Join our Team!

We have a vision. Our vision is to see the church of Malawi to break the vicious cycle of poverty and hunger, to see the church become an agent of change for the country of Malawi, to see God working powerfully through his church to tranform lives -- transformation from survival to sustainability, from devastation to hopefulness and a future -- a testimony of the power of the gospel.

Our family is committing two years toward this kind of tranformation for the people of Malawi. But we can't do it alone. We need your help -- your prayers and resources -- to make our vision a reality. We're asking you to stand with us and lift up a suffering nation and to extend God's justice to the poor.

We need to raise $3,712/month of support to enable us to carry out our mission. We would like for you to join our team and be a part of making a difference in the lives of people that are devastated by poverty, hunger, and HIV/AIDS. To let us know you are praying for us or would like to support us financially, please fill out our support form and mail it to us or Emmanuel International. You can also make a donation online by selecting "VanWoerden, Andre & Alexandra (Malawi)" from the drop-down list.

All gifts are tax receiptable. As a part of our team we will send you regular updates on our ministry in Malawi.Thank you for your support!

support update

We've been busy the last months raising the support we need to be able to go to Malawi to serve the poor. In March/April we spent 2 weeks up in snowy norhtern BC and AB (only to come back home and have to mow our overdue lawn), which included spending about 50 hours in our van! Our girls did very well, considering. We're thankful for the churches that gave us the opportunity to share our mission/vision and the people that are joined our team.

We just cruched some numbers today and we're at exactly 50% of our monthly support ($1,850 of $3,712) and 50% of our one-time start-up expenses!! Praise God! A big thank you to all our ministry partners. THANK YOU for sharing our vision and enabling us to carry out our God-given mission.

Please pray that we will be able to receive the remainder of our support and obtain our temporary employment permit so that we can leave for Malawi on schedule on August 19!

empowering the church in Malawi to make a difference

Here's an interesting article from Tearfund about the role of the church in a world of poverty and injustice:

We are all aware of many kinds of problems in our world - both on a global scale and in our own local situations. We see violence, poverty, prejudice and selfishness and a growing divide between rich and poor - not just between countries, but also within countries. Many people are searching for hope and spiritual direction. Many Christians believe that they cannot simply turn away from these problems and concentrate on worshipping God. Just as Jesus came into this world and became fully involved, so must they as God's people. What should the role of the church be in development?

The good news is that, despite all its faults, the church is the way God has chosen to carry out his work in the world. Holistic change is all about transforming the world and the lives of people so that relationships with God, others and the environment are restored as God intended... read more about the challenges of churches engaging holistic ministry

What we love about Emmanuel International is that it is church-centred and holistic – we will be working through the local church in Malawi. We believe that God has chosen to work through his church – that the church is God’s chosen agent of transformation in the world. It also just makes more sense – with 300 churches throughout villages in southern Malawi the Evangelical Baptist Church of Malawi is an existing network of churches already present in those communities and that will continue to be in place after we, or the mission organization, withdraw from the country. These are the churches we will be working with to empower them to make a difference in the lives of the people in those villages.

a holistic approach

What we really love about Emmanuel International’s ministry is that it is holistic.
Because Emmanuel’s vision is to transform lives, their approach to the problem of poverty and hunger must be holistic. Together, Emmanuel International and the Evangelicall Baptist Church of Malawi, minister to the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of the people.

The people of Malawi are stuck in a vicious cycle of poverty, hunger, and disease, and there is no simple solution. Poverty is a complex problem that has many causes and complicating factors. That's why we will be working alongside other missionaries serving in a variety of capacities from water development to orphan care. In our agriculture project, we will be working on multiple levels to get at the root causes of poverty and hunger. So we will be working directly with some of the poorest families – households that are directly affected by AIDS and are run by a single mother or a grandparent or an older sibling – and helping them to sustain themselves. By working with the church, we’re also working at the community level because the church becomes a community resources centre for these poor farming households – a place where they can get whatever help they need: access to resources like government subsidized fertilizer, quality seeds, weather and drought information, as well as counselling and spiritual guidance. We will also help the church to advocate for the poor with the various levels of government, to make sure there are systems in place to care for the poor and the oppressed. We will help set up farmer clubs in churches to give them a voice in the market and with the government.

