Zambesi Mission is about to appoint Malawians to the positions of Field Director and Projects Coordinator ~ a huge step towards fulfilling its vision of putting the work into the hands of the national Christians.

Ever since Joseph Booth founded the Zambesi Industrial Mission in 1892 the emphasis has been upon helping the national people. In the early days this mainly took the form of providing work opportunities and appropriate remuneration and, in more recent times, assisting them to reach out with the Gospel and with practical demonstrations of God's love rather than building a large team of workers from overseas.

Accordingly the Mission has long had the privilege of supporting national workers in a number of ministries as well as sponsoring students for Bible College training but until three years ago the ZM Field Director, with responsibility for every aspect of ZM's work in Africa, has always been sent from the UK. Since Bill Wilson retired after ten years of faithful and extremely effective work there has been no one in that important position.

Now a national Christian will hold this key post with the Projects Co-ordinator working alongside.

• This is a giant step ZM has long had the desire but has never been able to venture this far before. At the end of the 19 th century Joseph Booth was well ahead of his times in promoting the concept of 'Africa for the Africans' and it has to be said that he was also ahead of a good deal of 21st century mission thinking! So we rejoice in our day that the Lord is enabling us to move this conviction significantly forward.
  
• This is an exciting step because it is an expression of ZM's belief that the best people to reach Malawians are Malawians. They are, of course, better equipped to cope with challenges of culture, customs, climate and communication than are workers coming from other parts of the world. And, if the Lord allows, they are not there for a limited term!
  
• It is also a real step of faith! Although the cost of supporting these posts will be very much less than that of sending folk from here to Malawi, it will still only be possible if we are able to raise the necessary funding for the posts . Both the appointees will be leaving successful careers to serve the Lord in full time work and both have families for which they must provide and there will be expenses incurred in their work.

If you would like to be identified with this significant move, please get in touch. We will be really pleased to send you details for prayer and how you can support financially if you are able to do so.