Kasamba CCAP hosts partners from Mid-Argyll churches in Scotland
The Kasamba Church in Lilongwe of the CCAP Synod of Livingstonia is hosting a team of five personnel from the Mid-Argyll Churches in Scotland to cement their relationship as part of the twinning programme.
The delegation which includes Reverend David Carruthers, Paul Daye, Reverend Hilda Smith, Reverend David Logue and Catherine Paterson arrived in Malawi through the Kamuzu International Airport last Friday and were welcomed by the Kasamba Parish Minister Reverend Kapombe Mwale and the session executive
Said Kapombe Mwale in an interview when he welcomed the visitors: “Personally as the congregation we are very happy. We have made partnerships with our friends from the Mid-Argyll Churches in Scotland. We are excited to receive them and we expect to stay with them for the next two weeks.”
During a church service which was led by Reverend Hilda Smith, Rev David Logue who is leader of the delegation expressed his excitement at being in Malawi.
“We may be from very far from Scotland but we are part of Kasamba and Kasamba is part of us.We thank you that together we know God and we can rejoice together. Let’s enjoy our service together. Thank you for your welcome. Let’s rejoice in the Lord,” he said.
On Sunday afternoon, Reverend David Logue conducted a Bible study at CCDC vestry. The delegation is also expected to conduct pastoral visitations in various vestries which will led by Reverend Kapombe Mwale.
The delegation on Monday visited an orphanage and primary schools in Kawale in Lilongwe and on Tuesday it visited the Bwaila Hospital Maternity and Kangaroo units and the Fistula Unit.
They are also expected to visit Monkey Bay where among others they will meet the coordinator of Monkey Bay prayer houses and tour the missionaries’ grave yard before returning to Lilongwe.
Among notable activities that the delegation will participate in are choral music workshop, eye reading sight testing at Kasamba Church on Saturday, April 30 and on Monday, May 1, eye reading glasses will be distributed to those that qualify following the testing. And there will also be a Scottish Cultural show spiced up by some Malawian traditional dance at Kasamba Church on Monday.
The connection between the churches in Scotland and Malawi goes back to 1896 when Reverend Donald Fraser, who was born and raised in Lochgilphead, arrived in the country.
He was born in 1870, the son of the Free Church minister of Lochgilphead. He left the then Nyasaland in 1925, after working for 23 years in Loudon Mission, Embangweni, in the Northern Region of the country. Donald Fraseer’s ashes are buried in Loudon and there is a plaque commemorating him in Lochgilphead Parish Church.
In recent years, the number of Scottish mission partners serving in Africa, the Caribbean and the Indian Sub-Continent, who also had links with congregations in Scotland, has declined. Twinning between Scottish congregations and communities and congregations and communities abroad has been replacing the old form of partnership.
