In southeastern Africa where three major countries meet, there is a long, thin, landlocked country affectionately referred to as “The Warm Heart of Africa”. The country is Malawi – and they’ve earned that name because Malawians are some of the friendliest people you will ever meet.
If you are ever privileged to meet Rev. Annie Mdazyola, you will agree. Rev. Annie is the ICCM National Coordinator in Malawi, who is currently providing compassionate oversight for the children benefitting from sponsorship and scholarship.
Initially, ICCM Malawi sponsorship focused on assisting the children of pastors. We continue to do this for 40 pastors. However, in the last several years, we have slowly and steadily expanded the reach of ICCM to include several initiatives, including sponsoring orphans, reintroducing animal projects, and helping local churches strengthen their community preschool programs.
Rev. Annie is in regular communication with the superintendents of the three Free Methodist Church (FMC) conferences in Malawi, working with them to identify effective ways of meeting the needs of our own FMC children and reaching out into the community. In the past year, ICCM has partnered with the church to provide over 30 goats to needy families as a way of supplementing their diets with milk as well as supplying manure for their gardens.
This year we will begin providing goats to FMC nursery schools that are meeting a vital need for early childhood education and evangelism in surrounding communities. The Mwayiwathu Study Center and Nursery School are located along the Malawi and Mozambique border. It is being supervised by the Malawi FMC’s own cross-cultural missionary.
Malawians face many challenges on a daily basis, one of the most critical being that of access to food. Malawi often seems to be caught between either flooding or drought, both resulting in crippling food shortages. ICCM, partnering with the Board of Bishops, has been able to provide relief food supplies for our sponsored families, helping them to manage through the most difficult times.