Reaching Chitipa and Surrounds With the Gospel in Malawi

 
Lying on the Bulambya plains and on the tip of the map of Malawi, is Chitipa district with diverse people, languages, and cultures. One unescapable fact about people in Chitipa is that they love their heritage. Chitipa covers an area of 4,288 km² and has a population of 234,927. Malawi comprises of Christian, Muslim, and Hindu religions, and in rural areas animistic religion is practiced. Romans 10:14 reads, “How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?”

TWR (Trans World Radio) Malawi started FM Christian broadcasting in December 2000 in Blantyre and has expanded to the centre and northern parts in subsequent years. However, Chitipa and Karonga in the far north had remained unreached on FM for almost 20 years due to financial challenges.

TWR Malawi prayerfully decided to count on its listeners, friends, and partners to raise funds for the installation of transmitters to reach these two districts.

The first transmitter for which all funds were raised in Malawi, was installed in 2020, and enabled people in the Karonga district to tune in to TWR.

But the work was not yet done. In 2021, a campaign was launched to raise 30 million Kwacha (an estimated $38,000) to enable the purchase and installation of transmission equipment in Chitipa, the northernmost district in Malawi.

The transmitter at Chisansu in Chitipa was switched on at 6pm on Sunday 21st November 2021. Victor Kaonga, National Director of TWR Malawi said, “We had been desiring to complete the FM expansion network so that we have a clear signal right from Nsanje in the south to Chitipa in the far north. This installation enabled us to ably fulfil our mission in Malawi to let everyone hear God’s Word.” Letting the people in the north of the country access the TWR FM signal is a dream come true for the Malawi team.

Broadcasts in the ChiLambya language, one of Chitipa’s main languages understood by residents in the border areas of Tanzania and Zambia will be produced and aired.

Funds will also be allocated to produce a 2-year radio magazine programme to address issues and struggles of persons with disabilities.

Within minutes of starting to hear, listeners based in Kameme, Misuku, Chitipa plains and Nthalire contacted TWR to express their excitement. A listener living in the Malawi-Tanzania border area at Kameme, Chitipa, says he used to listen to TWR from Manzini, Swaziland in the 1980s and 1990s. Upon starting to hear TWR on FM, he said, “Kameme is part of Malawi because of TWR. Welcome TWR, my radio.” Another listener gratefully welcomed TWR in his area and says that TWR had been very far from Chitipa. “We only heard that it was in towns. We are very glad it has come here. We, the people of Chisansu under our Senior Chief and the whole Chitipa are very thankful to TWR for bringing us the Word of God on radio.”

Please pray with TWR Malawi that the Word of God will fall on fertile ground, grow and bear much fruit.