ATIKONDA "CHARLIE" CHALE

Greetings! My name is Atikonda "Charlie" Chale and this is my fiance Eileen. We met while serving in Chiang Mai, Thailand, both separately and together, since 2020, and are planning to get married next year. I am a new missionary partner with Reaching The Hungry, beginning in 2024. I am originally from Malawi, Africa. I was born & raised in a Christian family where my dad & mom served as pastors and church planters. I gave my life to Christ at the age of 12 and at the same time, I felt a call into ministry.

 

For many years, I battled against God’s call into ministry because my desire was to do something different but the LORD drove me back to His path. Through my studies and eventual graduation from the Theological College in Lilongwe, Malawi, I pastored a local church. I began as a youth pastor, then as missions coordinator, before I took a leading pastoral role. It was while I was a missions coordinator that God opened my eyes to His calling into cross-cultural missions.

 

Doors opened for me to go for cross-cultural missions training and a short-term mission trip in Cape Town, South Africa. Later, the LORD took me to Nairobi, Kenya where I went to advance my theological education at Africa Nazarene University. After a few months, I was elected as the university’s Christian Union Missions Coordinator responsible for recruiting and organizing mission trips across the country. ​More doors opened for me to serve God as a volunteer missionary while I served as a part-time lecturer at Nazarene Bible College of East Africa and an assistant teacher at Africa Nazarene University in the School of Religion and Christian Ministries. After four years of serving in Kenya, God brought me to Thailand where my initial plan was to acquire more training, experience and serve Him for two months as a volunteer missionary, and go back to Kenya. However, God had a different plan from mine. What I had thought and planned to be a short-term mission trip became a long-term commitment from 2020 through today as Thailand has become my new home.

 

During my time here, I've had the honor & joy of:

• Pioneering a sports ministry.

• Partnering with local believers in children, youth and campus ministries.

• Partnering with a local Thai pastor in church planting activities with one church planted so far.

• Discipling, training, and sending out both local and international believers.

• Mentoring and walking alongside young men and women who sense a call into cross-cultural missions (mentoring them for 8 months every year). Most of my mentees have come from Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

• Training pastors in mission mobilization and discipleship (Have so far trained a 100+ pastors and church leaders).

 

I praise God for bringing Pastor Carlos Sales and Reaching The Hungry into my life as ministry partners. I am grateful for the regular financial support and the gift of a motorbike which has been a great tool enabling me to go to different places for ministry. It is a great blessing to partner with Reaching The Hungry. The world out here is hungry and starving. I thank God that He has opened a door for us to reach them in word and deed. Let us work together as God’s unique vessels.