Anna reminds us to pray for MGO 2022, which is now less than 2 months away. Prior to Covid, MGO had become a very significant feature of our annual calendar, and we are really looking forward to resuming this year.
There is still a considerable amount of preparation to be made on site. We plan to have a week of Children’s Outreach & Gospel work at Saidi, as well as our regular MGO activities.
Wati asks: Please continue to pray for Malawi’s economic situation and for food availability. Prices have been rising steeply, with higher than normal prices for maize and various other items.
Please pray for people’s preservation and that the Lord will draw people to Himself.
Note: Over the past week, we have been buying maize from local villagers. This puts desperately needed cash into the local economy, and also enables us to run some of our local feeding programmes. Maize is presently 75-100% more expensive than at the corresponding time last year, mainly due to much lower supply, as well as the inflationary effects of the recent currency devaluation.
According to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network, the cyclone earlier this year, and the poor maize harvest means that significant parts of the Southern / Central Regions are already “In Crisis” or “Stressed”, with the harvest only 1-2 months past. The outlook for the remainder of this year is not good. We intend to purchase some 15-20 Tonnes maize over the next few weeks in anticipation of difficult months ahead.
Brother Stephen is currently in Malawi and will appreciate your prayers. Particularly remember the following:
*Note: The economy in Malawi is really struggling. Increasing poverty is making the security situation worse. See this recent article in the Guardian newspaper.
Anna asks: Please pray for one of the boys in our Child-Headed Households (CHH) group (who is also training at the site in carpentry). He shows signs of being neglected for most of his childhood and really needs a lot of love – especially the Savior’s!
Note: Anna runs a support group for CHHs from Saidi and neighbouring villages. These are family groups where an older child cares for his/her younger siblings.
Each CHH receives a monthly care package and some other help. There is a monthly meeting at Saidi where they have the opportunity to hear the Gospel.
Brother Stephen is planning to fly to Malawi on Wednesday, Lord willing, his third trip of the year, so far.
Although this is somewhat more frequent than usual, there are several aspects of the building project that presently warrant attention. Stephen is also hoping it will work out to have some Gospel meetings at the refugee camp at Dzaleka.
Please pray specifically:
The activities of the Trust continued to be seriously affected by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic for a significant portion of the year. Nevertheless, we are grateful that as travel restrictions began to ease, it was possible for Stephen to visit Malawi twice to review operations there, first in May and again in August.
Stephen’s visit in May was timed to coincide with the arrival in Malawi of Anna Vallance, who has been commended to the work by her assembly in Livonia, MI, USA. It has been a pleasure to welcome her. Her dedication to the work and devotion to the Lord will undoubtedly strengthen the team, particularly as she has joined the Board of the Malawi operation.
Anna asks that we give thanks for the good-sized group of preteens and teens at the Saturday Bible study. They listened well. Please continue to pray for their salvation.
Note: Brother Goodson has a weekly Bible study for children and young people. This has grown to the extent that it has been split into two separate groups.
There’s a real buzz in the air today as we have just received the very first complete Nthawi ya Baibilo (Chichewa, Bible Time) series back from the designer.
This represents months of long, often tedious work by Anna, Wati and the whole translation team, and is another massive step forward in the work of the Lord in Malawi.
Our 2023 Calendar is in the final design stages. We thank Brian Chalmers Design for their help another year. We think Brian has done a very nice job, don’t you?
We’ve also just heard from Revival Movement (RM) that they have already printed 3 pallets of tracts for us, and are able to help further with our Calendar print this year. What an encouragement! We estimate the commercial value of their last shipment to be £80-90,000. We do not rely exclusively on RM for our printing needs, and always try to make a meaningful contribution towards their costs. Nevertheless, such generous support frees up tens of thousands of pounds for use elsewhere. We have considerable other costs in Malawi: printing, maintaining vehicles, hosting conferences, relief programs, and of course our ongoing building project, so we cannot overstate how big a blessing this help is.
The Reserve Bank of Malawi just announced a massive 25% overnight currency devaluation. The Malawi Kwacha has lost 90% of its value in two decades!
