From a New York Dairy Farm to Malawi

Christians make sacrifices. But most don’t leave behind 10 children, 16 grandchildren (with another on the way), 65 cows and a 250-acre dairy farm to become missionaries in Malawi.  

But that’s just what Chuck and Diane Phippen did in 2023. 

Before that, some might say the Phippens lived an idyllic life on an organic, grass-fed dairy farm; they homeschooled their 12 kids and were deeply embedded in their community and church. Two of their kids had even married two of their pastor’s kids.  

So why do it? Instead of slowing down, why did Chuck, Diane and their two youngest kids pack their belongings into 12 suitcases and leave behind a comfortable, rewarding life that they all loved? Why board a plane on a beautiful spring day in New York and enter a rainy, muggy city in one of the poorest countries in the world?  

Growing up in Free Church missions culture 

Chuck and Diane both grew up at Wethersfield Evangelical Free Church (EFCA) in Connecticut, participating in Free Church Bible quizzing and leading in the Christian Service Brigade. Their church celebrated missionaries, and their families regularly hosted them.  

“In my home, missionaries from ReachGlobal were held in the highest esteem!” Chuck says. 

From a young age, God used these experiences to give them a passion to take the gospel to the nations. When Chuck and Diane met as teenagers, both already had a strong sense that God might be calling them into overseas missions someday.  

They married in 1984, and Chuck became an aircraft engineer and Diane a teacher. Ten years later, the Phippens felt God nudging them towards a change. They had four kids at this point, and  gave serious consideration to the overseas mission field. But Wethersfield Church had just sent out four other homegrown missionary families, and Chuck and Diane felt like adding another would've been too big a burden on the congregation.  

Instead, the Phippens bought a 250-acre dairy farm in upstate New York. And they focused on living with a missionary mindset, right where they were. They joined a church near the farm so they could reach out to their community and became deeply involved in both. They raised their 12 children to love Jesus. They led a large homeschool co-op, and they started and led a weekly evangelistic outreach to kids. In the summers, they ran a homemade ice cream shop, which became known in their community as the place to go if you needed prayer or advice on finding a church. 

“We opened our ice cream shop with the express purpose to make new contacts for Jesus,” says Diane. “Ice cream crosses all cultural barriers!” 

Chuck laughs when he remembers how Ken and Judy Landrud, long-time ReachGlobal missionaries to Congo and friends of the Phippens, told them, “A dairy farm is a great place to raise missionary kids.”  

That assessment turned out to be true—Chuck and many of their children participated in short-term missions over the years; a couple of the kids became long-term missionaries. Still, Chuck and Diane could never shake the sense that God was calling them to go all- in and serve as full-time, long-term missionaries themselves. Periodically, Chuck would check out EFCA Serves for missions job postings. He didn’t see himself as a pastor or a church planter; he just wanted to mentor others and serve in a practical way. Nothing ever seemed like a good fit.  

A roundabout way to a perfect fit 

In 2021, Chuck found a ReachGlobal job posting for a facilities manager in Cameroon. By this time, eight of their kids were married and settled, and two more were close to being independent. Finally, it felt like the right opportunity at the right time.  

Chuck and Diane submitted their applications to ReachGlobal. They sold the cows and equipment and put the farm up for sale. For their kids, this meant losing both their idyllic childhood home and the proximity to their own children’s wonderful grandparents. But the kids were all on board and enthusiastically supported Chuck and Diane in this transition. After all, they had been raised to love missions, too.   

More information revealed the position in Cameroon wasn’t what they had hoped. By the time the Phippens realized this, they had been accepted as missionaries with ReachGlobal and were making plans to upend their lives. Meanwhile, another opportunity rose to the surface in Lilongwe, Malawi—a ministry role on a new team. Though it took a roundabout way to get there, they found their perfect ministry fit—discipleship while training young people in practical skills.  

In 2023, Chuck, Diane and their two youngest kids (at the time, Silas was 13 and Savannah was 10) moved to Malawi to join the ministry of ReachGlobal missionaries, Fred and Cindy Cressman. Chuck teaches mechanics to young men with no education or job prospects. He has three requirements: Attend class every weekday for six months, pay a small fee and study the Bible every morning at 7:30 a.m. Chuck says, “In the beginning, the Bible study starts with 30 minutes, but as time goes on and they become more engaged, it stretches to an hour.”  

Each young man also receives one-on-one mentoring by Chuck, Fred or local trained leaders. They are already seeing change: Graduates get jobs at motorcycle shops or start their own car part shops. Several students have been baptized. Families of the students personally thank Chuck for the transformation they see in their sons. Chuck is currently training a young man to co-teach the next cohort, so that Chuck can expand the course to a nearby refugee camp.  

Meanwhile, Diane has found her own group of young women to invest in. Another ministry that the Cressmans helped to start was a Tabitha Center—a place where at-risk young women could learn marketable skills while being discipled. Because a lot of women had small children running around, an idea sparked: Could they start a pre-school?  

The Cressmans already knew several quality young women who had the potential to be excellent teachers. So Diane, with her extensive educational background, began training and mentoring them. She does a Bible study with them every morning before school starts, and when the teachers face a challenge, Diane coaches them through it. She wrote a curriculum for pre-school, and then the following year, she wrote a curriculum for kindergarten.  

Parents wanted more. So they added first grade, and now, Diane is writing a plan for second grade. Fifty kids are registered, and they have a waiting list.  

An unexpected surprise: church planting 

Several years ago, the young men in the training program, women from the Tabitha Center and other interns gathered once a month for worship. As others from the community heard about it, they asked to join in, and it grew into a weekly gathering with more than 100 people attending. Suddenly the leaders realized: We need to plant a church. We already have the people!  

The Well church launched on April 24, 2026. Four Malawians lead The Well with the Cressmans and the Phippens mentoring them behind the scenes. Though Chuck and Diane never considered themselves church planters, it turns out, God does.  

The Phippens rejoice in the fruit they are seeing, but they also feel the sacrifices. Leaving behind 10 children and 16 grandchildren—now there are 21 grandchildren (some they’ve never met yet)—was (and is) painful. They also left behind two widowed moms—both of them well cared for—but one of them struggled to accept their decision.  

Chuck and Diane have no regrets. They insist that obeying God’s call is always worth the sacrifice. And though they assumed they'd be the ones pouring out their lives for Malawians, they’ve learned that they are getting just as much back, if not more.  

Diane regularly tells the teachers she is training, “I am learning just as much from you!” In fact, the Phippens encourage others to follow their example—especially other “mid-lifers” like themselves. After spending a few years overseas, they have a front- row view of the urgent task to take the gospel to the nations, and their passion for missions has continued to grow. 

“There’s such a tremendous need here for more people to come,” Diane says. “Do it! It’s worth it!” They emphasize that God can use any skill on the mission field. If he can use an engineer and a teacher (turned dairy farmers) to build His church, he can use you, too.  

If you feel called to serve, visit serves.efca.org.