Rev. Dr. Cheni Khonje

Rev. Dr. Cheni Khonje is our new Pastor and Head of Staff. The meaning of her first full name, Cheni being her family’s abridged version of the name, is “Mother of the Nation” and her middle name means “peacemaker”. Born in Blantyre, Malawi, Rev. Cheni’s family became political refugees when she was 28 days old. Cheni and her siblings grew up speaking four different languages, and now speak many more. Growing up in Lusaka, her parents nurtured their hearts for mission and ministry: the family visited the people in the leprosarium at Liteta, a suburb of Kabwe. Mum and Dad took them to meet the blind boys who were in a school that taught Braile; they wanted the trio to learn how to communicate with and minister to other kids, some of whom had been abandoned by their families. Mission work did not always take the family far from church: they would harvest the first fruits, maize (corn), and vegetables from Cheni’s grandparents’ farm and take them to the church as a thanksgiving offering to God. Whenever she and her siblings and cousins played “house”, Cheni often had two jobs in the town: to be a pilot or pediatrician, and the second job was always the preacher. While living in The Netherlands, she experienced her first call dream to the ministry. Being a cheeky teenager, she thanked God for the dream and declined the invitation to work for God. When the family moved to the United States, they became members of Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City. Cheni participated in ministry with the Homeless, led mission trips, wrote prayer cards for the congregation, Bible study guides, and served as a deacon and Stephen Minister. There was a deep yearning for more, and so she pursued an education in the sciences that led to a master’s degree in medical microbiology. In discerning what the emptiness was, Cheni had two more call dreams and then went to Princeton Theological Seminary. Cheni thanks God for God’s patience with her, and for calling her to collaborate with the people of God.