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This year we will hold our annual conference on July 23rd - 26th in conjunction with the 111th annual New Wilmington Mission Conference (NWMC) in New Wilmington, PA. We will be joined at this year's conference by our colleagues from the Pittsburgh Presbytery/Blantyre Synod partnership. They are celebrating the 25th anniversary of their partnership. Twenty guests from Blantyre Synod in Malawi, including leadership, will be joining us. This year's conference will be integrated into the schedule of New Wilmington Mission Conference held on the campus of Westminster College in western Pennsylvania. We'll be able to enjoy fellowship with churches and organizations with friends active in Malawi as we always do. But this year we will also meet and learn from outstanding speakers in the mission field all around the world. Tentative AGENDA. Our KEYNOTE SPEAKER this year will be Rev. Alex Maulana, the General Secretary of CCAP's Blantyre Synod. He will be updating us on the critical challenges and opportunities confronting the synod and Malawi this year. Joining Rev. Maulana at the meeting is a 20 person group of visitors from Blantyre Synod. They will be attending the New Wilmington Mission Conference and our meeting as part of their visit to the US to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Pittsburgh Presbytery/Blantyre Synod partnership. Two of the founders of the Pittsburgh/Blantyre partnership, Rev. Silas Ncozana and Rev. Bill Paul, will be part of this delegation and have been invited to join us and share their perspective on the history and evolution of this long standing partnership. We will also have some mission co-workers and PC(USA) staff personnel joining us. See the tentative agenda HERE. While the Malawi Mission Network Meeting will be from July 23rd to 26th, the NWMC goes on until July 30th. You can register just for the dates of the MMN meeting or for more or all of the NWMC. If you are registering just for the MMN, then it is $75 per day and for the entire NWMC it is $435 to $475 depending on when you register. See the NWMC website to register. See the Registration Process below for a full description of what to expect. Their registration is all on-line. NOTE: In order to register on the NWMC site, you will have to create an account on the page and will have to pay online, rather than sending in a check. Be sure you that you indicate on the NWMC registration that you will be attending the Malawi Mission Network meeting. While many objectives of the Network can be achieved with the WEB site and mailing list, nothing can really replace a Face-to-Face meeting to help generate understanding, camaraderie, and encourage sharing. The Malawi Mission Network was first formed at a Face-to-Face meeting in August, 2003 near Louisville, KY. We had approximately 30 people at the meeting and we shared what we were all doing and were gladdened to see how much we all had in common but also how much we could learn from each other. Everyone felt this was an extremely valuable opportunity and they wanted to do it again. Since then the meetings have been growing and improving every year. As valuable and interesting as the formal presentations are, probably the most valuable part of the Meeting is the chance to meet and network with others with the same interests as you, and likely very different experiences from which both can learn.
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