A number of young men started to meet in Jarvis' house for prayers, which lead to training them to become mature leaders, these young people are now carrying the message of hope in schools and communities within the City.

To make a lasting impact in our City, God gave us a heart to reach the orphans at a very young age (Life crèche) and the women; women are vulnerable and oppressed in our culture, and also the rising generation who are in Universities, Colleges and Secondary Schools.

We have started a combine Sunday cerebration from our campuses, College of Medicine, Polytechnics, Health sciences, Blantyre Teachers College and College of Accountancy. And we run another mid week cerebration at Federation Village for homeless.

We are a cell based Church; we focus on equipping leaders for the work of God in community. We put our values first and emphasize on meeting in small groups, cerebrations are not our major focus for multiplying membership, all the work is done in small groups as we share our life together.

WHAT KIND OF ACTIVITIES HAPPENS IN OUR LIFE GROUPS AND AS A CHURCH?

1. Eat a meal together and remember Jesus (the Lord's Supper)
   
2. Fellowship with Jesus together and building caring relationships
   
3. Encouraging and helping each other in practical ways. I.e. helping each in Building better shelters and many others Share Testimonies of what God has done.
   
4. Read the bible and learn together (Discussions and teaching. Pastor Jarvis meets with the leaders and train them and the leaders facilitate to topics in Life groups)
   
5. Have water Baptism
   
6. Praise and worship God together with songs. In vernacular language and contemporary on CD's
   
7. Pray for one another's needs and the community
   
8. Receive personal prayer for healing and freedom

Life Crèche
life crèche is due to be opened in March this year, we have kids from the age of 3-12, most of them stay with their poor grandparents who are unable to raise these kids by themselves, for example in January 23rd 201, a child of 4 years old died from malnutrition and starvation in the same village that we are opening a crèche. We believe the church can be the solution to the problems that children are facing in our community. These children have lost parents to Aids, some have been abandoned, and they know abuse, hunger and fear. We strive to provide a better future for some of the most vulnerable children in the community. As a volunteer, you will primarily assist with the daily care of the kids; feeding programs. You can play games, arrange activities, create arts & crafts projects and share your time and caring with these wonderful children. Prior experience not necessary, volunteers should have a lot of patience, an open mind and a sense of compassion.

What we are doing at life crèche

1. Feeding Program. ( We provide a meal(local cereals/phala in our local language) and soup to children at life crèche),
   
2. Playing & Nursing Program (we are creating a playing ground for kids, and weekly nursing check up by doctors and nurses ) our medical students are facilitating this.
3. Child Development Program - Introduce activities and programs that help to develop a child who have been traumatized and abused. Our Teaching students are facilitating this.
   
4. Widows training program - to promote self reliance among widows
   
5. Christian Education Program - a biblical based teaching program that enhances Christian values, pastor Jarvis and Catherine are facilitating this.
   
6. Day care program - All the kids will be cared during the day and picked up by relatives or drop them at their homes. Women life group leaders are responsible and Catherine.

To manage our crèche well, we are looking for things that will help to have a very conducive environment and interesting for kids, anything that is good for a child under the age of 12 will be very helpful. Things like Toys, balls, books both writing and reading ones and imperishable foods.

WOMEN LIFE GROUP & ELDERLY SUPPORT GROUP
Volunteers work with our Life group leaders that help the destitute women/widows by giving them support, guidance and training. As a volunteer, you can help by teaching English; brainstorming to initiate income generating activities and to create sustainable solutions to the challenges the woman face on a day to day basis. You can assist in training woman in several life and income generating skills and to carry out research to find alternative solutions to fight poverty. Volunteers assist with health education such as HIV/AIDS, child rearing, nutrition, yoga, and sanitation, sewing, bead work, pig farming and other community outreach programs. Volunteers also write grant letters to mobilize resources to assist in the procurement of equipment, materials and supplies needed for income generating activities. No specific requirements except willingness and enthusiasm to help women.

The women also focus on providing care, attention, and shelter to elderly people of the community. These elderly people need help and often have various needs, necessitating constant care which involves both mental and physical support from others.

