BARGAIN: Detached House - £35,000
Friday 30th October 2009
At the heart of Blantyre Mission is the Church of St. Michael and All Angels. It is a beautiful building and a national monument.
As a family it holds for us the warmest of memories. We went there every Sunday evening for the 5 o’clock service. After the service there were great times of conversation and friendship around the door with people from many different countries.
Not far from St Michael’s is a building site. The house being built there is to be called CCAPSO House. CCAPSO, the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian Students' Organisation, was formed in the year 2000.
During the late 90’s many CCAP students felt that there was a need for a CCAP Student Organisation which reflected Presbyterian beliefs. This saw the birth of a Presbyterian students’ movement in the universities and colleges of Blantyre and Zomba and the formation of CCAP Clubs in various schools.
Blantyre Synod was involved in discussions with the students from the beginning and, on 8th April 2000, the first Synod executive committee was elected at a meeting held at Limbe CCAP church.
This committee was given the task of spearheading the formation of CCAPSO in schools and colleges. The dream became a reality on 24th June 2000, when CCAPSO was launched by the Blantyre Synod at the Henry Henderson Institute (HHI) Secondary School with Rev. Joseph Thipa as part-time Travelling Secretary.
Since then, it has spread to many areas to southern Malawi and, in 2004, was launched in Nkhoma Synod in the Central Region.
In February 2007, a CCAPSO Office was set us at the Blantyre Synod Offices and a full-time travelling secretary, Joy Khangamwa, was employed. Joy had been involved with the Organisation from the beginning as a student leader and had just graduated when he was appointed.
CCAPSO is an organisation which is Biblically based, reformed and evangelical.
Its aims are to help Presbyterian students to worship God not just in meetings with spiritual songs but with their money, their bodies, their whole lives: to serve other people both Christian and non-Christian by feeding the hungry, caring for orphans, visiting those in prison and sharing the Gospel with them all; preaching the Good News of Jesus Christ and calling sinners to repentance from sin and trusting faith in Jesus as Saviour and Lord; forming fellowship groups where Christian students can pray, study the Bible and support each other; and to teach the Word of God to believing students and help them to mature in both faith and practice.
CCAPSO is having a tremendous impact with hundreds of young people being converted, dozens being called into the ministry of the CCAP or to student or mission work, prayer meetings and youth groups being started in congregations where there were none. It was a great honour to be involved with this developing organisation from 1999 until our departure in July 2007.
As the time came for us to leave, we still had about £3,000 in gifts which people had given us for the work. So together with the students and the Synod, we wondered how this could be invested to produce income in the future. And so the idea of building CCAPSO House was born.
It is on a wonderful site, near the centre of the Synod, and would be rented out to produce regular income for the organisation and make it financially self-sufficient. Although it would cost at least £35,000 in materials, with Synod providing the labour, it was decided to step out in faith and make a start with the £3,000.
£5,000 was borrowed, has since been paid back and has produced the results shown in the latest pictures. A further £5,000 has come in and in early October was sent to Blantyre. Sincere thanks to all who have supported this project.
More help and support is needed to make CCAPSO House a reality, so that the organisation is not hampered by lack of funds, and Gospel preaching, Bible teaching and Christian living can continue to be the experience of thousands of eager, enthusiastic and receptive Presbyterian students in Malawi, Central Africa.
John Hanson
October 2009
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