We were taken by Lisnet Fungatira, the National Chairlady of the ZEC ‘Chiyanjano’ Ladies work, who no doubt chose Bangwe as a typical and good example of the work in a convenient location.

The ladies were waiting for us in their ‘uniforms’ of navy blue skirt, white blouses and white head scarves and began a lovely song of welcome as soon as our car drew up outside the Church. We were greeted by Pastor Kanthiti who accompanied us as we followed the singing ladies into the building. We were welcomed and asked to sit on the platform with the Pastor, Lisnet and the leader of the local group.

The meeting followed a fairly formal programme with hymns, prayers, singing choirs, a chorus time, notices, offering and a Bible message from a lady who we assumed was a also a visitor. The ladies recited the books of the Bible together and then a memory verse was introduced and repeated several times. Individual ladies were then invited to stand to see if they could remember the verse. The message was loosely based on this memory verse.

Sue Hall at the Ladies Meeting at Bangwe ZEC

The pastor then asked for a testimony and the lady who had given the Bible message responded in a very moving way. We weren’t sure if this was the regular practice nor if the pastor usually attends. Perhaps this was to honour the visitors?

Lisnet outlined the structure of the ZEC Women’s Fellowship for us ~

• The Chiyanjano mission statement includes Jn.1:7, Esther 4:14 and Ps.68:11.
• Each local church has a committee which meets with the other local committees in a region each quarter.
• The three regions of Malawi each have a Regional Committee and there is then the National Committee.
• There are also groups in Zambia & Zimbabwe and members from these countries are represented on the National Committee.
• The ZEC Synod helps in the direction of the work and Lisnet paid tribute to the great help given  by ZM’s Rev. Bill Wilson during his years as Field Director in Malawi. Bill assisted the Ladies Work on many occasions in obtaining Bibles, helping the co-ordinator and in his prayerful  interest.

The National Executive has a vision for the future work and wants to encourage women to serve in their local churches. They are planning an HQ building and hope to be able to train ladies from each region in various skills, such as cooking and sewing, which they can then pass on at a local level.

The Secretary of the Bangwe’s Women’s Fellowship, Eggrey Chaoneka, spoke about their work in the Church. There are around 100 ladies though because of work and other commitments not all are able to attend at any one time.

These Bangwe ladies support and run the orphan day care programme in the church giving a breakfast of porridge, a lunch of nsima and Christian teaching. There were 50 or more children there when we visited. Eggrey is a qualified teacher and they have plans - but no resources - to start a primary school and eventually a Secondary school as well.

After their meeting each Thursday the ladies do door to door evangelistic work. They also visit the sick in the hospitals and have plans to help support widows by starting a tailoring partnership. In addition to all this activity they meet on Saturdays for choir practise!

Lisnet Fungatira, Mercy Chilembwe and Carol Fernandez

This is a very lovely group of Christian ladies whose welcome and delight at our presence was truly humbling. We were excited to hear all their plans and it was a joy to be asked to pray for them in the work. Their concern for the orphans is a lovely demonstration of God’s love to their community

As a women’s group here in Isleham we will be praying for them, learning from them and hoping to use some of our weekly offering in support of their work.