Joseph Mzonda

Joseph is the son of Medson Mzonda, Global Sharing’s very first Global Ministry Partner. Over two decades ago, my father, Roy Smith, met Medson at a mission conference and a friendship was born. Out of that friendship came a ministry partnership that has continued to a second generation on both sides! It is a joy to work with both Medson and Joseph, and it is my pleasure to offer this short interview to our US-based partners so that you can get to know Joseph and his ministry work in Malawi.

Ron: Joseph, thank you for sharing with us today. Please introduce yourself!

Joseph: I am Joseph Mzonda. I am 38 years old and live in the village of Ntasa in the southwest of Malawi in a district called Nsanje.

Ron: Tell us about your community.

Joseph: Our community is Sena and Chewa-speaking people, about 2000 in number. We are close to the Nsanje border, the game reserve, the port and Shire River water way, which goes all the way to the ocean. We like group-oriented activities with lots of interaction because we are a tight-knit community and love one another and love life. We enjoy football and net ball and have a community stadium by the Mulanje high mountain.

Ron: Tell us a little more about yourself.

Joseph: I am a joyful person and I enjoy being with people and showing good behavior to the community. I love African cultural movies and following the Malawian soccer team. My favorite person in the New Testament is Nicodemus because he came by night searching for the truth, and Jesus met him and changed his life! In the Old Testament I love the story of Jonah because it teaches more about the dangers of running from the work of God, and how the love of God shows up even when we have gotten into trouble!

Ron: Are you married?

Joseph: In 2004, I fell in love with a girl called Grace. We enjoyed being together and many entertainments and fun times. We shared dreams of a family and being a “team.” We became engaged with a promise to marry and did so that year. We have unity in doing things together, showing love to each other. I love that she loves me, is faithful to me, and gives me advice when I am wrong. We have three children: Emanuel, Medson Joseph, and Micah Joseph. As a family, we are most happy when we are doing things together.

Ron: How did you come to faith in Jesus?

Joseph: I’ve been a believer for 30 years. I received Jesus in 1994 at primary school when a missionary called Peter Shander visited and shared the gospel. I was baptized in 1995. But for a time, as an adult, I was working with bad company, doing evil deeds and not attending church. I was often unlovable because I was not being faithful to God or to others. I became truly interested in a better life that I saw in other Christians and wanted to be united with my parents and family, and to serve others. When I started to truly follow Jesus, my life began to show Jesus doing miraculous things in me. I shared with others, and many people wanted to also follow Jesus after seeing my life change. I continued learning better behavior, working with the Sunday School team, and joined the church choir. I was selected to be youth pastor, teaching and preaching the good news to those in church and our community, and now I am a disciplemaker.

Ron: Explain more about being a disciplemaker!

Joseph: It was in 2021 one of my friends Richard Samson who works in South Africa, called me by phone call and said “Mr. Joseph, I would like you to give me some bible verses for here. We have no time to go to attend church services for we are aliens and foreigners, we work every day and have no holidays. We need to work every day to find enough everyday food for ourselves and families.” He said, “we're lost”. So, I sat down and made plans for reaching them with the Good News. I opened an online WhatsApp group for doing DBSs and we started with four people and then eight and so on. It grew to 170 members and the groups were made up of people from South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique. God increased my desire and passion to reach these spiritually hungry people. I am willing to reach the whole continent of Africa with DBS through online groups to restore many more lives into Jesus Christ. One step at a time!

Ron: Who are the people you feel called to serve and what are they like?

Joseph: I am burdened for those who don't know Jesus, that unsaved people should receive eternal life. Many around me live selfishly for themselves. They are like the lost sheep, and I pray they should listen to the word of the Good Shepherd. My desire is to see God work in them, opening their hearts to have spiritual life as a priority and that they should stand firm in spiritual works and physical things like farming, animal herding, textile making (clothes).

Ron: How has being involved with Global Sharing helped you in your ministry work?

Joseph: Global Sharing has helped us here in many ways. We have been given eyeglasses to people who don't see to read the word of God clearly, given a fund when a cyclone passed that destroyed my house and those around us. Also buying me a phone for communication with DBSs throughout Africa, a thoughtful gift on Christmas day, a fund for Discovery Bible Study training conference. But most importantly, I became a partner with GS to work together and share ideas of how to reach many people with the gospel here in Malawi and beyond.

