Bringing the Good News to the unreached in Malawi
By Gibson Banda, who serves in Monkey Bay, Malawi, as part of All Nations Cape Town
I grew up in a family of six children. My mother was married to my father, who died in a road accident when I was just born. I have never seen his face or even his photos and I don’t know his relatives. I grew up with my step-father who was also married before and has two children, a boy and a girl. The Lord blessed my step-father and my mother with three girls. All of us were living under one roof. Life was so difficult for me because my step-father didn’t want to pay school fees for me. Instead, he sent me to a government school, which is cheap and provides a poor education, while my other brother and sister were sent to expensive private schools. The moment he paid school fees for me, he would leave the house without food. When my mother asked about it, he said all the money he had he has used to pay my school fees. Most of the time my mother would cry and she encouraged me to work hard at school.
I was working hard at primary school and by the grace of God I was selected to high school. While I was there, a certain evangelist visited our school to share the word of God and I got saved. While I was reading my Bible, I came across this verse which says “Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me.” NIV (Psalm 27:10) This scripture made me to fully depend on the Lord. At my young age, I decided to start going to different villages to share the gospel of Jesus together with my two friends. Many people received Jesus! The Lord was faithful to me — some of the people who got saved through us then are today well known ministers here in Malawi.
One day, I went to a certain village where I found an old man who was very sick staying alone in a dirty home. I prayed for him, and while I was praying, he told me that whenever I mentioned the name of Jesus he was feeling good. I asked him if he had ever heard anything about Jesus. He answered me that since he was born he has never heard about Jesus. I was so touched to hear that there are still some people who have never heard about Jesus. This is true especially in remote areas, where pastors refuse to go because people are very poor and they cannot feed them. They don’t give enough offerings and tithes. I prayed a lot and the Lord encouraged me to minister in those areas.
I married Agnes and the Lord blessed us with three children, Calvin, the first born, Gibson Junior, second born, and Destiny, last born. I have been doing this ministry for many years without knowing exactly the type of such ministry. One day, a minister from Protea Valley Church (Cape Town) visited us. After staying with us for four days, he said he noticed that what I was doing is discipleship ministry. He told me that he will look for a school that teaches discipleship and church planting. After some months, he asked me to apply for AN, together with my wife Agnes.
While doing CPx in 2015, I realized my calling. I had so much joy to discover that this is exactly what I had been doing. After CPx, I was well equipped. I decided to come back home and started ministering among Yao people in the Eastern Region of Malawi. This district is called Mangochi and 98 percent of people are Muslims. After a year, I moved to another town in the same district called Monkey Bay. God has been so faithful to our ministry. Many Muslims have received Jesus Christ and been baptized.
There are so many testimonies that I would love to share with you, but it may be too much, so I will share only one. There is a certain family who has stayed five years without a child, but after praying with them, the Lord has blessed them with a baby boy. The same has happened to another family who has stayed for nine years without having a child, but now the Lord has also blessed them with a baby girl.
God is doing so many great things in our ministry. Agnes and I raised up 10 first generation leaders. Out of these leaders, we have 31 DBSes and four house churches, and the number of believers is increasing every day. As a team we do life together and worship together. Our leaders are also discipling the youth and children through soccer and teaching school lessons during this Covid-19 pandemic.
Gibson and Agnes Banda
