Children for Christ Ministry (CFCM) has trained over 800 Sunday School teachers over the last two years in Malawi.
This remarkable achievement has taken place during four successive waves of Covid-19, where restrictions on gathering were commonplace. Furthermore, whilst many organisations focused on the cities, CFCM deliberately targeted teachers throughout the length and breadth of the country, which is roughly the size of England.
CFCM worked with children’s workers or pastors in the towns and villages that they wanted to reach. These local contacts spread the word that training was happening. Then weekend after weekend CFCM’s three staff members packed their bags and travelled to a new location to deliver their seminars. The teachers came on foot or by bicycle from miles around, eager to receive training. CFCM’s training of trainers strategy has also been crucial. Some of the teachers they have trained previously have gone on to become CFCM’s trainers. These volunteers are strategically placed throughout Malawi. This allowed CFCM’s very small staff team the capacity to expand its training ministry.
Although 51% of Malawi’s population is under the age of 18, surprisingly, children’s work is given a low priority in churches. As in most African cultures, the elderly are afforded the greatest respect. CFCM was founded back in 2003, when a small group of Malawian Bible College students felt deeply challenged about sharing the gospel with children. Unlike the UK, Malawi doesn’t have a long heritage of Sunday School. Most teachers don’t own a Bible and there are no resources in local languages available. In many churches the only expectation is that the teacher keeps the children quiet while the adults are in church. Incredibly, some of them aren’t even believers, for the gospel has never been explained to them.
