Malawi Church members visit ‘121’ and Dalgety Bay Parish Church

“VISITING Scotland is like a dream come true”, said one of our recent Malawian visitors.

With a twinning partnership going back to 2007, Dalgety Parish Church and Engcongolweni CCAP have forged an active working partnership and visits, in both directions, have been significant factors in developing the relationship.

This visit was a culmination of a year’s worth of planning. A full programme of activities saw our visitors involved with many church and community events, including visits to primary schools and Rotary Club. Under the auspices of one of our members they were given an MSPguided tour of the Scottish Parliament building before enjoying the views from Edinburgh Castle. Trips around Fife, a sail to Inchcolm Abbey and a walk around Dunfermline gave them a flavour of the area and its history.

One of the highlights was a visit to the World Mission Council at ‘121’ where, as it happened, our group entered the building alongside the Rt Rev Dr Russell Barr, the Moderator of the General Assembly, giving us a wonderful photo opportunity.

Over the past few years, our twinning has also had a practical aspect to it. During our first official visit in 2008, the Engcongolweni community had asked us to see if clean water could be brought to the area. Their borehole provided brackish water which resulted in many health issues, including deaths of babies and infants from water-borne illness and disease. We promised to do this, in conjunction with the Dalgety Bay Friends of Engcongolweni and help from Inchbrayock Parish Church. Six years and £40,000 later, clean water was flowing from the taps.

In gratitude, our visitors presented us with a painting by a local artist, showing the progress of water from open source, to borehole to tap. Over 7,500 people now have access to clean water, from a system that was built, and is being maintained, by Malawi’s Northern Region Water Board. Community health has improved, school absences are down and economic opportunities are now opening up.

For its recent Harvest Appeal, Dalgety Parish Church raised nearly £4,500 and this will be passed over to the Friends of Engcongolweni. With clean water now available, this will enable them to fund the building of a pig farm and further improve life for people in the Engcongolweni community. This is faith in action.

The Rev Nase Chunga said: “We live in a remote part of the world where challenges for Christian life are intimidating and people feel side-lined and isolated. The trip has raised our faith that we are not alone as we are bonded spiritually with our friends of Dalgety Parish Church.”

Mr Chunga continued by saying that they had learned new ways of doing things, including the concept of Messy Church, and had seen how the Church worked closely with the community.

“We were challenged at the level of women participation at Dalgety Parish Church where they lead various church programmes such as Bible study, prayer groups etc. I think we will need to do more to allow our women to participate in more leading roles.”

Bearing in mind the total cost for our six visitors, was the visit worth it? What a question; without doubt is the answer!

Relationships built and strengthened, new friendships made, a deeper understanding of each other’s Church and community and what twinning really means; and a renewed need to share news, prayer topics; Bible Study and worship themes.

Robin Arnott is Convener of Dalgety Parish Church Engcongolweni Support Group.