At their meeting of 27th February the Club had as guest speaker Revd Arthur Christie, who is Minister of Anstruther, Cellardyke and Kilrenny parishes. Revd Christie gave an illustrated talk under the heading of  ‘Journeys into Malawi’

The talk was far-ranging covering geography, economy, living conditions, health and diseases, education and societies. It was drawn from personal experience and work done over a period of 10 years or so through the Church of Scotland and the organisation ‘Malawi Partnerships’   (www.scotland-malawipartnership.org)

The difficulties then as now were clear – but so was the beauty of the country, which Arthur likened in many ways to Scotland. It was encouraging to hear of the many areas of progress made through often simple but practical ideas. Typical of these was the way education and an idea enabled village people to move from dangerous open cooking fires, to efficient and safe stoves – easily and locally made.

The meeting heard also of the ‘Black Scots’ – the many men and women, over many years, who dedicated themselves to helping. Mention was made of David Livingstone (the 200th anniversary of who’s birth will be celebrated next year) but also of Revd Dr Robert Laws (1851-1934), a less well-known Scottish missionary who in Arthur’s estimation achieved much.

Laws was responsible for creating a sizeable Christian community in the region, as well as recording seven African languages, founding over 700 schools and encouraging native associations. He fought against the continuing Arab Slave Trade, helped to reconcile local tribes and played a leading role in educating and encouraging local individuals such as David Kaunda.

It was sobering to hear that the average lifespan of a missionary to Malawi in those times was just 3 years – the result mostly of disease and especially malaria.

Following questions a vote of thanks was proposed by Andrew Lindsay.