Pastor Stephen and his family spent 2008 in Malawi, Africa. This blog chronicles their journey.
Global Mission
Guatemala
“Spring of Hope” is one of APC’s main mission projects. Through a partnership with Promised Land Ministries and in cooperation with Cranbury Presbyterian Church, for more than 15 years APC has helped spearhead this vital mission to the children of San Lucas Toliman, Guatemala. The “Feeding Program” provides two meals a day to more than 200 children. The “Preschool Program” prepares the younger children for primary school. The “Clinic Program” provides free medical care to those who are in need of basic medical and dental care. Every summer, the APC mission team travels to San Lucas Toliman to help with construction projects, work on the school, and bring much-needed basic dental and medical supplies to the village. Every year, the team also brings with them several large bags of new shoes for the villagers.
At home, APC continues its support of the Guatemala mission with the “Sponsored Child Program.” Last year through this program, 102 children were sponsored by APC families whose donations provided public school tuition, a backpack filled with school supplies, shoes, and a gym outfit.
In December of 2007, our Pastor and his family boarded a plane and traveled to Malawi to spend a year living in Africa. In the summer of 2008, a team of seven members from APC traveled to Malawi to begin forming a partnership with a group of villages in Malawi. Out of these experiences was birthed Villages in Partnership, a mission of APC involving dozens of people working in partnership with other churches, schools, businesses and community organizations to nurture enduring, life-changing relationships with our friends in Malawi. Together, we work hand-in-hand with one another to devise and implement long-term sustainable develop projects designed to empower our friends to be able to lift themselves out of poverty.
Our principal mission partner on the ground in Malawi is the Blantyre Synod Development Commission (BSDC). The BSDC is the development arm the Blantyre Synod, which is a part of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (a sister church of the Presbyterian Church (USA )) operating in the Blantyre region of Malawi. We have developed a close working relationship with the BSDC, taking advantage of their local knowledge and extensive experience in leading successful area development programs in villages and neighborhoods in and around the city of Blantyre.
In the short time of its existence, Villages in Partnership is already making a difference in our partner villages - we have completed construction of a preschool/clinic building, repaired a badly damaged bridge that serves as a central artery connecting the villages, and distributed hundreds of mosquito nets to fight the spread of malaria. There is much more work to be done, and we are implementing a variety of other development projects, including the construction of wells to provide access to clean water, agriculture improvement projects, livestock programs, and community health programs. You can visit the Villages in Partnership website at www.villagesinpartnership.org
