Matamando Festival

The “what” festival? In Chichewa, Matamando means “praise and thanksgiving”. This festival, held on October 1, 2011, was designed to give praise and thanksgiving to God for all of our blessings while also helping to raise funds to help the people of Malawi avoid great devastation from Malaria.

All funds raised at the festival will be donated to the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) in support of their Malaria Campaign. The funds raised will help families by supplying mosquito nets and medicines to treat malaria. The St. Philip Global Mission Team has a goal of raising enough money to supply 500 mosquito nets or 2500 vaccines.

Attendees enjoyed great food, live music by the band CutThru, and tastings of African food. Games for the children will include soccer, bounce houses, and African games.

In addition, this year the festival coincided with our annual Blessing of the Animals.