08479
July 3, 2008

Called to Malawi

Participation in a mission partnership and network helped guide couple to long-term mission service

by Pat Cole
Associate for Mission Communications — World Mission

MISSION VOCATION: After making several short-term mission trips to Malawi, Paul and Darlene Heller will be serving in the country as PC(USA) mission co-workers at the Ministry of Hope Crisis Nursery.

LOUISVILLE—Paul and Darlene Heller have traveled a path to long-term mission service that was lit by their presbytery’s mission partnership and a mission network.

When they assume their assignment in Malawi in August, many of the people and places they encounter will be familiar. Their involvement with their presbytery’s partnership has taken Darlene to Malawi four times and Paul three.

“We have also hosted numerous Malawians here,” Paul says. “We have built relationships.”

They will serve in the Ministry of Hope Crisis Nursery in Mzuzu, where Paul, a pastor, will be director, dealing with administrative and fund-raising duties. Darlene, a nurse, will be the nursery’s matron, working with the staff to assure high-quality child care.

The nursery cares for children born with AIDS or who have been abandoned in other life-threatening situations. When the children leave the nursery, most of them go to their home villages to live with relatives and participate in community-based orphan care programs.

The Hellers’ presbytery, Northern New York, began a partnership with the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian’s Synod of Livingstonia in 1999.  A speaker visited First Presbyterian Church in Plattsburgh, N.Y., where Paul was pastor for 17 years, to promote the partnership shortly after it began.

When a call was issued for a team to go to Malawi, Darlene volunteered. “I was not planning on volunteering,”Darlene says. “It just happened.”

She shared her enthusiasm with Paul, and in 2002 the couple spent two months in Malawi. Paul preached in the churches and taught in a secondary school, while Darlene worked in primary health care.

“By the end of two months, we were sitting around the table with Debbie Chase, one of our mission co-workers,” Paul recalls. “We realized we wanted to come back, but couldn’t explain why. Debbie said, ‘Watch out then.’”

They took other trips in 2005 and 2006.  They also became active in the Malawi Mission Network, where they met with Presbyterians from across the country with an interest in Malawi. About this time Paul was considering how to best spend the next few years of his ministry as he neared retirement. He signed up for a career planning seminar, and he and Darlene together were seeking direction about the future.

“I was doing laundry and I prayed, ‘Lord, please be more clear because I know you are sending signals that we are not picking up,’ ” Darlene says. The next day the Hellers got an e-mail from PC(USA) mission worker Nancy Dimmock about serving at the Ministry of Hope.

The first Ministry of Hope Crisis Nursery began in Lilongwe, Malawi, in the home of Dimmock and her husband, Frank.  The nursery has now moved to more spacious quarters, and the Dimmocks recently have taken assignments in Lesotho.
 
A Malawian, Fletcher Matandika, founded the Ministry of Hope in 1999, and oversight and support is provided by boards in Malawi and the United States. The nursery in Mzuzu is a six-hour drive from the capital city of Lilongwe.

When Nancy Dimmock approached the Hellers, the Ministry of Hope leadership wanted to fill positions at the Mzuzu nursery, but there was no money, and the openings had not been classified as PC(USA) mission positions.

The Hellers, sensing a strong call to Malawi, began seeking funds to support their future ministry. PC(USA) World Mission showed interest in the positions, but budgetary limitations kept them from committing funds. The Hellers were determined to go to Malawi with or without PC(USA) appointments, but as faithful Presbyterians they wanted to go as PC(USA) co-workers.

Congregations connected with the Malawi Mission Network began to pledge their monetary support. Congregations in their presbytery and the presbytery itself also made significant financial commitments.

Eventually the Hellers positions were approved by the PC(USA) and they received their appointments from the denomination. They and 11 other new PC(USA) appointees will participate in mission personnel orientation July 8-25.

“It is a partnership between an NGO, the Ministry of Hope, congregations and the General Assembly,” Paul says. “I feel it’s a wonderful synchronism.”

Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in Highlights, a twice yearly publication of Presbyterian World Mission.  To subscribe, visit their Web site.