Ron: What are some challenges you face in ministry?

Joseph: Being unable to supervise new groups due to transportation needs, and not being able to gather few pastors together due to insufficient funds. The challenge of doing ministry without necessary funds. In other words, how to do ministry that is reproducible but not requiring much money. We must depend on God to do this ministry perhaps in ways that don’t rely on funds. Like a pastor said, “God’s work done in God’s way, never lacks God’s supply.”

Ron: What are some of your needs / prayer requests?

Joseph: For the expansion of ministry to many areas, my family’s personal needs. Ministry needs like a laptop, more audio bibles to distribute, more DBS training for new leaders and refresher training for established groups.

Thanks for letting us officially introduce you to Joseph. We’d like to invite you to receive updates from Joseph through his WhatsApp Text Group where you can hear from him directly and even give him an encouraging word. Simply CLICK HERE and let us know you're interested and we’ll send you an invitation email! You’ll stay up-to-date with his ministry and gain a new friend too!!

Joseph Chikopa

Joseph is a Global Sharing Ministry Partner who lives and works in Malawi. We met Joseph in 2017 at a Disciple Making Movement Conference in Zomba.

Ron: Joseph, tell us a little about yourself.

Joseph: My name is Joseph Chikopa. I was born on 18th June 1976. I'm a Malawian living in Nsanama, Machinga district. Nsanama is a Muslim village. My favorite food is nsima (a corn/maize mush) with chicken brai (barbecued over the fire). I love to watch movies and documentaries. I love to read biographies especially about the lives of missionaries. My heart is to learn more about some missionaries who have gone before me so that I can learn about their stories, how God has been using them which inspires me in my ministry journey. Those are some of the things which I love to do.

Ron: What is the community like where you live?

Joseph: The Yao People here like to go to the mosque because they are Muslim. The game which they like most is football (i.e. soccer) and so they like to go to football clubs to play and there they watch movies too. This is the culture of the Yao people. They also like dancing in their traditions. There are 4 million Yao people - all Muslim for the last almost 200 years. David Livingstone came and preached the gospel and the Yao turned from their animism to Christianity. But they were taught back then, even required to kick out all but one wife when they converted to Christianity, and their culture struggled with this. Islam came in later and said they could have multiple wives so they converted back to Islam. Today my community is almost 100% Muslim. 

Ron: Describe your family growing up.

Joseph: I grew up in a Catholic home. My parents were farmers, but both died when I was young. Farming is one thing which I learned from my mom. When I was young, I especially enjoyed the trees, the animals, the plants, the mountains. This has been one of my favorite memories and also now is my hobby. I will always cherish going out to our farm and being out in nature. I love nature. My most vivid and traumatic memory is when my parents passed away. This has been something which I will always remember. It was a very big deal in my life. It broke my heart, and I grew up as an orphan.

The hardest time I had in my life was before I received Jesus as my personal Savior. I had suffered a lot without Jesus and I was feeling like nobody liked me. Nobody liked me and loved me probably because I wasn’t very lovable. But with that day of Jesus coming into my life, I remember that it was a harvest day. I heard in my life, God began to change me, so I always thank God for that day.

Ron: How did you come to faith in the Lord Jesus?

Joseph: I started following Jesus when I was 23 years old. One of my friends took me to a Christian friendship group and at that time I couldn't believe about a real God because of what happened to my life in losing my parents. I was thinking that there was no God and I convinced myself about that. But one day a group of people came to my village showing the Jesus Film. At this time, I was broken in so many ways. I couldn't trust anybody. But when I went to that place where they were showing the Jesus Film, something happened to my life, and I remember I couldn't believe that there was a God but I wanted to. I was thinking that if there is a God, why would God take my mom and my dad before I finished school while I was so young?

