Thomu Church of Christ
12-27-02

The Thomu congregation is located in Thomu Village, Chikwawa District, Malawi in the Shire River Valley about 73 km ssw of Blantyre. This is the region of Malawi which is very hot this time of the year. All Malawian brethren wish to have iron sheet on the roofs of their buildings, but I was happy to see the thatched roof. The grass serves as an insulator from the sun’s rays making it much cooler inside the building. When the sun beats down on iron sheets, it make you feel like you are inside a pot being boiled as there are no ceilings in village buildings to separate you from the heat being generated by the sun shining on the sheets. 

As you can see, the Thomu congregation does not have a large membership. However, small congregations do not grow unless “fed,“ “watered” and encouraged, which is why we were there. The lady wearing the blue head cloth and dark dress with light markings standing in the front on the right of the photo is the village chief. Stephen Kasenda was our translator.

The second photo is that of a baoboa tree which was blown over by a severe wind storm which passed through the area on December 24 th. This tree was located about a 100 feet from the Thomu church building. You can get some idea of the size of the diameter of it by me standing beside it. The limb spread was massive and acted like a giant sail capturing the wind which toppled it over. Fortunately, no one was hurt. --Jim Franklin