Lilongwe, Malawi … “It has been over 30 years since we started working in Malawi and I am still at a loss as to how to describe the depth of poverty in central Africa.” Attempting to explain the difference between poverty in one of the poorest nations with poverty of one of the richest is Richard Stephens, co-founder of the Malawi Project. He continues,
“Every once in a while, something happens that opens the window just a crack in the reality of what poverty is like in Malawi. Over the past couple of years, a situation in Malawi’s rural churches gives a better picture of poverty than words can describe. It happens when the time arrives for communion. The bread is passed, and each person takes a small piece to symbolically remember the body that was sacrificed on the cross for the salvation of the Christian. Then the cup is passed, but the reality is that it is not a cup at all, it is a tray of bottle caps filled with juice that has been boiled from donated raisins. This is poverty! Communion from a bottle cap.
Stephens uses this event to call on Christians in America to help the churches in Malawi to not have to continue to use bottle caps for the communion. He continues,
“While we will never be able to eradicate all the poverty that exists in Malawi, we can certainly ensure that large numbers of Christians don’t have to use bottle caps for the communion. Currently, Christianbook is running a sale on communion cups. You can buy 1,000 of them for $14.99 instead of the regular price of $23.99. Imagine spending $14.99 and guaranteeing that 1,000 people can have communion in a safe and respectful cup.
Click on the link: https://www.christianbook.com/christianbook-communion-cups-plastic-1-000/pd/29545?event=Church-Supplies|1006249
Order communion cups 1,000 or more. Have them shipped to the Malawi Project, 2421 Golfside Drive, Lebanon, Indiana 46052. The Project will pay for and insure that they reach churches in Malawi.