So holistic ministry means working on multiple levels to address the problem of poverty – working with families in the field, working with the church to transform communities, and working at the government level to work towards a more just system.

the vicious cycle of poverty

Poverty, hunger, and HIV/AIDS are closely linked. The Canadian Foodgrains Bank describes the situation as a vicious cycle. In countries where malnutrition is already high, HIV/AIDS makes the situation even more desperate. People fighting the disease are further weakened by poor nutrition and therefore less able to provide for their families. When those infected with AIDS die, they leave behind orphans with even less access to food, less knowledge of how to produce food and at more risk of contracting HIV/AIDS.

HIV/AIDS is a major contributor to the desperate situation in Malawi. Because AIDS primarily affects the productive working class, the welfare of families, and therefore whole communities and the entire country is severely hampered. Not only do families suffer a significant loss in their primary income, but because AIDS is an extremely demanding disease that requires the resources of the entire family to care for the infected person, their ability to compensate for lost income is debilitated. To survive, these families resort to other sources of income to provide for their children, including selling firewood, growing tobacco, begging, or even prostitution, which further increases the spread of AIDS and increases hopelessness. Many children lose one or both parents to AIDS and are left in the care of an older sibling or grandparents, often being forced to fend for themselves. Many of Malawi’s families are pushed to the edge of survival, concerned only about providing their children with at least one meal for the day rather than long-term sustainability. With these people already living in survival mode, you can imagine the devastating effects of a major drought, the last of which was in 2005. It is virtually impossible to break the vicious cycle of poverty, hunger, drought, and HIV/AIDS without a helping hand.

Malawi: one of the poorest countries

Malawi is one of the world’s ten poorest countries in the world. It is densely populated, has limited natural resources, suffers from severe environmental degradation, is troubled by frequent droughts, and is being ravaged by HIV/AIDS. Being primarily farmers who live off the land, their lives have been reduced to extreme poverty and hunger. AIDS has eliminated almost an entire generation and left about one million children orphaned.

For many families, little land and little money to buy good seed and fertilizer means they are only able to grow enough to feed their family for 5-6 months of the year, leaving only one meal a day for the other half of the year. During this time they try to find small jobs that will buy food for the day. The result is food and nutrition insecurity for many people.

Canada and Malawi rank on opposite sides of the spectrum of the quality of life. On the Human Development Index, Malawi ranks near the bottom at 164 of 177 countries, whereas Canada ranks 4th in the world. Malawi has a Gross Domestic Product of only $677 per capita, compared to $33,375 per capita in Canada. 20.8% of people in Malawi live on less than $1 a day, 62.9% live on less than $2 a day.

Malawi’s population is 13 million – 1 million of those are infected with HIV/AIDS, which has left another 1 million children orphaned. A person in Malawi can expect to live about 45 years, whereas a Canadian can expect to live about 80 years. Because AIDS is especially rampant among the productive working class, almost an entire generation has been wiped out. Their children are left in the care of older siblings or grandparents. As a result, Malawi’s population is very young – the median age is only 16 years (Canada’s median age is 39 years, almost the life expectancy of a person in Malawi).

our mission

Our mission is to empower the church in Malawi to break the vicious cycle of poverty and hunger through sustainable agriculture.

We will be working with Emmanuel International missionaries (working in a variety of capacities, including AIDS programs, widow and orphan care, water and sanitation development, etc.) to help some 300 rural churches of the Evangelical Baptist Church of Malawi to develop and implement sustainable methods of agriculture.

Some of the things we may be doing:

• introduce methods of farming that retain the moisture and nutrients in the soil through conservation farming,
• invest in small scale irrigation and appropriate technologies to boost production,
• encourage farmers to irrigate during the dry months to develop winter maize gardens and increase crop production,
• promote crop and livelihood diversification,
• explore and promote energy efficient cooking and food preparation methods that protect the environment and are in line with social expectations,
• establish church-led community-based early warning system and disaster response plans that enables local churches and communities to be the first line of defence during droughts,
• develop closer links between partners’ long-term food security and disaster response activities,
• ensure interventions are sensitive to the specific needs of HIV/AIDS affected households by exploring low labour cost farming options and food aid approaches, and
• establish farmers’ clubs around local churches to ensure that interventions are sustained, to channel market information, and give poor farmers a voice with suppliers, the government, and NGOs.