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Green Village UMC Welcomes Dennis Singini


Dr. Michael Christensen, Rev. Clarissa Holland and Pastor Dennis Singini

The United Methodist Church in Green Village, NJ, welcomed Pastor Dennis Singini to their Pulpit today for Communion Sunday.

Dennis, a circuit-riding pastor in Malawi, is program coordinator for CitiHope Malawi, in charge of food[1] and medical distributions and HIV/AIDS training for churches[2].  

Dennis also works for WorldHope Corps in Malawi on its Well-rig crew, drilling deep-water wells for villages without a clean water supply (see previous posts).

And Dennis also serves as a Regional Shalom Trainer in Malawi for Communities of Shalom International, based at Drew University.  He was in NJ this week as part of Drew’s certification program for regional Shalom Trainers meeting at the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association for their annual 36-hour Training of Trainers event.

He shared today with the Green Village congregation about “What God is doing in Malawi” in relation to 2 Cor. 8:7-15 and Gal 3:28. 

The 2 Corinthians passage refers to the “Manna Provision” in Exodus, about how “those who gathered much did not gather too much, and those who gathered little did not gather too little, so that all had what they needed.”  (Exo 16:18)

In Northern Malawi, Dennis explained, “there are families who went to church this morning without having anything to eat today. There are villages without a clean water source, where a shallow well or a stream [with contaminated water] is the only place to go.  A dog will drink from this stream, a cow will drink from this stream, and children will drink from this same stream.”[3]  In his role as overseeing pastor of 11 small, poor congregations in remote villages, Dennis sees first hand “how farmers don’t even harvest enough for their own families.”

Galatians 3:28, Dennis reminded us today, “says that there is no Jew or Gentile, there is no Male or Female, there is no Slave of Free, but we are one in Christ Jesus.  Therefore we should care about each other and love each other equally in Christ.  I’m sure none of you have had to sleep with farm animals; none of you have had to eat grain with chickens, just because you were HIV positive.  But I tell you; this is what is happening in Malawi.  And we who are Christians should love each other, and accept each other, even if we have HIV.”

Rev. Clarissa Holland, Pastor of the UMC in Green Village, emphasized the desperate conditions in Malawi, and how the orphan care and feeding center she visited a few years on a WorldHope Corps mission trip recently closed because they ran out of food and funds. She urged members and friends to literally ‘share their food with the hungry.’  

You can literally save lives by helping Dennis with his ministry to families affected by HIV/AIDS, to children without enough food to eat, and to villagers without clean water.  You can contribute online to www.WorldHopeCorps.org or by sending a charitable gift to the following address:  

WorldHope Corps, Inc.
P.O. Box 295
Madison, NJ 07940
973-714-0023
info@worldhopecorps.com
www.worldhopecorps.org


[1] CitiHope’s Food for Peace, funded by USAID, is a nutritional Dehydrated Vegetable Soup supplement distributed to HIV orphans and other vulnerable children and families in northern Malawi.

[2] Pastoral and Congregational Training Care Training (PACCT) recently received a $10,00 grant from the United Methodist Global AIDS Fund for their outstanding, church-based, HIV/AIDS training in rural villages.

[3] According to WHO, one out of five children die from water-borne diseases in villages where there is no clean water supply.   WorldHope Corps recently procured its own well rig to continue its village well program begun in 2008.   WorldHope Corps has drilled 18 deep-water wells so far, and seeks sponsors for its 2012 village well program. 
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