So while I was watching the movie something happened. I felt in my spirit like a big weight was moving out from my life which was hurting me - so obvious before the Christians there. I realized I was hurting God badly that day. It was 1999 the day my life started to change. I found myself down in front of everyone, crying there at this Jesus Film event. Amazingly, the big weight moved out from my life and the Lord changed my life that night, and I heard a voice of the Lord saying,  “You know even if you feel like nobody loves you, I am there for you. I am your parent and I want to take care of you. That's why I died on the cross of Calvary.” Then when I saw the movie, and with the voice I heard from above, things began to happen in my life. That was the turning point for me, and I felt a peace and joy as things began to change. Today I am not the same person I was back then. I heard the Lord telling me that so many people who are also suffering like me, “I wanted you, Joseph, to go and share the love of Christ” to them, what I’ve done for you. That's when I found myself starting sharing the love of Christ to many people and that was before I went to Bible School. I did not know anything, but I said to myself, I'll just testify about what happened to my life. How my life changed! That's when the Lord called me to go to preach Christ where Christ has never been preached. In my younger years before this, I was drinking. I was doing bad things. I couldn't and didn’t experience love. But since I gave my life to the Lord, Jesus changed my life. I am not the same. I'm a new person and a new creation. I thank Jesus for that.

One of the most vivid and important days I had in my life... there are so many of these days, but I will mention one. It was when I had an accident on 8th June 2015. I was coming from the training center and I was in a minibus and the mini bus turned over. God saved my life.  I did not die but I broke my legs and my hand. My legs were behind my arm at one point. But still today I know God saved my life. He has a good reason why he has saved me like this. I don't take this for granted.

Ron: Tell us about your wife, Violet. What do you love most about her?

Joseph: In 1995 I got married to Violet, my beautiful wife. I was 19 and she was 18. During that time, she and I weren’t Christians yet, and as I shared before, I missed my parents love, so my wife was one of my best friends even to today! God changed us together to be followers of Him. She's an amazing woman of God, a woman of faith. She's very good and encouraging to my life and the ministry that we’re involved in together. Honestly, our children are the joy of our lives. We have five children together. The challenge for us has been to find school fees for them, but the Lord has been faithful up to today. Two have finished schooling- even university!  And three of them are continuing their schooling, God has been good to us.

Ron: Do you have favorite Bible characters or stories?

Joseph: The stories that I like from the Bible apart from the story of Jesus is the story of Philip in the book of Acts. What an amazing guy! And also, the story of Steven in the Bible. These people, living inspired by the Lord, challenged my life. You know they gave their life to God by their actions and commitment. They were just normal people without titles in their lives. But God used them to reach so many people. When you read in the Bible the life of Philip reaching out to the Ethiopian eunuch, this really touched my heart and I see God can use anybody so with their story I know God can use people like me who don't have titles. He can use anybody. That also helps me know I am just a common man. I don't have a name in this world. Nobody knows me apart from God, yet I know God can use me the same way he used Steven or Philip. I see the life of Steven who was willing to die for the truth. He was not comparing himself with somebody who has a name or a title, just a deacon waiting on a table. But he stood for the truth. This touches my heart a lot.

Ron: How did you know God was calling you to work among the unreached Yao people?

Joseph: I received the calling of God one evening when I was young. I had a calling for people but I did not understand, because many times I could hear the voice of the Lord but I couldn't realize it was God (like Samuel?) and sometimes He would give me a dream to show me some scriptures but I did not understand what it all meant about the scriptures until I gave my life to the Lord. That's when I realized the Lord was calling me to go and reach out to those people who never had the gospel.

For the Yao people, 97% of this tribe are Muslims, and when I was at home one day, the Lord gave me this scripture found in Romans 15 v18 and 20. He was saying to me that I needed to preach Christ where Christ had never been preached. So this touched my heart and when I was in Blantyre, the second largest city of Malawi, I had been involved in so many churches, but the Lord had told me that I needed to go where Christ had never been preached. That's why Violet and I prayed about it and preferred to come to Machinga among the Yao. Into a different culture, different religion, even a different language!!

Ron: What do you find most challenging in ministry and life right now?

Joseph: My challenge most of the time is to raise up funds to help my kids to go to school. This has been one of my challenges in the mission field. Also to raise up funds to support people who are chased from their homes by militant Yao People. This has been one of the biggest problems. But God has been faithful, and he remains faithful. This is really a prayer request for many people to pray for us about this and another prayer request is to see their people coming to know the Lord so they can grow and do the work of ministry as a follower of Jesus. Another challenge is persecution. You know when our fellow believers tell people that they’ve come to know the Lord, the community stands against them, and they start fighting. Sometimes they beat them and sometimes even I remember people came to our house and broke windows in our house. This is some of the challenges we normally face. Please keep on praying for us.

