Over the weekend of August 10th, VIP attended the Malawi Mission Network’s (MMN) fifteenth annual conference held in Dallas, Texas. This year’s event was hosted by Preston Hollow Presbyterian Church. Organized in 2003 by the PCUSA and the Pittsburg Presbytery, the MMN is an affiliation of non-profit organizations who share a call to help our brothers and sisters in Malawi. Approximately 70 people from the United States and Malawi participated in the event. Malawian organizations in attendance included the Central Church of Africa Presbyterian (CCAP) General Assembly, the Livingstonia and Nkhoma Synods, the Veritas Bible College, Embangweni Hospital, and the University of Livingstonia. Organizations from the United States represented included the PCUSA, Presbyterian World Mission and members of the MMN such as the Marion Medical Mission and Malawi Matters.
VIP was given the opportunity to provide a short overview of our organization, our mission in Malawi, and examples of successful projects to the assembled group at a meet and greet event. We also hosted an information table in the vendor display room throughout the conference where we distributed VIP literature, answered questions, and discussed potential partnerships and cooperative projects.
The event was a rousing success. We raised the visibility of VIP within the MMN and the PCUSA and networked extensively with other mission organizations. Our networking activity generated many solid ideas for potential partnerships and joint project initiatives in our catchment area. In addition, VIP was added formally to the MMN and Chris Ebling, who represented VIP at the event, was elected to the MMN leadership team. Chris has been invited to share VIP’s mission PCUSA and Presbyterian World Mission and with Preston Hollow leadership team in the near future. Over the remainder of 2018 and into 2019 Chris will be working with the leadership team to plan next year’s conference and will ensure that VIP is front and center at that event.
Leave a Reply