Dear Friends and Family,
As some of you know, I will be joining a team from our church on a two-week mission trip to Malawi, Africa to provide assistance to poor and needy people in that country. Our goal is to develop a long-term partnership between the Allentown community (where I am a youth pastor) and a village/community in Malawi, where we would focus on comprehensive, sustainable development in an effort to raise the village out of poverty. I’m reaching out to my friends, family and blog readers to see if you would be willing to help support our efforts.
The Need: Malawi is located in the southeast quadrant of Africa, and is a country of breath-taking beauty, and back-breaking poverty. Malawi is considered to be one of the four poorest countries in the world, with unemployment estimated at 60% or more, nearly half the population surviving on less than $1/day, and more than 65% of the population living below the poverty line. The statistics about medical conditions are hard to fathom: the average life expectancy in Malawi is less than 40 years old, more than 13% of the children do not make it to the age of 5, and with HIV/AIDS rampant, there are a staggering number of orphans and child-led households. Throughout Africa, 3,000 people die from malaria every day (one every 30 seconds). These severe medical issues combined with the malnutrition and food insecurity caused by the severe economic conditions make it extremely difficult for Malawians to pull themselves out of poverty on their own.
Our Vision: As I mentioned, our vision is to partner with and adopt a village in Malawi and provide broad-based assistance designed to enable the village to lift itself out of poverty. We will be partnering with the Development Office of the Presbyterian Church in Malawi, and with them have identified a rural village an hour outside of the city of Blantyre, near the town of Zomba, which is currently not receiving outside assistance. Our intentions are to provide a variety of forms of aid, including (1) constructing a simple building as a mission center that will serve a preschool/feeding center for the youngest and most vulnerable orphans in the community and a training center for agricultural and other programs to enhance the food supply for the village; (2) purchasing and distributing mosquito nets to help prevent the spread of malaria, which is especially prevalent in the region; (3) providing funding for fertilizer and seed to enhance next year’s harvest, (4) purchasing needed materials and supplies for orphanages and the preschool; and (5) establishing programs for providing sustainable sources of food, such as the construction of fish ponds and providing livestock that will reproduce.
How You Can Help: I’ve agreed to the crazy idea of joining a couple of other members of the team in spending up to 72 hours on a raft in the middle of the Allentown Lake, as a way to raise awareness of and interest in the plight of those we seek to help. We are asking people to support our efforts by making a pledge to sponsor our time on the raft. Each of us has agreed to spend an hour on the raft for every $10 we individually raise, up to 72 hours. So, if I’m able to raise $720 or more, I will have to spend the full 72 hours on the raft. 100% of the funds raised will go directly to providing assistance to the people of Malawi. We have a competition amongst ourselves to see who can raise the most pledges (and thus be stuck on the raft for the longest!). The following gives you an idea of what your pledge would buy:
Item/Cost
Buy mosquito net/$10
Stock pond with fish to support 1 family/$10
Stock pond with fish to support 5 families/$50
Construct 20m x 10m fish pond/$200
Materials needed to build mission center/$4,000
If you feel moved to sponsor some of my time on the raft and make a pledge, or otherwise support our efforts, please let me know — we will be launching the raft on the evening of Thursday, June 26. You can either give me the funds or a check (made out to “Allentown Presbyterian Church” with the notation “Africa mission” in the memo section) directly to me, or you can send it to me at home (101 Farber Rd 7B, Princeton, NJ 08540). I’ve never used the blog as a format to raise money before, but doing whatever I can to help our brothers and sisters in Malawi is something that I feel very passionate about. Any support you can provide — even if it’s only your thoughts and prayers for a safe and fruitful trip — will be greatly appreciated. If you have any questions or want to learn more about our vision, please don’t hesitate to ask.
For a peek into life in Malawi, be sure to check out the blog where our pastor and his family have been writing about their experiences during their year in Malawi at apcmalawi.blogspot.com.
Sincerely yours,
Charlie Lyons-Pardue
