At the beginning of November, I traveled with the Education Department to Lilongwe in the central region to host a leadership seminar with the churches there. The church in the central region has long had several issues that have divided it, and the last two years we have been trying to work with churches on both sides of the divide in order to bring about reconciliation where possible, and unity overall. This year we held the seminar at a church that we have been preparing with all year, and it was an incredible event. We had over 425 leaders show up from 140 churches in the greater Lilongwe area. After the meeting we were able to visit with and worship at several of the congregations on Sunday before heading home. Most of these churches have felt isolated by divisive issues in the past, and this seminar provided the opportunity for them to come back together and discover that these issues do not need to keep dividing churches. While there is still a lot of work to be done in this region and among these churches, it is helpful to see unity and reconciliation begin in an area that desperately needs it.
