In 2010, as I pastored ...  

 the First Presbyterian Church of Quincy, MA, I recognized that a mission opportunity was closing before us.  We had sent several mission teams to Bangladesh, but now, as that door was closing, we sought to partner with a church- or denominationally-based ministry perhaps in the Caribbean or Africa.  At that time, the membership of First Presbyterian consisted of at least fifteen nationalities representing five continents—including “normal” Americans; but of these, our African nationalities constituted the largest group.

Through a variety of circumstances, and given my own “African predilections,” I grew to know one Malawian family in particular; and so, when Chimwemwe invited Mary and me to attend a luncheon where Joyce Banda, the then-Vice President of Malawi, was to speak, we readily said “yes.”  Expecting the luncheon to be attended by two hundred individuals, we found ourselves among a group of thirty-five Malawians, who attentively listened to and then thoughtfully asked questions of Her Excellency, Joyce Banda.  At the conclusion of the luncheon, Chimwemwe asked me, “Would you like to meet her?”  In but a few moments, I found myself chatting with Her Excellency, from which came:

“You know that I’m Presbyterian,” she said.  “No, I didn’t,” I conceded.

"I believe God has a great work for you in Malawi," she said.

Really? I thought. Is this typical Malawian, political repartee?

"Yes," she continued, "and if you can travel to Malawi, I will cover your ground expenses, including accommodation and a driver."

"Well, thank you," I no doubt fumbled, uncertain how to respond to her offer. 

For a brief time thereafter, she and I communicated via email; and three years later, Mary, Chimwemwe and I sat in the anteroom to her office in Lilongwe, for she had become Her Excellency, President of Malawi.

Two weeks following the luncheon honoring Vice President Banda, a dear pastor friend asked me: “When are you going?”  To his question I laughed, but he persisted:  “No, really!  When last did any vice president from any country invite you to their country?”

With that question a seed was planted, whereby six months later I had learned much about the Malawian setting and her pastors, and with gleaned insight, I now asked:  “How are they doing this?”  I knew enough to know that the average pastor needed to rely heavily upon church leaders: elders and deacons, but nonetheless I continued to ask:  “What possibly do they have to give, when so much is asked of them?  Who is caring for those pastors?”  Of course, I also knew that these pastors were in communion with the Creator of the universe; nonetheless, my questions remained.

After much thought and prayer, after shared discussions of Rich Stearn’s, The Hole in Our Gospel, and William Kamkwamba’s, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, Mary, Chimwemwe and I sat in the ante-room of President Banda’s office.  We were now in Malawi, seeking to determine whether or not First Presbyterian of Quincy, MA might partner with a village, marketplace or urban church within Malawi.  Our hope was to make such a determination, even as we hoped to pay a courtesy call to the President, sharing with her our observations of the country and our continued prayer for her.  However, our scheduled time with her was preempted by her need to consult with parliamentary leaders.  Had we been able to meet with her, undoubtedly we would have shared with her what she already knew: at best, the pastors of Malawi have few resources. 

Their lack of resources, however, etched itself upon our minds, when we dined with the fourth most powerful man within the country.  Upon our being regaled with a most sumptuous meal, served by those in black tie, Mary rightly observed that our hostess, upon a ten-minute absence, returned with a small scrap of paper, on which to write a phone number.  Later Mary stated:

          “They have no paper.”

We had been staying with those of great means: platinum TVs, iPads, computers and iPhones, but they too had no paper.  One of the great realities of Malawian culture is that they are fundamentally agrarian, they export little, and they burn and have burned most of their trees, in order to cook and to heat--in many instances, in order simply to survive.  The land has been greatly deforested, which then contributes to the recurring cycle of flooding, drought and famine.

 This lack of paper further impressed itself upon me, when I had opportunity to teach a three-day seminar at the Josophat Mwale Theological Institute of Nkhoma Synod, located an hour’s drive from Lilongwe.  For the seminar and the Institute’s nineteen students, I had collated and bound various materials: English Scriptural texts, inductive questions and, as a last-minute thought, sermons I had written focused upon our seminar topic: marriage.  At the seminar’s conclusion, one of the Institute’s professors stood and said:

            “If I had had twenty years ago what Stan has placed in your hands, I would have had all I needed to provide marriage counseling.”

            Really? again I thought.  All that you would have needed?  But I knew he was serious.  The pastors of Malawi have few resources, and given the demands upon them, even if they had the resources, they have little time for reading, writing, thinking, and praying.

From that teaching experience, and through the encouragement of others, we eventually published, The Sent One: A Working Resource for the Gospel of John, consisting of an English text, the Nestle-Aland Greek text, inductive questions, and my own wrestling with a given text.  

This longer retelling above was my entree into Malawi, but it eventually became my entree into Romania and then Uganda. Upon our return to Indiana, after twenty years in Quincy, MA, through the Zionsville Presbyterian Church, we became familiar with a twenty-year ministry to churches in Romania, particularly within the southern portion of that country. Initially, church-planting was the emphasis of that ministry, but as those churches began to grow, the need for developing church leaders and refreshment for flagging pastors became evident. Thus, yearly conferences to encourage and equip these pastors has become important—and therefore the gifts I bear become truly beneficial. We are now in the process of translating The Sent One into Romanian, with the hope that, by encouraging pastors to become familiar with its format and methodology, they will then engage their congregations in John’s Gospel. If this resource proves helpful, then we will seek to provide similar resources to Mark’s Gospel and the Letters of Paul.

As a result of our Romanian experience, and also through Zionsville Presbyterian, we were next invited to lead a pastoral conference among pastors in northern Uganda, centered in Lira and the Otino Waa Orphanage. The first of these conferences led to two more conferences, with the prospect of four more conferences in 2020. The context of these conferences is the much larger vision of educating and training pastors of twenty-seven church plants within the past sixteen years. We have thus begun to address the educational and theological needs of these pastors by introducing them to The Sent One, which is now being translated into Luo, the predominant language spoken in northern Uganda. Following upon an emersion into John’s Gospel will be a similar emphasis placed upon Mark’s Gospel, the Book of Acts, the Letters of Paul, and the Book of Revelation. Very possibly, obviously dependent upon how our Living Lord directs, I could be involved in ministry in northern Uganda (and may be South Sudan) for the next five to seven years.