Ron: Where do you find encouragement, especially when facing those challenges?

Joseph: Working together in the ministry is very important. It’s very special when you're having the same vision and the same heart of reaching out to those people who have never heard the gospel. That is very, very important and it brings joy because together you can do so many things, much more than when you work apart. When you are working together there is power because you strengthen each other, you listen to each other, encouraging each other, empowering each other, praying for each other, doing things together. Things which I cannot do someone else can do it so there's power and unity in the body of Christ.  

Ron: Describe your partnership with Global Sharing.

Joseph: I knew about a Global Sharing through meetings we had in Zomba back in 2016 where we heard about the Disciple Making Movement and in that meeting there was one of the leaders of Global Sharing and that man was you, Pastor Ron! So the Lord gave us that time to connect and since then, we have been working together in many things. I am so thankful to you, Pastor Ron, because you have been a big blessing to us. May the good Lord continue blessing you!

Global Sharing has been a big blessing to us too by helping us to grow spiritually through counsel, teaching, and mentoring. And not only that, we have also grown more closer to God about physical things that help us, including a solar powered well pump so we can teach wet farming to many Yao people. The ministry has supplied us with so many Bibles and audio Bibles and also leaders’ bicycles and helped in the building of our center, and also electricity at our center to help us reach the Yao. This is just a few of the ways GS supports us as a family- supporting the work of the ministry in Malawi. GS is a really good partner to us. So I know that God connected us because many people have come to know the Lord through GS support. We’ve traveled together with the GS team when they came here. They've been visiting us and praying for the people in the communities, blessing them with eyeglasses and prayers for healing, and encouragement to leaders struggling to faithfully follow Jesus in the midst of persecution. We have been encouraging each other about Disciple Making Movement which is the heart of Global Sharing. We are so thankful for that. May the good Lord continue blessing Global Sharing. Thank you so much!

Click HERE if you'd like to meet Joseph online with Ron hosting!

Global Sharing Spotlight:

Malawi, Africa

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We invite you to explore with us the regions where our global ministry partners work. These places are unique and vibrant, each boasting their own special beauty. And the people? Well, we believe the people are extraordinary. And we think once you get to know them better, you will too. So we invite you to venture out with us virtually as we celebrate the people, places, and ministries God has called us to serve around the world.

ON THE MAP

For some years now, Malawi has been called the “Warm Heart of Africa” and this tiny nation has surely embraced the moniker. Friendly people, a vibrant culture, and a relatively stable government has made this Central African nation of roughly 19 million people an attractive destination for travelers seeking an African adventure.

Malawi is dwarfed by its massive neighbors, and is just 900 miles across at its widest point. Zambia is to the west, Tanzania sits to its north, and to the south, the long, thin Warm Heart of Africa seems to stretch leisurely, like she’s dipping her big toe into the heart of Mozambique.

From its place in the sub-Saharan southeast, Malawi has much to recommend it. Making the most of its position in the famous Rift Valley, it boasts the third largest lake in Africa, numerous national parks and wildlife reserves, forested highlands, and Central Africa’s highest peak. The famous Lake Malawi makes up one fifth of the nation’s geography. It’s length neatly divides into relatively even thirds, forming regions known as North, South, and Central Malawi. The North is the least populated area and unspoiled in its beauty. It’s characterized by rugged highlands and dramatic beaches along the northern lakeshore. Heading south, parks and wildlife reserves are plentiful and there are many tourist attractions along the lakeshore. the commercial capital and the old colonial capital sit on a high temperate plain that gives way to the hotter, drier south. The nation’s capital city, Lilongwe, sits in Central Malawi and makes a great launching point into the other regions, especially for international visitors.

