the radio. She listens to a number of programs now, she said, quickly listing them.

Moreover, Rejoice said, because of those programs, she now knows Jesus as her Savior. She also knows, Rejoice said, that she will go to heaven when she dies.

Reason for rejoicing indeed.

Grim News

The conference is taking place against the backdrop of solemn news. Victor Kaonga, TWR international director for East and Southern Africa, informed those of us who had gathered by Monday evening that the Malawian vice president’s plane had gone missing. This morning, Victor shared the sad news that all nine aboard the plane, including Vice President Saulos Chilima, had died when the plane crashed in a mountainous region. We took time to pray for all those impacted by the loss and for the people of our host nation.

I haven’t seen much of Malawi so far, although the drive from the airport to the lodge where the conference is taking place was not short. The driver took a shortcut that brought us on a dirt road interspersed with piles of soil. Most of the Africans in our rented minibus knew to carry face masks and put them on.

It’s the dry season, so it was dusty. Unfortunately, the preceding rainy season wasn’t very rainy, and in an impoverished country where many rely on farming, that’s bad news. On the plane from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to Lilongwe, I happened to be seated next to a man who works for the philanthropic arm of a London bank. He was heading to Malawi to start projects to help farmers diversify and to initiate water-management projects.

Originally from India, my seatmate described himself as a “cultural Hindu.” Whatever his beliefs (or lack of them), we can pray that our God gives his work success.

Good News

But the dry season proves to be a lovely time to visit Malawi. After leaving the hot, humid weather of central North Carolina, the weather here – cool at night, warm during the day and dry – feels invigorating.

What’s also invigorating is the message being presented.

“Serving together requires us to keep the gospel central to our work,” said TWR Malawi board member Sam Chimphoya-Banda during morning devotions. “The gospel must be central to all our programs. It must be central to everything we are putting on the air.”

Click here for PART 2, PART 3 and PART 4 of Assignment Africa

* Central Asia, Middle East, North Africa