Everyday, ordinary worship: Foto Friday - Y-Malawi, Day two and Fishers Trainers Senders (FTS)

So, my previous blog introduced Y-Malawi, highlighting our first full day in Nkhoma/Chilenge and our first worship experience in a local church. Today, I would like to introduce you to one of Y-Malawi's ministry partners - Fishers, Trainers, Senders (commonly known throughout Nkhoma/Chilenge as "FTS"). Here is an introduction to FTS from Y-Malawi's promotional materials:

Equipping Malawi's future leaders

How would you develop future leaders who cannot afford or have access to formal training, books and other basic training materials that are so desperately needed?

Through FTS, young leaders and denominational leaders alike benefit from the Jesus Model of Life training. FTS reaches out to Malawi's communities with Jesus Christ through prayer, evangelism, discipleship and mission principles, in addition to desperately needed practical life training skills.

Louise Laubscher, director of FTS, truly lives their mission statement every day as she and her team faithfully train missionaries in this generation to reach their present communities and have an impact on the generations to come with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Evangelism is FTS's primary effort. Since they began their ministry nine years ago, they have led nearly 30,000 people to accept Christ. On our second day in Malawi, we traveled to a remote village in Chilenge where FTS was showing The Jesus Film in a church to introduce the locals to Jesus Christ. This is the best photograph I could get, and it doesn't really convey just how many people were crowded inside the church to see the film.

At the film's conclusion, the people came pouring out of the entrance. One of the team remarked that it looked like "kicking an ant hill" because just seconds before I shot this there was no one at all in the clearing in front of the church.

The FTS workers then gathered the children and witnessed to them in several groups like this one.

Here are some images that drew my attention behind the scenes.

I was also drawn to the children who were nervously watching all that was happening at the church from across the road or near their homes.

Often times, however, once you would smile and wave at the children, their looks would change from the above photographs to what you see in the next photograph.

We spent a lot of time with FTS during our trip. They had established a camp site at a World Vision school near where we were staying because they were having an intensive training session for new counselors who, following graduation, would be leading Bible study/kids clubs back home in their own villages. Later in the week, we had the privilege of participating in the FTS graduation. Here is a clip to show their joyful celebration together.