New on The Christian Chronicle’s website, you’ll find a multimedia blitz from my reporting trip to Malawi. Words alone cannot describe this country in southern Africa — home to more Church of Christ members per capita than any nation in the world — so I did my best to fill our website with expanded photo galleries, audio recordings and videos.

“So what’s it like over there?” That’s a question Alan and Rachel Howell hear every so often from their friends in America. So, in a recent blog post, the missionaries in Montepuez, Mozambique, detail a week in their lives.

I spent nearly five hours with the Allisons between African Christian College in Swaziland and the home of Chris Burke in Benoni, South Africa (mentioned in a previous blog post). Their marriage ministry is unlike anything you’ll find among Churches of Christ in Africa, I’m guessing. The feature made a nice addition to our ongoing Global South series.

The Tubungu Church of Christ meets on the campus of African Christian College. During a Sunday night worship service, I shot video of one of the students preaching. His style was anything but “softy-soft” (as you hear him explain in the video above) and he made some good points about the need for Christians to live lives of prayer. He also tells a story about his grandfather, who at one time was ill and went to traditional healers. When that didn’t work, a group of Christians prayed for him and his health improved.

During my southern Africa reporting trip, I pulled out my video camera just in time to catch the final moments of a Women’s Day conference in Johannesburg, South Africa. (Here’s the story I wrote about the conference, attended by more than 500 Christian women in the Johannesburg area.)

Abilene Christian University kicked off its 2010 Summit lectureship Sunday with a salute to Samson — but no hair was cut and no buildings collapsed. Instead, the 4,700-student university recognized the work of Samson Shandu for 33 years of service to Manzini Bible School (now African Christian College) in the southern African nation of Swaziland. Samson and his wife, Elline, went onstage during the first night of the Summit to receive the Towel Award. They were given a commemorative bowl and towel, signifying their servant leadership.

I’m returning from a two-week reporting trip for our Global South series to Swaziland, South Africa and Malawi. It will take me weeks to process all of the information I’ve gathered, but the one thought that sticks out in my mind is that we truly are a family of believers — no matter what continent we call home.

The D-Malikebu Church of Christ is a simple brick building with stone pews that seem to melt into the floor. I’ve never seen anything like it. There’s no sign outside the building. But everybody seems to know that it’s here. It’s been here — in a small village of the southern African nation of Malawi — since 1964, though the Christians had to rebuild it once after a fire. About 170 members worship here. The church has four elders.

No dessert is more American than apple pie. And no dessert is more South African than malva pudding, or so I’m told. I got heaping helpings of both tonight at the home of Chris Burke. I’m here at his home in Benoni, a suburb of Johannesburg, in between reporting trips to Swaziland and Malawi. I rode here this morning from Swaziland with Fielden and Janet Allison, who teach at African Christian College and are beginning a 10-week road trip with their marriage enrichment ministry.

The tiny kingdom of Swaziland, nestled between South Africa and Mozambique, seems an unlikely place to hear a debate on whether or not Jesus violated the Sabbath when he healed a man. But that was the topic in Friday morning’s class on hermeneutics (the study of interpreting Scripture) at African Christian College. I’m here on a reporting trip, gathering more stories for The Christian Chronicle’s ongoing “Global South” series. Some students argued that, yes, Jesus was breaking the Sabbath law by “working,” but it didn’t matter because God made the law. Others said that Jesus only violated the Pharisees’ interpretation of the law.