A volunteer from Elizabethton ministers to Maltese children

“Why would they do this for free?” “Who are they?” The questions rumbled around in various languages at the seaside park in Kalkara, Malta.  The answer pointed to Jesus.

For the second year in a row, a team of Americans from Calvary Baptist Church in Elizabethton, Tennessee had come to share Jesus with their adopted village through three nights of Family Festivals.  In the summer months on this Mediterranean island, people come out of their homes to enjoy the cool night breeze by the sea after a heat filled day.   There they found friendly Americans with Maltese assistants doing puppets, making crafts, telling Bible stories, playing games, giving away balloon animals, painting faces and arms and legs, and sharing in every possible way about their love for them and the Lord.  One of the highlights each evening was the free orange ticket that “bought” a slush drink, ice cream, or popcorn.  The children at Calvary’s Vacation Bible school held a competition to raise the funds for the free ice cream and they raised so much that the adults even received it this year!

The closeness of this small community of around 3,000 people meant that every act of love that was performed in their village that week was noticed.  Two team members let their hair grow long so that they could re-visit the hairdresser they had visited the year before.  She remembered them and came out after them to ask them to pray with her about a need.

One restaurant owner had mentioned a connection he had to get a famous person’s autograph on a guitar.  The man was thrilled when the volunteers actually brought him the signed guitar. “I didn’t really think you’d bring it,” he said.

Volunteers weeded the flower gardens while locals brought them trash bags for the weeds.  The van driver hired to transport the team gave very good insight and advice into sharing the Gospel in the Maltese culture, even though he is not a believer yet, and he offered the use of his garage for future meetings.  A new Maltese  believer in his 70s shared his testimony for the first time in front of the crowd and challenged them to come to know Jesus personally and read their Bibles.

Several other evangelical churches participated in a puppet workshop that week and some even came to help with puppets at the Family Festivals.  The puppets were a huge hit and shared some very clear messages about following God’s instructions, trusting God with our future, and not repaying evil with evil.

What were the results? The story is still being written.  In Malta the community women got together and organized a delicious Maltese appetizer meal for the team on the second evening.  Several people indicated a desire to learn more and perhaps meet with a prayer group planned to begin in the area in the Fall.

Back in the States, Pastor Joe Sorah shared that the mission trips had not only brought a passion and burden for the Maltese, but a renewed focus on the lostness in Elizabethton.  “How can I go to the Mediterranean to share with great focus and intentionality and not do the same at home?” He felt that their church’s adoption of Kalkara had helped them be more missional in Tennessee too.

Calvary Baptist lived 1 John 3:18 in Malta this summer.  “Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.“

The island nation of Malta is the location of Paul's shipwreck in Acts 28.

UPDATE– When the Apostle Paul shipwrecked on this island, he found receptive hearts that adopted the Gospel. He referred to the Maltese as an “unusually kind” people, a character trait that continues to this day.

The Mediterranean Island nation of Malta was the first country in Europe to embrace Christianity. Hundreds of years later, the vast majority of Maltese embrace Catholicism, but there have been 14 Evangelical churches planted since the nation’s independence from Britain in the 1960s.

While God has done great things among the people of Malta, from Paul’s arrival to present, there is still much to be done. Many still have not heard of the grace and peace found in a personal relationship with Christ.

IMB Missionaries in Malta invited individuals and churches to join them August 8 for the ninth annual “International Day of Prayer for the Maltese Islands.” Congregations and individuals from across America, the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland, Italy and Spain participated, and more than 150 people attended a prayer event in Malta.

At the prayer event in Malta, attendees shared a time of worship through music, then spent time in small groups praying for the individual ministries at work in Malta. IMB missionary Robin Pinkston said that English and Maltese voices mingled beautifully as they voiced their requests and praises to God. The event closed with two Maltese songs, including one specifically written a few years ago for the August 8 day of prayer for Malta.

Following the event, people visited displays for various Maltese ministries and 80 Maltese New Testaments were distributed.

To sign up for monthly prayer emails from the Pinkstons, IMB missionaries to Malta, email Robin at repink@activebox.net.