Malawian to speak this Friday at Allentown church potluck

Free and open to the public; asked to bring a dish to share

By Jessica Ercolino, Staff Writer
   The Allentown Presbyterian Church will hold a pot luck dinner to welcome Wellings Mwalabu, director of programs for the Blantyre Synod Development Commission, part of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP).
   The event will take place at 6 p.m. Friday at Allentown Presbyterian Church on High Street. Anyone who plans to attend is asked bring a dish to the dinner.
   Mr. Mwalabu is one of the church’s key contacts with its mission in Malawi, an impoverished nation in east central Africa. Recently, a group from the church traveled there to begin a partnership with Sakata, a group of 14 villages in the poverty-stricken nation of about 14 million. The site is an hour and a half north of Blantyre, the city in Malawi where the Allentown church’s pastor, the Rev. Stephen Heinzel-Nelson, and his family have been doing mission work since January.
   Mr. Mwalabu is responsible for directing the various development projects the CCAP is undertaking in the southern portion of Malawi. Projects are aimed at mitigating the impact of poverty and underdevelopment in Malawi.
   For more information on the CCAP, visit blantyresynod.org/developmentcommission.htm. For information about Friday’s event or the Allentown to Africa mission, contact the Allentown Presbyterian Church, 609-259-7289.
   — Jessica Ercolino 