News

Pray

Please give thanks and pray as work re-starts on the dormitory construction project at Saidi. We had expected to be much further along at this stage, but an order of 30 Tons of cement was delayed by over a month due to the ongoing economic problems in Malawi. This meant the work of pouring foundations was delayed by several weeks.

Pray for the Lord’s hand in every detail of this project – not least that He will richly bless this step of faith to the spiritual upbuilding of many future Malawian evangelists, elders and Bible teachers.

We’re glad to share the latest edition of SALTbites, our regular newsletter bringing encouragement and updates from the work of Southern Africa Literature Trust in Malawi.

We trust these reports will encourage you to pray, give thanks, and continue standing with us in the Gospel.

Click the link below to download a copy.

Saltbites 2025-07-pages-loresDownload

Pray

The work of revising and relaunching our Chichewa Emmaus Course offering is complete, and we are placing an initial order for 12,000 new booklets.

In future, we hope to keep costs down by printing most of these booklets in-house, however we simply don’t have the time and manpower to do that at present, so we are using a local printing company. Pray that they will complete the job in good time, and to a high standard.

There is a great appetite for these materials in Malawi. Please pray that the Lord will use them for the spiritual blessing of many.

The Word of God (John’s Gospel)
The Servant of God (Mark’s Gospel)
The Saviour of the Work (Luke’s Gospel)
People who met the Lord Jesus
Acts of the Apostles (Part 1)
Acts of the Apostles (Part 2)
Romans
The Lord’s Supper and Baptism
One God – One Way
The Christian Life
Can we know God?
Christ loved the Church
Peter and the Church
What the Bible Teaches

Pray

Please pray for the project to construct a 80-bed dormitory at Saidi – now underway.

Site clearance and levelling was substantially completed during Stephen’s recent visit, and the architect and builders are marking out the site today (Monday) to begin digging the footings.

We are very enthusiastic as we take this step of faith, as the dormitory will greatly enhance our ability to hold larger and more frequent Bible teaching events.

Pray for Jackson (Architect) and Goodson, who has the burden of responsibility to oversee the construction team.

(You can read about the project here.)

Pray

Please pray concerning the upcoming Presidential elections in Malawi, scheduled for 16 September.

Campaigning is now well underway, with opposing sides vying for attention with large, loud public gatherings happening across the country. Sadly this makes open-air outreach extremely difficult, and we felt we had no option but to cancel MGO this year.

Please pray for a peaceful campaign season – there have been incidents of intimidation and violence. Please also pray that the Lord would raise up leaders with the integrity and ability to lead the nation of Malawi out of the extreme crisis it finds itself in.

“Despite significant progress in reducing child mortality and fertility rates, hunger remains a critical concern due to successive weak harvests since 2022. This has hindered human capital development, with the rate of stunted children under five stagnant at 38% since 2015. Foreign exchange constraints have also limited imports to compensate for the food supply deficit.

“The number of people living in poverty is expected to increase in 2025 amidst this challenging economic environment and rising food insecurity, with an additional 417,000 people falling below the $2.15 per day threshold, bringing the total number of people living in poverty to 15.8 million.

The share of people failing to consume a minimum caloric intake of 2215 calories a day (or national poverty rate) is 51 percent, the same as in 2010. Inequality has decreased over the last decade (the Gini index changed from 45 percent in 2010 to 39 percent in 2019), mainly due to better-off households worsening their economic situation”

Source: World Bank

Things really began to move at pace when the tipper arrived on Thursday morning. That was until the digger got a puncture at lunch time – 3 hours lost!

How do you move 2500 tons of earth? One bucket-load at a time.

It would be lovely to have the luxury for heavy earth-moving equipment. But we have to make do with what’s available locally. We are so thankful to have been able to source a CAT Loading shovel for hire. Otherwise we would have had no alternative but just build up an unsightly 1.5m foundation on one side.

Progress is slow. But it’s progress, and for that we praise the Lord!

Always expect the unexpected!

We didn’t expect the topographical info of the site to be inaccuracte – but it was. So, whereas I expected we would be pouring the footings for the Hostel Project by now, we are just starting to level the ground, having searched for quite a few days for an available digger at a reasonable price.

It’s exciting to start shifting earth – even if a fair amount of it was going up in the air. The ground is very dry and dusty, as you can see.

Thanks for your prayers and practical support.

ENLIGHTEN | ENCOURAGE | EMPOWER

Our Mission OrDonate