If you have a love and compassion for the old and want to make a meaningful contribution by making their life worth living, then this project needs the helping hands of volunteers like you. Can include home visits to rural communities. Many of the elders in the community support several grand children who lost their parents to HIV/AIDs. Participants will also help meal preparation (preparing, cooking, and serving) where there will also be opportunities to entertain the elderly people by singing, creating fun games, etc. Volunteers are also expected to assist in various administrative tasks.

Program for volunteers Includes:
Accommodation with a local host family. Clean, comfortable room, with shared bathroom and limited electricity. Three meals a day provided. Airport transfers on arrival and departure to Blantyre. Pastor Jarvis and Catherine will provide orientation tour on arrival, project briefing, an introduction to work placement and accommodation.

Promoted as the 'Warm Heart of Africa', Malawi is a long, thin country renowned for the unequalled friendliness of its people, unspoilt national parks and wildlife reserves, and the beaches and tropical fish life of Lake Malawi, the third largest lake in Africa. It is dominated by the vast lake, as well as the Great Rift Valley that cuts through the country from north to south, creating fertile valleys, cool mountains and verdant plateaus.


History of Blantyre
Blantyre is the biggest city of Malawi; this settlement has its origins with the Scottish missionaries from the time of David Livingstone. (It is named after Livingstone's birthplace in Scotland.) It is a commercial and industrial capital of Malawi, is located in the Shire Highlands and geographical centre of the Southern Region of the country and lies at 35° East of Greenwich Meridian and 15° 42"South of the Equator. It is a transport communications node with road, rail and air links to all parts of the country and neighboring countries of Mozambique, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Zambia and Tanzania. It covers an area of 228 km2. The city is classified as a 'National Urban Centre' within the designated six hierarchical levels system of urban centers of the country, and is also the regional administrative headquarters of the Southern Region.

Most international visitors arrive by air, landing at Blantyre or Lilongwe International Airport. For intercontinental flights from Europe, the only direct flight is offered by Air Malawi, once a week between London and Lilongwe. South African Airways operates connecting services through Johannesburg (to Malawi) most days of the week.

Kenya Airways has a similar frequency connecting through Nairobi from London; also operating in conjunction with KLM from Amsterdam through Nairobi. British Airways has a weekly service connecting through Nairobi as well as operating with Air Malawi via the regional hubs of Johannesburg.

The climate of Blantyre is greatly influenced by its location within the tropical zone and altitude. The city experiences the Tropical Continental Climate with two distinct seasons in the year. The rainy season is from November to April, with a continuation inform of light cold showers locally known as 'Chiperoni' from end of May to July. The dry season is from May to October. The mean annual rainfall is 1,122mm of which about80% falls within 3½ months between November and March. The city is generally cool with mean annual temperatures ranging from 13°C during the cold season (May to July) to 21°C during the hot season (September to November). There are particularly two spells of uncomfortable weather; the hottest season associated with high humidity soon before the onset of the first rains (end October to November), and the frost along rivers, mist and chilly showers and winds characteristic of the cold season in June and July.

Blantyre City has a wide range of educational facilities comprising primary school, secondary school and tertiary education as well as pre-school. These are provided by the government, City Assembly, missionary institutions and the private sector.

Tertiary education comprises technical and vocational training and higher learning institutions mostly located in the Chichiri-Ginnery Corner area (Malawi Polytechnic, College of Medicine, Kamuzu College of Nursing, Blantyre School of Health Sciences and Malawi College of Accountancy), Telecommunications National and SADCC Multi-Country Training Schools, Technical School, Police Training School and Blantyre Teacher's College. However, some private companies offer tailor-made training to their staff (Malawi Railways, ADMARC, banks, etc.) while individual entrepreneurs provide specialized training in varied fields such as management, secretarial, business, accounting, and computers.

There are 50 primary schools in the city with a total enrollment in 1999 of approximately 134,000 pupils. This is less than 40% of the required schools resulting in excessive overcrowding of classrooms, long distance travel to/from school, unacceptably high pupil/teacher ratios and high proportion of pupils who hold classes outside under tree shades. The combination of overcrowding, inadequate and poorly maintained pit latrines, and learning in the open is exacerbating health hazards and deterioration of environmental quality in public school.