HISTORY

As Europe emerged from the Dark Ages, Malawi was part of the Maravi Empire, a vast expanse of southeastern Africa which included Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique. Organized by tribe, the area was mostly agrarian, farming millet, sorghum and later maize. The Europeans arrived en force in the 17th century and the tribal leaders began trading ivory, iron, and slaves with the Portuguese and the Arabs. It was the British who ultimately succeeded in colonizing the region, dubbing it British Central Africa. Unfortunately, during the colonization era, wars erupted between the Christian missionaries that came with the colonizers, like David Livingstone, and many of the powerful regional tribes. One of those tribes was the Yao.

Originally from Mozambique, pressures like famine and tribal conflicts had led the majority of the Yao to migrate eastward into Malawi. When they settled, they established trade with neighboring Swahili Muslims and became one of the most powerful tribes in Africa’s southeastern corner. The ivory and slave trades were not all they dabbled in; they also adopted the religion of Islam and did not appreciate the attempts of 19th century Christian missionaries to convert them. Today, two million of the roughly 2.8 million Yao live in Malawi. They continue to practice Islam and remain collectively resistant to the gospel message. But little by little that is changing.

MINISTRIES

Deep in Malawi’s south and sitting on the border with Mozambique is Nsanje where native son Pastor Medson Mzonda leads a small congregation. Life in the region is difficult; the geography lends itself to extreme heat and little rain which wreaks havoc on agriculture and thus the food supply. Medson began preaching here in 1985 as an evangelist but settled down to plant a village church in 2000. There was little gospel presence in the area, and much opposition, but He felt the call to serve among the unreached. Over time, many have come to faith in Jesus in an area dominated by animism and the worshiping of spirits. Medson faithfully serves his community, meeting practical needs, feeding the hungry, and encouraging his flock to reach out and press into villages across the border in Mozambique who need to hear the good news. Following in his father's footsteps of ministry, Medson's son, Joseph, has embraced the DiscipleMaking Movement (DMM) and is doing online Discovery Bible Studies in Malwai, making disciples who are making disciples throughout the region and beyond.

Joseph Chikopa was raised in the commercial capital of Blantyre, but like Medson, the Holy Spirit called him to press into areas without a gospel presence. So, he set out for the region of Machinga, where he trains the Yao tribe to farm, using a DMM discipleship tool called Farming God’s Way. DMM is rooted in relationships and by training Yao farmers in simple agricultural methods, communities have been blessed by increasing maize crop yields. The two together communicate the love of Jesus both physically and spiritually. In a land that has been plagued by seemingly endless drought, the villagers are learning how to engage in sustainable farming AND many in the Muslim community have given their lives to Jesus in the process. Whether it’s leading Discovery Bible Studies or strategically gifting Audio Bibles, Joseph continues to creatively present the gospel in word and deed among the Yao, and they are hungry for it. But the Yao tribe has a long memory and the key to the success of Joseph’s ministry has been this: He went not as a missionary, but as a servant. And they have welcomed him.

OUR PART

Global Sharing is proud to partner with both Medson and Joseph as they serve the Kingdom in Malawi. We will continue to offer the encouragement of friendship, prayer support, and teams of volunteers (when we can travel) to both these ministries as they continue to faithfully serve in their little corner of Africa. As both men press on with their work, we will continue to tell their stories, support them how and when we can, and invite you to join us in walking the Kingdom path with them.

As our partners press on in Africa, pushing further into the darkness with the light of hope, we will continue to tell their stories, support them how and when we can, and invite you to join us in walking in the way of Jesus with them.

PRAYER POINTS

• Pray for continued fruitfulness as the Yao respond to the Word of God.

• Pray for wisdom as leaders are identified and trained for the work ahead.

• Pray for spiritual opposition from religious groups mounting against those who follow Jesus.

• Pray for spiritual fruit from the solar-powered audio Bibles recently donated by GS partners in the US.

• Pray for continued groups of families and villages to respond en masse to the gospel.

THANK YOU

Thank you for making our partnerships with both Medson and Joseph thrive. Thank you for praying for these partners and the beautiful people they serve. Thank you for seeing the challenges and being part of bringing change to this corner of the world. We press on with your help, and we press on because the hope and healing of Jesus is the only change that will last.

To receive our prayer email updates for our partners, click HERE.

To give to our Malawian partners through Global Sharing, click HERE.

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Thank you to all who have journeyed to Malawi with us to serve our friends and partners there! We hope to visit them again when we are able to travel!