Empowering Women with the Women’s Guilds

A Letter from Janet Guyer, serving in Malawi

December 2021

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Dear friends,

The leaves are turning yellow, fall is here – again – and I am still here in Kentucky. In March 2020, all mission personnel were asked to evacuate and return to the U.S. I landed here in a nice little house in Louisville, KY, thinking it would only be for a couple of months, and I would certainly be back to Malawi by Christmas. Sheltering in place alone makes one grateful for friends who came over from time to time, generally to sit out on the lawn safely distanced. Also grateful for grocery deliveries and the landlady who made sure the house was comfortably furnished.

As I dashed out the door to leave my home in Malawi, I grabbed a pile of Bible verses that several hundred women in the Women’s Guild of Livingstonia Synod (headquartered where I now live in Mzuzu, northern Malawi) identified as their favourites. I used these to put together the 2021 Bible Study for the Women’s Guild. As it turned out, there were enough verses, and enough time, so I was able to put together the Bible Study for 2022 as well.

Rev. Gloria Mlowoka Nkhata, Women’s Guild Director, Livingstonia Synod Church of Central Africa Presbyterian relaxing in front of one of the churches in the CCAP.

Through these months, I have stayed in touch with both my colleagues and friends in Malawi. Sometimes we have shared ideas, but I always listen to hear how life is going for them. Sometimes it was about how COVID was presenting itself in their communities. This always triggered my mantra on social distancing, hand washing and mask-wearing. It was also time to toss around ideas as to the best ways to stay safe. Other times it was to hear how life, in general, was going on, who was getting married, who had a baby and how the grandparents were doing. Often, we talked about how the office was being affected by COVID, how half the staff would come to work on alternate days so that people could stay socially distanced.

In the months before the evacuation, Rev. Gloria Mlowoka Nkhata, the director of the Women’s Guild and I and one or two other people from the Synod Women Guild office spent one week each month traveling around the Synod visiting the Women’s Guild leaders in almost all of the Synod’s 32 presbyteries. We visited four to six presbyteries a week, spending the night with the pastors’ families of the churches we were visiting. It was wonderful spending time with the women and getting to know so many of the pastors informally. The hospitality was beyond compare.

Rev. Mlowoka opened each of our days with the Women’s Guild leaders with a Bible Study from the materials for that year, modelling how to use the Bible study booklet. She also conducted other important business and trainings. During these meetings I conducted a mini workshop on how to use a revised version of SWOT analysis to help them identify their strengths and weaknesses as a Women’s Guild. Many women found this intriguing and realized that this information could be used to help them plan for the following year. As I spoke with the women we talked about specific programs and projects that they might want to pursue.

Janet showing representatives of the Women’s Guild how to use a modified SWOT analysis to determine which projects their congregations might undertake.

The first project idea was to start village savings and loans groups within each congregation. The process of establishing savings and loans groups begins by creating constitutions that will guide the work of the savings and loans groups. Within the constitutions women can designate which percentage of the interest generated by the savings and loans group will be dedicated to a project for their congregation’s Women’s Guild to take part in. A colleague in one of the sister synods of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP) who is trained and very good at starting such projects has agreed to be a resource for these women.

The second project idea was to develop a grassroots project for helping to keep girls in school. Women in the Guild will be trained to do baseline surveys of the schools in their area, discover the main issues that are causing girls to drop out of school, and then think together about what they might be able to do to help keep the girls in school. This is an overly simplistic description, but as you can see, it is a project that will evolve as it goes along.

Both projects will need to start small, with a pilot group, perhaps 12 congregations, as leadership is developed in the congregations. Trainers will be identified to work with other congregations. Please keep these exciting and challenging projects in your prayers. The women are very eager to get started.

As this is the season for giving thanks, I would like to wrap this letter up by giving thanks to each of you. I give thanks to God for your gifts to me and the people with whom I live and work. Your gifts of prayers, interest, notes, and support are all appreciated. They all touch my heart and encourage me as we work together to reach out to God’s people with God’s love.

I will give thanks to the Lord, the thanks due to his righteousness, and sing praises to the name of the Lord, the Most High. -Psalm 7:17

Janet

Please read the following letter from Sara P. Lisherness, the interim director of World Mission:

Dear partners in God’s mission,

I don’t know about you, but daily my heart grows heavier. News about the pandemic, wars, wildfires, gun violence, racism, earthquakes and hurricanes cloud my vision. It’s hard to see hope; our world is in a fog. Yet we trust that God’s light and love transcend the brokenness of this time.

God is at work transforming the world, and you, through your prayers, partnership and encouragement, are helping us share this good news. Thank you for your faithful and gracious support of our mission personnel.

How can we see through the fog? What will the church be after the pandemic? Could it be that God is doing “a new thing” and is inviting us to perceive it?  Through all the uncertainty we know that God’s steadfast love and care for all creation will prevail and that God’s Spirit is at work in each of us.

We all have an integral part to play in fulfilling God’s mission. As we seek to grow together in faithfulness there are three important steps I invite you to take in supporting our shared commitments to God’s mission:

Give – Consider making a year-end financial contribution for the sending and support of our mission personnel. Your support helps mission personnel accompany global partners as together they share the light of God’s love and justice around the world. Invite your session to include support for mission personnel in its annual budget planning.

Act – Visit The Mission Yearbook for Prayer and Study to delve deeper into the work God is doing through the PC(USA) and its partners in ministry around the globe: pcusa.org/missionyearbook.

Pray – Include our mission personnel, our global partners, and our common commitments to share God’s grace, love, mercy and justice in your daily prayers.

Thank you for your faithfulness to God’s mission through the Presbyterian Church. It is my prayer that you will continue to support this work with your prayers, partnership, and financial gifts in the coming year. We hope you will join us and our partners in shining a beacon of hope throughout the world.

In the light of hope,

Sara P. Lisherness, Interim Director
World Mission
Presbyterian Mission Agency
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

To give please visit https://bit.ly/PCUSAmission

You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:14-16