Julian and Caroline Lott and their children Tom and Nicky lived in a small village called Langley in Warwickshire. They were a pretty normal family with Julian working as a solicitor in Stratford upon Avon.
Their early missionary tendencies were, however, evident when they abandoned worshipping at the local evangelical church to bring their energies to the Anglican village church at Claverdon. They did so along with another couple, Brian and Linda Donner whose formative Christian journey had been in the Salvation Army. The newly appointed vicar and his wife, Paul and Diana Hunt, were themselves life long missionaries. That church can now look back on this sudden influx of missionary energy and see how it has borne fruit in the years that followed.
Somewhere in this period both Julian and Caroline each started to hear God nudging them towards Africa. They eventually accepted the prompt and gave up their suburban lifestyle to move to Gloucester to attend Redcliffe College.
After a placement in Malawi Julian resolved that, wherever he was going to be a missionary, it definitely wasn’t going to be Malawi. Needless to say God knew better!
When they first came to live in Malawi in 2002 they started working with a church called Integrity Family church, that had begun in 2001. This was an evangelical church that, despite its anglicised name, was intended to be led by and for Malawians. At the point of their arrival the church had just the one branch in the capital city of Lilongwe.
Under their involvement the church began to work in villages throughout the central region, although most of the churches were to be found in TA Njerwa, Kapudula and Kalolo, within the Lilongwe District. Their heart was to help the poorest people of Malawi, who are to be found within its villages. Their first work was to plant new churches in villages where there was no alternative active evangelical witness. They had wished to avoid any suggestion of competing with or duplicating the work of other evangelical churches. During the first 5 years of their work churches were planted in approximately 30 different villages.
Having seen the work begin in an area, they started to train leaders and appoint elders over each young church. This work failed to persevere in a number of those villages for a variety of reasons, although mainly because of the lack of faithfulness or commitment of the men appointed to be leaders. Nonetheless by the beginning of 2008 they had churches in about 25 villages. At that time they applied for registration of a new church work under the name Disciples of Jesus ('mpingo wa ophunzira a Yesu'). The change of name was intended to reflect the revised emphasis that they believed God had given them, namely that they were to concentrate less on outright evangelism and more on the making and training of disciples, especially among the church leaders. Integrity Family Church continues, concentrating its efforts within the urban areas with a few of the village churches that are close to the city coming under its oversight.
Julian and Caroline are working alongside a team whom they have trained and discipled since 2002. The team consists of John Seda (with his wife Betha), Charles Chitsulo, and Cameron Mwenenthembe. The intention is that eventually the leadership of the church will be passed over into the hands of these men. Increasingly, they have been given more and more responsibility for the work of disciple making among the local church leadership.
Their early missionary tendencies were, however, evident when they abandoned worshipping at the local evangelical church to bring their energies to the Anglican village church at Claverdon. They did so along with another couple, Brian and Linda Donner whose formative Christian journey had been in the Salvation Army. The newly appointed vicar and his wife, Paul and Diana Hunt, were themselves life long missionaries. That church can now look back on this sudden influx of missionary energy and see how it has borne fruit in the years that followed.
Somewhere in this period both Julian and Caroline each started to hear God nudging them towards Africa. They eventually accepted the prompt and gave up their suburban lifestyle to move to Gloucester to attend Redcliffe College.
After a placement in Malawi Julian resolved that, wherever he was going to be a missionary, it definitely wasn’t going to be Malawi. Needless to say God knew better!
When they first came to live in Malawi in 2002 they started working with a church called Integrity Family church, that had begun in 2001. This was an evangelical church that, despite its anglicised name, was intended to be led by and for Malawians. At the point of their arrival the church had just the one branch in the capital city of Lilongwe.
Under their involvement the church began to work in villages throughout the central region, although most of the churches were to be found in TA Njerwa, Kapudula and Kalolo, within the Lilongwe District. Their heart was to help the poorest people of Malawi, who are to be found within its villages. Their first work was to plant new churches in villages where there was no alternative active evangelical witness. They had wished to avoid any suggestion of competing with or duplicating the work of other evangelical churches. During the first 5 years of their work churches were planted in approximately 30 different villages.
Having seen the work begin in an area, they started to train leaders and appoint elders over each young church. This work failed to persevere in a number of those villages for a variety of reasons, although mainly because of the lack of faithfulness or commitment of the men appointed to be leaders. Nonetheless by the beginning of 2008 they had churches in about 25 villages. At that time they applied for registration of a new church work under the name Disciples of Jesus ('mpingo wa ophunzira a Yesu'). The change of name was intended to reflect the revised emphasis that they believed God had given them, namely that they were to concentrate less on outright evangelism and more on the making and training of disciples, especially among the church leaders. Integrity Family Church continues, concentrating its efforts within the urban areas with a few of the village churches that are close to the city coming under its oversight.
Julian and Caroline are working alongside a team whom they have trained and discipled since 2002. The team consists of John Seda (with his wife Betha), Charles Chitsulo, and Cameron Mwenenthembe. The intention is that eventually the leadership of the church will be passed over into the hands of these men. Increasingly, they have been given more and more responsibility for the work of disciple making among the local church leadership.
John & Betha Seda
Charles & Grace Chitsulo
Cameron Mwenenthembe