Faith in Action
Working in Partnership with the Church in Africa
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Faith in Action was registered with the Charity Commission in the UK in January 1986. We have worked with churches in Tanzania, Malawi, Uganda, Burundi and Zambia. We now focus on our relationship with the Faith in Action Church in Malawi, [They share our name but are a separate organisation.]
Our Mandate from God was given to me in 1987, following my first two visits to Malawi. At that time, we had already built links with a variety of churches in Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, and later in Zambia. My first visit to Malawi was in direct obedience to God’s leading. A couple in my church had given me a newsletter, written by an American lady who had visited Pastor Lameck Msamange’s work with the Mozambican refugees in southern Malawi, and as I read this letter God spoke one word very clearly: “Go”. I had never been to that country before and did not know anyone who lived there. However, from the moment I first arrived, I knew that our link with the church that Pastor Msamange had recently founded, was to be very special.
Lameck Msamange and his Family in 1988
His approach was very different from all the other churches which I had visited. They had all received me with great warmth and wonderful hospitality, but while all the other churches had taken me to see the work which they were doing, Pastor Msamange’s invitation was to come and to be part of their work in Malawi.
I therefore prayed for confirmation from God regarding what I was feeling in my spirit. In response, He spoke to me directly from Luke 5:1-11. You will remember this story: Jesus had got into Peter’s boat and had asked him to put out a little distance from the shore. When He had finished speaking, He asked Peter to put out into deep water and to put his nets down for a catch. Peter replied that he had worked hard all night and had caught nothing. However, when he obeyed Jesus, they caught such a great quantity of fish that their nets started to tear, and so they asked their partners to come and to help them, and they filled both their boats to the point that they were sinking.
A Visit to Dausi Village 1989
[Lameck is kneeling in the Front]
As I read these verses: God spoke so clearly and said: This church will bring a huge number of people into the kingdom, and I am asking you - like Peter’s partners - to work with them to help them to care for the multitude who will join them. Having now worked with them for 38 years, God has been very faithful to His promise: in 1987 they had founded about 50 churches in an area of southern Malawi which was steeped in witchcraft and had very few churches. They now have over 600 churches in Malawi and partner churches in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Zambia. After almost forty years, we continue to seek to obey God’s clear request to us, as a charity, in the various very different ways as described on this website.
Our vision is to liberate and empower congregations and communities spiritually, emotionally, physically and financially. Also, to support the church as it ministers to the marginalized; to go where others do not go and to minister the love of God to those who live as outcasts and deprived members of society.
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Spiritually: to mature as believers and to live fruitful, powerful and victorious Christian lives, learning how to overcome the spiritual forces of darkness and to prosper amid suffering, opposition and darkness.
Emotionally: to know our position in Christ: that in our weakness we are strong, and that despite past failures, hardships and criticisms, we can accept and value ourselves and live strong and successful lives.
Physically: to provide resources and projects, like irrigation and boreholes, which enable communities to provide themselves with the essentials of life, like shelter, food and water.
Financially: To set up self-sustaining and income-generating businesses which liberate communities financially so that they are not dependent on continual outside support.
A Meal for the Community living in the Rubbish Dump
Our aim is to enable families, communities and churches to support themselves in the long term and not to depend on financial support from outside the country. We provide resources such as wells and Bibles on a one-off basis, we do not set up projects which depend on regular monthly support, instead we set up income-generating projects and fund business loans which will provide regular income within the country and enable families and churches to live independently. For example, our solar irrigation projects can generate a gross income of £130,000 each year, the net income from which can be used locally to run an orphan day-care centre and to provide for other community projects. In our rubbish dump ministry, we set up businesses, each of which will enable a group of five people to leave the rubbish dump for good and to provide themselves with accommodation and income. We are focused on building strong relationships with our colleagues in Africa, and on providing help and support much as we would with our own family in the UK. We stay with church leaders during our visits to Malawi, and have also stayed in rural villages, sleeping in their mud and thatch homes. Over these past 37+ years we have therefore set up a large variety of projects, all of which have been very successful. However, very serious weather conditions have increased over recent years, they have faced four very destructive cyclones in the last five years, and so we are currently re-evaluating our projects in light of these very destructive events.
A Few of the 600+ Faith in Action Churches in Malawi
