In April, Pastor Sam Andres traveled to Malawi to meet African leaders who are on the forefront of a church-planting movement, the African Church Planting Initiative (ACPI). He traveled to Malawi with Pastor Matt Boyers, Crossroads Church in Wauseon, and Hal Lehman, FEC Cross-Cultural Church Multiplication Director, to strengthen church partnerships and train church planters at the Pastoral Training Institute of Africa (PTIA).
Sam and the church he leads, King’s Cross Church in Defiance, Ohio, were introduced to ACPI through Acts 29 and a partnership with the PTIA in Malawi. In 2020, King’s Cross held a Christmas Giving Drive to support PTIA. Since then, they have committed to supporting PTIA and plan to take short-term trips to serve churches in Malawi.
Sam emphasized that the impact of training pastors in other countries leads to healthy, gospel-centered church plants. He said, “Since we have an abundance of resources, we can supply the funding that PTIA needs to help with training. What they can do with those resources is amazing.” The men that he met in Malawi are willing to make sacrifices like being away from their families to receive training and plant churches.
Through ACPI, US church partnerships provide resources and support for two years so that a planter can be trained and sent into a rural community. During that time, the planter initiates economic development projects in his community, helping the new church become self-sustaining.
